Upon checking into my hostel, I meet a Croatian girl who was given a Serbian name, after a famous handball player. At the time of her birth, Tito's iron first suppressed nationalist feelings and ethnic tensions in Yugoslavia were eased. Now this girl was having problems living with a Serbian name in a Croatia. Her brother, also given a Serbian name, changed his name to be more Croatian sounding as a teenager.
A very controversial figure in Croatia is Aloysius Stepinac. He was a Catholic Cardinal during WWII who was accused of supporting Croatia's fascist party. Many Serbs were ethnically cleansed by the fascist regime in Croatia during WWII and Serbs see Stepinac as a war criminal. Stepinac is a very complicated figure, and considering that in WWII the two powers in Croatia were fascism and communism, he was between a rock and a hard place. But it was pretty shocking to see Stepinac's image all over Zagreb's main Cathedral. The place is practically a shrine to the guy. To a Serb, the Cathedral looks as through it's a shrine to a War Criminal.
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| From Zagreb, Croatia |
Croatians I talked to admit Stepinac has a controversial past. But usually they still say that he's a good guy that saved a lot of people. And they tell you to disregard the biased negative things you hear about him. Obviously I'm not a Balkan scholar, so I can't tell you what the truth is. But the whole thing is pretty interesting.
At the same time, Zagreb is an intellectual city. There are tons of museums, and cafes are always packed. Most people couldn't care less about politics, and dream about going to the beach on the coast. They tell you that Zagreb is a mixed city with Croats and Serbs living in harmony, with the far right nationalist parties getting negligible votes. They'd rather talk about McCain / Obama than about Croats / Serbs.
On Friday night, I decided to check out some local Jewish services. The services were short and sweet, followed by an awesome dinner. Next thing you know we're drinking beers at the synagogue. We go out for a night on the town and hear a Jewish Klezmer band. Pretty cool :)
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| From Zagreb, Croatia |
Through CouchSurfing, I met some really cool girls in Zagreb who showed me around. One of them is studying to be an expert on the Miramba, and she gave us an impromptu performance. Then she taught a bunch of us how to play. It was pretty awesome.
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| From Zagreb, Croatia |
Tomorrow I'm heading off to Slovenia. But I'm really going to miss Zagreb. I've had an awesome time here :)
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