I wrote this tour for my elementary or pre-intermediate readers, so you will understand this if you studied about half or one year of English. It will guide you in the old-town and give you some information about the early history of the town of Krk.

I used http://krk.rijekaheritage.org/en when I read about the history of Krk. You can click on all the places on their homepage, and their map will show you where the places are. I will also share a map from a yearly guide to Krk island, which you can find on page 25 of the English booklet for 2019 here, http://info.krkstory.com/ Happy strolling!

First, walk to the Polygonal Tower near the seaside.

1. While you are walking there, you can see the walls of the city. They are really special, because some parts of it are more than 2000 years old. The first people who started to build them lived here before the Romans. But the first “document” that you can read today about the building of the wall is from the 1^st century before Christ. You can see it, an ancient stone with Latin words, in the Frankopan castle. Don’t forget to look for it later, if you go inside! Some specialists say that Antonius, the person who led Caesar’s army, had to stay on the island for a time, because Pompeius attacked them on sea. Maybe that was the time when Antonius ordered to build the walls of the city.

However, the stones that you can see today, are mostly from the 14^th and 15^th century. A typical thing about that age was the shape of the top of the walls. It is called a crown, and it was built in the age of firearms, so man could fire from and then hide behind the top of the wall.

There were always a lot of towers and gates in the walls. You will see two towers and two gates during this walk.

ancient: really old, from a very early time in history
lead, led, led: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lead
attack: to go against a city or country with an army
order: to tell somebody to do something, for example, a captain to his people on the ship
firearm: for example, a pistol or another gun, something that works with gunpowder

2. The Polygonal Tower

This tower is special because it has six sides – this means that it is hexagonal. It was built in the 15^th century, but there is a Roman stone in its side, about 5.5 metres high up. It is a tombstone of a couple. They died around the year 40 after date (AD), and you can see their figures in the middle.

The tower is not very high today, but it was higher in the past. It also had a crown, and its name was Torre di Barbuglia or the “bearded tower”. (The beard is the hair that grows on a man’s face.) The men who served in this tower were called the Barabands, they were soldiers with beards, and they fought with guns. They served in other castles in Croatia, too.

tombstone: a stone with a dead person’s name in a cemetery
fight, fought, fought: to combat, to use physical power to confront somebody

Now, enter the old-town through the small gate, and find the Templum Veneris store on the corner, on the left, in front of you.

3. The Temple of Venus

You will have a very interesting experience here. If you enter the souvenir shop, you will see the ruins of a Roman temple under glass floor. It is from the first century before Christ, and it was a temple of Venus, the goddess of love.  Could you enter? Did you buy something? Please, comment at the end of the article! Now walk to number 7 on Ribarska street and see the …

4. Triton Mosaic

Inside this house, you can find a mosaic floor from Roman times. It was probably a private room of the city bath. The picture shows a celebration under the sea. Triton was the son of Poseidon, the sea God. He had a fish tail and a human body. He is one of the figures in the mosaic. The other figure is a special creature; it’s called ichtyocentaur. It is a special kind of centaur with a fish tail again. It has a wine container in its hand, a kantaros. There is a third figure, too, but we can’t see it fully. It was probably Pan, the son of Hermes, and he had a flute in his hand. The flute and the wine holder show us that they were having a really good time!

tail: the long body part at the back of a dog, for example
creature: a special kind of person or animal or a figure from mythology

5. From the Triton Mosaic, you can take a walk to the centre of the Roman city. It’s at the crossing of Dr. Dinka Vitezica and Strossmayera street. Today, it is only a crossing. But around the first century before Christ, it was the marketplace. It was at the crossing of the 2 main streets of the city: one built East-West and the other one built North-South. The Romans always built their cities this way. The centre of the human body is the belly button; the centre of the city is this square at the main crossing. So they called this place umbilicus, which doctors still use in Latin to name the belly button of a person.

belly button: the centre of a person’s belly or stomach area, it is small and round

6. Now you can walk down Dr. Dinka Vitezica street and walk slowly past Trg Sv. Kvirina. There you can see the two main churches of the old-town. You cannot see it today, but there was a Roman bath in the place where the churches are today. Some mosaics can still be found under the churches.
   It was quite big, it had three main pools and some private rooms, too. The Roman baths always had a tepidarium with naturally warm water, a caldarium with very hot water, and a frigidarium with very cold water. They always took baths in these pools in this order.
   They used the baths for a lot of things. Firstly, they came together here. Then, baths became places of entertainment. And last, they became religious places. So in the 4^th century, the people of the city built an oratorio in the place of the bath and a basilica in the 5^th century after that. And now, you can still see beautiful churches at the same place.
   
   order: the way you put things one after the other
   entertainment: for example a show that you enjoy or a concert or a theatre play
   religious place: a place where you go to love and think about your God
   
   When the street ends, turn left, and walk to Kamplin square.
   
