Even young Czechs are often still usually fairly shy when it comes to speaking English - frequently literally embarrassed to do so - even when they can speak it good enough - unsure why, a huge contrast to where I’m from where even people who can’t speak it for shit convince themselves that they can or at least make a huge effort, but I’d guess that Croatia’s mass tourism is there longer and had a steadier growth. And we avoid dubbing foreign language movies, which helps a lot. Anywho, it’s always fun to travel into the (pretty safe) unknown.
In 1976 on a road trip around Europe I got as far as Bled in Yugoslavia (now Slovenia of course). Didn’t get any further East, so sadly, your Croatia wasn’t reached. My Ford Capri did some miles that year.
I really must make the effort to visit the Balkans once this Covid stuff is over.
Oh don’t worry, not your fault. Croatia and Slovenia get bundled by force with the Balkan countries all the time - guessing for convenience’s sake because Yugoslavia was a prominent Balkans country and, indeed, Croatia is partly geographically on the peninsula (Slovenia not even that), and there’s a portion of the populace that belongs culturally to that circle, but historically, culturally and so on, the story is very much different. Since everything was about brotherhood and unity, efforts were made (linguistically for example) to equate us all - and internal migrations within Yugoslavia helped. But still didn’t fully work. Regions such as coastal and island Dalmatia where I’m from and Istria are more akin culturally to Italy and Mediterranean countries than areas “behind the hill” from the coast in some ways, and Bosnia is culturally a “wholly different world” to us natives from there. Then you have central and northern Croatia which are culturally Central European. And so on. Way of living, food, culture, music… while there are of course some overlaps and influences, it’s different.
It’s just a lie that’s been repeated so often that even some people there have begun to believe it. And it’s being perpetuated publicly by ignorant (or chauvinist) “westerners” for whom all people in what they perceive as “the Balkans” are all the same, so you have even companies like Adidas associating Balkans music and food like ćevapi to Croatia/Dalmatia in its ads, which is ignorant and chauvinist as fuck, almost racist. Though heavily present (and beloved), Balkans food like burek and ćevapi is a recent import to Croatia and Slovenia and a lot of Balkans dishes are nigh-impossible to find there. Similar to various highly popular “ethnic dishes” out west, they are common but as native to Croatia as Big Ben.
I was in Dubrovinik when I was 9 or 10 with my parents, 89 or 90 I think, was still part of Yugoslavia. All I remember was that my all my parents could find at the store to buy was spam.
Hahahahah oooh boy. I believe you but they must’ve been so damn unlucky somehow (shitty store waiting for a restock?) as that don’t remember that happening to us in Split even during war.
After the war damage was cleared/fixed, Dubrovnik went back to thriving again. One of two-three most expensive towns on the coast because of all the tourists.
And, to get the comment in line with the site, with a good brewery/brewpub of their own + a top class hop bomb / haze brewer who brews his stuff elsewhere, some beer stores and at least one good craft beer bar.
Why don’t You divide the Czech regions simply in FOUR parts: “Čechy” (complete Bohemia with the exception of Prague), “Morava”(Moravia, surprise…) “Moravské Slezko” (Czech Silesia) and last, but not least, Praha…
When I lived on the German/Dutch border (74-77 and 93-95) we loved going to a ‘Balkan Grill’ restaurant: it was called ‘Dubrovnik’ and ran by a bloke called Victor.
I have always assumed he named his restaurant after his home town. So Dubrovnik is Balkan to me. When I think of that city all I can see is a huge platter of meat with rice and chips piled high and overflowing off the plate, red wine and a glass of slivovitz.
You are now telling me I’ve lived a lie these last 40 plus years!
Dubrovnik is technically geographically Balkans, culturally not so, a point where trade from the Balkans hinterlands they have always separated themselves from met up with Mediterranean. Depends on the person really. I could see someone from wherever in Yugoslavia starting up a place called Dubrovnik - Dubrovnik being a beautiful touristy town that foreigners are likely to know about, even if the business owner has never set foot in it and are from the Balkans and not from Croatia itself. Fairly sure I’ve seen a place or two like that. For example, Janjevo Croats, a catholic people from Kosovo, culturally quite akin to their Albanian and Serbian neighbors there (so, very much of a Balkans culture), claim (and in some cases might have) distant descent from traders from Dubrovnik. So they’ll open up places or companies called Dubrovnik and so on without really having much to do with the place bar a potential distant ancestor or two.
I’ve actually experienced real life cases where people from, dunno, Bosnia claimed they were from Dubrovnik (even Split) until pressed a little till they admitted. Funny, that.
Could also be a case of someone actually from there loving Balkans grilled food and starting it up. Same as an American starting a taco place in Split. Doesn’t mean that he’s Mexican!
Now, if you’d said that you were served pašticada with rožata as a side-dish, that would be quite on point with the name. Red wine matches up, but unless it’s for example, some Plavac wine from Pelješac, who knows. Šljivovica is not something I’d readily match with Dubrovnik and its close surroundings either.
