Photos and text by Jerome le Carrou

September 6, 2005 | Heading to Croatia, I was expecting a country full of contrasts, a geographical paradise in a land still marked by the tears of war.

I knew that 10 years ago, it would have been impossible to drive freely through the countryside as a terrible war was blowing everything apart. But I wasn't expecting to find such a beautiful country, from vast plains to rocky mountains.Croatia also is the country of islands, more than a thousand surrounded by crystal-warm water.

I started my trip a Thursday night with two friends. We drove throughout France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia and finally crossed the Croatian border after 20 hours spent in the car. During this trip, we crossed beautiful European cities as Paris, Bern, Milano, Breccia, Venezia, Trieste.

We arrived late at night in Rabac, a small town in a peninsula called Istria. We rented an apartment in the hills facing the seaside and the little port. We were first surprised when the owner just let us stay in the room without paying immediately; she told us we could pay the next day, no credit card, no ID, she just trusted us.

The night was short as we hit the road again early morning. It took us two hours to cross the city of Rijeka. There were so many old cars, mixed with a desert-dry heat, and the result was clouds of gas we smelled for too long. When we finally entered a brand-new highway, the anger left and we started smiling again. The landscapes we passed by during that day were amazing -- arid deserts, flooded lands, green fields. . . .

Our first objective was to cross the country from north to south, but the highway ended in Split, which is half of the road. We first thought we had done most of the road, but we were far from the South. The city of Dubrovnik was only 200 miles far from Split, but at this point, just a small road packed with enormous trucks from Russia, Hungary, Italy, Bosnia. . . .

After leaving the highway we drove through the deep inside of Croatia, close to the Bosnian border, where everything is still slowed by a big disorder named war.

This part of the trip was probably the most interesting one, even though driving at 40 miles an hour for couple of hours wasn't that cool.

This whole afternoon was like a travel into the past, eyes wide-open. It didn't bother us anymore to drive slowly.

The first towns we crossed all looked the same, houses completely destroyed, amounts of stones crushed on the ground, roads full of holes.

In this brown, dusty universe, we saw a lot of women, all dressed in black, they were staring at us because of our license plate, we understood later than the black they were wearing, was for the husband they had lost during the war.

When crossing the center of these little towns, there were usually a lot of people sitting outside, talking, staring at some tourists like us. The cars parked there were from the '80s -- old Mercedes, small trucks with three wheels, cars without windows. The atmosphere was relax but with a bitter taste that make you realize you are really not home and have to be careful and respectful.

The advertisement we saw on the big boards in the middle of the town, were not for your favorite fast food or supermarket, but rather for some glorious army general, you could barely see the face and read the name of the hero, the time had erased most of the colors.

Even if Croatia's economy is getting better since the war, because of the huge flow of tourists, the country is still divided into two parts. A beautiful and popular coast, and a poor countryside.

We left behind us all the heavy past and felt like we left a battle field. The war trauma is not completely over, we understood people were still not ready for flows of foreigners.

Heading to the coast side, it was a different story, we still drove into small roads facing the ocean and the thousands islands, we thought we enter a different country.

Our goal was to reach Dubrovnik, we arrived there at night time, found a decent apartment and slept.

Dubrovnik is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Ten years ago, the inhabitants were under the fire of the Serbs. To understand how people live in Dubrovnik, you have to be aware that hundreds of people under 30 years old gave their lives for the city. Dubrovnik is not only a beautiful city, that look like an old castle surrounded by the ocean and the mountains, but it's also an economic, cultural, meaningful spot.

We spent a week in Dubrovnik, one night we met this old person from Bosnia, he was speaking french and started crying in the pub in front of us, he told us about all the children and women he saw dying in front of him, and how he had to kill people in order to save his life. When you walked into Dubrovnik , you know everything is loaded with emotions, the ghosts of the past sometimes can come back.

The nightlife in Dubrovnik is a must see, it's one of the most popular spot, cheap drinks, it's the place where all the students population from Italy, France, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia mingled. . . .

We haven't been disappointing by all the places we went to, we even found the best bar we had ever been to.

We were lost in a Renaissance-style street with ramparts on both sides; the ground made of clear white stones was bright enough to guide us in the dark. On the left side, we saw written on the wall "cold drinks" with an arrow, then we saw a little black door. We thought there was nothing but rocks and water as the ramparts are on the ocean side. We opened the door and heard some jazz music: Duke Ellington. As it was midnight, some candles were the only sources of lights in this surreal place. Build on the rocks, we had to step down some stairs to reach it. We found the paradise, the sound of the waves crushing against the rocks, jazz music, candles on the tables and fresh beers.

The food was a pretty bad experience in Dubrovnik as the city is packed with tourists during the summer, owners of restaurants know they have two months to make a lot of money. The prices are rising, but it's still affordable as you can get a big pizza for 50 kuna, which is $7. There are no real food from Croatia besides grilled seafood. You can eat Italian food such as pizza, risotto, pasta, but it's not the finest European food you will find there, it's just tourist food. I don't even want to count how many times I and my friends could not even eat a piece of what we ordered.

I was also disappointed by the way people behave. The people working at the restaurant, shops, bar, shops are not really friendly, they know we are tourists and they just try to make money but they lack politeness. I try to understand why. I may have had a bad experience, but apparently it happens to a lot of people.

I understand they had a hard time and they don't want to be really nice but at the same time, tourism is helping Croatia to live better days.

This country is still trying to find its place among Europe, it might become one of the members soon.

Crushed by the war, Croatians didn't expect they will have to face the flow of thousands of tourists. Some parts of the country are ready for it but not all of them, highway have to be build, electricity has to be modernize. Croatian have to learn how to manage the tourist issue and tourists have to learn how to be patient.

I am glad I had the opportunity to go to Croatia while it still somehow natural because in a few years the coast will be packed with new hotels, housing for tourists, restaurants.

And probably no one would still pay attention to these old ladies carrying their burden, and to the old man selling watermelons, but if you take the time to talk to him, he might pay you a glass of its home made liquor, a blast in the middle of the deep countryside.

MS
MS