   
   (The Square Tower is far away on the left side, the Roman columns are on the right side.)
   
   
7. This square has an interesting name. There are two ideas about it. First: its name could mean “field” in Latin (campus), and maybe the Roman soldiers practised here. Second: its name could come from Italian, from the word campanile – bell tower.
   Historians say that the square tower of the castle maybe had a bell in the Middle Ages because the cathedral didn’t have one. They rang the bell for religious celebrations and also when there was some danger. Those times the people of the town could go inside the castle to be safe.
   If you look around the square, you can see some columns on the side of it. They are from the Roman times too. But if you go inside the castle, you can see a lot more interesting things.
   
   square: a shape which has four = sides and they close a 90 degree angle
   column: the long, vertical things which hold the building and the roof in one place
   
   
8. The Frankopan Castle

The best thing when you go inside the castle is the view – I absolutely agree. Walk along the walls and take your wonderful photographs!

After this, go to the middle of the yard and look around. If you turn north, you can see 4 “holes” or niches in the side of the castle wall. In one of the niches, you will find the first ever “document” that mentions the building of Krk. It’s a stone inscription (=writing) that talks about two Roman builders who worked on the first walls of the city when Antonius was here. (You know, he was the lover of Cleopatra after Caesar.)

If you turn around and look at the wall again, you can see some special tombstones from the 1^st century before Christ. These stones are called Liburni Cippuses. They are called Liburni because they all come from the territory of ancient Liburnia. In Croatia, specialists found more than 100 cippuses, 14 on Krk island. If you want to see some more of them, you can go back to the main gate, and find Volsonis Restaurant. There are four cippuses inside there. You can see that their shape is very special. Generally, they were decorated, but the ones on Krk are very simple. The person who payed for these expensive and monumental tombstones usually put their name on it, the name of the dead person that they wanted to remember, their relationship (family or friend), the time of the death and the job of the dead person. Specialists think that the cippuses were a status symbols because of their seize.

This is where my Roman tour ends, and my medieval tour begins. I only wrote about the parts of the castle here which are from ancient times. But you can go on and read my next tour if you want to know more about the later history of Krk. I will post a link here next week.

Thank you for reading this writing, I hope you learnt a lot from it, English and history, too. If you did this tour, please, comment at the bottom. Did you find something that was different? Don’t forget to share it, other people can use the information later.

If you want to learn the words better, then make a list of them for yourself now. Learn them, and after that, you can do this exercise:

Put the right word in the right sentence.

1. The right ………… of the letters in the alphabet is a, b, c, and so on.
2. The Turks ………… Hungary in the 16^th
3. The church is a ………… building.
4. If a person dies, the family usually buys a ………… for them in the cemetery.
5. Oh no, you closed the door on the cat’s ………… .
6. There are many kinds of ………… on the seaside, I’m sure it won’t be boring.
7. A good boss ………… the company in a professional way.
8. Our dining table is ………… but our coffee table is round.
9. The Austrians ………… together with the Hungarians against the Turks.
10. The Hungarian National Museum has very high ………… in front of the entrance.

Which ones didn’t you use? Can you find them? Have fun!

This post is about an ancient language of the Adriatic, which I discovered, when I was strolling in Krk. If you want to read about my stroll there (and why not?!) – head over to my other article via this link.

The name of this language is Dalmatian, which is a curious word. Let’s not pretend – how many of you thought of dogs? All right, we can move on now… The word originally signifies a tribe of the Illyrians who were a larger group of people having occupied parts of the western Balkans long before the start of ancient Greek or Roman civilisation in this region. They themselves spoke an Indo-European language, but their language merged with Latin after the Roman conquest. The romance of these two languages gave life to what we actually call Dalmatian.

