Pacelines and Pot Holes

Group rides in Croatia are a surreal experience. Rolling up to the meeting point at Lake Jarun in southern Zagreb, I was greeted by a dozen and a half cyclists on steeds that each cost at least twice the price of my Ritchey. From custom Super Record-equipped Colnagos to Looks to Fondriests, it was like showing up at a Pro Tour team training camp. Not exactly what I expected in a country where the mean income is around 1000 euros per month.

Splitting up into two groups (I opted to go with the "slower" one after being told that the "faster" one contained a pro), we headed out of the city. Within minutes we were pedaling through rolling farmland and forests reminiscent of Vermont. We saw more cyclists than cars. Amazing after commuting in the traffic-congested Zagreb. After an hour we made a right onto a single lane road through the forest...no cars...just us and the birds. This is the Croatia that I want to see.

The peace was shattered (literally) when one of the riders pointed out a pothole in front of us. "That is from mortar." What? Mortar? Da (yes). As we spun back to Zagreb, I noticed several houses riddled with bullet holes and a gazebo whose roof had clearly been destroyed by something more than just the local vandals. Even on this idyllic ride I could not escape the region's past. The wars of the 90's hide behind every conversation. Bullet holes and mortar craters can be patched, but clearly some wounds cannot. When I told my riding partner Ivica that I had come to Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia to study peace and conflict, I got a simple but telling response. "We have plenty of that here."

Divisions

In Bosnia children have to choose.
Are they Serb, Croat, or Muslim?
Which textbook do they want?
Which school will they go to?
Which party will they join?
Which bubble will they fill in?
"Bosnian" is not an option.
In Bosnia children have to choose.

Sarma - Traditional Bosnian Stuffed Cabbage

Ingredients:

Cabbage
~1 lb. of ground meat (usually beef or pork)
1 large pickled cabbage (about volleyball sized)
1 cup risotto rice
1 egg
1/2 small onion
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
garlic (powder...to taste)
(also used two dashes of some strange local dried veggie flake mix...smelled like fish food...could probably substitute parsley)

Broth
10 oz. smoked meat (pork I think)
1/3 lb. speck (smokier prosciutto)

Prep:

1. Mix the ground meat, egg, onion, rice (uncooked), salt, pepper, and garlic together...like making hamburgers.
2. Peel the outer dozen and a half leaves off of the cabbage, cutting off the tougher bottom of the stems on the outer layers. Place aside 3.
3. Place ~1 large spoonful (about 1.5-2 ping pong ball's worth) in each piece of cabbage, and wrap like a burrito. Make sure to tuck the ends in to ensure that they don't fall apart.
4. Cut or roughly shred up 1/2 of the remaining cabbage. The rest can be stored for future use.
5. Cut the speck into medium thickness slices...about that of a thicker lunch meat.
6. Line the bottom of a large pot with the three set aside cabbage leaves. Place the wrapped sarma on top of the leaves.
7. Add the smoked meat, speck, and shredded cabbage to the pot, and fill with water until all ingredients are submerged.
8. Cook on a low-medium heat for 2 hours.

Serve with boiled potatoes or a warm potato salad and fresh bread.

Balkan Packing List

For four months in the Balkans:

HD Video Camera
Eyes
Mic equipment
Ears
Obama pins
Voice
Ritchey folding bike
Adventure

Santa Barbara? Like the Soap Opera?

A bus full of seven and eight year old Croatian ski school students is about that last place that one would expect to pick up cultural insight about coping with the wars of the 1990’s. Yet there I was, seated behind rows of neon-orange vest-clad Croatian schralpers hitching a ride back down from Sljeme. One of the ski school instructors, a Dalmatian by the name of Mario, could not help but ask where I was from. I was interrupted before I could even tell him what state Santa Barbara was in. The story that he related was perhaps the most bizarrely coincidental anecdotes I have ever heard.
During “the war,” Mario’s village was completely without electricity. They had a TV in the local bar, but no means with which to power it. One of his friends, refusing to live in a village cut off from such a valuable source of entertainment and news, removed the batteries from his car and rigged them up to the TV. This macgyvered entertainment system brought the entire village together every night to watch the only two programs available in the area during the war: the news, and Santa Barbara, a soap opera set in my home town that no Santa Barbaran (myself included) has ever heard about, much less seen. Santa Barbara, it seemed, was one of the few things that brought Mario’s village together during such tough times. The Santa Barbara frenzy reached such a pitch that members of all of the neighboring villages would come together around Mario’s rigged (now region-wide) entertainment system every week to watch the latest installment. After the war, many across the region even named bars and restaurants after characters from the soap. One woman even paid for a private mass to pray for the speedy recovery of one of the show’s stars after he was hit by a car in the U.S.
Being a Santa Barbaran, and having never heard of the show (Mario was very surprised), I have begun to mention my town of origin to everyone I am introduced to in Zagreb. The response is always the same. “Santa Barbara?! Like that show we used to watch during the war?” How could one show bring together so many people? Was it simply the only thing on? Was there something about the characters that drew people like Mario (ski instructors are not the typical demographic targeted by soaps) back to the TV episode after episode? How did the show impact popular culture during and after the war? What would cause a person to name their business after a character or hold a mass in their honor? Am I just imagining that it was something more than it actually was? Regardless, being from Santa Barbara, I would like to explore this obsession further in my time here, if for no better reason than to finally be able to put a face to these characters that people like Mario keep telling me about.