Croatia crashes the EU

Ann and I could not have planned this trip better. We are eye witnesses to a historic event. Perhaps not as historic as the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which happened in the neighborhood just south of us (Bosnia), and kind of was responsible for the start of WWI. Yes, family and friends, we are in Zagreb celebrating the merging of Croatia into the European Union. I know what you must be thinking: why celebrate when in 10 years Croatia will be just another Greece. Don't be so pessimistic. I heard Angela Merkel was in Zagreb last night partying in Jelacica Square. I'm glad we didn't drive into Zagreb yesterday because all the streets in central Zagreb were blocked off. The only cars that were allowed into the city center were black Audis with tinted windows led by a police motorcade. And there were police on every corner of every street. I haven't seen this many police since the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968. Another history reference, and I was only 14 at the time and watching it on TV. Out in front of our hotel alone, there were a half dozen police every time we came and went. No need to worry about being robbed. But still it felt kind of creepy. Our room is on the second floor of the Palace Hotel, right next to the elevator. We started calling our room, The room next to the room. Kitty corner to our room was seated a man in a dark suit, a listening device in his ear, and a bulge on his right side under his suit coat. It didn't matter what time of day, there was always a Mr. Smith from the Matrix sitting or standing outside the door of the room next to the room. Someone super important must have been staying in that room. In the morning I would say, dobra jutro, in the afternoon, dobra don, and in the evening, dobra vecer, he would mumble something in Serbo-Croatian, but never a smile. It gave us the willies knowing this guy, as we were sleeping, was sitting right outside our door with a loaded gun. This is the one and only time I felt I needed to wrap the 2nd Amendment around my hip. When we would enter the lobby of our hotel there would be a dozen of these guys standing and sitting, all with plugs in their ears. Am I sounding a bit paranoid? But wait, this is supposed to be a party right? So last night Ann and I headed towards the sound of thumping music. People were everywhere in the streets. I'm not sure if they were ecstatic about the enjoining but what the hey, it's Sunday evening and there's loud music in Jelacica Square. We decided to eat a late dinner at Boban, an Italian restaurant owned by a famous Croatian football player(that's a soccer player in America) next to the square. We ordered Ann's favorite Italian dish, gnocchi, a bottle of Chianti, which our waiter said was marked down from 200 kuna to 120 kuna (that's about 20 dollars). Both were delicious. And then Ann and I settled in for one of our favorite pastimes, sitting in an outdoor restaurant, sipping wine, and people watching. There was an old guy with unkept white hair who had plastic bags around his hands. If he was dumpster diving at least he kept his hands clean. We sat there for 3 hours. This is what people do in Europe instead of watching TV. A little tipsy, we went back to the hotel, told Mr. Smith dovidenja(good night) and felt overjoyed that we had been a part of history.

This morning we discovered that Mr. Smith has left the building.

Dave and Ann