If you imagine the coastal region of the Balkans, you probably notice that its whole atmosphere and landscape differs largely from the inland areas. Whoever was to occupy it, only cared about the seaside and never about the lands behind it. (Even if they had do so, the rim of mountains behind the coast would have meant serious trouble.)  For this reason, we might imagine the coastal region as one cultural unit. It’s no wonder that this long and narrow line of land could not develop one unified language. It rather developed a bunch of dialects which bore close resemblance to each other, and hence can be called a language of its own right.

The major dialects developed in the major towns on the coast which were Jadera (Zadar), Tragurium (Trogir), Spalatum (Split), Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and Acruvium (Kotor). The same sort of romance language was spoken on some islands: Curicta (Krk), Crepsa (Cres) and Arba (Rab). Don’t these names sound like they came from a fantasy novel? Just lovely!

Two of the dialects were of outstanding importance – Ragusan and Vegliot.

Image by vandeventert from Pixabay 

In the case of Ragusan, it’s easy to see how military power and financial independence support the evolution of a national language. The first written documents, which record about 260 Ragusan words, date back to the second half of the 14th century. Before this time, the city was under Byzantine rule for long centuries, with half of the population being Slavic and half of it „Latin” regarding their language. After that long period of time, Venice finally succeeded in occupying the city, and it remained in power for one and a half centuries. As we all know, one common enemy can unite two opposing sides. So after the fall of Venice in the middle of the 14th century, Ragusa rose as a unified and powerful city state with an ideal position for trading, a large military fleet – and its own language.

Ragusan slowly became extinct within about 200 years after this. There was no use trying to conserve it through regulations strengthening its official status. It was continually and significantly shaped by the Venetian via commercial ties, and the spreading of Slavic languages in the area terminated its usage in the 16th century.

Image by Mr_Picture from Pixabay 

While Ragusan was the largest dialect in the south, its counterpart in the north was called Vegliot. This was the dialect which was spoken on the island of Krk. If you’re interested in the culture of Krk, you can find a number of articles on this blog tagged with its name. Vegliot is the Italian name of this language, but the speakers of it called it Viklasun. Doesn’t it sound romantically ancient to you? Even though this dialect was probably not so widely spoken as Ragusan, it lasted two centuries longer. The case of its last speaker is actually documented (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuone_Udaina) because he lived in an era of reviving interest in national languages – in the second half of the 19th century.

If Ragusan was named after Ragusa, then what has Vegliot to do with Krk? Krk is the Slavic version of the island’s name. It is derived from Latin, as the town itself was called Splendissima civitas Curictarum in a Latin inscription. Curictum, Curicta – Krk. Hence the name.

Now you might ask yourself the question: why is it relevant to be acquainted with the history of this extinct language? Well, strictly speaking, maybe – it is not. However, from a cultural point of view, this language might even be called a milestone. From all the romance languages it was almost the closest to original Latin, conserving ancient forms, which were lost in most other related languages. Only Romanian and Dalmatian contained these forms, and Romanian lost many of the words related to city life in Latin when the speakers of it moved to mountainous areas. The landscape, their new home wasn’t suitable for maintaining the sort of culture that Dalmatian could preserve in the towns of the Adriatic.

Individuals die, cultures pertain. The last speaker of Dalmatian might have passed away more than a century ago, but still, this highly complex culture which evolved around the Adriatic Sea will conserve traces of this ancient language. It will shine through the crack of white rocks; it will filter through the textiles used as shades from the sun. I hope that it will also permeate the minds of my readers while trodding the white stones of ancient Veglia. Enjoy the stroll, people!

PS: I didn't write a task after this article, because I wasn't sure about which words might be interesting for my Dear Advanced REaders (a.k.a. DARE). Please, comment and let me know!

Krk is a place that I can only liken to the most beloved town of my life – my hometown, Szentendre. No matter how many times you visit, you will always find a corner that pleases your eye and warms your heart. Take a stroll, admire the scenery and … − have an ice-cream! According to my taste, ice-cream in Krk is as good as it gets on the island. All the places we tried were wonderful. Which one is your favourite? Don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

So it was ice-cream why we went back to Krk this year. I had been there a number of times before, and I always adored the historical charm of the old-town. I was well aware that it flourished in the middle ages under the Frankopan (a branch of the Italian Frangipani family). Hard to notice, right? Almost all the sights bear their name. This time, though, something else captured my attention.

