Transition

May 12, 2005-Historical Perspective
(photos:At home on Dalmatian Coast,
On the Riva seaside promenade)

Sunny days chasing the clouds away! No, we are not on Sesame Street, but the fickle Mediterranean sun has returned for our 240-mile ride to Split. Viki started the morning by reading from The Lonely Planet. It said that Croatia is the #1 destination this year. Then she read a list of the best sites and museums. We have not and will not see most of them. Museums are to “see during free time if you want to” according to the guide. Viki pointed out a “very well preserved Roman fort” that was mentioned in passing. We did not stop. I’m not sure but that attitude may sway my opinion against Grand Circle and group touring.

Viki gave a disjointed history lecture starting 5,000 years ago with the Illyrians (Indo-Iranians) who came from Persia through Russia to here. They called the region Delmatine thus the Dalmatian Coast. The Dalmatian dog is a thoroughbred of the area. The Illyrians beat the Romans who arrived to the Split area in 229 BC. The Illyrian language is thought to be close to Albanian. Bosnian Muslims are converts of the Turks who were not Arabs and still make that clear distinction. Never tranquil politically, as you read in the email from yesterday, Yugoslavia (meaning Southern Slavs) was host to a large concentration camp during WWII. There’s a memorial where 600,000 are said to be buried. Viki told us that number is in dispute and there may “only” be 60-100,000 dead. The Croatian president did travel to Israel for a formal apology.

The troubles from 1991-1999 started in 1990, when Slovenia saw the handwriting on the wall and seceded from Yugoslavia. Not to be outdone, the Croats tried the same. Unfortunately, most of the Yugoslavian army in Croatia was comprised of Serbs who disagreed that there should be a free Croatia. The six distinct republics that made up the artificial unity of Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina) couldn’t come together on politics or a common language. Serbo-Croatian was the front-runner but which alphabet to use was up for grabs: Cyrillic or Latin.

On Easter Sunday of 1991, Serbs led by Milosevic, attacked. Hundreds of thousands of Croats fled to the coast where they lived as refugees in hotels. Some are afraid to return to their ethnic homes and are still in the hotels. The bloodiest battle occurred in Vukovar where a three-month siege left remnants of survivors. Remaining civilians including hospital patients were summarily shot and buried in mass graves. In 1995 Croatia drove the Serbians back and held elections. The Croats turned the tables on the Serbs and did ethnic cleansing of their own. In the end 10,000 Croats were dead and Serbians annexed 25% of Croatia. It’s now a democratic republic with a parliament and is trying to enter the EU. Simultaneously there was a round robin of fighting with and within an even more diverse Bosnia

Viki read to us from a diary she kept during the war. Her husband was too old for the army but was able to work as an electrician. Her daughter was ten at the time and went to school when it was open. Viki was unemployed as tourism dried up. They lived the best they could between air raids and were fortunate that Rijeka was never bombed or shelled. During our drive today we saw shelled villages and the furious re-building. There is no compulsory military service in Croatia now, but there is a six-month public service requirement.

Sea Side

The Croatian Alps to our north became a stark landscape of limestone and dolomite as it escorted us with the Adriatic to the south. Restaurant Vicko was a mediocre lunch destination near the national park of Velabit on the Island of Pag. The fish was strong tasting and the Bolognese was average. Ice-cream cones were dessert but they didn’t offer chocolate or coffee. I ate soup and bread. There was a banana waiting in our backpack on the bus and that rounded out the food for me.

Those sitting on the sea side of the bus today had to sign their names on a list so that tomorrow the rest of us can take their places and enjoy the view. Viki asked that they not use their Christian names when they sign the list. Several of the Jewish passengers mentioned that wouldn’t be a problem for them since they had no Christian names.

During a stop at the scenic overlook at Sibonik Viki pointed out what looked like white balls in the water. Mussel and oyster farming is done on strings going down into the water from those balls. We also saw fish farms, plant nurseries, and most homes had vegetable gardens instead of front lawns. Split only had a population of 20,000 after WWII, but is bursting at the seams now with 250,000. It was named “asphallato” (Scottish heather) by the Greeks. The yellow flowering shrub covers the hills in spring. We rounded the bend into a suburb, Salona, where Diocletian was born, and came upon the blinding white high rises jutting between the aquamarine blue sea and sky. Our hotel is from the Communist era but has been re-furbished. It’s not up to the standards of the others we’ve stayed in but is certainly fine at a three-star rating despite a moldy rubber shower mat. We all have sea views so are not complaining.

Dinner was at the hotel and it was lasagna with ice-cream dessert. Again no chocolate or coffee. I will cope. We briefly walked along the Riva, a promenade, with the locals. It was the most littered area we have experienced. We returned to the hotel for another abortive attempt to send you email. This time we laboriously got onto AOL only to have it tell us that the page to get our mail could not be opened.

Tomorrow we take a walking tour through the Palace of Diocletian before the 140-mile drive to Dubrovnik.

Toby