Same as it never was?

View of Kvarner Bay by Filip Coenen

“Place” is more than a geographical location. It is a concept inextricably linked to language, culture, history, art, and knowledge production. Place informs the rituals and daily practices of community and can provide a foundation for individual and shared identity. There is no place that is separate or apart from people.  https://www.mellon.org/report/whats-in-a-place-more-than-geography

What gives a place meaning? Visiting a place that resonates with you–where you ‘get’ the feeling of it–shapes the relationship you have with that somewhere. Croatia is known for a siren-like effect that enchants visitors. Plitvice Lakes to Zagreb’s parks, Istra’s hill towns, the Makarska, Dubrovnik, Omiš, Šibenik, Crikvenica, Zadar and Opatija Riveras, Osijek, Varaždin and endless islands. Recent online posts by tourism experts talk about a fjaka-infused vibe that permeates the whole country, as does great food traditions, strong hospitality infrastructure and complex, intriguing history. Seems an easy visitor sell but like many economies heavily dependent on tourism, Croatia now is trying harder–harder to curate visitor experiences, harder to promote its natural attractions. It often said of Croatia that it punches above its weight. Could climate change change that?

Once in a Lifetime

History is on the side of Croatian tourism. The Kvarner Riveria is cited as a birthplace of modern mass tourism. Mid 19c railroad construction helped boost Kvarner’s reputation as a restorative playground for Europe’s elite. In the 20c, it became an affordable destination for more people. Ironically a century later the Croatian Tourist Board is pushing luxury tourism. Pop culture that draws on Croatian tourism; White Lotus, Below Deck Mediterranean, Conde Nast, Travel + Leisure paints an image of Croatia oozing attainable sophistication. (See Zoran Pejović’s Light Before Dawn Substack posts for philosophical musings) Can luxury tourism help mitigate the worst effects of climate change on the Mediterranean basin which is heating up faster than most places on earth? What kinds of visitor experiences prioritize ecosystem stewardship?

Nai 3.3 a 3 star Michelin Dugi Otok https://www.lhw.com/hotel/Villa-Nai-3-3-zman-Croatia

Villa Nai 3.3 on Dugi Otok https://villanai.com described as a ‘exclusive retreat under the media microscope’ is for those wealthy enough to afford steep prices. It’s impressive, but who, what and where benefits?

Water Dissolving and Water Removing

How Clean is the Adriatic Sea?, Total Croatia Katarina Anđelković
August 17, 2023

Croatia’s beauty makes intimate connections with nature easy, especially with Jadransko more. Croatian tourism thrives as a result of its natural beauty–the peaceful, serene kind that belies its turbulent 20c history and some of the present day ecological and political realities.

Opatija Riviera and Volosko
Kevin West for Travel and Leisure Magazine 8 May 2026

In the May 2026 edition, Travel + Leisure published Kevin West’s ‘Croatia’s Northern Coast has Sun-Speckled Seaside Town, Grand Hotels, and the World’s Most Fragrant Garden–How to Visit.’ West’s story could have easily been titled, ‘Visiting Croatia in My Mother’s Memory.’ In it he documents a trip to Croatia he planned well before his mother’s passing. What struck me was his effortless and continuous connection with his mother, reinforcing Croatians fierce loyalty to, and celebration of family. West presents a unique celebration of one of Croatia’s intangible and tangible heritage.

Kurt Hielscher, Dubrovnik 1926
For a comprehensive look at Hielscher’s photography see Casper Molenaar’s Travel blog https://www.inthefootstepsofkurthielscher.com/dubrovnik/

Letting the Days Go By

Taglines branding Croatia “The Mediterranean as it Once Was” and “Croatia Full of Life” define Croatia as much more than a Balkan outpost, remote corner of Europe or socialist stronghold plagued by war and hostile takeovers. By the 1990’s Croatia was a summer festival mecca for young people who gravitated toward open air concerts near fantastical beach settings with inexpensive Air B & B accommodations, mostly on the coast and islands–Pula, Split, Hvar, Brač, among many. Add Game of Thrones tourism, a genre like New Zealand’s Lord of Rings tourism, whose popularity created such port and street congestion to cause Dubrovnik, like Barcelona and Venice before it, to issue tourist restrictions on over-touristed sites. Croatia’s restrictions on accommodations, noise and tourist numbers help preserve natural resources, and local communities that draws people in the first place, the tension that modern tourism must continuously reconcile.

You May Ask Yourself, ‘Well, How did I Get Here?’

Humac, Brać
https://www.villashvar.com/en/the-island/village-of-humac

Destinations and journeys are travel language staples. In the past ten years the ubiquitous word journey defines many types of experiences, embraced by travel marketers. How does this word simultaneously devalue and elevate the experiences it seeks to define? It encapsulates passion, individual feeling-tone/quality of the visit to make those experiences more easily understood; Sea. Country side. Village-like cities. Food. The 2026 short film starring John Malkovich has it all. Directed and written by Croatian-American Pete Radovich, Jr., this promotional film is their second notable collaboration. In 2018 Radovich directed Malkovich in The NFL’s David vs. the NFL’s Goliath, for the right to play in the Super Bowl. As a clever follow-up to Croatia: I Hear Its Beautiful, Radovich works a little more magic with a coda.

In the Blue Again, Into the Silent Water

IMO Croatia: I Hear Its Beautiful is Croatia’s best tourist promo video/campaign to date. Malkovich portrays himself as initially reluctant to follow his familial roots to discover places he didn’t know he needed. The message of this campaign is that thoughtful travel is not just about branding, it opens up passages between experiencing and understanding. With luck this message will encourage visitors to pack caring attitudes and behaviors alongside swimsuits and sunglasses. You never know what you might find along the way.

Many thanks to David Byrne and Brian Eno for Once in a Lifetime from their 1980 Talking Heads album Remain in Light, to the inimitable Luka Modrić for bringing grace and integrity to futbol, and to late-to-the-party but also beloved provocateur John Malkovich.

Sounds of peace

Pedestrians on the streets of Sarajevo under a poster of Vucko. Photo: © 1984 Comité International Olympique (CIO) Balkan Insight February 8, 2024 Winter Glory: Sarajevan’s Bittersweet Memories of the 1984 Olympics by Azem Kurtic1

As the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milano closed–and while the Paralympics Winter Games are happening–I recalled the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo whose theme was peace, unity and cultural identity.2 Brilliant campaigns by tourist organizations helped to make the games a success. 250,000 people visited the games over 12 days, with 50,000 attending the opening ceremonies. I was one of 2 billion watching the games on television.3 Unlike the well-known 2026 Italian host sites, the vibrant cultures and physical beauty of Sarajevo was a revelation to many. Nestled in the Dynamic Alps, Sarajevo was then the capital of the Socialist Republic of  Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the six republics that comprised the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. By 1991 the country of Yugoslavia had disintegrated and Sarajevo was at the center of a civil war. Slovenia was involved for 10 days before the Yugoslav Army withdrew peacefully, but there was no peace in five former republics–Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina–until 1995. War ravaged countryside and cities; Vukovar, Dubrovnik, Split, Zagreb, Belgrade, Srebrenica. Sarajevo endured a 44 month siege from April 5, 1992-February 29, 1996. 11,500 people were killed. The city and Olympic spirit were devastated.

SARAJEVO WAR 1992; MUSIC AND DESTRUCTION, BOSNIA in Tragic WAR, POETIC Beauty and Strength of the Human Spirit, FROM OPUS; Sarajevo City of Light, ARTIST Mirza Ajanovic Photography

Many books have been written about Sarajevo and what has been variously called: the Balkan War, Yugoslav Wars, Homeland War, 90s War and War of Independence. Zlata’s Diary by Zlata Filipović, a firsthand account of the Sarajevo siege, and Girl at War by author and translator Sara Nović were accounts that shaped my understanding of the breaking apart of Yugoslavia. Two historical fictions published ten years apart written by Canadian authors who both lived in British Columbia are based on Smailović’s playing his cello amid ruins. They share a mission to promote peace. One was a series of linked stories written in a documentary style for adults, and the other children’s book with illustrations featuring peace doves by visual artist Deryk Houston.

Vedran Smailović playing in the ruins of the Sarajevo National Library. Wikimedia

Who was Vedran Smailović? He was the principal cellist for the Sarajevo Opera, Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra RTVSarajevo and the National Theater of Sarajevo respectively for many for decades. The image of Smailović playing his cello in the midst of war in June 1992 became a global symbol of peace. His motivation? Smailović is quoted in Echoes from the Square as saying, ‘Music is the love that connects people. My wish is for everybody to be able to share this.’ A pointed response to the devastation he witnessed in his hometown and country. The composition Smailovic played is often referred to as “Albinoni’s Adagio” or “Adagio in G minor by Albinoni, arranged by Giazotto. ” In an eerie parallel to Sarajevos destruction, most of Albinoni’s work composed in the early 1700s was destroyed in WWII. Giazotto obtained a manuscript fragment from a slow second movement of a church sonata shortly after WWII. This fragment was found in a Dresden library which preserved this collection even though the library buildings were destroyed in bombing raids in February and March 1945.

I first read Steven Galloway’s award-winning The Cellist of Sarajevo four or five years after it was published in 2008. This book contextualizes the iconic image of Smailović playing his cello on a bombed out street from three perspectives. University professor Galloway is a skilled writer who used Smailović’s action as a device to write about the war from three different perspectives. He did not name Smailović, nor did he consult with Smailović about his book, which struck me as odd because Galloway conducted quite a few interviews to craft his characters.

Published in 1998, Echoes from the Square by Elizabeth Wellburn was not only written with Smailović’s consent, in her narrative, his voice describes the event that killed innocent people on his street to a young aspiring violinist named Alen. Echoes from the Square is a serious children’s book with a hopeful message. Hear Wellburn reading Echoes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMrf_sd3gkA

Wellburn’s young protagonist Alen contrasts with Galloway’s Arrow, a 20 year old countersniper, who was coerced into protecting Smailović by a Yugoslav Army faction. Her narrative and that of two Sarajevan men contain dialog and remarkable descriptions of desperate attempts by their neighbors as they crossed bridges and streets under sniper fire to obtain drinking water and food for their families who were literally starving. Enter Smailović. Given Galloway’s book’s title, the shadowy presence of Smailović who is found only in the first five pages, was a bit misleading. What was clearly spelled out was Arrow’s assessment of war, leaving readers’ with powerful, simple antidote. Arrow, ostensibly speaking for Galloway, ends her narrative reflecting, “She didn’t have to be filled with hatred. The music demanded that she remember this, that she know with certainty that the world still held the capacity for goodness.”

