Croatia

I had been away from my phone for twenty minutes and when I returned, there were three text messages from Kaitlin - a map location in Croatia, a concern that some men were following them, and a relieving "We're safe now." Who is “we”? Kaitlin, Alexi, Emily, Kaz, and Shayla – the five adventurers who used their college in France as a home base to hop into a new country every weekend. These kind of text messages can happen from any country in the world. Croatia is just the first of three countries from which I have received similar messages from Kaitlin. And I’m sure I will receive more.

Do I still want my daughters to travel? What matches travel (real or virtual) for learning about diversity and developing empathy? And what matches Croatia for beauty and great food? In her nine diverse international motorcycle trips (think Ireland, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Tibet, . . . ), the only country my friend Barb has biked through twice is Croatia.

So let’s talk about the food, because that’s what everyone is talking about in Croatia. I have eaten Croatian food twice, the first time at Café Jasmin in Palm Springs with my adventurous friends Gladys, Erika, Bea, Lidia, and Joanie. In Café Jasmin, don’t believe the American looking menu. Ask for the specials. We had stuffed cabbage, paprikash, and goulash ... none of which are on the menu. We also had salad, potatoes, lentil soup, yogurt and cucumber soup, and apple strudel. We took our picture among the celebrity pictures and just missed eating with Richard Chamberlain.

My second Croatian restaurant was Café LuMar in Monrovia. I stopped there on the way home from a work trip to Ventura and had their Friday special, gnocchi - potato dumplings with spinach & pesto. I was happy to find this delicious vegetarian option among all the meat dishes.

Here are several food shows about Croatian food. Each has a different twist:

· I really enjoyed this video about how a normal Croatian family lives and cooks in Dalmatia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0K2VQMnIzk

· For the high life and gourmet food, watch Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations: Croatian Coast. I watched it on Hulu and it is also available at https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqcg4o

· If you are not vegetarian and not squeamish, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern: Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast is fascinating! It is available on Hulu.

· Croatian Food Safari has a good variety of dishes with instructions on how to make them at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tORjXBOS5R8

· And let me throw in some recipes in case you want to try cooking Croatian food yourself: https://www.chasingthedonkey.com/croatian-cooking-recipes/

Did you happen to notice that one of the regions of Croatia is called Dalmatia? Yes, those white dogs with black spots that were made famous by Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians are from here.

After we have eaten our fill, let’s also talk about the stories. Project Gutenberg has a collection of Slavic folktales published in 1889 that includes five from Croatia. Like all folktales, these set the stage of simple people working against difficult odds. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48761/48761-h/48761-h.htm

The most difficult stories from Croatia are those that recount the breakup of Yugoslavia from the viewpoint of the families. I read two. Both are available in all the usual formats including through the library as eaudiobooks and ebooks:

· Goodbye Sarajevo by Atka Reid and Hana Schofield is the true story of a large Croat family living in Bosnia during the Yugoslav Wars. One of the sister authors is a refugee to friends in Croatia and the other remains to work in Bosnia through the war.

· Girl at War by Sara Nović is a novel not just about the war but what comes after. Of the two books, this one is the love letter to Croatia.

If you want a short explanation of the religious commonalities and differences that contributed to the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Khan Academy posted this six minute video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RKMRBxDm20

Three more ways to see Croatia while staying at home include:

· Borderland: Sea Kayaking Croatia on Kanopy.com: Kayaking the coast and seeing the more than 1200 islands is absolutely the way I want to see Croatia.

· Mia Negovetić - Pusti (Official video-2020): I found this beautiful visual tour in the category BEST CROATIAN MUSIC - 2020 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvuJT2O2Hwo&list=PLgxHROx2zqq3cVMcNjrb6jld2cpE9VA-y After watching this video I let the stream continue running as the soundtrack for my browsing and enjoyed the mellow music.

· There are seventeen different galleries on Croatia on TheCrazyTourist, showing how popular Croatia is as a tourist destination! The main gallery is here: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-croatia/

When this pandemic is over, you might want to plan travel to Croatia using your local travel advisor. Shout out to my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands (as you know from my story above, she has first-hand knowledge of Croatia). May the travel industry survive and thrive - may we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Croatia and throughout the world.

Photo Credit zmihai https://www.flickr.com/photos/zmihai/20447304285/ Found through TheCrazyTourist