Pictures from Nin

Pictures from Zadar

Visit to Zadar

I just spent five days in a lovely city on the coast south of here, Zadar. I went to give a series of lectures, partially as part of a seminar they had on American Studies. Zadar has an old walled part of the city that gives it an ancient feel, yet it is also quite modern and lively, with many groups of tourists walking around, as well as lots of locals shopping at the market, going to cafes and churches, and catering to the tourists. There are probably more tourists in Zadar than any other city I've visited except Split. My hotel was a very large one that catered to big busloads of tourists, mostly from France and Germany. I had a half-board deal (through the university), so I ate my suppers there amidst these big crowds. The room itself was small but had a nice balcony with views of the sea and the hotel's big round pool. I finally swam there the last day and was only surprised by the fact that the pool water was salty. It was quite startling. But I think people here often believe that the sea water is healing, so maybe that's why it was in the pool.

One of the more interesting aspects of Zadar is one big square in the old town where there are several interesting churches, a few museums, and remains (ruins) of the old Roman forum. There are ancient capitals just lying on the ground with images of Jupiter carved into them. There is also a church called St. Donat's that was constructed at least partly with remains from the old forum. It's a striking church in that it is round, one of the few round churches in this part of the world. The building is now only used for summer concerts, though there was no such concert while I was there. One bit of music I did hear though was the "sea organ" they have, literally an organ constructed so that the water rushes through pipes and creates music. It was lulling. I sat on the steps right on the shore (in part of the old town) for over an hour listening. I got sunburnt. Later that evening I watched the new Da Vinci Code movie in town, which was alright.

When I visited the archeology museum I noticed that many artifacts from the medieval period were in fact from a city nearby called Nin. I had a free day in which to travel and thought about going to an island or a park nearby. But instead I went to Nin, the ancient city of kings of Croatia. It was a picturesque town, the old town of which is actually on a little island. I wandered around there for hours and saw four or five lovely old churches, remains of a Roman temple, the old city wall, a cemetary, and another archeology museum. There were also interesting houses and some businesses. People in Croatia, like all over Europe, are really into landscaping, and right at this time those flowers most in bloom are roses. I saw huge, blooming, fragrant rose bushes all over the city, and for that matter, all over this part of Croatia (on the road). There are also many bright red poppies growing wild all over. For instance, amidst the ruins of the Roman temple were masses of poppies. Just outside of town there is also a hill, which is apparently an ancient burial mound with a little chapel built on top of it. A picture I'd seen of this the day before was partly what drew me to visit here. In fact this hill and chapel--St. Nicholas--were quite small, very appealing, but small, almost (some descriptions said) like a big chess piece on the hill. I'll try to post a photo later if any came out. I only saw St. Nicholas from the bus as it was moving since it was a way outside of town.

On the bus to Nin I met a Canadian traveler who was heading to Nin for the beaches. He asked me why I was going and I told him to see the museum and the churches and ruins. He said at the beginning of his trip, a few weeks ago, he was really in to churches and castles and museums, but then he got burned out at that and just needed the reality of the beach. He had read that the best beaches in Croatia are in Nin. It's funny how different travelers can have such different experiences of a country. To me most beaches are more or less the same. I love walking along the sea, or sitting and meditating or reading near it. But to sit/lie all day in the sun and swim ocassionally doesn't appeal to me. But to skip some of the most interesting churches (for instance "the smallest cathedral in the world") and stunning artifacts in the region completely in favor of sitting in the sun all day baffles me. But I suppose my style of living and traveling would baffle many others.

Today is my birthday, and also that of Tito, or so it used to be celebrated as (I heard that it wasn't really his birthday but he claimed it as such because it was a good time for a holiday). It's no longer a national holiday. Nor will it be much of a celebration for me. But I'm glad to be back home and to have a chance to rest, to gear up for my next round of travel starting in about 10 days. I may go look for a new book to read and have a meal out. But I think I'll also try to make it to the market and cook for myself tonight, something I've missed while on the road.