Vedran Smailović playing in the ruins of the Sarajevo National Library. Wikimedia

The publication of The Cellist of Sarajevo enraged Smailović whose image Galloway used without permission, and then later withdrew from the book’s cover. Smailović also offered this corrective, “I didn’t play for 22 days, I played all my life in Sarajevo and for the two years of the siege each and every day…They keep saying I played at four in the afternoon, but the explosion was at ten in the morning and I am not stupid, I wasn’t looking to get shot by snipers so I varied my routine.”4 Smailović and the siege were featured in a June 8, 1992 New York Times article by John F. Burns titled, “The Death of a City: Elegy for Sarajevo,” that was part of a Special Report: A People Under Artillery Fire Manage to Retain Humanity. This journalism showed how Smailović created a site of memory through his actions that inspired others; Sarajevo Roses street memorial, photography, musical compositions and concerts, books and documentary films.

Sarajevo Rose made of resin embedded in scarred concrete on Vaso Mirin Street now Ferhadija Street where 22 Sarajevans were killed and 108 injured on May 27, 1992 while waiting in a bread line at a popular bakery. Sarajevo Roses can be found throughout the city where civilians were gunned down between 1992-1996. 5

Author Galloway was astonished and upset at Smailović’s reaction. Galloway responded by saying, “The problem is that Mr Smailović took a cello on to a street in a war and that’s an extremely public act. I can’t ignore that as an artist…I’m at a bit of a loss to know how to address it. I don’t think that I crossed any lines about writing fictional things about a living person. I got most of my stuff off the internet.”6 Galloway told NBC news, “The cellist in my book is based on a real character. He doesn’t ever speak in the book. I was kind of careful not to put words, I don’t want to put words in his mouth.” 7
In the words of one of Galloway’s characters, Dragan, “There is no way to tell which version of the truth is a lie.” This cynical assessment accurately describes the political circumstances Galloway is depicting, where fairness, honesty and respect for others doesn’t count for much. Later Galloway and Smailović reconciled in Ireland due in part to Derek Houston’s intercession.

Nedžad Abdija, Ismet Ašćerić, Ruždija Bektešević, Snježana Biloš, Predrag Bogdanović, Vladimir Bogunović, Vasva Čengić, Gordana Čeklić, Mirsad Fazlagić, Emina Karamustafić, Mediha Omerović, Bahrija Pilav, Mila Ruždić, Mile Ružić, Hatidža Salić, Galib Sinotic, Abdulah Sarajlić, Sulejman Sarajlić, Sreten Stamenović, Srećko Šiklić, Božica Trajeri – Pataki, Vlatko Tanacković, Srećko Tanasković, Tamara Vejzagić – Kostić, Jusuf Vladović and Izudin Zukić.

Killed in a Bread Line: 33 Years Since the Ferhadija Massacre
The Sarajevo Times May 27, 20258

The viciousness of war can inspire impassioned pleas for peace. Tourism with the intention to learn and remember are not the same as travel to war zones where adrenaline rushes and personal experience at the expense of others prevail. How can tourism build on Smailović’s legacy to contribute to peace? Museums of remembrance of the war such as the acclaimed Children of War Museum Exhibit9 attract and educate visitors. Tours created with the intention to promote peace transcends war tourism’s dark side.10 In 2011 Bosnian Voyager Tours11 of remembrance call out the horrors of war and war profiteering with cautionary stories. Likewise another unique, powerful interpretation of the war in and on Sarajevo is provided by Viator tours titled ROSES OF SARAJEVO (War + Olympic + City) – Story of a Survivor.12 These tours are advertised as ‘The official war + olympic + city tour of Sarajevo, presented ONLY by the tour guides that survived the siege.’ Like many tours of its kind Viator Tours features and exploration of ‘The Tunnel of Hope nowadays is the most touristic and symbolic place of Sarajevo.’ Proclaiming ‘the ‘place that ended the 20th century,’ the tour also includes a trip to the gift shop. Of note is that the musician Sting participated in the tour in 2022, the same year he gave a concert in Sarajevo.

The entrance to the Baščaršija district, the old town of Sarajevo. By Yukon August 2020

Artists who make music to de-escalate or protest aggression inspire each other. Peace activist and musician Joan Baez visited Sarajevo and met with Smailović. Distinguished British composer David Wilde wrote music protesting against the abuse of human rights including the solo cello piece The Cellist of Sarajevo (1992) dedicated to Smailović. virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma and other artists went on to record Wilde’s composition. In 1993 Smailović immigrated to a small town outside of Belfast, Northern Ireland to escape the war. His collaboration with legendary Irish musicians Tommy Sands and Dolores Keane is one of many instances when like minded artists who have experienced war first hand create soulful sounds of peace.

Denys Karachevtsev in Kharkiv, January 21, 2023
https://www.8notes.com/discover/how-music-inspires-ukraine.asp
  1. https://balkaninsight.com/2024/02/08/winter-glory-sarajevans-bittersweet-memories-of-the-1984-olympics/ ↩︎
  2. ‘Sarajevo ’84 distinguished itself in various ways. It was the first modern Olympics unmarred by Cold War boycotts by either NATO or Warsaw Pact countries and boasted the highest-ever participation in terms of nations sending competitors.’ See footnote 1 from Balkan Insight ↩︎
  3. https://yugoblok.com/sarajevo-1984-winter-olympics/ ↩︎
  4. See David Sharrok’s June 7, 2008 The Sunday Times article,” Cellist of Sarajevo Vedran Smailović is Wounded by Words.”  https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/northern-ireland-travel/cellist-of-sarajevo-vedran-smailovic-is-wounded-by-words- ↩︎
  5. https://sarajevotimes.com/sarajevo-rose-in-ferhadija-street-finally-restored/ ↩︎
  6. David Sharrok’s June 7, 2008 The Sunday Times,”Cellist of Sarajevo Vedran Smailovic is Wounded Words,” https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/uk-travel/northern-ireland-travel/cellist-of-sarajevo-vedran-smailovic-is-wounded-by-words-9. ↩︎
  7. High Plains Public Radio Reader’s Book Club, January 13, 2023 “Vedran–the Cellist,” by Mike Strong, https://www.hppr.org/2023-01-13/vedran-the-cellist ↩︎
  8. https://sarajevotimes.com/killed-in-a-bread-line-33-years-since-the-ferhadija-massacre/ ↩︎
  9. https://warchildhood.org/global-collection/ ↩︎
  10. During the 1990s was a cruel, gruesome version of war tourism allegedly took place during the siege of Sarajevo, when for a price, wealthy foreign tourists were allowed to join Serbian Army snipers in organized killing sprees of Sarajevans called human safaris. Many news outlets including BBC, Al-Jazeera, CNN, DW and others report ongoing investigations. ↩︎
  11. https://bosnianvoyager.com/tour/sarajevo-siege-tour-war-tunnel-1992-1996/ ↩︎
  12. https://www.viator.com/tours/Sarajevo/Roses-of-Sarajevo-Sarajevo-siege-tour/ ↩︎

Trst u prijevodu/Trieste in Translation

Cafe San Marco opened on January 3 in 1914. The café was originally named after its first owner Marco Lovrinovich, a wine dealer. Under pressure by the Austrian government, it was renamed Cafe San Marco after the Venetian San Marco Lion. .https://slowitaly.yourguidetoitaly.com/2016/04/top-10-historic-cafes-in-trieste/

Trieste and The Meaning of Nowhere was Welsh-born author Jan Morris’s last book. Morris, who did not like to be called a travel writer, provides an explanation of her memories, and maybe of all travel writing, as ‘a little book of self-description.’ It is a lively, personal, interpretation of a city over time, reminiscent of lingering conversations over coffee. This is a hallmark of Morris’s Trieste and of Trieste itself, which like Vienna, had and still has, a thriving cafe culture that supported writers. In 1933 Francesco Illy founded Illy coffee in Trieste https://www.illy.com/en-ww/illy-caffe-history and accidentally, the beginnings of literary tourism. Paul Clemens 2001 review for The Guardian calls Morris’ Trieste ‘neither guide book, travel memoir, nor a chronological history but is a relaxing, reflective essay written from a personal perspective by someone who clearly knows the place well and is attuned to its history.’ Morris captures the feeling of Trieste as she knew it with, ‘Melancholy is the city’s chief rapture.’ In Trieste Morris adopts a wistful tone that pervades this once economically and politically strategic Mediterranean port. 

Funeral Procession of Archduke Ferdinand in Trieste, June 1914 by Carl Wulz
https://www.theflorentine.net/2025/01/08/fotografia-wulz-trieste/#google_vignette

Jan was posted to Trieste during WWII as James Morris, one of the 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers and a regimental intelligence officer.  Her WWII service influenced her perception of Trieste, but more interesting are parallels between Morris’s own identity formation and the many changes in and to Trieste throughout the 19c and 20c. In Trieste, Morris describes first experiencing the city as a young military man  who was not a published author, not a public figure, unmarried, and not yet a father. Morris describes her engagement with Trieste in 2000 as an old woman, parent, grandmother, devoted partner, and civilian who was a widely recognized expert and author on travel in cities.  Bridging cultural-generational divides is one way of looking at Morris’s Trieste, another is the way in which the city welcomes—or tolerates—outsiders. 

