Reading About Communism While On Vacation

One of my personal shortcomings (or quirks?) is that I need to be able to visualize something or otherwise immerse myself in it somehow in order to fully realize it.  That's one of the reasons I like to watch movies about historical events rather than read about them.  While watching something, I can insert myself into it and grasp the meaning of it at some kind of deeper level.  Or, if I am reading something, it helps if it is from one person's perspective - to enter into someone's life (think: The Diary of Anne Frank versus a general history book).

This has been a strain on our marriage, as G is a big, big history buff and is all the time telling me about interesting facts.  I listen to him (really!) and then like a month later we'll watch a documentary about WWII or something and I'll - in complete awe and amazement - recount back to him that same fact as if I just learned it.  He just loves it when I do that.

Anyhoo, I say all that because Croatia used to be a communist country, wrapped up with several other current countries that, until 1991 - 1995, made up Yugoslavia.  While in Dubrovnik, we trolled around a book store quite often, and I came across this book:

How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed by Slavenka Drakulic

Drakulic is from (or lived in for a significant amount of time) Zagreb, Croatia, which is where we passed through on a few of our bus rides and plane connections to various cities.  It has existed as a town since 1094 (!).  She grew up in communism and the book is a series of essays about that experience from a feminist perspective.

I have always been intrigued by the notion of communism, and perplexed why anyone in the world would think it would work, in light of historical events proving otherwise.  I know it is an economic system, not a religious system, but I believe its biggest failing is that it turns a blind eye to human nature.  Pure equality and egalitarianism sounds great.  But that's not how people operate.  Capitalism, on the other hand, with its many failings at least acknowledges the inner competitive nature we have.  And that's the extent of my understanding.  But I'm happy I live in a capitalist country.

Drakulic writes about day to day life in a country of rations, drab colors, long lines, wire tapping, receiving her mail that has already been opened and read.  She writes about growing up with no sanitary napkins.  At all.  In the mid-1900's!  In communism's quest to make men and women equal, it somehow thought this could be achieved by simply ignoring the differences between men and women.  Many times there was no toilet paper produced and people would use notebook paper.  People got so used to hearing the tell-tale click of a phone tap that they would interrupt their conversations to say "Hi, fella!" to the spy on the line, before resuming their chat.

Drakulic is very effective at weaving philosophical, political, and economic theories into her essays in a way that makes them more easily digestible.  Also, for a well-known feminist who is praised by other world-renown feminists, she doesn't come across as all men-are-the-problem-women-are-better. 

She has a few other books out and I am definitely going to order them.

I just don't know when I'll have time to read them.

I need another vacation.

Home Again

And just like that (not really - it took two days of travel) we are home again.

As soon as we rolled in last night, we turned around to go collect this one from boarding.  It was not the loving reunion you may have expected.  It took both of us and a vet tech to wrangle her from her cage into her carrier.  Even the promise of a delectable yogurt bite didn't do the trick.  Suffice it to say she's happy beyond belief to be home, but would toss us out on the street in a furry second.

Also I am sick of all forms of transportation.  If I never see a bus, train, or plane again in my life that would be OK.

Jet lag sucks.  I always forget this.  You wouldn't think an 8-hour time difference would be that big of a deal, but my system is like, "What the *&^%$%&*?????"

I took as little a break from tutoring as possible, which means I start up sessions later this afternoon.  And early tomorrow morning.  I'm thinking of wearing sunglasses so I can "rest my eyes" while the students work.  That's not a problem, is it?

See You In America

Today is it, folks.  We are down to our last pair of clean underwear and everything else in our suitcases stinks to high Heaven.  We will spend the day packing, doing homework, trolling the streets & shops one last time, and double fisting the gelato.  Tonight is a huge celebration in Old Town and we are going to have a late dinner on the rooftop terrace and watch the fireworks.  It will be a nice farewell.  To the city as well as to our dwindling funds.  The people at our bank are naming a building after us, when it's all said and done.

Then there will be two long blog-less days of travel before reuniting with the surly bun and our beloved Denver.

Last night we rode a cable car up to Srd (Serge), the mountain that overlooks Dubrovnik.  Bosnia is just on the other side:

This was the view of Dubrovnik: (see the fortress walls surrounding the city?)

Say a prayer for flights, flights, and more flights.  Will blog again from The Land Of No Oxygen!

This Was Our View From Dinner Tonight

That is all.

