A loud night in Zagreb

Well, it seems today is a big wedding day here (makes sense as it is one of the last really nice weekends you can count on weather wise). This means lots of noisy car convoys honking their horns. I cant really complain about this like I did about the traffic because this is kind of traditional. Before cars they would hire a brass band and promenade through town playing loud music. Now, apparently, they just drive around honking their horns.

I was actually going to blog about this earlier for different reasons. I went out today to take some pictures of a part of town I hadn't seen before (well, I used to live about a block from this part of town 20 years ago, but it is very different now). On the way back I decided to stop for lunch at a place on Opatovina (its a little pedestrian street running north from Dolac). I was there last weekend (seems like this is turning into a habit, but I'll explain why later) so I wasn't anticipating anything out of the ordinary. While I was eating I hear the annoying noise of a car horn honking continuously, so I took a look and noticed a car parking by the church at the end of Opatovina (this is part of Kaptol, the old ecclesiatical part of the city, so you can't turn around without tripping over an old church or monastery) with white balloons tied to the mirrors. So, it was obviously part of a wedding party.

Now, to the part that really stuck in my mind. A few minutes later, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Reflected in the tinted glass barriers around the outdoor seating of the restaurant was a flag waving. I stood up to see what was going on (looking very foolish to all the locals enjoying their lunches I'm sure) and there was a guy in front of the church waiving a full sized Croatian flag. As he waived it, people who were taking pictures and chatting started moving inside. So, this was the sign that the wedding ceremony was about to begin. No church bells ringing, but the waiving of the flag.

So, what's the point? The point is, this is how the nation becomes embedded in the day to day life of the people. The nation is at the very beginning of the family. To Americans a wedding is the consensual joining of to people. If you're religious, there is a spiritual element to the ritual, God brings two people together. If you are secular then the state is recognizing two people making a commitment. But here it is also a national act. Social reproduction is national reproduction. Marriage is not just between two people, or God and two people, or the state and two people; it is between the nation, the state, God, and the two people. And as such, every day in marriage is a day in celebration of the nation.

So, there it is, the nation embedded in every day life.

Just an observation.

Ok, I am going to attempt to upload my Adobe software again. The last time I did this my computer crashed and I ended up spending a day reloading all my software (including the basic operating system). If you don't hear from me for a while, you can assume the same thing has happened.

Some more reflections on Zagreb.

The last time I was here (July) Zagreb was a city on vacation, now its a city at work. One thing that I didn't notice last time is the traffic. There was more of it, but not that much more. Now, its terrible. This was a city (at least the part that I'm in, Lower Town) that was designed for people to walk around. Now, everyone has a car, and there simply is not enough space on the roads for people to drive or space in the city for people to park. In Germany, they have solved this with big parking garages on the edge of down town, so you drive into town, park at the edge of the old down town and walk in. Zagreb hasn't had the time nor does it have the space to do that right now (the Germans got a lot of help from the USAAC in urban renovation, so they had empty space to build multi level parking in the 60s and 70s).

The space problem is compounded by the issue of automobile ownership. Based on my conversation with my cab driver on the way to the airport in July, cars are the only big purchase people can get easy credit for, so it is the one way that the average Zagrebite can indulge in conspicuous consumption. So, people buy cars and drive them even though they don't really need them. Now, if someone lives in Novi Zagreb, there is a need. That part of the city was laid out with cars in mind. But Lower Town, and especially Upper Town was never intended to support traffic like they have now.

Bottom line, I don't intend to get in a car, let alone drive one while I'm here. Its faster and safer to walk, and I don't really need to impress anyone by driving 6 blocks to where I need to go.

Getting caught up.

Well, I've been here just about 2 weeks, so its going to take me a few posts to get caught up to date.

I spent the first few days here at the Hotel Central in Zagreb. Its the same place I stayed at when I was here doing my reconnaissance of Libraries and Archives over the summer. It strikes me as very "Yugoslav" both in style and practice. The funny thing is, my friend Fedja stayed there a year ago and had the same impression. Interestingly enough, I liked it and he found it depressing. Both reactions are understandable (for reasons that I wont go into here) but it is an interesting observation on the power of memory, and that the same "place" can have the same identity in people's minds, and evoke such opposite emotional responses.

Welcome to my world.

This is an effort to improve that communications thing that I seem to be kind of bad at (I've been carrying around half a dozen post cards with me for the last 10 days and haven't managed to write a single one). This is very much an experiment, so it may not be successful. My goal is to post now and then, when things strike me. There won't be much earth shattering news in here, just the things that I'd like to share with friends and family, but don't seem to find the time to write up an e-mail about.