An Update from Croatia

21^st May 2006
Zagreb, Croatia

Oh wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve actually be able to get online. The Internet is definitely one drug that I’ll never be able to quit. I’d be lying to say that I haven’t been looking forward to the wireless that would hopefully be a given at a Sheraton—because, let me tell you, wireless is not a common thing in Croatia. Shit, high-speed DSL/Cable is practically unheard of here. And, I’m sorry, I’m just not going to pay long-distance for dial up.

So anyway, Croatia has been a very interesting experience for us. We’ve managed to get into some interesting driving situations, some even more interesting family fights (though my mother swears they weren’t fights, we were just talking at each other very quickly and loudly!), and stay at some VERY interesting hotels (and I’m using that term loosely). However, we’ve also managed to see some amazing sights, meet some very friendly people, and a have a bunch of great experiences. Since I’m going to cover a few places in that this entry, I’ll just break it down be destination:

Dubrovnik, Croatia (in southern Croatia, on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea)

This is a major seaside resort for people in the Balkans, as well as several countries in Europe, especially Europe. Okay, side tangent: I have been around more Germans than Croatians! The Germans are the Japanese down here! They’re everywhere! Most of the television channels here are in German! Okay, back to traveloguing…

So, we ended up at the Hotel Adriatic. Umm…sparse is being kind to this hotel, but the views were incomparable. I didn’t mind the lack of tv (or shower door), with the amazing view I had from my terrace. The city itself was one of the most heavily shelled back in the 1990’s. However, the town has done a great job of recovering, and walking around there now, you would never have known that there was any damage done at all.

The town is relatively small, but has an old town center that is famous for the fortifications around it. You can walk on top of the walls around the city—which is so much fun! The Adriatic is a beautiful sea, probably the most beautiful one I’ve ever spent time at. Dad discovered that his (new) camera (you know, the one that replaced the $1,000 one) allowed him to take 5 pictures per battery. He was not a happy man.

We had an issue with power converters (they outlets in Switzerland are different from the ones in Austria and Croatia—who knew?), so we had to take a cab to a place with converters. Well, our friendly cab driver ended up driving up this long, windy road up a mountain. I couldn’t help but have my inner New Yorker freaking out and panicking about the death and dismemberment that was to come. Instead, he ended up driving us up to the tall hill above the city to be able to see the entire city below us. It was a total swindle to get more cash out of us (the meter was running the whole time), but it was so gorgeous, we didn’t really mind. This was also where you could see the shelled remains of a cable car station from 1991, as well as a restaurant and nightclub that were shelled then too. It really brought home to me how scary that period must have been for the Croatians.

Split, Solin

Solin is the a sprawling architectural site that has ruins ranging from 200 BC to the 5^th century AD. There’s a bunch of Christian church remains, but I was more interested in the Roman ruins further afield. In my attempt to find said ruins with Mom, we ended up on quite a few paths that led into private farms. Can you imagine, having to farm your cabbage, but these damn Roman bits keep getting in your way? The wildflowers here were amazing… I very much loved how unspoiled and non-commercial the site was. No one was selling little ruin snowglobes or postcards here (though I’m fine with people doing that—just not AT the place…I’d rather lose myself in the history).

Split is the second largest city in Croatia. It’s the place where the population of Solin evacuated to once a bunch of looting invaders came to Solin. It’s also the site where a huge US air craft carrier had just docked. You know the bit about Germans everywhere? Well, Split was the exception. There were American naval boys EVERYWHERE! I felt like I was back at home, except for the funny writing on the signs.