The Logistics

We meet a lot of interesting people on these trips, not just the locals but other travelers, too.  Out of every nationality we have ever met, the Australians win the World Traveler Award, hands down.  A short vacation for them is one month.  A more typical vacation may be along the lines of 2-3 months.

Sign me up, matey.

It's easy to concentrate on all the positives of travel here on the post; the scenery, the food, the adventure, the sights, the people, and just the general experience of it all.  But there's a lot of logistics that goes into each trip we take.  In fact, we are able to fully enjoy our trips only because all these non-fun and non-exciting pieces are in place.  As much as we love to travel, I can understand why some people don't.  It's a lot of work.  Let's not even talk about how hard it is with kids.

For every lazy afternoon on the Adriatic, there is a five hour bus ride or a five hour layover in a third world airport.  Behind every luxurious sunset dinner is a month of setting aside money and a day of calculating currency conversions.

This trip alone has involved a staggering amount of busses and ferries.  The Africa trip involved flying somewhere about every 3 days---that's a lot of packing and unpacking, folks.  We have two more days of bliss, and then we fly to Zagreb, have a five hour layover, and fly to Munich.  We'll spend the night there and catch an early flight to Atlanta, where we will have a 3-4 hour layover, then the short three hour hop back to Denver, and the cab ride home.  We will drop our suitcases and turn around to go get Lucifer.  Then we will start the laundry, make a grocery run, and plan for the work week.

It's really all about the logistics.

For this reason, we are thinking that our next big vacation will be considerably simpler.  I think we will take a break from 11-hr flights and foreign languages and paying to use the bathroom and driving on the other side of the road and checking, double checking, triple checking the bus schedule.

This is not a complaint.  I spend a lot of time shaking my head at people who don't like to travel.  But as I konk out on the ferry, clutching my backpack for dear life and propping my legs up on my suitcase, I understand.

Then this happens and I forget all about it.

To The Walls!

So the city of Dubrovnik is surrounded by some honkin walls.  It has been a seaside fortress since like the beginning of time.  We are staying inside the old city while we are here and although it is pretty touristy, it is also kind of unbelievable.  In our country, we just have no notion of what "old" really is.

In order to blog from here, I have to use a different platform than usual (which is why the pics may look a little funny?), and I'm not able to use photo captions.

This is the rooftop terrace where we have breakfast, and also where I mostly do my homework:

Here is a view of it from the city walls--not bad huh?!

The walls are high, thick, and generally enormous.  They are a feat of architecture any way you look at it.  Napoleon was so impressed by Dubrovnik that he built two fortresses here, just in this one little area.

We even saw some American celebrities!

As you can see, it's not very picturesque or anything.

In the early 1990's there was a war all up in some of these Slavic countries.  Basically, Croatia declared itself independent from communist Yugoslavia, and then Bosnia (which is just right over the hill, you can see it from here) bombed the hell out of it, including this old area of Dubrovnik.  Obviously, aside from the horror of war, it was a travesty that they repeatedly bombed this architectural jewel.  The people here hid in the wells, and inside the strong arches of the alley ways.  Many shop keepers we have talked with have told us similar stories.  It's hard to imagine...

I will pay you $1,000 if you'll write my next paper for me.

Until tomorrow, peeps!

Cavtat

Today we took a quick detour to the next town over, Cavtat (TSAHV tot).  Compared to the tourist hustle & bustle of Dubrovnik, it is a sleepy little coastal town.  In fact, when we told some of the locals about what we planned to do today, they got a dreamy look on their face and sighed, "Ahhhhh, Cavtat..."

We spent the day eating, drinking, and meandering (um, what else is new), and I think we may come back later this week to swim in the Adriatic one more time before heading back to The Land of No Oxygen.

Before I even got out of bed this morning, I checked out the homework situation online (remember, I basically crammed the week before we left so I could go on academic autopilot these 2 weeks).  Anyways, I was reminded of an enormous paper I need to start on before we go back (read: plane ride home).  It's harshing my buzz.

The food here is my new reason for living.

That cake is orange with a chocolate ganache icing.  I made so much noise while savoring it that the Venezualan family next to us ordered one, too.  They had a book called, "What to Eat!" so we were affirmed in our mad restaurant choosing skillz.  But really, please, it's me.  Eating is what I do.

Time to get horizontal and finish my book.  More pics to come!