I feel like I'm on another planet today. Home is like a distant, reassuring memory of people who know me and can confidently recount my strengths. It's not that I feel weak today; I just feel the distance between where I am now and my real intellectual and spiritual comfort zone. I've gone pretty far off the map by now. I truly am happy while travelling, but travelling doesn't affect my humanness. Which is something I'm glad about. I'd rather be nobody but myself, anyway, and it's relieving to be able to understand myself at new angles. Especially now that we've made it to Croatia. To Zagreb.
So far, I do like Zagreb. I love its authenticity. I love its architecture. In Aurite's words, it's Ljubljana with a pulse--a city with little pressure to do anything but hang out, but still, people are out in bars and cafes--there are so many in the main streets--at all hours, including breakfast time. Because of the buzz, I've already gotten somewhat of a sense of the Croatians.
This is the first time I've felt overwhelmed by a new place. Zagreb is not at all overwhelmed by tourism. It's the capital of Croatia. And with that, it's a real Eastern European city. It's very manageable in terms of size and geography, but for the first time, I foresee culture as a possible challenge here. Maybe it's because of the remarkable way people dress. It's different. Women have short haircuts more often than not. Fashion is fantastic. It's skirts, dresses, accessories in a whole different way. And it's great. It's making me and Aurite want to go shopping as immediately as possible. The language is so different it pervades my comfort level here. It sounds sharper and more articulate. Croatian, not English, dominates as it should, and I am getting earfuls of it everywhere I go. It's at once refreshing but also reminds me of my status as a visitor. It's nice to feel humbled by a new place. It reminds me of how much I don't know.
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