Trieste residents crowd around an Allied tank, 1945. GETTY IMAGES

When she began her transition in 1964, Jan was already a distinguished journalist and adventurer. She was the first journalist to climb Mount Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay.  Jan’s anthropological research of cities, notably; Venice, Oxford, Hong Kong, New York City (Manhattan) and Trieste mark her as a historian who values human connections. Like Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Trieste and The Meaning of Nowhere,  describes the zeitgeist and multiple identities of what are sometimes referred to as the Balkans—places seen as outposts by those who did not care so much about those places and the people who lived there as West and Morris did.  West often praised Morris and seemed irritated by her success in a somewhat snarky 1974 New York Times review of Morris’s Conundrum which documents her gender-reassignment (then called sex-change). https://www.nytimes.com/1974/04/14/archives/conundrum-by-jan-morris-a-helen-and-kurt-wolff-book-174-pp-new-york.htm

Morris’s Trieste traces the history of a city with a confounding past. It was often hard to pin down who was in charge. Trieste has been governed by Venetians, Ottomans, Austrians/Hapsburg’s, post-WWII Western Alliances, Yugoslavs, Slovenes and again as in the past, Italians. Those transitions helped this multi-level town framed by the Adriatic, cradled by mountain forests and carved from karst to assume multiple, if murky identities. It is a transitory place one wanders into coming from and going to somewhere else. Morris draws on the geopolitical tenet, geography is destiny1 and her Trieste gives vibes similar to Joyce’s description of Trieste as ‘bittersweet, it is a wounded city like Dublin.’  Both Joyce and Morris express an affinity with the Triestini, whose identity, like their own was often in flux. Joyce’s literary reputation was undoubtably known to Morris. Joyce left Dublin for Trieste in 1905 to teach at the Berlitz School. After a short detour in Pula which was deporting foreigners at the time, Joyce returned to Trieste to teach at Berlitz. While in Trieste Joyce completed Dubliners, an autobiographical collection of short stories, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, poetry, a theater play and the first three chapters of his most famous novel, Ulysses. Trieste was the city where he matured as a writer (frequenting taverns and brothels) and called home until 1920.

This street in the old town of Trieste housed many brothels during Joyce’s time there. Il Metro Cubo is said to have been one of Joyce’s and Svevo’s haunts along with the more savory Caffe Stella Polare. https://itinerari.comune.trieste.it/en/the-trieste-of-james-joyce/

Joyce began an important friendship with Triestino Italo Svevo (born Aron/Ettore Schmitz) when they met in London. There the wealthy Svevo, a businessman, and erstwhile writer hired the impoverished Joyce to tutor him in English—other influential clients followed. Svevo is thought to be the inspiration for Leopold Bloom inUlysses.  Svevo’s wife, Livia Veneziani, whose hair Joyce describes as a river, inspired a character in Finnegans Wake. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/italo-svevo. When Joyce returned to Trieste 1919, the Mussolini-led government provoked his move to Paris. He did not come back to Trieste.  Today’s Trieste has a hotel, trail and museum devoted to Joyce. https://museojoycetrieste.it/en/history-of-the-museum/ 

The tone of Morris’s Trieste echoes another influential writer of the early 20c, poet Rainer Maria Rilke.  Rilke began writing the Duino Elegies in 1912 while holed up (by invitation) at the Castle Duino 33 kilometers north of Trieste. Rilke’s Duino Elegies were completed in 1922 after his WWI military service. His poetry foreshadows the existential crises that pervaded Europe following two World Wars and expresses how spirituality and the natural world give meaning to everyday life in ways that religion did not. It’s hard to believe Rilke did not influence Joyce and Morris.

Castello di Duino formerly the home of German Prince Alexander von Thurn und Taxis and Czech Princess Marie, and Castello di Miramare built by Archduke Maximillian of Austria are 15 kilometers apart. Travel south from Miramare along the coast Gulf of Trieste and you will arrive in Trieste in less than an hour. The Rilke Trail is another story.

So how did the convergence of these writers impact Trieste? I’m not sure they did, and that may be one of Morris’ points. She suggests the city gave writers the space and freedom of a blank canvas with tragic undertones. During WWII the San Sabba Rice Mills were transformed into the only death camps in Italy. https://risierasansabba.it/san-sabba-rice-mill-national-monument-and-museum/ After WWII Trieste became a refugee camp for Italians fleeing Communists who took over Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia. The city was declared a Free Territory in Article 21 of the Treaty of Paris, but that designation did not mean peaceful. Trieste was divided into antagonistic Italian and Yugoslav areas. Although considered de-militarized and neutral Trieste, retained the psychological and socio-economic trauma of war.  Morris wades with precision into this morass as he documents a time when to some, Trieste represented refuge and freedom, to others uncertainty and cruelty.

https://stampworldhistory.nl/maps/country-specific-maps/europe-trieste/

Even with Morris’s skillful observations it is hard to find a cohesive sense of Trieste’s identity. In 2006 my daughter related that getting there from Pula along the coast was tricky because of the many highways. She never felt like she cracked into the real Trieste. So what is the real Trieste? My experience in 2014 was colored by the fatigue, apprehension and preferences of my travel partner. Like Morris, no nostalgic yearnings there. I found Trieste moody, sparkling and a bit forlorn. It took me a while to figure out why Piazza Unita d’Italia seemed like it was missing something. It’s the only square in Italy without a cathedral.

Piazza Unita d’Italia.
Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Does Trieste welcome visitors more or less than other cities? How can we know? From the standpoint of tourism studies, a single person’s experience over time, even those of an expert observer, has limited value. Eco (economic and ecological) perspectives would likely find Morris’s lack of quantitative data that sustainable tourism (industry and practitioners) rely upon to create policy, a weakness of his analysis. I guess it might be tempting to pigeonhole Morris as a time bound memoirist, wallowing in the heyday of the world’s cities. Morris counters irrelevance by calling out travel blogs and vlogs in 2000 as they began to dominate a fading genre but booming industry. She also calls out guidebooks, from Baedeker’s to Lonely Planet as facile introductions based on cursory understandings that helped to created the tourism as we know it today. Morris is not concerned with accumulating consumptive experiences as she is with the ways places effect the inner workings of her heart and mind.

Christmas in Trieste. Looks like Rijeka! https://www.italymammamia.com/things-to-do-in-trieste-italy.html

Why did Morris feel compelled to describe cities?  Where did she feel at home? In her descriptions and witty exchanges Morris tells us that deeply felt connections are entry points into self-discovery. As a child she knew she was living in a body where her true self didn’t belong. Maybe that is why she began searching landscapes for hidden meanings. Karst—harsh, full of secrets and an important morphic feature of Trieste’s history—was cited by Morris as elemental to the city’s character. Morris’s describes the setting for his swan song, a ‘hallucinatory city’ appreciated by those who are intrigued with its chimerical identities and who value ‘kindness, the ruling principle of nowhere!’  Morris’s passion was to share his understanding of gloriously complex places and the people who live there. It is curious that the last of her 40 plus books is far from where she ended up retiring—going home—to rural Wales.

For more Trieste see Daniel Scheffler 9 December 2025 excellent Substack article https://withoutmaps.substack.com/p/trieste-and-the-meaning-of-nowhere

  1. Geography is destiny recently re-examined by Ethiopian-American author Abraham Verghese MD, and Russian-American poet Joseph Brodsky whose works are worth checking out. ↩︎

FJAKA TIME

FJAKA FOREST: DINE & CHILL, DALMATIAN ISLAND STYLE ON JEROLIM, HVAR
https://total-croatia-news.com/news/travel/fjaka-forest-hvar/Paul Bradbury for Total Croatia 26 July 2023

Fjaka may be one of the few cultural trends millenials, babyboomer and z generations can agree upon. Fjaka expresses a 21 c. zeitgeist prioritizing well-being and work-life balance that is achieved by taking the time to relax, just be, traveling to places of serene natural beauty and immersing yourself in a natural landscape and/or seascape. Could travel create understanding across generational divides?  Interpretations of the concept and term reveal how fjaka helps to make Croatia an attractive destination to travelers seeking peaceful, uplifting experiences. Like spending summer in Dalmatia, where fjaka is thought to originate.

https://herquirkyjourney.com/blog/backpacking-lesser-known-europe-zadar-croatia-part-4

Encyclopedia Britannica has been compiling information written in English by international experts since 1768. This year Encyclopedia Britannica introduced the Croatian term “fjaka” which they define as complete relaxation or the art of doing nothing. https://www.croatiaweek.com/encyclopaedia-britannica-introduces-croatian-term-fjaka/  Fjaka is sometimes confused with laziness, but more aptly it is about having a sense of time where stillness prevails over doing. Like meditation without meditating.

Fjaka: A Croatian Season, by Polish/Swedish/Croatian/Serbian writer and scholar Aleksandra Wojtaszek has not (yet) been translated into English. Since my Croatian is at a pre-school level and I don’t know Polish, I haven’t read it. I discovered her work on Peter Korshak’s podcast Yugoblok, reading some of Dr. Wojtaszek’s articles listed at the end of Yugoblok episode #113 ‘Fjaka YU’. Wojtaszek’s early background as a journalist is evident from her bibliography. According to her interview with Mr. Korshak, Dr. Wojtaszek’s translated work (to English) is ‘crisply descriptive, people focused, and not so much on memory or nostalgia, her eye and heart gives her a soft edge and sharp eye.’


https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180118-dalmatias-fjaka-state-of-mind
Kristin Vuković: “I grew to appreciate the sublime state of fjaka” (Credit: Mark-Shenley/Alamy

Fjaka is reminiscent of ‘Pomalo’ or slowly. Unlike the somewhat fatalistic ‘que sera, sera,’ ‘what will be, will be,’ fjaka skews more towards ‘Let it go.’  The ‘it’ meaning worries and other stressful thoughts. Fjaka is not pauza which refers to a short break from working. Fjaka is closely aligned to the Italian dolce far niente which means the sweetness of doing nothing. Like dolce far niente, fjaka is about doing nothing because you choose to—and delighting in this way of being in the world. The Dalmatian coast’s stunning summer heat combined with the rhythm and pulse of the Adriatic creates the perfect circumstances for fjaka to arise. So fjaka is shaped by nature and in turn shapes people’s natures. When ‘on fjaka’ I surmise beta brainwaves produce the simultaneously calm, relaxed and alert state which is the key to fjaka’s restorative benefits.

Mato Celestin Medović, Bonaca,1908, oil on canvas (Credit: Kallay Collection)
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180118-dalmatias-fjaka-state-of-mind


The Croatian poet Jakša Fiamengo (1946-2018) who wrote lyrics for the fjaka infused songs of Oliver Dragojević, defined it

“…like a faint unconsciousness… a state beyond the self or – if you will – deeply inside the self, a special kind of general immobility, drowsiness and numbness, a weariness and indifference towards all important and ancillary needs, a lethargic stupor and general passivity on the journey to overall nothingness. The sense of time becomes lost, and its very inertness and languor give the impression of a lightweight instant. More precisely: it’s half somewhere and half nowhere, always somehow in between.”

