Omi on the beach

I've never been to any of the former Yugoslav countries so it's still very high on my Things-to-do-before-I-die list. Even after all that happened I have a very good feeling about it. My grandparents always went there when I was a child. I remember the photographs of their vacation well because they looked so relaxed, which is unusual because they were very serious people. Life hadn't been easy. During World War II my grandfather became a surveillance pilot in the Luftwaffe when he was only 17 years old. He was stationed in Italy and got shot down twice, saving himself with his parachute. During the last days of the war my grandmother had to go to Villach in Austria where shortly after it all ended my mother was born.
To see my grandparents sitting down in these typical campingchairs and not the heavy armchairs in their house in northern Germany was nothing less then a shock to me. It must have been a great place for they went there year after year. In those days it was all Yugoslavia so I don't even know to which of the present states they went. Probably Croatia since they liked the beach a lot.