Tea Stories N° 2

a journey into the world of tea and beyond

In this series, I write about travels on which I learned more about tea and experienced hospitality. There is surprising diversity in traditions and tastes revolving around tea. You can read last month’s story here if you’ve missed it!

2nd Cup

Rijeka, or Fiume in Italian, is one of the largest cities in Croatia. I was excited to visit this historic city at the beautiful Adriatic coast for the first time four years ago.

It was a rather rainy weekend back then, something not too unusual in Rijeka. But that didn’t stop me from taking a walk through the old town. From the Gouverneur’s palace, over the main street Korzo with its many inviting cafés, to the windy harbour, the town revealed its rich history at every step. After all, not many towns on earth can claim to have been part of 9 different countries in less than a century… This is visible already in the two names of the city, the Croatian Rijeka and Italian Fiume. And it was here that the extravagant politician and poet Gabriele D’Anunzio proclaimed Rijeka his own state in the blur of post World War I times, exactly 100 years ago.

Finally, after taking a look at the city’s scenery at dawn from one of the tall buildings on the hillside, it was no wonder that I quickly fell in love with this town. Behind me were the mountains of Gorski kotar. Before me the wide Adriatic Sea with its endless isles and island. And to the West, the beautiful Istrian peninsula, all immersed into the gold of the sinking sun.

A surprise at breakfast

For my weekend stay in Rijeka, I was hosted by an elderly woman, Marija. She kindly welcomed me to her home that Friday evening, showing me to my sleeping room. The next morning, when I woke up, breakfast was already waiting for me. “What would you like to drink for breakfast?”, Marija inquired. Coffee would admittedly have been the expected answer, since the regular Croat drinks coffee in the morning, noon and evening. But back then, I wasn’t infected with the love for coffee yet, so I opted for tea.

In a moment, she joined me at the table with two steaming cups: coffee for herself and tea for me. I must have been equally surprised when I tried my tea, as Marija was when I asked for tea for breakfast. What she had served me was camomile tea, something I never would have expected when asking for tea! But for Marija, the first thing associated with the word tea was chamomile – the standard tea when you’re sick. Smiling to myself, I thought how I should have known this, in fact, in such a non-tea-drinking country as Croatia…

Here, people would tell me: who drinks tea if not for the sake of curing an illness?! Or even more weird: drinking tea in the middle of summer?! But even I, as a passionate tea-drinker, converted to drinking coffee after living almost my whole life in Croatia. Nothing more enjoyable than sitting on a sunny terrace of a café, chatting with friends and drinking coffee!

But to reassure you: abroad or at home, I gladly go back to tea of any kind, as you will find out by reading on…