Brač Island Restaurant https://unforgettablecroatia.com/blog/the-sweetness-of-doing-nothing-how-to-embrace-fjaka

In recent years fjaka has been written about in popular and scholarly articles. This past May National Geographic featured ‘In Search of Fjaka: The Croatian Art of Doing Nothing.’ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/what-is-fjaka-the-croatian-art-of-doing-nothing For many years award-winning journalist and author of The Cheesemaker’s Daughter, 1 Kristin Vuković, https://muckrack.com/kristin-vukovic/articles has been writing about her native Croatia and its relationship to fjaka.

Because fjaka can only be experienced in its natural environment you must travel to Croatia’s coast or islands. And that’s where cultural institutions and the tourist industry come into the picture. The Museum of Fjaka located in Split opened this past July to celebrate and study fjaka as part of Croatia’s intangible cultural heritage https://muzejfjake.hr/ Fjaka Tours https://fjakatours.com headquartered in Split crafts niche tours including something called ‘Mastering Dalmatian Fjaka.’

Home

Maybe because I was born in the summer and have fond memories of my maternal Croatian grandparents I feel connected to their part of the world. Those connections real and imagined, make me think I can research, write coherently and maybe glean insights which might be interesting to people other than an immediate circle of family. Full disclosure: I have never visited a Croatia’s coast or islands in the summer where people are routinely ‘on fjaka,’ but I believe the timelessness of island time aka fjaka holds a key to happiness.2

https://total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/adriatic-splendor-video/ Rab island harbor in 1955 from the film Adriatic Splendor

Dalmatian towns where fjaka was born; Zadar, Sibenik, Split and especially Dubrovnik, the ‘Pearl of the Adriatic’ are being challenged by hordes of tourists on an anti-fjaka experiences racing from historic site to beach to restaurant. Locals are intent on preserving fjaka-drenched places such as Dubrovnik from the impacts of overtourism as author and journalist Vuk Tesija outlines for Balkan Insight. https://balkaninsight.com/2023/10/03/croatias-dubrovnik-bans-building-of-holiday-apartments-to-curb-tourism/ Growth for tourist-based economies usually translates into income generated by overnight visits. But tourism development founded on this indicator is often unsustainable. So re-interpreting what health growth looks like combined with current travel trends emphasizing personal connections to place may go a long way to redefining what tourism is, what it does, and what it can be.

View of Dubrovnik
Photo by Kevin Faingnaert
https://www.afar.com/magazine/unlocking-croatias-secret-to-slow-living

A Croatian design company FJAKKA, https://www.spacetime.company/fjakka is based Split. Since 2012 industrial designers Kristina Lugonja and Filip Havranek create spaces, furniture and appointments with a minimalist vibe that echo the serenity of fjaka–being so in the present moment that everything extra falls away. 

UNFORGETTABLE CROATIA  24 April 2025 Nichol Marie Lomison
https://unforgettablecroatia.com/blog/the-sweetness-of-doing-nothing-how-to-embrace-fjaka

Marina Rogoznica is Product Manager and Cruise Director at Unforgettable Croatia https://unforgettablecroatia.com/about-us, a luxury travel agency that specializes in custom, immersive experiences. She describes her uncle as:“He is the poster child of fjaka, sitting on his porch, staring at the sea, drinking his own wine and saying: there is nothing in the world better than this.”

“Every time I come to Croatia, something shifts. It’s not just the scenery that impacts me – though the beautiful sea, cobblestone streets, and endless summer sunshine certainly helps…Maybe this is what travel is meant to do – not just show us new landscapes, but hold up a mirror to our lives. To gently wake us up to what we’ve forgotten.” Frances Vidakovic, Croatia Week 14 July 2025 https://www.croatiaweek.com/questions-croatia-has-me-asking/

Notes

  1. For a review of The Cheesemaker’s Daughter outlines the story’s context on the island of Pag https://chick-who-reads-everything.com/2024/08/05/the-cheesemakers-daughter-book-review/ ↩︎
  2. Tomislav Oroz. Pomalo and Fjaka as the Island State of Mind. Cultural Anatomy of Time(lessness) on the Dalmatian Islands of Hvar and Dugi Otok. CIST2020 – Population, temps, territoires, Collège international des sciences territoriales (CIST), Nov 2020, Paris-Aubervilliers, France. pp.43-47. hal- 03114132 ↩︎

Dvi knjige, jedna priča na dva načina

We travel to find ourselves and to lose ourselves, to open our hearts and eyes, to learn more about the world, to experience hardship, and to see the world clearly while feeling it truly.~ Pico Iyer

I recently read American writer and Peace Corps volunteer Chad Miller’s Time Being: Essays, Narratives and Vignettes alongside British expat, journalist, storyteller and media expert Paul Bradbury’s Around the World in 80 Disasters to learn more about tourism in Croatia and the former Yugoslavia. Admittedly this is a fairly narrow focus, but Bradbury’s and Miller’s musings about how travel has changed over the past 25 years before cell phones, Trip Advisor and booking.com  provide valuable insights into the impact of those developments on Croatian tourism and travel generally.  Both authors mourn the loss of freedom that past modes of travel granted even as they acknowledge the convenience technology brings. In his introduction Bradbury says ‘Around the World in 80 Disasters  is my ode to a world of travel that has all but been lost, a collection of disasters which are all my own.’  Reading Miller’s beautifully crafted essays in tandem with Bradbury’s fly-by-the seat of his pants diary entries brought up what feels like an almost outdated debate about the difference between travel as transformative—think pilgrimage—and tourism as accumulative—think bucket list.  Bradbury’s memoir, like his personal and professional life, centers on Croatia. Miller’s insights about Europe, the Horn of Africa where he and Bradbury separate but equally intense experiences are definitely worthy of consideration.1

Bradbury has an extensive online presence. Miller has an MFA in writing. He describes this book as Creative Nonfiction or Literary Nonfiction. It was written over two decades. Bradbury covers many decades of experience but wrote his memoir in two weeks. That being said, they share perspectives about a touristic search for ‘authenticity’, and structure their memoirs not chronologically, but by place. Bradbury casually asks questions such as, ‘How is the Adriatic coast different from the Mediterranean coast? Miller’s inquiries are explorations of the intersections between ‘time, place and movement.’  Both authors claim that human relationships are paramount, and I think both would agree with historian David Glassberg’s assertion that ‘places are not interchangeable with other places.’ Bradbury and Miller take this further saying places are not interchangeable with their former identities.

Ever the entrepreneur, Bradbury’s self-published volume follows a number of self-published books including Lebanese Nuns Don’t Sing (2013) in which he describes why and how he re-started his life after a divorce blind-sided him. Most of his disasters are consist of  Bradbury naively trying to broker shady, ad hoc real estate or under-the-table governmental deals. Miller’s travels as a seeker of cultural understanding and as a Peace Corps volunteer have a more academic tone. But both memoirs have a funny-ironic connection to Elizabeth Gilbert’s  Eat, Pray, Love as both use travel to help process life-changing personal events. Miller travels as an antidote to career disillusionment, and for Bradbury hitchhiking from the UK to South Africa was a way of dealing with the emotional fallout of divorce. Croatia represents a milestone where both of their lives are permanently changed.

Hello.
https://paul-bradbury.co

Bradbury’s wanderlust culminates in finding home on Hvar. He met his wife, married, had children, learned the language and started a business. He is fully committed to promoting Croatia, hardly traveling in 20 years after he permanently moved to Croatia in 2002.

Split in 1984 and 2014 by @chadmilleretc

Miller describes a return to Split in 2014 after 40 years. On this trip Miller tried to access a version of his past self—time traveling to 1984 when he first visited and fell in love with Split where he began a life-long love of travel.  Today he reflects that, ’People like me on some technical, semantic level, are refugees. We don’t feel at home where we belong, and we don’t belong where we feel at home. We feel strangely content when we’re estranged.’ See Yugoblok Travel Quests conversation between Peter Korshak and Miller. for more on Miller’s philosophy of travel.

Miller was and is charmed by Croatia’s beauty, and its complex, often confounding history.  In Split in 2014 he felt this way, ’My beach, (Firule) my cove, my mountain, etc. stirs up a nostaglic yearning for an unchanging place of calm and peace.’ Today Miller admits, ‘Back then I was in a different frame of mind. Now my perspective has changed. I don’t want to live in Split with regular access to Firule. I do want to return to that beach, my secret beach, in the future. Meanwhile even if I can’t get back there, it’s kept safe as the beach of my dreams.’

Firule Beach, Split 2021 one of Croatia’s rare sandy beaches
photo-by-ivett

Following a grueling UN stint in post-genocidal Rwanda, Bradbury sips a gin and tonic in Somaliland while watching CNN. An advert for Croatia: The Mediterranean as it Once Was appears and he impulsively decides to buy a stone house with no heating, no sewerage or gas connection, or address on the island of Hvar.  Upon arrival many of his questions to locals were met with derisive, incredulous laughter. When Bradbury learns that the internet cafe he depends on for his livelihood closes from October to May, along with most business on the island, he is confronted with the realities of living in a tourist-based economy. As a journalist, ‘spotty’ internet connection on Hvar was an obstacle Bradbury not only overcame, but triumphed over when he founded the online news source, Total Croatia News. Bradbury’s assertion that the experience of travel has been dulled by the many online resources is somewhat ironic considering his livelihood and success is built on the technology he names as the culprit. In the past five years, Bradury has followed, written about and endorsed Zagreb as a digital nomad destination, recently issuing digital nomad visas.  In another ironic memory after the 2008 global economic crash, Bradbury notes that British and Irish buyers ‘were going crazy for coastal property in Croatia.’ In the same period Bradbury’s adventures in real estate contradicts stories about thorny relationships between Croatians and Albanians. See How to Walk Out of Life and Start Again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XodJZrToZLMhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XodJZrToZLM at 33 | Paul Bradbury | TEDxVirovitica Library, 2024

Around the World in 80 Disasters works as a parody of French author Jules Verne’s 1873 adventure novel.  Bradbury’s reminiscences are fresh and funny, beginning in the late 1990s with  ‘No plan, no agenda except to travel.’  Serendipitously obtaining NGO and government positions because of his language skills (mostly Russian fluency), a willingness to accept posts others might not, and ability to drink large amounts liquor, Bradbury’s disasters/escapades are blessings in disguise partly because he survives them. If he had been a woman I’m not sure if that would have been the outcome. Thankfully, in 2025 there have been changes.

