After my family's visit to Macedonia, my parents and I flew on to Zagreb, Croatia to spend a week exploring Croatia and Slovenia. Almost immediately I was thinking, this was Yugoslavia too? Compared to Macedonia, Croatia was so clean and the buildings were in much better condition. Slovenia was even a notch above that in terms of appearance, plus in the capital city there were so many people cycling that it rivaled Portland or Copenhagen. Lacking an explanation for the discrepancy, I developed my own theory called the "neighbor effect." Slovenia, perched close to the meticulous Austrians, were influenced by their neatness and outdoorsy-ness which melded into the Slovenian culture. Croatia has a lot of Italian visitors and I perceived them both as cultures with lively people and good pasta. And who's around to influence Macedonia but Greece, which despite being part of the EU is still run-down. Can Greece and Macedonia be the next Slovenia and Croatia? Maybe, but not anytime soon in my opinion.
My parents and I were all pleasantly surprised by the natural beauty we encountered. An early stop was Plitvice Lakes in Croatia, which has been making all sorts of lists lately like "beautiful places to visit" and top 10 most beautiful waterfalls, and it lived up to the hype. Sure, I fell up to my ankles in mud during my rush to pass the mobs of school children and we had a run-in with one power-tripping school teacher, but other than that it was completely delightful. Slovenia was gorgeous literally top to bottom, from the breathtaking Julian Alps to the ginormous Postojna cave. I tried to take a run around Lake Bled and kept stopping every couple feet to take a photo. Check out some of the results and other trip pics here.
Mom and Dad were good sports about my quest to indulge in cuisines not easily found in my neck of former Yugoslavia, like sushi and Indian. I also ate truffles for the first time and they have a new fan. Another delight was rakija made from cherries, offered to us by a lovely Croatian couple whose guesthouse we stayed at in the town of Motovun. Through them, I discovered that if I spoke Macedonian they could largely understand me and vice versa with their Croatian. I'm guessing it's similar to Spaniards talking to Mexicans but it was a pleasing discovery to know that my Macedonian comes in handy outside of this Vermont-sized country. In Slovenia, the language was more like Macedonian swirled with German and having studied both languages it was both interesting and wholly confusing so I stuck mostly with English.
I'm inclined to agree with my parents that the scenery on this trip was at times reminiscent of Italy, particularly the coastal towns of Piran, Slovenia and Rovinj, Croatia that we visited. Unfortunately the prices rivaled Italy too, particularly Slovenia on the euro. Thankfully I had my generous parents around to make this trip possible. No really, thank you Mom and Dad!
Mom and Dad were good sports about my quest to indulge in cuisines not easily found in my neck of former Yugoslavia, like sushi and Indian. I also ate truffles for the first time and they have a new fan. Another delight was rakija made from cherries, offered to us by a lovely Croatian couple whose guesthouse we stayed at in the town of Motovun. Through them, I discovered that if I spoke Macedonian they could largely understand me and vice versa with their Croatian. I'm guessing it's similar to Spaniards talking to Mexicans but it was a pleasing discovery to know that my Macedonian comes in handy outside of this Vermont-sized country. In Slovenia, the language was more like Macedonian swirled with German and having studied both languages it was both interesting and wholly confusing so I stuck mostly with English.
I'm inclined to agree with my parents that the scenery on this trip was at times reminiscent of Italy, particularly the coastal towns of Piran, Slovenia and Rovinj, Croatia that we visited. Unfortunately the prices rivaled Italy too, particularly Slovenia on the euro. Thankfully I had my generous parents around to make this trip possible. No really, thank you Mom and Dad!
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