Visit to Osijek

I took the train for an eight and a half hour journey last week to Osijek (leaving Rijeka at 5:43 am). In Osijek I taught a few classes for their University English department (in the faculty of philosophy). Osijek is the capital of Slavonia, in the eastern half of the country. It was one of the places most hurt by the recent war. People I met there told me about what they remembered of the times the city was under air raids and shelling attacks. They said they would be working and suddenly when the sirens started everyone who wasn’t already home would race home. They said you cold drive 90 miles an hour right down city streets and through red lights to try to make it home. Unlike nearby Vukovar, many buildings that had been destroyed or scarred by the bombs and shooting were repaired in Osijek. But there were still a number of facades in which one can see pock marks and other signs of where shrapnel or bullets hit. Before the war Osijek was known as being one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the country. But now most Serbs and other non-Croatian nationalities have apparently left. Just inside the door into the faculty are bas relief portraits of four students from the faculty who were killed during the war. One teacher remembered how she and other teachers had been carrying out a thesis defense in a room right there, and all during the defense they heard these loud bomb-like noises. But they carried on. Later they found out that the big, public market (just on the other side of that building) was being bombed. They said that even while they were living through it all, it seemed surreal and unbelievable.

The city of Opatija sits on the Drava River, a wide, rolling river that was quite high when I was there (it had flooded recently). Nearby, the Drava meets up with the Danube, which has meant this area has been geographically important for millennia. There is a long, park-lined walk along the Drava in town that extends from the newer, modern city to the older section of town, the Trvda. When I walked along it, there were joggers, bikers, people in shells and other boats (on the river) and a lot of people just enjoyed the scenery (sitting on benches or strolling along). Nearby Osijek there is a national park (Kopacki Rit) that is one of the largest wetlands in Europe. All this water apparently makes the area ideal for mosquitoes. I had been warned by the embassy while I was there in Zagreb last month about how bad the mosquitoes can be in Osijek. Sure enough, within a few minutes of getting off the train, on the tram on the way to my hotel, I killed a mosquito on my arm. At points we were literally swarmed by mosquitoes, though mostly it was just a matter of keeping yourself alert and not being shy about waving your arms about. In fact several people told me a joke that in Osijek if you see someone waving their arms about in the street you know that it’s either normal behavior because of the mosquitoes or they’re crazy (but usually it’s the former).

My hosts in Osijek were very nice, welcoming, and appreciative. They have several people there who do American Studies, including a woman who studies and teaches Native American literature. She spent a year in Arizona on a Fulbright. So I had some compatible colleagues with whom it was enjoyable to share notes and experiences. My lectures seemed to go over well, but probably most interesting of the whole visit there was the amazing coincidence that the very day I was giving my lectures there was a visitor from the U.S. that the embassy brought to town to speak, and he was none other than the director of the National Museum of the American Indian (part of the Smithsonian, which I visited last summer), Richard West. I was able to hear his lecture, which was very well received by the large audience. Then afterward I was invited to attend the lunch with him and several Croatian colleagues. It was a good day.

Mostly I spent my time in Osijek with my colleagues there. One night we met at the national theater to watch Shakespeare (Twelfth Night, in Croatian). One of the professors I’d met that day teaches and writes about theater, so she got us all in for free. I was going just to see the theater. But in the end I stayed for the first two acts. Even though I couldn’t understand, it was interesting to watch. There were interesting silver sets, nice costumes, and musicians playing piano, guitar and drums in between and during some scenes.

Osijek is a town of broad avenues, lovely old mansions, many green and flowery parks, active public squares, and a fair amount of modern architecture (no doubt much of it recently repaired buildings or facades that were damaged in the war). It’s also one of the only places in Croatian where some of the traditional cuisine includes spicy food. I had a delicious pepper salad one day at lunch (though it honestly wasn’t very hot), though the pepper/cheese spread (not dissimilar from Pimento Cheese) that day was quite satisfyingly spicy. There are also a couple of Sezchuan restaurants in town, and I ate a spicy meal there one night.

The train was an interesting, though long, eight hour ride. I saw a lot of Croatia, from rocky coast near here, to the mountains of Gorsky Kotor (just east of here), to gradually declining hills until the flat, fertile land of Slavonia. Before the war it was the “breadbasket” of Croatia, and also enjoyed a prosperous economy based on a number of factories and businesses. But it has yet to really bounce back to that pre-war state of prosperity. Nonetheless the people I met there were some of the friendliest, most welcoming, and interesting that I have met anywhere in the country.