Drinking liquor—beer, vodka, rakija—plays an important role in Bradbury’s life. Often associated with Croatian ways of doing business and expressing hospitality, his fondness and capacity opened doors and allowed him to gain local trust in Russia, Croatia and across Eastern Europe. Gaining trust came to Miller over coffee. Miller has an epiphany while in Ethiopia partaking in ‘shaibunna, the Ethiopian tradition of a long morning break with coffee, tea, snacks and chatting with friends, colleagues, and anyone else who happens to be sharing the same physical space.’  I imagine Bradbury had a revelation or two while Ćakula na kavi/talking over coffee–a mainstay of Croatian life. Because embracing local culture is central to both authors view of travel, I wonder what they would make of the new conceptual traveling exhibition/Fjaka Museum.

If Miller and Bradbury sat down over a coffee or pint what might we learn about Croatia over the past thirty years?  Imagining a dialog between these two accomplished storytellers would likely show a lot of overlap. Their memories are sentimental, self-aware, with not a lot of talk about climate change but with implications that travel today needs to be purposeful and of benefit to the places visited. A core eco-tourism question— If your impact on a place is not beneficial to the place can it be beneficial to you?—is one that might come up. Miller first visited Dubrovnik in 1979, only five years after UNESCO designated its Old Town a World Heritage Site, and before the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Today his view is that ‘Dubrovnik like the rest of Croatia, is on a tourism sugar high and bound to crash eventually.’ In spite of a self-guided Sweet Tooth Map of Dubrovnik that he and his wife Jen happily enjoyed, Miller cautions, ‘too much tourism is eating the heart out of Dubrovnik.’ Anti-tourism protests in EU cities validate his concern.

Like all memoirs, Bradbury’s and Miller’s look back at how the past shapes present realities. Their travel memories reminded me of historian Eric Zuelow’s thoughts on travel and identity, “The lens through which we see our age are as much a product of our time as a our ancestor’s where a product of theirs. Looking at the story of tourism as it played out over hundreds of years illustrates this point very nicely. It makes it possible for us to see things we take for granted—that beaches and mountains are beautiful for example—are the outcome of many factors that are contingent. This is not simply a question of what tourists do or what they see….Studying the past obviously teaches us about the past—but it can also tell us a tremendous amount about ourselves—if we learn the lessons of context.” Whether in Croatia or elsewhere, Bradbury’s and Miller’s travel stories are told with wit, self-effacing humor and enough reflective insights to create thoughtful, engaging armchair travel.

Jelsa, Hvar. Kindergarten on the Riva. https://www.fieldschoolhvar.org/kinder-guide Reggio Emilia-inspired, place-based, nature-based
Wikipedia
  1. Miller and his wife were deeply affected by their time in Ethiopia. A hallmark of Miller’s experience is grappling with the imagined and the real. ‘A local place name (Makaraka) not actually attached to any one place and not having an identifiable, marked place on a map symbolizes places ‘burn on in my unconscious until the end of my days precisely because I could never reach them, could never touch them, could never walk upon them. Inaccessibility was the very essence of their allure, and indeed indefinability was at the core of their very nature…’ Time Being: Essays, Narratives and Vignettes. ↩︎

žive uspomene

Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.

Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia: La musique, le cerveau et nous/Tales of Music and the Brain
Memorial Bridge, Rijeka
February 2019

When I began this blog in 2019 I had ideas about the purposes and impacts of tourism, and was naively motivated to ‘get family history straight.’ As added value I would see if fifty year old memories of traveling to Europe would hold up under scrutiny. But most of all I wanted to understand what I missed out on by not visiting what was then Yugoslavia in 1976. Through research and writing this blog I learned a lot about places that only lived in my imagination. Those memories of past travel, like most memories, proved slippery.

View of the Harbor District, Mošćenička Draga, 1976
 Photo: Wilhelm Rothe

In the mid 1970s I thought that visiting the ‘old country’ as my American-Italian father called it, would catapult me into some new way of living. Wrong. The high school friend I was traveling with had negative zero interest in going to Italy, so Yugoslavia was completely out of the question. Most of that summer trip was spent touring France, staying in London briefly because we had access to a free flat, and meeting with other high school friends on the steps of the Paris Opera House which felt miraculous in the days before cell phones and the internet. I thought this trip would be the first of many, but Croatia remained an elusive destination for thirty years. When everyday life got tiresome, I sometimes wondered what might have happened if I have traveled there then.

https://total-croatia-news.com/news/travel/opatija-25-things-to-know-about-the-old-dame-of-kvarner
Photo: Bernhard Wintersperger on Flicker

In spite of a university degree in Modern European history and over a decade working at a historical museum, it took me a long time to become aware of how underlying myths about the place my grandparents called home informed my understanding of what they knew as Yugoslavia. My initial visit to Croatia felt both weirdly familiar and a completely new. But from this visit I began to sense what this part of the world meant to my grandparents and Croatian-American relatives. But not likely how my Croatian ancestors perceived it.

Rovinj 1950

By most people’s standards the Croatia is a place of eye-popping beauty. 250 days of sunshine a year and a microclimate where the coasts are shielded by mountain ranges make it an idyllic tourism destination. A tradition of health tourism flourished in Opatija (then Abbazia) by the mid 19c. Humid air created by the wind (actually four winds; bura, jugo, tramonata, maestral) contacting the sea is saturated with particles of sea salt and oils from aromatic plants–lavender, sage, rosemary, holm oak and maritime pine. This air is said to be a tonic for the lungs and overall health. But for my grandparents and great-grandparents this place was not about diversion, health and leisure. It was home, but a home where making a living, especially in the wakes of world wars, was difficult.

Abbazia, Austria-Hungary c. 1890. Today Opatija, Croatia, is located on the Istrian peninsula and part of Kvarner county. It was a favorite vacation spot of elite European society by the mid-1800s. Railroad access from continental Europe added to the Adriatic coast’s desirability.
Marica Ivanić Martinčić and her mother, my great-grandmother Marica Kasić Ivanić, b.1881, d.1966.
Marica Kasić Ivanić lived in Poljane, halfway up Ućka and a ten minute drive down to The Museum of Tourism in Opatija, which opened in 2007.

My first visit to my grandparent’s home was as a tourist hoping to discover a little more about how family heritage shaped my own identity. I suspect this reason is shared by many travelers visiting unknown, ancestral homes and is why they are reluctant to call themselves tourists. But curiosity about why tourism put Croatia’s Adriatic coast on the map 150 years before I showed up propels my research. So the following definitions are cobbled together from UNTWO (now UN Tourism), WWF(World Wildlife Fund), The Journal of Sustainable Tourism and other academic and commercial sources.

— tourism is a business that sells what it doesn’t own; scenic views, cultural traditions, a vibe

— tourism rejuvenates

–tourism educates

—tourism creates meaningful experiences

–tourism accelerates ecosystem collapse

—tourism brings people together to bridge differences

–tourism flattens local culture to accommodate global markets

—tourism’s real purpose is to make memories

–tourism creates opportunities that can lift people out of poverty

—tourism exploits people, cultures and nature

–tourism promotes and improves local economies

–tourism and travel are not the same?

In recent years, especially post-covid, tourism studies center on ‘over-tourism,’ a term coined to describe the negative impacts of mass tourism on local environments. Over-tourism implies a need for visitors to consider their impact on built and natural environments. Does over-tourism apply to all visitors? Religious pilgrims, performing athletes, and volunteers doing service work are not usually called tourists, neither are people attending work-related conferences or remote workers.

Today’s digital nomads take business/work travel aka ‘workations’ to the next level.
https://www.adriagate.com/blog/en/tips-ideas/digital-nomads-croatia-ideal-destination

Sustainability applied to tourism has been cited as an antidote to over-tourism well before over-tourism became a catch word. Zoran Pejović, an expert whose thoughtful analyses about sustainable tourism blurs the difference between travel and tourism, makes a philosophical argument that responsibility is at the heart of sustainability.

Plitvice Lakes December 2023
Photo: Erilyn Wedd for Medium Globetrotters

Croatia is a small country that ticks off similar tourist destination attributes to New Zealand—stunningly beautiful land and sea scapes which helped to create tourist booms precipitated by popular culture media phenomena, Game of Thrones (2011-2019) and Lord of the Rings (2001-2003). These booms may have contributed to stronger ties between the two countries. According to New Zealand’s 2023 census there are over 3,500 Croatian nationals and over 100,000 people of Croatian ancestry living there. In the past 10-15 years 10,000  younger, educated Croatian diaspora have immigrated there. Typically economic opportunities drive immigration, but I wonder what role New Zealand’s commitment to protecting their ecosystems and cultures play in attracting Croatians.

Open Water Marathon Swimmer Dina Levačić before her May, 2024 Cook Strait swim between New Zealand’s North and South Islands. Levačić became the first Croatian to complete swimming Oceans Seven, the 7 largest and most difficult channels in the world. https://www.openwaterswimming.com/interview-with-dina-levacic-from-croatian-shores-to-the-2025-imshof-inductee/
Photo: Dina Levačić/Facebook

In 2018 New Zealand launched its Tiaki Promise. This is a set of guiding principles visitors are asked to follow; to tread lightly, show care and consideration for all, to preserve New Zealand now and for future generations. Imagine the memories a promise like that can make.

Connecting to Cres

Eurasian Griffon Vulture aka Gyps fulvus aka bjeloglavi sup

Soaring high above islands and sea, the protected Eurasian Griffon Vultures make their nests on rocky cliffs that are almost inaccessible humans.  Griffon Vultures have inhabited Cres for centuries. Their nesting colonies are one way Cres is distinct from the more well known large Kvarner Bay ‘sibling’ islands—Krk, Lošinj, Pag and Rab—whose year round populations are about 8,000 each. The Brijuni Islands, once Josef Broz Tito’s personal estate is now a National Park, and Susak, a car-free island with its own dialect and about 200 residents are the other well-known Kvarner Bay islands. (Numerous  ecologically, econonomically and culturally important smaller islands and islets are part of the Kvarner Archipelago.)Tourism is less developed on Cres than on the other islands. Developed or not, islands are especially vulnerable to the often profound impacts of tourism. Since the 1970s tourism has been the most important economic activity on the Croatian islands and Adriatic Croatia is the most important Croatian tourism region. (Impact of COVID-19 on Croatian Island Tourism: A Study of Residents’ Perceptions. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja,Volume 36, 2023, Issue 2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2022.2142631,Published Online: 2022-11-12, Published Print: 2023-07-10)

I was first introduced to Cres (pronounced tsres) at Rijeka’s karneval/Maškare in February, 2017. While walking to a parade route I met three young men in costume who eagerly posed for me. They embodied the  Croatian Tourism Board’s tagline, ’Croatia, Full of Life.’ I understood they were high school students (srednjoškolci)  participating in a history-themed group from Cres who performed in Riječki karneval’s 8 hour parade finale.  Their costumes represented the defensive stone walls that once surrounding Cres Town built to protect Cres millenia ago, mostly from pirates and imperial invaders. 

