texans on the autobahn

A Croatian Holiday on the Adriatic Sea

This time last year, I probably could tell you only one thing that I knew about Croatia, that being that there is a handsome actor on ER who is from Croatia. That’s pretty sad isn’t it? I couldn’t tell you anything else about it. . .but I can tell you more now after our weeklong holiday on the Istrian peninsula.

Croatia has been under the rule of many different countries, including Italy, Hungary, Turkey, France, and Austria. So much of Croatia has been under the control of so many different nations, not to mention different parts of the country being under the control of different nations simultaneously. Many people, often members of the same family, claim different nationalities even though they may have all been born in the same place!

After the downfall of the Austrian Hungarian Monarchy in World War I, Croatia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later called Yugoslavia which was dominated by Serbian communists. In 1991, Croatia claimed it’s independence from the Yugoslavian control, resulting in heavy fighting. The fighting was so difficult that for 3 months Croatia said they would freeze their declaration for independence. However, the fighting continued. In 6 months of war, 10,000 people died, thousands fled the country and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed.

In 1992, help from the United Nations arrived and Croatia became a member of the UN. However, violent fighting continued until 2000 when the long held government of the Democratic Union was removed. The country has now been democratized and continues to deal with war criminals with the help of the EU and UN.

The culture of Croatia is therefore a mix of many different cultures. Croats are generally Roman Catholics, while Serbs are Eastern Orthodox. However, according to research information, Roman Catholicism is making a comeback, and most churches have large consistent attendance every Sunday.

Also, one year ago, I probably could not have told you what large body of water surrounded Croatia. I think I could have told you I had heard of the Adriatic Sea, if and only if you said “Adriatric Sea” first! Now, I can tell you all about the Adriatric Sea, and how beautiful it is. The Adriatric sea is part of the Mediterranean and is deep blue and incredibly clear – however, unlike in the Gulf of Mexico or the Carribean, I didn’t have to worry about Jelly Fish or sharks! The beaches of the Adriatric are not sandy, but rocky – making it difficult sometimes to find a comfortable position to sun yourself. However, we did eventually find a small sandy beach on an island, but we think we have decided we (except for Sam) prefer the rocks over the sand – sand is too messy!

Because of the location of Croatia on the Adriatic Sea, we ate seafood every day! Sam, Robin and I have all discovered that we love calamari – I think we ate it almost every day we were there. One night I ate mussels too, and they were quite delicious. Everytime I smelled the calamari in Dallas at a restaurant, it smelled awful! No wonder I never would try it – but now we are hooked – of course it didn’t stink here!

Wine, olive oil, grappa and truffles are important items in Croatia. I can say we tried all but the truffles – the seafood was just too good to stoop to eating mushrooms! A tour of the wine country of Croatia for the adults proved to be a great day and we all returned with plenty of award winning Croatian wine – at unbelievably low prices. Croatia does not export their wine, so there is no other way to try it unless you travel here.

We stayed in a beautiful villa in Morgani, so called because of Captain Morgan, a pirate who sank his ships in the canal nearby and came to start a new village. On every drive to Morgani we passed a village wiped out by the Black Plague of the 14th century. Legend has it that the pirate Captain Morgan buried his treasure in the remains of the plague village where it remains. It was too hot and humid for us to stay long enough to dig for the treasure. . .I must say, it is an amazing thing to see the remains of this village and to walk where so many lost their lives to a disease that we have all read about in history classes.

Croatia is a beautiful country, full of amazing history, culture and food. It is a country that continues to recover from years of civil war. It is already a tourist destination for those “in the know”, but 10 years from now, the whole world will be visiting this beautiful country. And Croatia is preparing now and will be ready!

posted by stuckinthemiddle @ 1:20 PM