Early tomorrow morning we depart for Ilovik, a small island off Lošinj, a larger island off the island of Cres, which is a short ferry ride from the eastern coast of Istria. As always when we decide to make a big move, we are attracted by some things and repelled by others. We are attracted by the sea, and Ilovik offers little but the sea. There are no cars on the island. As far as we know, it has a post office, a store, and a restaurant. A perfect nowhere, as it were. And we are repelled by the Motovun film festival, which will start a couple of days after our departure. Since 2002, we have witnessed seven beer ‘n’ kebab carnivals of this ilk already, and we have had our fill. We will return to Motovun a couple of days after the festival, by which time most of the temporary infrastructure and mountains of garbage will have been cleared. At any rate, the sea beckons strongly enough. The last three years we have not swam in it one single time, and it is time for us to break this miserable record.