As you ramble about the streets of the old town, you might notice around a dozen of boards on the walls of some buildings by which you are invited to take in some history. I was reading one of them then. It was about the characteristic narrow streets of Krk. They have a special name in this area, which derives from a Latinate language that was spoken on the island before the spreading of Slavic languages in the coastal regions. As a curious mixture of the two words (the Latinate one and the Slavic one) locals still call these streets…

And here I made the stupidest mistake I could by not recording it in any way. A moment after I left that spot I already felt that something wasn’t right. But I already started walking – and I’m not a quitter… So hereby I swear that the next time I visit the region, I will bring that word to you. Or does anybody actually know?

I’m a linguist. Therefore, I’ve learnt how to write in a responsible way, so I amassed a considerable amount of information about EVERYTHING before I started writing. (Waaay too much for a blog, I know.) And again, I stumbled upon the Dalmatian language and Krk’s Latinate name: Veglia. I became all the more interested in this age old, mysterious language (have I mentioned, I’m a linguist) so I decided to write an article about it. It is something you will never see or visit when you walk in Krk. What this information can bring you, though, is a deeper understanding of the atmosphere, the people and the stories behind the sheer stone you can touch and feel throughout your wanders. If you are interested, you can read the article about Dalmatian in the Culture section.

However, it took me real effort to find another topic to write about in connection with Krk. Honestly, I was really bored by all the articles and guide books which mention the same sights in each and every one of them. Of course, the sights won’t change… I know… And even though Krk is a wonderful place, it’s nothing like Rome or Paris which excite you and wrap you in history by surrounding you with their atmosphere aaand their widely known buildings. So I asked myself: what would have made me appreciate the town more for what it is? What could have made my own experience better? And I found an answer which is really trendy – maybe too trendy – but true: stories. At the end, this is the solution that Game of Thrones found for the problems of the realm when choosing their king…

As a result of this, I dug deep. I put together some routes to follow in the town, and I found interesting stories about lifestyle and culture to show you another perspective. They are coming up in a series of articles, so click the links below.

The first tour is an elementary text which leads you around Krk looking for sights from the antiquity:
Beginner Roman Route in the town of Krk

The second tour will be an intermediate text coming up next week. Don't forget to come back and read it! 

VOCABULARY
liken to - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liken%20to
derive from - https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/derive
stumble upon - https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stumble-across-on-upon-sth-sb

PS: I didn't write a task after this article, because I wasn't sure about which words might be interesting for my Dear Advanced REaders (a.k.a. DARE). Please, comment and let me know!

This post is going to be about our greatest adventure on Krk island: our hike from Baška to Vela Luka (bay). I recorded the trail in my ViewRanger account (Veronika StrollEng). This was the very first time I used it, so it’s not perfect, but I’m sure you’ll get the point. Also, if I ever get back there, I’ll post a better version of the same trail – I promise!

We got up early that day. Not that we wanted to… There was a really, really cute little boy in the apartment right next to ours, and he woke up at around 5 a.m. Now, all the adults in the apartment house woke up within the next 15 minutes. For this reason, we decided that the day was perfect for a hike, and we tried to start early. Unfortunately, when we are tired, we are slow… So we started walking some time before 10 a.m. If I could do this again, I would definitely start earlier. You don’t want to be out in the blazing sun on a rocky hill in the middle of the day…

We parked our car in the last parking lot before we reached Bunchuluka Camping Resort (an FKK or nudist camp, by the way). It took us about 5 minutes to walk up to the start of the trail. And there, you just can’t miss the path. It looks like a Looney Toons scene: there are huge arrows pointing toward the way you should go. You can almost see them flashing… Now, your first walk might be the lightest and the most embarrassing. This part of the path leads you across a little wood by the campsite, so you will walk in the shade. While walking there, you might feel fairly overdressed compared to all the people you might see on the other side of the fence. This, in itself, might be your first adventure for the day!

After about 15 minutes of walking, you’ll reach a fork in the road. We took the path going up, so we started seeing amazing views very soon. I stopped every other minute to take a photograph, probably, this is why our average speed was a little faster than a baby’s…

I have always loved watching the hills of Croatia. They are not especially high, but they are rather steep and rocky. I could never imagine how it was possible to climb them. Well, I can’t say it is especially easy, but it is achievable. The paths are made up of sharp rocks, so it is best to wear hiking shoes. Unfortunately, I was wearing sandals. If I wanted to do this hike again, I would definitely wear closed shoes. Also, if I climbed these hills again, I would bring at least 2 litres of water along. We were sweating continuously all day, so we lost a lot of fluid.

