Stone House Ana, Bartolici Village

Getting here was an adventure in itself. The problem with driving in winter is that roads can get fogged up and iced over. This makes driving dangerous for those who are not used to driving in winter conditions. It was bad enough that the roads were almost just dirt tracks wide enough for only one car, but these tracks twisted and turned up along the hillside. Then, for the first time, the GPS got us lost! We ended up in a different village, peering up at another stone house with its roof caved in and much vegetation in the living room.

For a moment, I thought that I had gotten schnooked by a dishonest proprietor of property.

Anyway, we managed to find the place eventually but after our initial ooohs and aaaahs, the evening lead into another adventure of a rather stressful kind.

Old houses are a nightmare to equip with modern amenities. Firstly, they are usually found in the middle of nowhere and so the houses generally have electrical systems that cannot take too much load. Secondly, the stone walls are about 1 ft and a half thick. Therefore, getting electricity and plumbing into the house is kinda difficult. So, we were warned that perhaps the fuse box might trip.

It did.

I was in bed with my Kindle. The Husband was in the shower. The Daughter grabbed my Kindle to light her way downstairs to search for the fusebox. The Husband hopped out of the bathroom in nothing but a tiny towel because you know... the man of the house needs to investigate such occurrences right? With the help of the iPhone torches (oh thank God for handphone torches!) they both found the fuse box. At that point, The Husband's towel dropped and the poor man was stark naked... which caused a bit of a hoo ha because he was trying to recover his dignity all whilst yelling at his daughter NOT to look.

Oh dear... and then they found that the fuse box was perfectly fine. Nothing had tripped BUT there was still no electricity. Thank goodness there is such a thing as a dataplan and handphone reception. They were able to get the landlord on whatsapp. Eventually, they located the master fuse box and turned the electricity back on.

Now, we have to be very careful because when the stove is on, the heaters must be off... when the hairdryer is on, everything else has to be off. Then I realised that there is a reason why local people live in new houses... and only tourists (who are history buffs) book these centuries old lodgings in the middle of nowhere. Old houses are not very comfortable.

Old style Croatian fireplace. Very charming, but not very efficient at heating the house. Most of the heat escapes up the chimney and one has to keep feeding the fire. This means that wood needs chopping and one has to stand near the fire to get warm. Worse still, we are out of matchsticks. 

Very charming living room. Fortunately, this room has a modern airconditioner.

Staircase to a huge bedroom, which has NO heater. We had to bring up the portable heater from the toilet.

Humongous bedroom with all the old world charm but very cold, if not for the portable heater.

No regrets lah... with the portable heater, we passed a comfortable night.

Ever so pretty!

Staying in this house is an experience in itself. I could sit here all day and imagine that I have travelled back in time.