初クロアチア First Trip to Croatia

初めてクロアチアを訪れたのは、2005年にクロアチアのドゥブロブニクを知ってからだいぶ後の2010年の夏。10日間でザグレブ、トラコシュチャン城、プリトヴィッツェ、トロギール、スプリット、ストン、ドゥブロブニクを周りました。

去年あたりからだいぶクロアチアがメディアで取り上げられるようになって、日本人のクロアチアへの理解・関心も高まってきていますが、私がクロアチアへ旅行に行くと言ったときの周りの反応は「大丈夫？旧社会主義国で危ないんじゃないの？」 というものでした。その時の周りの人のクロアチアの認識は「最近まで戦争をしていた旧社会主義国＝貧しい→治安が悪そう」、というものでした。

事実、独立戦争が終わってまだ15年しか経っていないし、まだまだ発展途上の国なんじゃないかな、なんて私も思っていました。初めてザグレブの道路を走った時は、たくさんの車、思った以上に日本車が走っているのにまずびっくり！行く先々でドイツ、イタリア、ポーランド、チェコなどの国からの観光客の多さにびっくり！2005年時点では「ヨーロッパ人の間でひそかなブームのクロアチア」が今では大人気の観光地になっていました。日本にいた時には想像できなかったくらい活気にあふれた国、クロアチア。治安も常識的なことを守っていれば特に心配することのないくらいで、クロアチアはヨーロッパの中でもかなり治安のいい国に位置付けられているようです。

きっと私みたいにクロアチアに対して少なからず思い違いをしていたり誤解していたりする人もいるんじゃないかなぁ、と思います。このブログを通じて、今のクロアチア、クロアチアの本当の姿をお伝えできればと思っています。

It was summer 2010 when I visited Croatia for the first time, after 5 years since I saw Dubrovnik on TV. I visited Zagreb, the Trakošćan Castle, the Plitvice National Park, Trogir, Split, Ston and Dubrovnik in 10 days.

  By the way, it is not easy to take a week off if you work at a Japanese company. Many companies follow the national calender, meaning, employees have day off on national holidays, which we have once in a month average. It's not a problem to take a few days off, but taking a week or two is troublesome. On the other hand, some companies have their own calender, like the company I have worked for. According to my company's calender, we don't have day off on national holidays, instead, it gives us 7 to 10 holiday including Saturday and Sunday in April to March (which we call Golden Week), in August and in December to January.  So, I took a few days off and connected them to the summer holiday given by the company. I think I was very lucky that my boss always allowed me to have a bit longer holiday so that I can travel.

  So, Croatia! When I told my parents, my friends and my co-workers that I was going to Croatia, everyone was so surprised and then started worrying me saying "Is Croatia safe? It's former socialist/communist state, and there was a war fought in Croatia until recently, you have to be very careful otherwise you might have trouble.". I know it sounds ridiculous. Croatia becomes more and more popular since last year, thanks to media picking up Croatia, and I'm sure more and more Japanese understand Croatia. But back in 2010, we have so little information about Croatia and many people misunderstand Croatia. We are so allergic against socialism and communism without knowing why and without understanding what exactly they mean.

  To be honest, I had a bit of doubt before I visited Croatia. I thought Croatia must be still in a process of recovering from the war and could be a poor country. So, I was so surprised to see so many cars, even many Japanese cars, on the road. And also, I'm very surprised to see so many tourist coming from Germany, Poland, Italy, Czech and so on. So, "the secretly popular resort destination Croatia" in 2005 became "the most popular resort destination"! The "real" Croatia was very lively and vibrant, which I couldn't imagine at all while I was in Japan. Also, Croatia is considered as one of the safest countries in Europe.