Split is particularly cool for the city’s center which was literally built starting with Diocletian’s palace (Diocletian was a Roman emperor whose favorite hobby was slaughtering Christians). So, when you walk around the city center, there are literally centuries of architecture co-existing—one might say in a rather parasitic fashion. Any true devotee of architecture might be aghast at the way it all comes together, but I couldn’t stop from being fascinated by the Frakenstein-ish quality to the whole thing. I have a picture up of Flickr that shows, from my rough understanding for architecture, at least 5 different architectural styles on one building. So crazy…

Pula & Dvdneck Croatia

This is the beginning of a two-day trek through MANY small towns in Croatia. Dad loved it (he planned it); it was a little overwhelming for Mom and me. But it was pretty neat to see so many historic towns that still hadn’t been over-commercialized. As some of you might know, I’m a pretty avid amateur historian of Roman antiquities—I always find myself being jealous of those 19^th century tourists who were able to traipse through the Coliseum with wildflowers growing there, no ropes holding them back, no tour guides holding up bright umbrellas and loudly explaining the stories of Romans in 15 different languages. Well, that’s 19^th century feel is what is going on at most of the sites in Croatia—which is fantastic. You can ramble, touch things, and climb walls pretty much at your own risk. I love that!

Pula is most famous for its amphitheatre—one of the largest complete ones in the world. It was fun walking around it, but I have to say that the stage they set up for Jose Carreras in the center of the auditorium kinda killed the mystique I was hoping for. There was a great display of excavated wine jugs found onsite below the auditorium, though. We also got to poke around a few other ancient sites—the forum and a temple dedicated to some 1^st century local big shots. Dad cursed at his camera even more.

Dvdneck is an abandoned medieval town in the middle of no where (that’s saying something in Croatia too!). It’s incredible. You can just walk, climb, whatever anywhere there. There’s just a few signs saying “Bad Idea” in 5 languages with some picture of a little stick guy getting killed by falling rocks. Haha, as if that would stop Dad and me. There were also gorgeous wildflowers everywhere as well. But you know what comes with gorgeous wildflowers? Bees the size of Snickers bars. At one point in the ruins, the buzzing was so loud, I don’t think you could hold a conversation. I did lots of brave exploring—but then I very quickly would run away from the first buzzing noise around my head. I looked like a total ass, I’m sure. But I didn’t get stung!

Polin & Hilltop Cities, Croatia

Polin is a lovely little seaside city. It’s famous for a church (aren’t all towns). But, the most notable thing that happened here (and actually in Pula too) were these god-awful seagulls. My parents and I were sleeping, when in the middle of night the most awful shrieking awoke us all around 4AM. I stumbled to the window and discovered that it was a group of seagulls. The seagulls here are fucking banshees. Cross the sound a cat makes in heat, while fighting with another cat, the drone of frogs after a rain storm and a wailing grandmother at a funeral. Multiply the volume times three. That might be how disturbing these birds were. The three of us could not believe these sounds were coming out of sea gulls, who are pretty soft and relaxing vocalists at home. These things are agents of the devil.

The hilltop cities were the next stop on our driving schedule. We were supposed to visit 6 towns, but we ended up cutting it in half, because Mom and I started feeling that we were seeing the same town over and over again. SCENE: winding road that twists up the side of a mountain. At the top, there will be one tall building of a somewhat notable design that peaks out over the tiled rooftops by about forty feet. This will be a church. In order to get to said church, the travelers must climb up a somewhat steep path over very slick cobblestones, all the while trying to avoid the occasional Mercedes that has decided to try to drive to the top. Must be dozens of German tourists everywhere and slightly bewildered locals here and there staring at the tourists. The church will be small and quaint. The cities will sell truffles and wine. Okay, that pretty much sums up all of the hill towns we went to. :)

-------
So, that’s the recap. Tomorrow, I finally get to go shopping (yay!), and we plan on spending a few hours in the historic center of Zagreb. Then, we’re back to Vienna for the next 5 days (which will include a visit to Slovakia, apparently). I’m really looking forward to spending a little bit of time in Vienna—the coffee there is amazing. The coffee here has been, well, um, different. In Dubrovnik, the coffee literally smelled and tasted like the spice packet in my Ramen noodles. Different. :)

I’ll probably post a couple of times from Vienna, then back to the States! Hope everyone is doing well!