I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come...

In Croatia now... After a very quick self-guided walking tour of Zagreb, I caught an overnight train to Split, which is on the Dalmatian coast. There are a few new pictures up on Flickr... it is just gorgeous here... more to come.

The overnight train was quite an experience. The last time I took one of these, it had actual sleeping berths, but this was just a car with 6 seats (2 rows of three facing each other) that just slightly reclined. It was a full house, and I didn't get too much sleep. I did meet a really great couple from Zagreb. They were probably about my age, the woman is an accountant and I'm not sure what her boyfriend does for a living, but I do know that he tours with a dancing troupe that performs traditional Croatian dances. He didn't speak any English, but hers was fairly proficient; enough so that she could act as translator for the car. It was really quite interesting to talk with this couple about their experiences growing up in Zagreb, and watching things change as Yugoslavia disbanded. The boyfriend had *a lot* of strong opinions about the United States and Americans in general; it was a little funny to watch her pause before translating some of his comments. She kept looking slightly embarassed, and I'm sure she was censoring some of it for my benefit. I hope I was at least able to disabuse him of the notion that we are all stupid... I think I will write more about all of this later, but I can tell you it is really an interesting experience to be travelling as an American right now. One morning at breakfast in Ljubljana, a British man asked me, "Where's your accent from then?". When I answered "the States", he replied with a very curt, "Ah, that's what I thought," and then just turned to talk to someone else. Yikes. The couple on the train were surprised to know that an American would even want to come to Croatia; the boyfriend (ummmm... I wish I would have asked for their names) explained that when he was in New York City last year, no one had any idea where Croatia was. This surprises me, but then so does this. Let's just say our reputation seems to be pretty poor overseas right now. I know there are myriad reasons for this, but it does make for some interesting conversations.

OK, I'm off to see more sites, soak up the sun, change some opinions one at a time. ;)

Dovidenja! (See you later!)