This post is also available in:
Italiano (Italian)
Getting lost in the closed shopping center happened to me right at the conclusion of an otherwise very uneventful trip. My favorite city in Croatia is undoubtedly Split, the one that told me nothing about Rijeka. Two unpleasant events happened to me in both, but perhaps the one in Split was worse.
Fine in Split
In Split I got a super unpleasant parking ticket; mostly because they only gave it to me. It was my fault for not noticing the sign. But why of the whole street, only my car with Italian plates had the fine and those with Croatian plates did not?
Additional problem was that the fine was written in Croatian. In English it only stated that I could pay at the post office or bank. In those days there were two holidays straddling a weekend and I did not know after how many days the fine would increase. After a couple of tries, I found an open post office the next day without having to disrupt my itinerary too much.
Split is clearly distinguished from other cities on the coast,. I gladly went back there to walk through the old town center located inside the ancient palace of Emperor Diocletian; it is something unique and fascinating.
As I had argued with a Croat disembarking in Split, I happened to do the same arriving by ferry from Cres to the mainland. This might have been a retired former owner of a hardware store in Bassano del Grappa. He was complaining to me because my car was too close to his and his wife could not get in properly. I point out that I was parked in the spaces while he was right on the edge. Evidently he had not noticed that there were dozens of other cars and the space beyond default was minimal to allow more vehicles to board.
Opatija and Rijeka where I got lost in the mall.
The finale of this trip I devoted to visiting Opatija and Rijeka (Opatija and Rijeka respectively in Croatian). Both historically important cities. In the former still very touristy, it seems everyone has been there, so I could not miss it. There is a nice promenade along the waterfront, but with lots of concrete where people sunbathe and from which they jump into the water between cliffs and sharp rocks; behind large Austro-Hungarian Empire hotels.
Rijeka just didn’t ring a bell. So much for poor D’Annunzio and those who as a joke on the occasion of the European Football Championship match against the Croats displayed the banner give us Rijeka back. I would say keep it! You can learn more about this now-forgotten historical fact here.
I must say that the city is probably at its worst on sultry summer Sundays. The vast majority of businesses are closed and the early suburban bars filled with bored, tank-top-clad characters hoarding cans of beer. As my last evening, having in the apartment (worthy of the worst South American dive bars) even a TV for the first time, I decided to have afternoon and evening on my couch/bed, which was really just couch.
Like a horror movie, I got lost in the closed shopping mall.
I was supposed to do some shopping and it was not easy. But that allowed me to have the last excitement of the trip.
I stumbled somewhat randomly into the largest mall. It was 3 p.m. on a Sunday, and I could think of anything except that it was not full of people. Only later did I realize that the few were diners from the Mac Donald’s that was closing and workers who were leaving for home. I parked on the sixth floor (where the Mac was precisely) and took the elevator to the ground floor where the supermarket was. This was easily guessed despite the fact that everything was written in Croatian, including the hours.
The elevator stopped on the second. I found myself on a deserted floor with the lights off. At first I thought there was only one such section and walked on. Instead, everything was closed. I went back and the elevator was no longer responding to the controls. I was near escalators that were turned off but on which it was possible to walk. I tried but there was a closed gate at the top.
I still hoped to find the supermarket and part of the building open. Instead, on all floors the lights were off. There were no people and only the little music of children’s games could be heard, more eerie than ever. I managed to get to the second floor: everything closed.
The emergency doors in English, they said, were connected to the alarm and to open them only in case of danger. I didn’t see fit to bother the fire department or law enforcement and didn’t lose heart.
Eventually, I found an emergency exit that was not connected to the alarm system. I had ended up on the ground floor, and from the outside I redid all the outside ramps to get to the sixth and retrieve the car.
Reflections on traveling
In the center I found bakeries, and a convenience store. I had everything I needed for the domestic evening. Especially my book to finish, since I find soccer matches with Croatian commentary even more soporific than usual.
In The Ways of Songs Bruce Chatwin talks about Australian Aborigines. These are being made worse off than they already were, by obtuse welfarism. But he also addresses a theme to which I have more to say, namely that of the instinct to travel, which would be inherent in man from time immemorial.
Speaking of this issue, I often ponder the question that there are so many ways to travel and how different (not better) I feel from the majority who do not.
People who traveled very differently from me were my parents, who had often been to these areas and had always told me so much about them. Their pretext was, like many others in the 2000s, to go for dental work, which at the time was extremely cheaper in that part of the Adriatic.
Then my father liked to drive or maybe it was too far out of his comfort zone to take the plane. He passed away in January 2022, and going to places he had always told me so much about was also a kind of tribute.
Home set of trips Travel to the Balkans, between nature and even recent history
Previous stop Experience in naturist camping, that is, for nudists
Next stop The veteran of the siege of Sarajevo.
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.