A Few Images from Rab Island

Visit to Rab Island

I spent a rewarding day yesterday on Rab Island, one of the southernmost inhabited islands of the Kvarner region. I took the bus from Rijeka, which included a ride on the ferry, and wound up in Rab Town, the "old town" of which goes back at least 1000 years (or parts of it do). Rab Town is known for its four distinctive remaining towers (there were more once), some beautiful churches, charming streets that wind through the old town, and a dramatically beautiful seafront with large deciduous forests. It's also known for its "naturist" beaches (i.e. nude beaches). King Edward XIII vacationed here, though it's debated whether he bared all. He was wooing Wallis Simpson all along the Adriatic. Rab has been a tourist destination for quite some time, though luckily there were only a few busloads of Germans there yesterday, and various other wandering tourists from all over, including Croatia. I met a woman on the bus who said she lives near Zagreb and has never been here before. She said she found the island unbelievably beautiful. I agree.

Not much was open in terms of churches and museums since it was not yet tourist season (which is July-September). In preparation for the masses to come there was a lot of construction going on. But much of the town was quiet and enjoyable. Most of the important churches had their doors open, but not the grill gatework that is just inside the door. So you could peer through the grillwork at the interior. There is also one old church in ruins now (St. Justine I think). But sometimes ruins are more interesting or appealing to me than intact churches, I guess because I enjoy the sense of mystery, imagining what it might have been like in its heyday. Also it sort of becomes part of the natural environment in a way, making it half naturally, half architecturally interesting. Anyway, at this site of ruins the tower still stands, along with the apse, and they have reconstructed (putting up pillars) part of the nave and other areas. There were supposed to be beautiful mosaics here originally, only traces of which are left, but I searched and searched and could find no traces of mosaics. So I'm assuming they've been moved to a museum. There was also a lovely cathedral called "St. Mary the Great" (a great name), made striking by the use of contrasting colored stone (pink and white) in construction of the outer, front wall (see photo above).

This old town is on a hill, and the steepest part of the hill is the street with all the churches and towers and borders the sea. So from here you can walk down to the seaside or get dramatic views. There is also a very large (100's of acres) park next to the old town area which also has areas with steps leading down to the seafront. After lunch I walked along this seafront for a while (a mile or more). One walks along a well used path including many little built-in seats of stone and cement. Every so often there are also cafes or swimming areas. I saw a few people swimming. I did stick my feet in once and found the water to be pretty cold, but not unbearable. There were a few place with actual sand beaches, though mostly they were mostly rocky, maybe mixed with a little sand, and there were plenty of concrete areas too (though not as much as in some places).

Most of the cafes were closed (except for one larger one that I think was part of a hotel). There were also some very beautiful and large rocks on the shore at various places. I think they were fossils since they have very interesting markings, groves, notches, pocks, and so on (there's picture of some of these above). The water as usual in Croatia varies from deep green to turqouise blue. I don't know what causes the water to have that striking turqouise blue pattern in patches. There is lot of limestone in the landscape here, so I was thinking maybe it happens where the bottom is limestone without any vegetation or dirt. And that might reflect the sky differently. But I don't know if this idea has any merit.

It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, but with a cool breeze that kept me from ever feeling hot. I had lunch in a restaurant called Paradiso in a courtyard that had an interesting mix of features -- old stone and woodwork in the walls and balconies, flower boxes full of gernaiums, and over the old, covered well, a modern glass sculpture that I think was meant to resemble a kind of water fountain. There was also music blaring from the louspeakers, a contemporary Italian singer, it sounded like. The food was pizza and pasta. The pizza I had was okay, not the best I have had here, though the most expensive (at $9). Corn on pizza just doesn't appeal to me, and this one had it, along with mushrooms, zuchinni, and peppers. I had asked just for mushroom pizza, but in trying to stress or verify that I wanted no meat on the pizza I used the word "vegetarian." So the waiter got the idea that I wanted a mixed vegetable pizza and they put on all this other stuff. This place was also notable for charging 25 kuna ($4) for a carafe of tap water (at least that's what I ordered; maybe it was bottled water poured into a carafe).