The student’s pride in their history was infectious and welcoming. I felt an unexpected kinship with the karneval participants I met serendipitously and at scheduled events. I wondered why my Croatian grandparents had never mentioned karneval but there was one clear connection. My maternal grandmother, a seamstress born in a town overlooking Kvarner Bay sewed a costume for me to sing and dance at  Renaissance festivals reminiscent of Maškare. Made in 1976, it was subsequently worn by my daughter and other family members, and is still in wearable condition!

Krk and Cres are the largest of the Kvarner Bay islands. They have almost the exact same area size but nearly opposite shapes.  Krk is attached to the mainland by a mile long bridge, Cres, by ferry. Krk’s population is approximately 19,000, but Cres has only 3,000 residents who mostly live in the town of Cres. (main town on Croatian islands often share the island’s name.) Krk has lots of cultural attractions, tourist accomodations and an airport. Cres not so much. 

Cres is such a long land mass that it has Mediterranean and sub-Mediterranean climates tempered by Contintental influences. Because of these multiple climate zones, Cres is arguably the most biodiverse Croatian island.The northern part of the island is called Tramuntana. There are forests of hornbeam elm and sweet chestnut (which grow in forest stands and are cultivated in orchards) encircling rocky cliffs. In the south holm oak and pine grow in the forests of Punta Križa. (Map: Croaziatours.blog) 

Photo by jonnybaker on flickr. Lada’s labyrinth is a replica of the ancient Roman one in Pula built by the Eco Centre under Dr. Goran Šusić. 

There are 7 eco-trails in Tramuntana which were built in the 1990s by the local Eco Centre in Beli. They meander through old roads that used to connect what are long abandoned villages in Tramuntana’s forests. Along the trails are 7 stone labrynths named Vesna, Ishtar, Tara, Osiris, Isis, Rusalka and Lada. (The number 7 is symbolic on Krk, too.  Krk was settled by Croats in the 7th century, there are 7 large tourist centers on the island…)

Lada is the Croatian goddess of beauty, love and summer. Myth has it that her companions are nymphs known as Ladarice who left the world to live in as islands in the sky in an open star cluster. Together they create the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters or M45. ‘In both myth and science, the Pleiades are sibling stars. Modern astronomers say the stars were born from the same cloud of gas and dust some 100 million years ago.’ (https://earthsky.org/favorite-star-patterns/pleiades-star-cluster-enjoys-worldwide-renown) 

Photo by Will Kalif, Telescope Nerd 12 March, 2024
https://www.telescopenerd.com/how-to-see/pleiades.htm

The waters around Cres and Krk are breeding grounds of the common bottlenose dolphins who swim in the Cres-Losinj Protected Marine Area. Protected by The Blue World Institute of Marine Research and Conservation on Veli Lošinj (https://www.blue-world.org/) Adriatic bottlenose dolphins seem especially fond of the playing in waters around Cres where there are lots of opportunities to watch them. 

Bottlenose dolphins at play https://www.blue-world.org/what-we-do/our-projects/683-2/

The Blue World Institute rules for low impact observation: do not get closer than 50 meters to dolphins; allow them to decide on their own if they will approach you or not; approach them slowly and sideways, never directly from the front or rear; put your boat engine to neutral and do not rush to catch up with them when they emerge; avoid sudden changes of speed or direction when close to them and follow the pod for 30 minutes at most. If you see calves or hear that the dolphins exhale loudly and bang their tail on the sea surface, change direction suddenly or dive for a long time, you should move away immediately.

Another natural, phenomena critical to the well-being of Cres and Lošinj is the highly protected Lake Vrana/Vrankso jezero. This fresh water lake located in the middle of Cres is 74 meters below sea level. It supplies drinking water for almost all the towns and villages on Cres and Lošinj.  Most of the other islands need to import their drinking water. It is illegal to swim, fish or perform other activities on Lake Vrana. (Photo Wikimedia)


Photo of Beli https://www.getyourguide–Beli

Beli is one of the oldest places on Cres. Beli’s cliffs helped to make it an important Roman outpost 2,000 years ago, and home to the golden eagle, short-toed eagle, peregrine and kestrel and an endangered griffon vulture nesting colony. The Griffon Vulture’s approximately 8-foot wingspan allows them to fly high as high as commercial aircraft and the Himalayas. Heat from the sun gives them the thermal lift they need to glide and soar on air currents staying aloft 6-7 hours a day, circling for food which they can spot at distances of 3 or more miles.

Griffon Vultures feeding https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/11/10/1038

 Scavengers like the Griffon Vulture are a keystone species who keep ecosystems clean and prevent the spread of disease by providing the critical sanitation service of eating animal carcasses. (They have no sense smell) Today Griffon Vultures are having a hard time finding food, because of the decline in sheep farming which provides their main food source. (Lamb is an integral component of traditional human Croatian cuisine) Pollution, climate change, threats from tourist boats, farming and hunting practices which use toxic products and electrocution, have all contributed to Griffon Vulture decline.

Photo by Herbert Mayer

 A hero of conservation and cultural heritage is natural scientist and ornithologist Dr. Goran Šusić. He founded the Caput Insulae Center in 1993 in old schoolhouse near Beli. Dr. Šusić is devoted to the preservation and healing of injured Eurasian griffon vultures, and to Cres. When he visited the island in the 1980s there were only 25 pairs of griffon vultures. By then two native vulture species, the Bearded and Black Vulture were already extinct.

Photo of Dr. Goran Šusić by Leo Radovnovik, 2015

In 2012 Caput Insulae closed. Two years later in 2014, a government sponsored consortium led by BIOM with Public Institution Priroda, Otok Krk Agricultural Cooperative, HEP – Operator distribucijskog sustava d.o.o., an energy distribution company, the Vulture Conservation Foundation and the Croatian Nature Protection Directorate (Ministry of Economy) took on Caput Insulae’s mission and opened The Beli Visitor and Rescue Centre for Griffon Vultures https://belivisitorcentre.eu/en.

Photo of Beli Eco Center display, The Dodo https://www.thedodo.com/topics/animal-encounters

The Beli Visitor Centre for Griffon Vultures is part of a network of conservation projects under the umbrella of The NATURA 2000. Today the Centre is supported by the Croatian Ministry of Tourism, the Town of  Cres’ Tourist Board and LIFE SUPport, a 2.1 million project operating from January 2023 until December 2027. https://www.biom.hr/en/life-support-project-aims-to-create-better-conditions-for-griffon-vultures-in-croatia/BIOM Association for Nature and People https://www.biom.hr/en/. Collaborations between the conservation groups may yet help the endangered Croatian Griffon Vulture population.

Griffon Vultures only have one chick a year who are often at risk during their long maturation period.Young Griffon Vultures named Palina, Coline, Lima and Anton were found exhausted near their cliffside nest facing the sea. Some were rescued from downing by dedicated workers at the Beli Griffon Vulture Recovery Center. On September 15, 2023 the four rehabilitated Griffon Vultures were set free on Cres by volunteers and professionals.

Beli has a permanent population of just 15. Even before Dr. Goran Šusić opened the original centre there, it attracted thousands of wildlife advocates and volunteers each year. Šusić admits “It’s hard to make a living here. The Eco Centre is already providing incomes; I hope ecotourism will be the future.”  

Articles by and about Dr. Goran Susic

The Long Term Trend, Reproductive Performance and Colony Shifting of the Eurasian Griffon Gyps fulvus in Croatia/Dugoročni trend, reprodukcijski parametri i pomicanje kolonija bjeloglavog supa Gyps fulvus u Hrvatskoj March 2022 Larus godišnjak Zavoda za ornitologiju Hrvatske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti 56:20-57 by Dr. Goran Susic Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts DOI:10.21857/y54jofk34m

Simply Beautiful the Natural Heritage of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (https://ju-priroda.hr/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/SimplyBeautiful-PGZ-compressed-v2.pdf) Sušić, Goran; Radek, Vesna. 2007. Bioraznolikost kroz lokve otoka Cresa. Eko-centar Caput Insulae – Beli. Rijeka.

Flight club: One man’s crusade to protect an endangered colony of griffon vultures on Cres, Frank Partridge 27 June 2009 for The Independent Saturday https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/flight-club-one-man-s-crusade-to-protect-an-endangered-colony-of-griffon-vultures-on-cres-1720998.html

Stranded, Weak Birds Get A Second Chance Thanks To Fearless Rescuers, Cornelia Kruchten 30 October 2015 for The Dodo https://www.thedodo.com/topics/animal-encounters

Resources for Griffon Vulture Rescue and Recovery

Učka Nature Park to Host Feeding Ground for Griffon Vultures Total Croatia News  January 2, 2018

Učka Nature Park to Host Feeding Ground for Griffon Vultures

Vulture Conservation Foundation https://4vultures.org/blog/a-new-life-for-four-griffon-vultures-in-croatia-life-support/#:~:text=The last vulture species in Krk, Plavnki and Prvić

Griffon Vultures soaring high above Cres Island 

The Protection of Nature in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County https: //ju-priroda.hr/en/

Home

stari i novi

Commune of Mošćenička Draga, Images of Memory and Life,
Edited by Town Mayor, Poet, and Musician Riccardo Staraj, Novi Vinodolski. 2012

The photograph seen above was taken almost 100 years ago. In 1945 JNA/Yugoslav People’s Army units disembarked on the waterfront of Mošćenikča Draga. Heavy military equipment may have run into this now phantom bridge which like Yugoslavia, doesn’t exist today. However an intriguing linguistic connection to Mošćenikča Draga and Moščeniče is possible. In his 2012 essay, Cultural Historical Heritage of the Community of Mošćenićka Draga, journalist Goran Moravček writes, ‘Some people derive the name of the settlement Moščeniče from the Croatian word ‘most’ meaning bridge.’ The bridge’s arch and architectural detail suggest diverse cultural influences, and the 1927 photo shows it was popular with the locals.

