05 June 2006

Back in Zagreb

My party the other day went well, though fewer people came than I thought might. So I have quite a lot of food and drink leftover. Everyone brought presents, which I wasn't expecting. So I have a few little mementos now, even more bottles of wine, and some beautiful flowers. Yesterday, Sunday, I took the bus to Zagreb again, to give a lecture today (in about an hour) at the Museum of Ethnology.

I had dinner last night with some friends here at a good Italian restaurant. I had gnocchi with a creamy truffle/spinach sauce, and a delicious tomato, cheese salad. Zagreb is a nice city with more shops and restaurants and everything than Rijeka. But I think overall I'm happier being on the coast. Still, today I visited Algoritam, a big bookstore downtown. It was quite large and all the books are in English. I got a book by a Croatian writer (Slavenka Drakulic), another (called Another Food in the Balkans) by a Brit who has traveled around here, and two works of fiction by Americans writers. So I think I'll have enough reading now to get me through the rest of my time here. I have less than 6 weeks left in Croatia.

Before I left I had thought that for sure I would take trips to Trieste and Venice (in Italy), Slovenia, maybe even Austria or further afield. But so far I have only traveled in Croatia. And for those of you who keep urging me to see Dubrovnik, don't worry, I have a five day trip planned there, leaving Friday. In fact I feel like I have been traveling quite a lot. And though I have seen most of the country, I still have a fair amount left that I haven't seen. So just fitting in the things I want to see in Croatia should fill my time, let alone going to other countries. I guess this is alright, since ultimately Croatia was what I came to see and was most interested in for this trip. But it will feel odd to be so close to Itlay and not to visit there. Maybe I'll at least get to Trieste one day. I hear it's got a very Austro-Hungarian feel.

The Croatian writer I mentioned, by the way, Slavenka Drakulic, is one I recommend. I have only thus far read her non fiction, a collection of essays called Cafe Europa. She gives interesting insight into the culture here from before, during and after the recent war, and the changes wrought (or not) during the switch from communism to capitalism. One of the things she discusses is something I've mentioned here before too, the concern people have over whether outsiders like the country. I had thought it was out of pride. And maybe it is in part, but it's also partly out of insecurity. After all Italians and French and so on are not constantly asking foreigners what they think of their countries. They are convinced of their own excellence and don't need outside approval, or at least that's one way of thinking of it (I've had discussions with people here about this too). But this country is relatively new and in some ways fragile, so that I guess it's understandable that people wonder what outsiders think about it.

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