The bus/ferry ride back and forth was long but quite enjoyable because the coastal scenery all along the way was so lovely. We stopped off at a number of seaside villages to pick up or let off passengers. One of the more striking things I remember about this ride, apart from the generally beautiful scenery of sea, mountains, and dramatic landscapes, were the wildflowers blooming all along the way. Many of these were fairly generic seeming, but one that especially struck me was the deep purple iris. I had heard from the folklore institute that the iris played a big role in traditional mythology here (like in Greece there was a goddess named for the flower). But now I can start to see why. The iris seems to grow wild all along this route we traveled and is evident in great abundance. Everywhere you see interspersed amidst the greenery, yellow and softer colored flowers these bursts of deep purple. It took me a little while to realize they are irises. And since they are all along the road and hillsides, even far from settlements, they cannot all have been planted. What joy it added to the day to see all these wild irises everywhere.

Concrete Thoughts

This has been a week of teaching here at my home institution in Rijeka, which has been enjoyable. The students are good as always, and last night a few stayed to talk to me after class about Croatia and what I should see here. Everywhere I go here people are always asking me how I like Croatia, how I like Rijeka, how I like each place I see. I think this interest in foreigners' responses comes from a deep pride in the country. And my response is always an enthusiastic and genuine, "I love it." Everywhere I've been has been appealing and interesting at the very least and sometimes quite breathtaking, from the little stone villages on islands to the capital of Zagreb. My students gave me enthusiastic recommendations of other places to visit places in Istria and the islands. I think I will go to a few places in Istria this weekend if the weather holds (sunny and warmer the last few days).

The building my department/faculty is housed in also houses an elementary school, and maybe even classes through middle school. So very often when I'm coming or going there will be children on recess in the courtyard in front of the building. Right now there are some kids skateboarding on the sidewalk just below my window. The noise is a distraction since I have the window open on this sunny, warm day. I rather suspect these particular kids (since there are only a few) are not on recess but playing hooky. Usually the kids in front of the school play ball games (like soccer) or sometimes just stand and talk to each other. The area in front of the building actually intrigues me, because it is just a big open space covered over in concrete, but also with rectangular blocks of concrete sticking up, which are painted green, a kind of chartreuse I'd say. There is a parking garage underneath, so perhaps the concrete blocks are part of the support for that. But the fact that the are painted green suggests that they are meant to be decorative.

This is a rather large open space in the middle of a very public section of town, with banks, businesses, apartment buildings, the police station next door, the city tower off one end of this square, and so on, busy all around. So it seems like it should be used in some way, perhaps as a park or square if nothing else, because of its prime location. It might be kind of public art display, given that these rectangular blocks sticking up are painted. And there is also a longer, lower diagonal block that cuts through at an angle that is painted red. Or perhaps it is designated as the square or playground for the children's recess from this school. But it strikes me as an odd playground, with no equipment, no grass or trees or plants, or a public art display that is primarily plain, ugly concrete. If it's meant for children it's poor planning because the blocks sticking up just hinder their ball games, or make them more challending.

Just today, during my folklore class, in which I was giving an exam, there was a kind of assembly of the grade school students. They were set up in this square, near the steps to the building (which served as a stage), in a little semi-circle, singing songs (with mics and amplifiers) and doing other little performances. It was sort of sweet and interesting, except that it was pretty disruptive for my poor students sitting for an exam. Well, I think it was a pretty easy exam, and the music and voices weren't too loud.

In regards to this concrete public space -- as I think about it, a lot of the public spaces here seem to involve significant amounts of concrete. The river that gives the town it's name (Rijeka means river in Croatian and the Italian name for the town, Fiume, also means river) flows between concrete banks, which must have been so changed within the last century. The whole waterfront is concretized, even in places designated as "beaches." And many public parks have as much or more concrete than grass. I wonder why this is -- perhaps concrete makes it seem more sanitized or easy to care for or something. Even in the tourist resort of Opatija, the main "beach" is a big area that is covered in a massive concrete slab, and this is where the tourists and locals sunbathe, lying on their towels on the concrete.

A Few Photos from Zagreb