The little Bridge in Opatija connects a concrete pavilion to the lungomare. Opatija’s first bathing pavilion was built in 1896 and was an instant attraction for tourists and locals.
https://hr-cro.com/croatia/opatija_plaza_slatina/eng

Footpath between the beaches of Moscenicka Draga.
Photo, Mary Martincic Scatena, 1952

Not exactly a bridge, but this short, scenic walk bridges Mošćenička Draga’s two heavily touristed beaches, Sipar and Sveti Ivan.

Postcard, Mary Martincic Scatena

This 1980s postcard proudly displays TITOV MOST. The bridge is now called Krk Bridge and connects Krk to mainland Croatia. Since his death in 1980 debates about the consequences of Josef Broz Tito’s policies in the former Yugoslavia likely contributed to the name change. Krk is approximately the same size as nearby Cres. They are Croatia’s largest islands with very different physical shapes and distinct ecosystems and cultural identities.

Old Bridge, Crikvenica
Watercolor by Redditor u/qatya, Redditor

Stari Kameni Most (Old Stone Bridge) over the Dubračina river is in the center of Crikvenica, a popular resort on the Kvarner Riviera. Crikvenica is 34km south of Rijeka.

Crikvenica’s White Bridge is near Crkva Uznesenja Blažene Djevice Marije, (Church of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary). It gracefully arches over the Dubračina River. Crikvenica has a similarly arched red bridge over the Dubračina that’s also pedestrian only.

The islands of Lošinj and Cres were once one island called Apsyrtides. Empire building Romans dug a narrow channel to shorten travel times to the south. Today these islands are connected by a swing bridge that opens over a strait that spans 12m/39ft. Since there is no road connecting the islands to the mainland, visitors and locals must take ferries or other water craft.

Stari Most captured journalist Rebecca West’s imagination as she traveled in the former Yugoslavia during the 1930s while researching her 1,181 page epic Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. West saw Stari Most as a motif for transcending barriers and connecting cultures. It was built from 1557 to 1566 by architect Mimar Hajrudin. For centuries it functioned as a crossroads between the city of Mostar’s Muslim Ottoman and Christian Slavic worlds. Not unlike Sarajevo, the city of Mostar was composed of different neighborhoods with well-defined ethnic groups who lived harmoniously. The bridge facilitated all kinds of exchanges, from merchant trading to lover’s trysts.

Historical photo from 1896 of the old bridge of MostarAuthor : Inconnu/https://www.le-flamant-rose.org/europe(2)/villes_phares/mostar.htm

Stari Most survived WWII’s heavy tank and artillery traffic, but on November 9, 1993, during the 1990s war, Stari Most capitulated to Croatian shelling and fell into the Neretva River. Four months after its destruction there were calls for Stari Most to be rebuilt. The 12.5 million euro reconstruction of Mostar’s Bridge was funded by the World Bank, local government, Italy, the Netherlands, Croatia and The Council of Europe Development Bank. UNESCO oversaw the project. Stari Most was rebuilt identically to the original, using the same building materials and techniques as were used in 1566. Stones were pulled from the Neretva, local quarries were contracted and traditional stone-cutting schools were brought in. Opening celebrations took place on July 23, 2004 with foreign leaders touting the bridge as a symbol of reconciliation. Today the bridge is a major tourist attraction, and for some it signifies peaceful co-existence. But mass tourism does not necessarily promote cultural understanding, and is not usually compatible with serenity.

So, when you walk upon the stone

do not take for granted

Something new to you

is something deeply enchanted

excerpt from The Secret Gem by Katarina Bučić

On July 26, 2022 Croatia officially opened the Peljesac Bridge/Pelječki Most. One of the largest EU funded infrastructure projects in Europe, the Peljesac Bridge connects two parts of Croatia’s Adriatic coast across 9km of Bosnian territory. It makes access from Split to Dubrovnik — thanks to its UNESCO World Heritage Site designation and Game of Thrones, Croatia’s biggest tourist attraction today — much quicker and eliminates border crossings. During the summer tourist season, more than 12,000 vehicles each day drive across the bridge and local residents indicate that it has a significant impact on the one-day visitors’ and weekend demand. The strikingly designed cable-stayed bridge is 2.4km long. It was built by a Chinese firm which completed the project on schedule in four years despite complicated engineering, controversies with Bosnia-Herzegovina and covid restrictions.

https://www.livecamcroatia.com/en/news/the-grand-opening-of-peljesac-bridge/


Pelječki Most is good for Croatian trade and tourism, but what is its impact on the marine conservation area it spans? In 2015 the independent research institute OIKON Ltd, Institute of Applied Ecology, presented data showing the bridge would not have a negative effect on the protected mussel and oyster beds in the Bay of Mali Ston. This area is habitat for a total of 89 species of shellfish which thrive in the bay’s mix of salty Adriatic and fresh Neretva and submarine spring waters. Exporting shellfish (only mussels and oysters are farmed) is big business. Marija Radić, President of the Shellfish Farmer’s Association in Ston agrees Pelječki Most will make transporting produce from the sea much easier. In 1927 Marija’s grandfather, Luko Maškarić built infrastructure to cultivate and harvest shellfish in Mali Ston Bay that is in still in use.

Ostrea Edulis/ European Flat Oysters have been cultivated around the Pelješac Pennisula before the time of the Roman Empire. Cultivation flourished under the Republic of Ragusa which produced the first written accounts of shellfish farming. Today some Mali Ston family farms use traditional wooden racks. Oysters take 18-24 months to mature and like mussels, are best eaten fresh from the water.

Sadly Mali Ston oyster and mussel production has not yet recovered from the drop in tourism due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. Because cooler water temperatures produce the most sought after oysters, the ‘season’–is months with the letter ‘r’–November through April. Held mid-March on Saint Joseph/Sveti Josip Day, Ston and Mali Ston’s Oyster Festival returned from a pandemic hiatus this year.

Beli, Cres https://www.visitcres.hr/croatia-island-cres/kulturni-spomenici-cres/rimski-most-beli-cres.aspx

The Roman Bridge built of stone it is located at the entrance to the town of Beli on Cres. It is said to be 2000 years old. In Roman times Beli was known as Caput Insulae. An inscription in Beli indicates it was founded during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, AD 14 until 37. Evidence of an important Roman settlement include, the bridge, and the remains of a temple and a forum. The Roman Bridge is actually part of an ancient stone road that helped transport goods from the port inland. If bridges are markers of conquest and rule, this one has a durable pedigree.

Noni se smiješi

Mariča/Noni and Mary, c. 1970

Grandmothers are important for so many reasons. Their place in our memories is steeped in family dynamics and the stories we tell about our childhoods. They are anchors to the past. People lucky enough to have a Croatian or Croatian-American grandma often say their baka or Nonna was the best cook in the world, but our Noni really was. She was born Mariča Ivanić in 1908 in a place called Poljane, a village of 534 residents perched above Kvarner Bay. In travel guides Poljane is sometimes referred to as a suburb of Opatija. Noni lived there with her parents, her brother Andrea and sister Dika. She must have learned how to cook when she was young. I’m guessing her talent was a combination of nature and nurture. I recall my mother telling me how her grandma (also named Mariča) smoked meats inside her small stone house causing the interior walls to be blackened with smoke. I also recall hearing that although Noni’s mother was quite poor, she always shared food with her neighbors and they with her. For some Croatians small, tightly knit communities helped people survive during the turbulent 20c.

Noni is standing in the foreground, c 1920s

On Noni’s everyday table potatoes, polenta, sauerkraut, turnips, and sausage were staples. Even though she grew up near the sea, middle European cuisine showed up in Noni’s cooking alongside Italian(naturally), and some Greek and Turkish influenced dishes. Spectacular feasts, especially for Christmas and St. Anthony’s Day (17 January, our Papa, Anton’s namesake day and the first day of karneval) were miraculously cranked out in her small kitchen. For us Noni’s kitchen was an Aladdin’s lamp. Instead of rubbing the lamp, all you had to do was to say that you had a taste for…palačinka (with her winey Italian plum jam), bread (with whipped butter), sarma (with cabbage fermenting in her basement konobiča), gnocchi (sliva with cinnamon or savory with a cacciatore type sauce)…but first soup.

Noni standing is supervising dinner at her table in Evergreen Park. Papa is in the foreground to the right

Her beef soup (goveđa juha) was eaten at lunch even on the hottest summer day. If we were lucky there would be thin, handcut homemade noodles in clear broth which Noni would pour back and forth in bowls to cool so we wouldn’t burn our tender little mouths. Her kitchen typically smelled enticing except maybe when she cooked bakalar. Noni painted her kitchen walls a buttery yellow, reminiscent of Easter bread we called pogača (to some Croatians, pinca) slathered with butter, of course. The rhythm of her life was different from ours. Monday was for washing, Tuesday for ironing, Wednesday for gardening, Thursday and Friday for shopping and housework, and everyday for cooking. We were busy, but Noni got things done.

Mary’s birthday party in Noni’s backyard in Evergreen Park
Noni at work in her home in Evergreen Park

Noni could speak, read and write in four languages. During her life in the former Austria-Hungary, Kingdom of the Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, Kingdom of Yugoslavia and sometimes Italy, changes in government dictated that Noni learn Italian and German in elementary and high school, depending on who was in charge. Croatian (Istarska dialect) was spoken at home. Noni learned English mostly from going to the movies with her daughter Mary. During the late 1930’s and 1940s Noni and Mary were regulars at the Southtown theater, Chicago’s last Balaban and Katz movie palace, in the Englewood neighborhood where they lived until the early 1950s. They would walk a few blocks from their home to see whatever was playing (double features) after Papa had his dinner and was working at his second job which he turned into successful tool and die business. I was shocked to learn that Noni’s English was heavily accented when I proudly introduced her to a friend who asked me how I could understand her. I was fourteen.

