In 1987 I spent four months backpacking through Europe, of which roughly three weeks were devoted to roaming Yugoslavia, the nation in the Balkans created following World War I, and dissolved during the horrendous civil wars of the 1990s.
Yugoslavia’s components of Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo are now independent. I touched ground in them all except the latter two.
Yugoslavia was a budget-friendly place to travel, which is to say ridiculously cheap. In sort of a socialist precursor to Airbnb, ordinary people were allowed to offer “private rooms” for let, and these usually cost the equivalent of $5 a day. Riding trains and buses, which also were inexpensive, I was able to cover a fair amount of ground, and based on my stock of knowledge at the time (I knew so very little), most of the “must sees” were viewed.
But in retrospect, quite a lot of worth was omitted, like the city of Split. It is a port on the Adriatic and one of the principal cities in the historic Croatian region of Dalmatia (in essence, coastal Croatia). I missed Split without regrets in 1987 because Dubrovnik had been declared a personal priority, and it was in fact marvelous.
Yes, this took place prior to Game of Thrones.
The modern city of Split has a unique foundation story: “Diocletian’s Palace was built at the end of the third century AD as a residence for the Roman emperor Diocletian, and today forms about half of the old town of Split.” Talk about adaptive reuse.
Had there been time, I’d have visited both Split and Dubrovnik. Fortunately bucket lists circle back around so long as you’re above ground, and the time for Split is now.
It has taken only 37 years for me to correct this Yugoslav-era omission, and as you read these words I’m likely sipping on a Karlovačko beer even if it is widely condemned as an uninteresting Euro Lager by most beer enthusiasts.
However, I’m counting on uninteresting Euro lager to prompt comforting nostalgia, and as such, am perfectly capable of suspending my standards (and insisting that this and other beers of like style in Europe typically out-perform the dull awfulness of Miller High Life and Coors Banquet).
Yes, I drank a few beers in Yugoslavia in 1987, often following my cost-cutting strategy of sourcing half-liter bottles in groceries and markets. There may have been a dark lager in there...Read more