Along your way, you can always see the beautiful, bright blue sea, some greenery, and rocks and stones everywhere. The stones often form endless walls along fields. We always wondered: why are they there? Who built them? And when? Fortunately, Google is our friend, so we found all the information quite easily. It turned out that they are part of Croatia’s cultural heritage: the technique is called dry stone walling. Click here to find more information about it.

By the time we reached the last hilltop, we were totally prepared to take in the beautiful panorama of our destination. The path leading down to Vela Luka looks dangerous from the top, but it takes you safely to the shore as it turns several times. It’s the last section of the path which I found quite slippery. If I had taken my hiking shoes with me, I would have felt safer!

When you reach the bay, I’m sure it will mesmerize you, especially in the morning hours. When it’s not crowded, you can really feel at home in nature in this wonderful sheltered heaven. The water is crystal clear, and it’s really safe to swim. There is a Konoba that can supply you with food and drink (and a „free” toilet). Also, you can rent a beach umbrella or a sunbed on the beach.

If you are a really adventurous person, you might want to explore this bay’s younger sister, Mala Luka. It doesn’t take more than 20 minutes to walk over there, but the fields are on fire during the day. It’s better to be prepared for that. The most interesting point of our walk was the presence of sheep in the valley. They gathered around a stone building called Church of Saint Nicholas to hide from the sun. The building is in ruins, but its name might catch your attention. If you would like to read about why there are so many churches of this name in Mediterranean countries, click here.

Unfortunately, there was a high number of boats in Mala Luka, so we decided, it wasn’t the ideal spot for a swim, and we walked back. (Between the two bays, there are the ruins of a stone castle on a hill, which you might want to explore. We decided that we didn’t need any more challenge for the day.)

Many tourists decide that they take a taxi boat back to Baška from Vela Luka, but we took another two-hour walk to get back to our car. On our way back, we discovered a viewpoint we missed on the way there. It is situated in the middle of the first hilltop, and the landscape is absolutely astounding. We also tried the yellow path at its crossroads with the red one, but it seemed too long and dangerous to take at dusk. If we had arrived there earlier, I would have enjoyed climbing down its rocks, I’m sure. Although it was fairly late, we could still feel the heat, so we stopped for a final swim in Baška before driving back to our apartment.

I can recommend this little adventure to anybody who loves nature, enjoys less frequented beaches and doesn’t want to skip their cardio workout while making the most of their holiday… Happy strolling, people!

VOCABULARY

1. to get the point – to understand the most important things
2. blazing (sun) – shining very intensely
3. to flash – when something lights up and goes out a lot of times
4. fork in the road – a place on a path where one road splits into two parts and becomes Y-shaped
5. achievable – possible to do
6. fluid – water mixed with other materials (here: circulatig in the body)
7. greenery – trees, bushes, grass, other plants
8. mesmerize – magnetically attract someone’s complete attention
9. sheltered – protected and safe
10. gather – collect, come together
11. astounding – amazing, positively shocking
12. dusk – when there is little light in the hours around sunset
13. frequented beach – where people go regularly, a lot

Choose the right word from the list to complete the sentences.

1. I don’t think your goal is …………, you should choose another one.
2. The travellers arrived to the inn at ………… .
3. Her beauty ………… every man in the village.
4. If you see the emergency lights ………… , follow the signs to the emergency exit.
5. When I looked out of my window, I could see that people were ………… on the square.
6. I don’t like cities, because I love nature, and I want to see a lot of …………. around me.

GRAMMAR

There are several conditional sentences in the text. You can notice the differences in form.

1. If I ever get back there, I will post a better version of the same trail.
2. If I could do this again, I would start
3. If I wanted to do this hike again, I would wear closed shoes.
4. If I climbed these hills again, I would bring at least 2 liters of water along.
5. If I had taken my hiking shoes with me, I would have felt safer!
6. If we had arrived there earlier, I would have enjoyed climbing down its rocks.

The forms after IF are: present simple - past simple - past perfect.
The forms in the other half are: will - would - would have.

When we use the first form, we want to talk about the future, so our plans are possible.

In the second group, we can talk about the present (or the future), but the possibility of these actions is a lot lower the in the firt group. They might happen, but they are not realitic at the moment.

With the third form, we can talk about the past. These actions are already finished, there is no possibility to change them.