Noni and Papa’s wedding portrait in Croatia
Papa holding Mary, Tony standing and Noni seated in Chicago
Noni and her children tony and Mary at Buckingham Fountain in Chicago

Noni’s cooking and language expertise was matched by her skill as a seamstress. As a child she learned to sew to help clothe and support her family. Before the age of mass produced clothing Noni sewed for well-off Croatian ladies. She became adept at beading and embroidering gowns. Those skills traveled with her when, in 1929 a pregnant Marcia Ivanić Martinčić traveled alone by ship across the Atlantic to meet her husband who established himself in the US years earlier. Noni embroidered relentlessly, sometimes in the evenings by herself, and sometimes with her Croatian lady friends, yet I never saw her wear traditional Croatian dress. She could and did sew just about anything from shirts and coats, to slipcovers for furniture and drapery, to clothing for me and my sister Lisa. We pranced around in appliquéd matching smocks and skirts.

Me, my sister Lisa and brother Lou in Noni’s backyard, early 1960s

Noni cared a lot about her garden. We all did. It was a peaceful, manicured place where flowers, vegetables and fruit trees flourished. ‘Snowball’ bushes, daisies and oleander framed the backyard while cascading roses claimed the front porch. Baby lettuces and flat Italian beans in June, sweet, juicy tomatoes in July and August, and apples in September. The fruit from our Papa’s cherry was too tart to eat but everything else in the garden was harvested or preserved. Noni’s apple strudel (sometimes with golden raisins and pine nuts) was a masterpiece of flaky deliciousness. She turned out large spreads for special parties.

Noni’s slatki stol sa štrudlom od jabuka i orahnjača

Noni did not smile all that often. Her way was to work tirelessly with skill and accuracy. In her younger days she made cooking, embroidering, sewing and writing letters to friends and relatives in three languages seem like effortless tasks. She was kind of a super woman to me, but because of her reticent nature she was also a bit of a mystery. I’m not sure why this was so. Maybe expressing herself in English was challenging. When she tried to subdue our ebullient Papa from swearing in front of us (in Croatian which we did not understand) as he read his copy of Matica, we knew that outside of their cozy haven another place claimed their affection.

Noni and Papa in Mošćeniča Draga
Noni with her mother in Croatia
Noni,Jelica,Jenny Bradičić, Papa, Mrs, Prazič, Mary and the Prazić girls in Belgrade

Although Noni attended Mass regularly, I felt she took Roman Catholicism with a grain of salt. But prayer was non-negotiable. If Noni was at our house at bedtime she would tuck us in by blessing us with the sign of the cross, ‘U ime oca i sina i svetoga duḫa. Amen.’ It made me feel protected, safe and loved. Keeping family close was a big part of Noni’s purpose. It is a particularly lovely aspect of Croatian culture that I am grateful for. Noni lived most of her life far from her beautiful, often beleaguered homeland. She died in 1982, nine years before Croatia’s independence. Because of her we could feel, hear and taste a time and place she cared about and missed. Noni remains a constant, reassuring presence in my life. Her frequent response to complaints, cynical observations or distressing situations was, ‘You’ll be fine, everything will be fine.’

All photos in this post were saved by Mary Martinčić Scatena. Below in descending order right to left they are; Noni and Papa at their wedding anniversary celebration, Noni and her sister-in-law (our Teta) Jelica traveling together, Noni and her youngest son Jim, Noni and her friend Mrs. Ziganto, Noni (seated, far left) and her Birthday Club friends, Noni crocheting in her home in Chicago, Noni, Papa and Mary in their home in Evergreen Park.

Vital Signs: Lošinj, Lastovo, Lokrum

Mali Lošinj also named Lussinpiccolo but Venetians is located on the protected part of a bay on Lošinj’s eastern side.

Lošinj, Lastovo, Lokrum. From their distinctive geographies and climates to their relaxed atmospheres islands are historically known as restorative places where nothing much changes except the seasons. Many years ago Lošinj was dubbed ‘Island of Vitality’ for the healing properties of its pine, sea and herbal scented air. Located 2 kilometers from the port town of Mali Lošinj, Čikat bay can be reached by ferry from Pula in a little over 2 hours. Čikat has green, no trace camping facilities. It is surround by an Aleppo pine forest planted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as part of a reforestation project. The island is also home to diverse and fragrant mastic tree, common myrtle, strawberry tree, tangled honeysuckle, heath tree, prickly juniper, olive tree, deodar cedar, cypress, stone pine and other Mediterranean basin plant species. Together they function as the island’s the ‘green lung’s, Nature’s spa. At Lošinj’s The Garden of Fine Scents medicinal herbs cultivated there are used in products and experiences catering to tourists and locals.

Čikat Bay has calm water surrounded by forest. Čres and Losinj were once one island, and you will find similar flora there.

For hikers there is a 3 kilometer (10,000 step) forest footpath between Mali Lošinj and Veli Lošinj. Educational panels along the path encourage ‘proper posture, movement and breathing.’ For history buffs a 2,000 year old Greek statue The Croatian Apoxyomenos depicts a young athlete. This bronze was preserved in the Adriatic and is on display in a museum dedicated to the statue’s story. For the almost 10,000 residents of Lošinj increased access brings visitors with unexpected benefits and consequences.

Dolphins playing near Veli Lošinj, Blue World Institute

Islands are places where the relationship between land and sea defines everyday life. Island’s isolating geography and endemic ecosystems are both weaknesses and strengths. Islander’s are known for their independence and self-sufficiency because if you don’t have what you need when the sea and weather are rough, well… practical survival skills are needed. On Lošinj collaborations between islanders and mainlanders have created solutions to environmental concerns. A conservation effort that is an exemplar of sustainability writ large is Lošinj’s Blue World Institute. This research and public education initiative opened it’s doors in 2003 with the support of the Croatian government. The Blue World Institute studies and cares for Adriatic sea turtles and bottlenose dolphins supported and helped by participants in it’s Eco-Volunteering Program. Eco tourism’s growing popularity is a hopeful sign that humans are learning new ways to live on and with our earth.

https://theabundanttraveler.com/best-islands-in-croatia-lastovo-island/

Because Lastovo (like Viš) was a Yugoslav military site it was not open to tourists until 1988. The island maintains unique visual signatures that include 15c and 16c fumari or chimneys which dot the skyline, and the claim that Lastovo has the starriest sky in Europe. Recently old public lights were replaced with 235 ecologically responsible ones that reduce light pollution, make the island a haven for astronomers, astrophotographers and stargazers and a candidate for an International Dark Sky Park designation.



Foto: Snježana Bukvić

At about 9 miles south of Korčula and 48 miles from Brač, Lastovo is one of the most remote Croatian islands. It can only be reached by catamaran or ferry. In myth and story islands are described as blank canvases where people come to rejuvenate, restart and sometimes rewrite their life story. Lastovo qualifies as one of those places. It is the largest and most forested island of the Lastovo Archipelago Nature Park with about 70% of the island covered in Holm oak and Aleppo pine forests. Designated by the Croatian government in 2006, the park’s mission is to preserve the biodiversity of the Mediterranean basin. If an island had a voice, Lastovo’s might be a bellringers for preservation of its natural beauty and environmental justice. Between 2001 and 2006 Lastovo’s 836 inhabitants petitioned and won protection from rampant nautical tourism. Small places can have big voices. Lastovo archipelago in Croatia declared Nature Park opposing uncontrolled development of nautical tourism by the effort of local inhabitants, the Sunce association, the WWF for Nature, and Ministry of Culture.

Lokrum jetty by Greg Bennett for Travel.Art.Coffee

Located 600 meters (10 minutes by ferry) from Dubrovnik’s harbor, Lokrum is an uninhabited nature reserve with haunting cultural attractions surrounded by relatively unspoiled natural beauty. It’s ‘island-ness’ is preserved by a strict regulation–no one can stay overnight. Since overnight stays are the measure of tourist industry success, Lokrum is an anomaly. It has a sacred, magic place identity seen and felt in the ruins of the Benedictine monastery of St. Mary. Dating from the 9th c, the monastery was built in stages and had many residents including Hapsburg Archduke Maximilian Ferdinand I, who built a castle on the island and later Dubrovnik Dominicans. It is the source of a legendary curse placed on subsequent owners by Benedictine monks who were evicted by Pope Pius VI in 1800 after the monastery and whole island were sold.

Lokrum’s Botanical Gardens are home to peacocks imported by Hapsburg Archduke Maximillian I. The cultural phenomenon Game of Thrones was filmed in the gardens, at the former Benedictine Monastery and continues to attract crowds of tourists on GOT tours who can view GOT’s Iron Throne on display at the Botanical Gardens.

Display of Iron Throne used in Game of Thrones, HappyToVisit.com

Lokrum’s lazaretto, like Dubrovnik’s, was designed to quarantine sailors, merchants travelers and their animals to prevent the spread of black plague approximately from 1300-1600. However Lokrum’s lazaretto was never finished. Some of the lazaretto’s stone construction was repurposed to fortify Dubrovnik’s walls and structures on the island. Today paths lined by majestic evergreen oaks skirt monastery ruins.

Benedictine Monastery ruins, Historyhit.com

The vulnerabilities of Croatia’s islands are made more pronounced by the scale of their landscapes, climate change and mass tourism. In the 10 May 2023 Tourism Review an article ‘Croatian Tourism Faces New Challenges in the New Summer Season’ Theodore Slate writes, ‘In Croatia seasonal tourism is hugely distorting. On Croatian islands this distortion can be debilitating as visitors flood the vulnerable island ecosystems.’ Slate goes on to quote Hrvoje Radovanovic, the head of the nature protection program of Green Action/Zelena Akcija, ‘The post-pandemic tourism resurgence will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the environment and wildlife in the form of increased demand.’ How is the presence of, and damage caused by ‘people from away’ best managed? Regenerative travel is a healing solution any tourist can adopt. New Zealand’s Tiaki Promise is a code of ethical behavior based on stewardship and responsibility to all life on earth. This type of commitment and lifestyle is appreciated but typically not embraced by visitors and tourism in general.

https://happytovisit.com/Dubrovnik/Game-of-Thrones-and-Lokrum-Island—3-Hour-Tour-from-Dubrovnik/tour-t7382-c41

This year the City of Dubrovnik and the Dubrovnik Tourist Board sponsored an animated short film titled Respect the City. Created by Stjepan Mila, this film informs tourists about restrictions in Dubrovnik’s old town by illustrating how respectful behaviors help to preserve the city’s fragile cultural heritage sites. It will be shown on Croatia Air flights and is also slated to be screened on cruise ships this season.