The effervescent American travel guide, Rick Steves, is making his way through Croatia filming a new documentary about the country and its neighbors. We had a chance to say hello when we bumped into him filming on the riva. Helping him out was Cameron Hewitt, Rick’s associate and book writer, and our friendly guide Maja.

They were on a busy schedule – just the day in Split, before heading south via Hvar Island.

(It must be guide and guide book season at the moment – the girl from Rough Guide Europe also dropped in this week.)

I had spent the day with Dain and Susan been forced to eat fresh food – eggplant pie, octopus salad, gregada and pancakes with marmalade – at Konoba Dionis on the Pakleni Islands, again.

Marija from Dionis shared her secrets about octopus salad and gregada (fish stew) preparation (i.e. freeze the octopus for 2 days after cooking to allow it to soften and be careful when adding the garlic to the stew so it doesn’t burn.)