Think about your last trip! Will you go back? What will you do differently? Aren’t you sure? If you ever got back there, what would you do differently? If you had known, what would you have done differently the last time? Write me a comment about it, and tell me, if I should correct you or not.

Stone walls in Croatia

When I was in Croatia last year, I noticed that there were numberless stone walls everywhere. We were on Pašman island then, but I saw the same on Krk, so I decided to read a little bit about them. Here’s what I found.

Their names are suhodizi or gromace in Croatian, and the name of the building technique is dry stone walling. They're „dry” because there is nothing between the stones that could hold them together. Walls are usually built with mortar as „glue” but these walls are special because they can stand for a really long time without it.

But how long, actually? One of the most famous wall systems in Croatia is in Stari Grad, Hvar. It was built in the 4th century BC and now it is protected by the UNESCO. The first people who built stone walls in this area were called Liburnians, and their tradition still lives on. Today, you can participate in dry stone walling workshops in Velo Grablje during a lavender festival which is organised there every year.

However, the most important question is: why did people start building stone walls like these? There is a joke that Croatian winters are so long that bored people wanted to have some fun, so they organised wall building competitions. This might sound logical, but it is probably not true. In reality, they needed to clear the land for farming, and they had large piles of stones after this process. They could use the stones for building fences between two people’s farms. Also, they could keep their sheep in one place with them.

They built wells, roads and shelters. These could be used when the weather was extreme: the sun or the wind was too strong, or a storm was coming. These shelters are called kazuni in the Istria region and obunja in Dalmatia. They also have different shapes. The first type is cone shaped, the second one is round.

Another agricultural function of these walls was to hold the soil in place. The landscape in Croatia is hilly, the soil is full of rocks and the winds are strong in many areas. Because of this, land can slide easily, and farmers needed to hold their plants in place. The walls of Pag island were built as protection from the Bora, and stone walls keep the famous vines of Primošten safe.

Now we know a little bit about some famous walls of Croatia. However, the most famous ones are the walls of Baljenac island. It is a tiny island, only 0.14 km² – but it is almost fully covered by the 23 kilometres of stone walls on it. From the air, it looks like a fingerprint – the fingerprint of a country, Croatia. This is why it became a symbol of it, which can be recognized easily. Like a person by their fingerprint.

1. notice – suddenly see that something is there
2. numberless – very many
3. mortar – the mixture of sand, water and cement that we use to build walls
4. participate in – take part in something, be active at an event
5. pile – a lot of things on top of each other, for example a pile of clothes on a chair
6. well – a deep hole in the ground where water comes from
7. shelter – a place where you are safe in times of danger
8. agricultural – related to farming or used in farming
9. soil – the black or brown material on the ground where plants grow
10. slide, slid, slid – move easily on a surface
11. fingerprint – the mark that a person’s finger leaves on a thing / object
12. recognize – identify, know again

TASKS

1. When the city was bombed, people ran to hide in ………… .
2. I’m sorry I didn’t say hello at the party. There were so many people, I didn’t ………… you.
3. I went back to my hometown after 20 years. It changed so much, I didn’t even ………… the school building, for example.
4. Don’t put your smartphone on the top of the car. It will ………… off and break on the ground.
5. If you don’t ………… in the lesson, you won’t have a chance to practice speaking.
6. I always put my plants in fresh ………… soil after I buy them.

Which words didn’t fit into the gaps? Try to write your own examples in a comment and correct other people’s examples if you see a mistake. Remember! Always be polite! Thank you.

Have you noticed how many chapels and churches are named after Saint Nicholas next to the sea? It’s because he (yes, old Santa’s original inspiration) was the patron saint of sailors.

One of his miracles happened on the sea. A ship was caught in a storm, so it sailed to shallow waters. Unfortunately, it became grounded very soon. So the sailors prayed that bishop Nicholas would help them. He appeared to them, and navigated them to a port safely. The sailors went to find a church to pray and thank God for their escape. The church happened to be the cathedral which belonged to Bishop Nicholas. They recognised him, thanked him, and asked him how it was possible to save them from far away. The bishop replied that his belief in God made him see so clearly that he could see and hear those people in danger who called for his help. This was one of his early miracles.

(The photo is of the church of Saint Nicholas from Valletta, Malta)

shallow: not deep
grounded: when a ship is grounded, it is in the water, but its bottom touches rocks or ground
happen to be: by chance, it is