Croatia, part I

Dear readers - I apologize for the long delay in posting. Quite a lot has happened in the past month! Travel, concerts, lots of good time spent with other music students, exploring more of Vienna, studying music and composing. There's much that I'd like to share, so I'll begin today with:

A TRIP TO CROATIA
Croatia is a beautiful country of 4.5 million people along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (just across the pond from Italy). Rosalind and I had been hoping to get to know more Eastern European countries, so I went for a week and she joined me for the weekend. One of the other student composers here grew up in the capital city of Zagreb, so she was happy to provide me with some insider tips about where to go and what to see.

In its turbulent history, Croatia has been claimed by all the major empires in this region. Since 1995, it has been an independent democratic country. Zagreb is a city of quaint old buildings densely packed into irregular rows, balanced by the open spaces of parks and piazzas. There are open-air markets, street musicians, modern concert halls, and museums of Viennese grandeur. Like many other European capitals, the center of the city is over 500 years old, while the surrounding neighborhoods are progressively newer - and the tramlines connect everything quite efficiently.



Croatians call their country Hrvatska. One interesting bit of trivia is that the necktie was invented in Croatia, in the early 1600s. Before that time, there were no neckties in the world - and today, millions of men all over the world put on a necktie five days a week. In fact, the thought of being a working man and not wearing a necktie is absolutely unthinkable in many professions. The original word for this garment was "hravat", just like the name of the country; this became "cravat" in French and is now "kravata" in Croatian.

In Vienna, I really haven't felt like a tourist - I'm renting an apartment, I work 5-6 days a week, I'm part of a musical community, I speak German as best I can. So my week in Croatia was truly a vacation, and I enjoyed doing all the tourist things - eating out, taking lots of pictures, visiting three museums in one day, asking strangers for directions, and taking some much-needed time off.



SPRECHEN SIE KROATISCH?
Croatian is a Slavic language, sharing common roots with Russian and the languages of all Eastern European countries. I have never studied any of these, so most of the words looked and sounded completely foreign to me. However, I enjoyed learning and using some Croatian greetings ("dobro jutro", "dobar dan", "dobra vecer" for "good morning", "good afternoon", and "good evening"). Knowing the words for "left" and "right" proved very useful for the many times I asked for directions. I found it fascinating to compare the four different words for "goodbye" listed in the phrasebook: "do videnja" (like Russian), "adio" (like Spanish), "zbogom" (unique to Croatia), and the omnipresent "ciao" (Italian). In fact, "ciao" is what I hear most often among young people, particularly among international groups.

Now, some of the words did seem very familiar - those which are clearly "loan words" from English, German, French or Italian. For instance, a "stjuardesa" serves you drinks on an "avion"; four musicians make a "kvartet"; and I was very tempted by the dessert offerings at the "cokoladni" shop. I've noted the relatives of the word "pancake": "Palatschinken" in German, "palacsinta" in Hungarian, and "palacinka" in Croatian. (Although all samples that I've tried have tasted more like "crepes"!) What I particularly enjoyed was the cases of rending an English word in the Croatian alphabet - so it's spelled differently, but pronounced the same. Here's the best example of that - note that "j" sounds like "y":



Some Croatians I met spoke excellent English, while others didn't have a word of it. One man asked if I would speak German instead. Most shopkeepers knew enough English to tell you the price, but not enough to describe what you were buying. In the ice cream parlors, I had to guess which flavor was which, since I couldn't read the labels and the servers couldn't translate. I had a hilarious encounter in a grocery store, where I spent five minutes examining the various jars of jam, and eventually brought an intriguing-looking one to the cashier to ask her what it was. "Marmelade," she replied. "Yes, but what kind? What does 'smokve' mean?" She asked her colleague, but nobody knew the word for it in English or in German. "Ah, but my book knows," I said as I pulled out the language guide. "Feigen" it read - fig. We all laughed as I bought the tastiest jam I've had all year.

There was a great example of creative communication from a busline official. I asked him what time the bus would arrive in Zagreb, and he understood my question but wasn't exactly sure how to answer in English. Now, his job is to collect money from passengers, so he has a little machine with numbers on dials which he can move around to "75.00" and it'll print a receipt for that amount. He moved the numbers to "1830" and showed me, so I understood that we would arrive at 6:30 pm.

I found the Croatian people to be very friendly and welcoming. I had many pleasant conversations with people on the streets or in shops. But the encounter I will never forget is with a man who struck up a conversation as we sat on park benches. He was in his early 30s, and had lived in the Croatian neighborhood in New York City for a few years, so he spoke English quite well. We talked about my visit, his new job, and then he told me that he was a veteran of the Croatian War. He lost his father and his brother on the same day, so as a teenager, he joined the army. (This was a complicated war, lasting from 1991-95, and what I understand is that it was primarily a battle for independence from the Yugoslav Republic, but there was also terrible violence between Serbs and Croats.) We spoke of many things, too personal to share here, but I will say that he's writing a book about his experience, and I encouraged him to do so and have it translated as well. It's so important to hear personal accounts of war, to really think about how it changes people's lives.



And finally, I have a very sad note. A friend and musical collaborator of mine in Denver passed away quite suddenly a few days ago. His family and his community will miss him tremendously. I hope that he is at peace.

I wish good health and strength to you all.