Sunday, August 28th, was our “Day in the Life” of Karanac. We had a nice breakfast that included the cheese we had made, as well as Goje’s homemade jams. Then we had a pottery workshop with a local potter. We were shown how to build objects up from rolled pieces of clay and told to make something, anything. So I built a little birdhouse, with a tiny clay bird at the top. Needless to say, my ingenious and deeply-felt work of art won First Prize! I was given a gold medal, which was actually a ceramic amulet hung from a ribbon. Mary Joy made a cute little basket, but, well, what can I say?
We said goodbye to Dennis and Goje and took a walk through the very quiet village—it was Sunday morning, after all. We arrived at a restaurant, where we were given jobs cutting meat and vegetables. The restaurant had a sort of open-air museum attached, with small buildings filled with all sorts of antiques from old-time rural Slavonia. There was even a little, old, yellow Ficu car, made in Yugoslavia in the 50s or 60s. One of the buildings was inhabited, by yellow jackets, as one of our people discovered when she was stung on the leg.
While our lunch was cooking, we walked to a nearby winery, where a pair of young sisters introduced us to their family’s wines.
Then we went back to the restaurant, had lunch, and got back on the bus for the long ride to Zagreb, the largest city and capital of Croatia.
After arrival at the Best Western Astoria Hotel, we took an early-evening walk through the town up to the large, rectangular, main square, named after Josip Jelacic, who in the 19th century had led resistance (rather ineffectually) to the idea of Croatia coming under the control of the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There is an equestrian statue of Jelacic in the square. It had originally faced up the hill behind the square, in the direction of Hungary. During Tito’s time, the statue had been removed, as a remnant of Croatian nationalism. Naturally enough, when Croatian nationalists came to power and seceded from Yugoslavia, the statue was put back in place, but this time facing the front of the square, more in the direction of Serbia.
We said goodbye to Dennis and Goje and took a walk through the very quiet village—it was Sunday morning, after all. We arrived at a restaurant, where we were given jobs cutting meat and vegetables. The restaurant had a sort of open-air museum attached, with small buildings filled with all sorts of antiques from old-time rural Slavonia. There was even a little, old, yellow Ficu car, made in Yugoslavia in the 50s or 60s. One of the buildings was inhabited, by yellow jackets, as one of our people discovered when she was stung on the leg.
While our lunch was cooking, we walked to a nearby winery, where a pair of young sisters introduced us to their family’s wines.
Then we went back to the restaurant, had lunch, and got back on the bus for the long ride to Zagreb, the largest city and capital of Croatia.
After arrival at the Best Western Astoria Hotel, we took an early-evening walk through the town up to the large, rectangular, main square, named after Josip Jelacic, who in the 19th century had led resistance (rather ineffectually) to the idea of Croatia coming under the control of the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There is an equestrian statue of Jelacic in the square. It had originally faced up the hill behind the square, in the direction of Hungary. During Tito’s time, the statue had been removed, as a remnant of Croatian nationalism. Naturally enough, when Croatian nationalists came to power and seceded from Yugoslavia, the statue was put back in place, but this time facing the front of the square, more in the direction of Serbia.
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