#1 – Time Out Croatia

We provided numerous pictures to Time Out Croatia for their current magazine issue, in exchange for our contact details being published, and they chose one. But imagine our shock when we opened the new issue to see that they had put our picture (seen above), uncredited as well, right next to a paragraph of text extolling our competitors, Adriatic Kayak Tours.

The saga continues…

#2 – Arista Nautica

The leut, Labud, is finished and ready to be launched. But she still sits in the shed at the Arista Nautica yards in Vranjic.

Why? Because two personal friends of David Hicks (one of the yard’s owners), Tim Jarman and Giles Weston, were doing the wrong thing by us business-wise – so we told them to pull their heads in or we would go to the police. The cowards got worried – as they are unregistered to live in Croatia – and ran to David. He demanded we pay $US20,000 before we can remove our boat from the shed. This was done in the hope we would be scared and leave his friends alone.

We told him to keep the boat and that we will see him and Don Marshall (the other owner) in the criminal and civil courts. There are no contracts between us and I have done in the last 12 months three design projects for David and Don and not asked for a cent.

The saga continues…

#3 – Motovun Elections

Local elections were held across Croatia on May 17. We made the pilgrimage in Motovun to vote. Our friend, Ranko Bon (seen below kissing the obligatory baby (Roklan)), was standing as a candidate for the Green Party in coalition with the Social Democrats. His candidacy was part of a continuing campaign to sustainably improve Motovun (and stop the proposed Jupiter Adria golf development).

The results were not as we had hoped. Firstly, the current mayor and IDS candidate, Slobodan Vugrinec, was returned. Secondly, Ranko didn’t earn a position on the town council.

Across Croatia there was a movement away from the center-right parties (HDZ and IDS) but the center-left party (SDP) didn’t pick up the vote – secondary parties and independents did. So in Motovun it wasn’t all bad news – IDS lost 3 seats (from 9 down to 6), SDP/Greens also lost a seat (from 4 to 3 (Ranko was 4th on their list)) and a new independent party got 4 seats. These Motovun independents, before the election, had voiced their concerns about the golf development – so we have to wait and see.

Mayor Vugrinec has already thrown a tantrum, stating he no longer wants the position if he doesn’t have an absolute majority in the town council!

The saga continues…

( In Split, after earning over 45% of the initial vote, Kerum will be in a run-off this weekend – which he is likely to win – and become our next mayor.)

On the telephone today I asked Ranko Bon to provide a short update in regards to Jupiter Adria’s golf course resort proposal in the valley below Motovun. He did more than that – and wrote a full account of recent events there, including local press reaction, on his Residua Blog.

Last June we mentioned (here) a March decision by a commission setup jointly by the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Culture to vet Jupiter Adria’s proposal. The commission requested that the number of beds in the accommodation around the course be halved (from 600 to 300).

Jupiter Adria refused to swallow this decision – and so the ‘behind-the-scenes’ pressure began.

Firstly, the Ministry of Culture was seemingly side-lined. Golf courses today don’t have the environmental impact they once did – new grass species have reduced the water and chemicals required for their maintenance – and the same can be said for the resort development surrounding. But convincing the Ministry of Culture that a development of the size planned was not going to affect Motovun in more subjective ways, such as hurting the truffle gathering or have a dramatic visual impact, was going to be too difficult for the pro-Jupiter Adria camp.

Secondly, the Mayor of Motovun, Slobodan Vugrinec, in October turned the simple administrative process of the public discussion of the environmental impact study into a pro-resort political rally packed with supporters to try to impress the local media.

Thirdly, the makeup of the commission was changed. As mentioned in Ranko’s piece, the president of the commission, Dr Velimir Simicic, was fired, and replaced, by the Minister for the Environment Marina Matulovic-Dropulic, with a petty bureaucrat. Dr Simicic, far from being a rabid, tree-hugging, anti-development ‘greenie’, is well known for his pro-golf stance (writing a 1995 golf and tourism piece) but was against this particular development.

Lastly, strangely, other commission members began to change their minds.

So on January 29 it was announced that the commission passed the proposal, although 3 out of 9 members were still opposed to it.

One of the 3 members in opposition was Zlatan Juras. He is also not a ‘pinko’, sandal-wearing lentil-eater. He is Croatia’s first international golf referee, a past member of the national team (Captain at previous European and World Championships), the founder and first president of the Committee for the Rules and Amateur Status of the Croatian Golf Federation, and the chief editor of the Croatian golf magazines Golf World, Golf Magazine and Crogolf.com. If anyone in the whole world would support a golf course in Croatia it would him – but no! – he opposes Jupiter Adria’s unsustainable proposal!

On March 26 the Minister for the Environment announced that it was ratifying the commissions decision. Jupiter Adria is now one step closer to starting the bull-dozers.

