In the nerd universe of IR, you occasionally run into someone I'd classify as a "Balkans fanatic." They're a rare breed, but these hardy souls nevertheless have popped up in both college and grad school. I never really understood the allure in studying the Balkans. I'd stare blankly as my friends and classmates talked about their Slavic travels and ask myself, "Did they mean to study the Near East but got distracted along the way?"
My bad. I get it now.
I left on Friday for a weekend in Croatia. Prior to leaving, the only thing I knew about Croatia was that it wasn't Austria. That was enough to sell me on the trip. Maybe because I had no expectations going into Croatia, it made the country that much better - everything was a surprise. For example, mountains? In Croatia? WHAT? Plus one. Or Roman ruins? Plus two. My love affair with Hungary is quickly fading...
We spend the first night of our Croatian getaway hanging out in Zagreb. Unfortunately, because we didn't do a lot of planning, we had no idea where to go and beyond the city center, the city looks like a post-Soviet nightmare - a gray, factory-filled wasteland dotted by the occasional strip club. We hightailed it out of Zagreb and found a place to stay at a decent hotel for practically nothing. Hooray for recession-friendly vacation destinations!
We spent the next two days driving through the country, visiting some of its beautiful national parks (see right), stopping at a dairy staffed by the most adorable woman I've ever met (see her delicious cheeses below), and then landing in Zadar, a beach town (uh, all the beach pictures). We even gave Zagreb a second chance on Sunday evening and were pleasantly surprised to find that the city does, in fact, have a lovely city center, one that lacks any hint of depressing communist architecture. But there are a still a lot of Yugos around (see car at the top of the post).
The most significant observation I made during the trip is that as far as nationalities go, Croatians are generally pretty attractive. Despite a cuisine that seems to be comprised of only gelato and sausages covered in pancakes, the women are model-like and the men might as well all be professional soccer players.
The only downside to Croatia is that you have to drive through Slovenia to get there. If you like farms, more farms, and paying a 35 euro fee to cross the border, then I highly recommend Slovenia. Otherwise, you can sleep through this one.
The weekend, however, provided me with my first glimpse at the aftermath of war. Driving through Croatia, I was struck by how many cities and towns, particularly in the north of the country, still had visible scars from the country's war for independence.
Passing through one town on the way to Zadar, we turned to see a make-shift war memorial -- the remnants of two demolished buildings, bullet-ridden homes and businesses, a destroyed fighter jet, a dozen tanks, and barricades used by UN peacekeepers.
