#5: 30-Jul-08 Politics in Croatia (B)

30th July 2008
Pula
Entering Pula, the administrative capital of the Istrian peninsular of northern Croatia, was like entering a war zone. Buildings on either side of the natural harbour had only broken windows and were obviously deserted. We were arriving as the sun was setting and it was eerie sailing through this desolate landscape. We could see the large cranes of the shipyard ahead and a very industrial looking port but no evidence of, what was described to us by one of the 68,000 residents, the most beautiful city in the world.
Our informant, who worked in one of the chandleries and was at the time selling us a replacement water tank (yes, we still have not managed to stop the incessant leaking of our fresh water into the bilges) told us many interesting things, some which contradicted and others that reinforced our other sources. He told us that the Italian occupiers during his grandfather’s lifetime forced all Pula residents to change their names to an Italian form and now he has many relations in Italy though he was actually of Slovak extraction (confirming our guidebook assertion that Pula was Italian between the wars but denied by the marina man). He had strong views on Croatia joining the EU. He said there is a lot of corruption at the top level of politics (confirming what we had read on Wikipedia), that they shouldn’t consider joining the union until Croatia had sorted itself out. His opinion was that nothing worked in Croatia at the moment (confirming a view held our taxi driver in Zadar) and needed a sea change in the political landscape and at least 15 years to sort. His main concern was that currently he is paid 4,000 kuna (we assumed a month) which is £440 (the average salary is currently 7,000 Kuna per month in Croatia) – he is afraid that with the Euro prices of goods would rise significantly but his salary will stay low due to the influx of people prepared to come and work for even lower salaries. This, he said, is what happened in Italy. But he finished with “Pula is the most beautiful city in the world, I know I have seen many, and to be honest so long as us Croatians have the sun, sea and a little money we are happy”.
Our journey to Pula from Rab had been a little eventful. I decided to give fishing another go while we sailed and had changed the configuration of the hand line. As I fed out the weights and hooks I watched with horror as a hook got caught on my finger and then in slow motion the weight fell off the hand-reel and pushed the hook right into my flesh....my finger was well and truly caught! We tried pulling it out, cutting it out, considered leaving it in (that was my idea!) and in the end I thought “I need to phone a friend”. Jon (bless him) said “this call must be costing you a fortune” and I thought “I don’t care .. I have a fish hook in my finger”! His suggestion of pushing the hook right the way out again and cutting the barb off worked but did make me feel decidedly queasy. I was not much use for an hour or two while I swooned in the cockpit. Later when I was comparing fish stories with a local fisherman from whom we bought fish, he took one look at the tiny hole in my finger and said “but your husband could just kiss that better”.
Pula was the smelliest place we have been on this trip. We abandoned our first choice of anchorage as I really could not have eaten my dinner there, the second was only slightly better but the view was improved. We anchored in sight of the most complete and the sixth biggest amphitheatre in the world, next to a wooded area and close to a flock of sea birds feasting on the most fish I have ever seen and we began to see the beauty of Pula. The old city is ancient with complete Roman buildings, and many well preserved remains including the original roads still in use (and I mean the flagstones are still on the original roads). However, it is not like Rab, which obviously has money. Pula is relatively poor and a bit rougher around the edges, despite its unbroken inhabitation for over 2000 years; we saw many abandoned projects; housing in parts is slum-like, though quaintly ancient.
We discovered that this is where Tito had his stronghold and all the abandoned buildings, that we had seen on the way in, belonged to his military. No one wants them now. I felt they had missed a trick because there were many “70’s - modern” hotel complexes and all these derelict interesting and very large buildings that needed a use. As we left though we did feel that we hadn’t given Pula a proper chance as it was beginning to grow on us.