I had today completely open, so just spent time wandering and exploring a bit.
That included some more time back in the Old Town, and Diocletian’s Palace. I needed to be surrounded by people I fit in with. I don’t mean tourists specifically – I just mean people my size. The people of Dalmatia are the second tallest people in the world, behind the Dutch. I feel like a hobbit when I’m with natives. I needed to be surrounded by some tourists of my size for a bit. I did stop to see a few sites I hadn’t had time to appreciate the first time.
I then climbed to the west the old town, through first a historical area with steps, and then eventually started climbing up a big hill.
Marjan Hill
It’s a big hill, with a bunch of stuff on it. Restaurants and walking paths and things like that, but also a petting zoo, cemeteries, old churches, etc.
In addition to enjoying those things, the point is really the view.
A Zoo!
It was technically a petting zoo for children, but they let me in. It first opened in 1926, and included an aquarium which was the only one in this part of Europe. I think they take pity on anyone that climbs the hill in warm weather. In fact, they let me sit in with the turtles for a bit, and I got to feed them, which was enjoyable for both the turtles and me.
For being a small area, it was insanely loud. The goats were being noisy, but that was mixed with the noise of the peacocks. Have you heard a peacock scream? It’s…a lot. Find a video online.
Donkeys are actually really respected in the area. It’s a bit of a thing. Snobby people from Zagreb (the capital, “in the north”) tried to insult people in this area by calling them donkeys. The Dalmatian area accepted it as a compliment – donkeys are incredibly hard working and low maintenance, and they are willing to kick you if you’re being an idiot.
Language
Croatian continues to be a tricky language for me. They have 30 letters in their alphabet – but no letters for q, w, x, or y. I did ask someone about their alphabet song – and they don’t have one. I don’t really understand how you can have an alphabet without a song, but here we are.
The island I went to yesterday was Brač. This: č sounds makes a tch sort of sound. So you say brat (the food, not the child), and then add an ch sound at the end.
“Thanks” is a simple Hvala. It’s sort of like saying koala, but saying it really fast, as if it were one syllable. That’s the easy part. The harder part is the noise at the beginning…it’s sort of a w, sort of an h, sort of a k? The best way to think about it is to say koala but like you’re choking on an olive at the beginning.
Wine
They don’t have red wine here. Instead, they say that have white wine, or black wine.
And, if you order a black wine, there is a good chance they add water. The traditional recipe is about 3/4 black wine, 1/4 water mixture. But not sparkling water, as a spritzer. Oh no. Sparkling water would only be added to white wine, if requested. They would call that a Gemischte (which is the German word, for mixed? They do use a number of German and Italian words in this region). I asked why you couldn’t use sparkling water in the Black wine, and was told that, if I tried ordering it that way they’d probably serve it, but they would definitely be talking about me.
Tito
Tito is an important part of the area’s history. And like all of us, he was a complicated person.
He was a locksmith by trade, with no formal education to speak of. He was drafted in 1914, and rose through the military ranks to power in part because he was very politically smart, and also very charismatic. Germany took control of the area in 1941 – the area officially signed an agreement to remain neutral, but a puppet government was installed to control the citizens, which reported directly to Hitler. Tito joined what was called the Partisans. Basically, the Resistance. He was President of Yugoslavia from 1953-1980, when he died.
Tito had strong ties to Russia, so though he fought Hitler, that didn’t really make him a good guy. It was more of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” so the Allies accepted him. In 1945 he held fraudulent elections and expelled everyone that didn’t agree with him from the government. He wound up also getting into disagreements with Stalin, and eventually formed a separate group – not a party of the eastern or western block, but instead a separate area, in connection with India and Egypt. He created and ruled with a new mix of socialism and communism. Depending where you were at politically, you loved him, tolerated him, or were killed by him.
He did do some really interesting things – including putting into place a constitution that allowed for the eventual breakup of Yugoslavia. He didn’t think it would ever happen, but his death really threw everything into disarray. Everyone outside of Serbia and Montenegro hated the leader that came to power after his death (Milošević), so really, his death led to the dissolution of the state he had spent his life creating. They say you can find clips online of a football game in May of 1980; it was Split versus Belgrade, with 50,000 in the stands, when the announcement of his death was made. The players met in the middle of the field and cried together. His funeral was huge – leadership from 128 countries was represented. President Carter did not attend, but he sent his mother (no, really) and Walter Mondale in his absence.
Anyway, I don’t have a picture of his house, which was part of my plan. I forgot, and turned back down the hill after the zoo, and then didn’t want to go back.
Sports
Basketball used to be a very big deal in the area, and still is in Serbia. I think, in part because Serbia is so strong in that sport, other countries in the area have pulled away from it a bit.
Baseball actually also used to be very popular in the area, and they say they had the oldest baseball team in Europe, in Split. That’s because, after WWI, the US Navy was in the Adriatic Sea, keeping an eye on Italy. Our navy guarded the area, including Split, for 3 years – and taught the locals the favorite sport of the States at the time.
They’re locally good at tennis, and water polo…but their heart is football. (For clarification, everyone else in the world calls soccer football. Some day I will google why we didn’t just give American football a different name?). The problem is, the Zagreb club team is much better than the Split Club team. Zagreb has won like 18 of the last 19 matches, or something like that. That being said, the locals will not give up on their club, and you’ll find tributes to them all over the city.
