Croatian Trip
Last month I went for three weeks back home to Croatia. I also managed to visit my relatives in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as numerous other places along the road and some a bit off the road. It was my first trip there in four and a half years, the longest that I had been away from home ever since I arrived to the US many, many years ago. Since I had been there last time, my brother has had two wonderful baby daughters, Vida (now two and a half) and Jana (who just turned one). Until now I had only seen them in pictures, although I've had an occasional chat with Vida on the phone. I've been waiting too long to see them, and all of my hopes and expectations about them have been more than fulfilled. Vida is a total character, and extremely precocious and adventurous little girl. There is never a dull moment with her around, and she gives a whole new meaning to the term "Concelebrated Mass." She also turned out to be an extremely easy person to travel with, as she hardly ever complained or cried during many car trips that we had gone on during my visit. Jana, on the other hand, was too young for me to interact very meaningfully with. She is an extremely sweet and open little girl, with a knack for music and dancing. I took many pictures of the two of them (and of the trip overall), which I've so far only managed to put on Facebook. Maybe one of these days I'll post links to those albums here as well.
Croatia is actually probably not the best place to visit in winter. In terms of the weather it's probably not all that bad, and certainly a bit warmer than the US Midwest at this time of year. However, hanging out indoors can feel rather claustrophobic there. Everything is much smaller, but the worst part is the incessant and ubiquitous smoking. It's one thing about Croatia that I don't miss at all when I am away, and even thought I try to mentally prepare myself for all the cigarette smoke before my trip, it still comes as a huge shock and a big annoyance. Unfortunately people there are so used to it that they don't even think of it as something that warrants any kind of consideration. The way you probably think about drinking water. Or watching TV. In fact, it is considered extremely rude to make any waves about it and mention your disapproval. If you do that you are thought of as an arrogant American who is encroaching on others most sacred and cherished rights. I gave up long time ago on trying to argue with this mindset.
As I mentioned above, I had also visited Mostar, and this had been one of the more disappointing experiences of my trip. The economic crisis has hit all of Europe pretty hard as well, but it seems to have hit Bosnia-Herzegovina particularly severely. In some sense this was to be expected. Bosnia-Herzegovina in its present form is an artificial entity created during the Dayton peace process. The peace that was created has despite all odds lasted for almost fifteen years, but Bosnia-Herzegovina never quite managed to become a unified country. Its three constituent ethnic groups are held together more by the outside pressures and supported largely by many years of foreign aid. As the economic woes have made the aid scarce, and the political will to keep the status quo finally dwindled to almost nonexistent level, all of the country has been hit hard by the lack of capital and any desire for foreign direct investment. From what I had seen, things are in many ways worse there than they had been right after the War. I think that it has become painfully obvious to everyone that a new political arrangement needs to be urgently worked out. Otherwise Bosnia-Herzegovina will become another failed state.
I was harboring strong trepidations about my returning trip to the US. Nine days after my journey home the "underwear bomber" attempted to blow up an airplane above Detroit. Fortunately, his plot failed, but it spurred a new set of security measures on all US-bound flights. In the end, things worked out more or less fine, although my luggage was left behind in Paris for about a day and a half. Despite that, it was a very good trip. Hopefully it won't take another four and a half years to go back there again.