Recently other cases have shown that the Motovun result is not unique in Croatia but rather a symptom of weak governance where officials can either be easily convinced of the benefits of such-and-such proposal, easily be bullied by EU officials or simply bought off with foreign money. Rockwool, an EU insulation company, recently commissioned a polluting factory in Istria that received generous tax and environmental breaks; local environmental inspectors were warned by Zagreb to stay away from a Polish-owned metal recycling plant in Split, which has been spewing noxious gases daily. An asbestos factory (Salonit) in Split and two cement works in Istria, which burnt toxic Italian waste as fuel, have only just closed.

As Croatia rushes to join the EU it is also fast becoming its Mexico!

A secondary reason for us coming up to Motovun this weekend was to help our friend Ranko Bon form a local branch of Green Party – Green Alternative (Zelena stranka – Zelena alternativa) here to fight against the incumbent mayor, Slobodan Vugrinec, in the up-coming local elections.

For years the town council has not felt the need to run its affairs transparently – the primary example being the way Adria Jupiter’s golf course development was corruptly pushed through.

Is Ranko to be our Obama, and give us all renewed hope?

After a day of running around trying to finish our house in Motovun we got back to the apartment we are renting in town and all crashed in front of the television. On the screen, flickering back at us, were images of Motovun. At first I thought it was a tourism advertisement, but then I saw Jackie Chan!

It turns out that he made film Armour of God in Motovun and other parts of Istria in 1986. To tell the truth – the film was awful (and so were the fashions). But it is famous for one incident.

Jackie is renown for doing his own stunts, and the end of his films regularly feature out-takes of him hurting himself while filming. But in Armour of God he nearly died.

Jackie is quoted as saying, “I was filming the movie in Yugoslavia and I fell from a tree. I had to jump from the branches onto a castle wall. I did the first jump and I landed OK but the take wasn’t quite right. I wanted to land like a monkey. So I went for it again and this time the tree just snapped. I fell for ages. I could see the cameraman and I was hoping he would catch me but he was so worried about the camera that he just ran away. I had blood pouring out of my ears it was a pretty serious accident.”

He landed head first on rocky ground, fracturing his skull. He was to surgery and still has a plug covering the hole the accident left in his head. Most of us come away from Croatia with just bad sunburn and a hangover.

Last week the Sabor (Croatian Parliament) passed legislation dealing with golf course developments.

Currently it is very difficult to organize a large parcel of land in Croatia for a golf resort as the country is divided into numerous small plots, many of which are owned by numerous owners, who may also be dead or living overseas. The newly passed law is a heavy-handed attempt to break this impasse.

The new law allows the government to use ‘eminent domain’ to confiscate land from its owners if a golf course resort is proposed nearby and the land is required for the development, even if the owners don’t wish to sell. There is no right of appeal.

The HDZ-controlled government, with Premier Ivo Sanader, is desperate to stimulate the Croatian economy and is hoping for a golf-led recovery; it is under pressure to create jobs, as the EU is forcing them to privatize the bankrupt state-owned ship-building industry, and they are struggling for ideas. The problem with Croatia as a golf tourism destination is that its climate isn’t conducive to a long golfing season, and it doesn’t have a golf-playing local population; its foolish to base a future economic plan on building these resorts.

The situation smacks of overt corruption – several golf developers have given sizable donations to HDZ and a local Istrian law firm, who has a number of large golf developers as clients, had a hand in drafting the legislation.

It seems that there is now no way to prevent Jupiter Adria from building its resort below Motovun. The advice from a government-convened committee has been ignored by the Environment and Culture Ministries and all other methods of blocking it have been circumvented, so its construction will go ahead.

This new law is another example of people’s basic rights being eroded in Croatia. Recently free speech has being attacked with the arrest of a Facebook user critical of the government, and several civil cases being brought against anti-corruption bloggers, including Ranko Bon (here and here), our friend in Motovun. Ranko is being sued by Motovun’s Mayor, Slobodan Vugrinec, for his scribblings, and the law firm representing the Mayor is same that advised the Government on the newly passed golf legislation!

Other political problems for Premier Sanader include assassinations in Zagreb of anti-organized crime reporters and a well-connected lawyer, and Slovenia blocking Croatia’s ascension to the EU.

Motovun Film Festival

Celebrating its 10th birthday is the Motovun Film Festival. What started as 5 guys with 5 films has grown into Croatia’s most interesting festival.

From its press release:

“For its jubilee-edition, Motovun Film Festival has prepared the most ambitious program so far. From 28 July to 1 August, the tenth anniversary of the festival and the 100th anniversary of Russian film will be celebrated in this small Istrian town on top of a hill. Screening of more than 100 films will heat projectors up until they turn red. Numerous guests will have a chance to have fun on concerts and on the opening of the new cinema and make a toast with vodka for at least this many birthdays more!

In gratitude to the audience who has been coming to Motovun from all over the world for ten years, we made sure this year’s program would break a number of records. We will show more than 100 films, 28 of which in the main program. We will open another day cinema, dedicated to the grand jubilee of a great cinematography – the 100th anniversary of Russian film.

With 16 screenings on 5 screens every day, the Motovun theaters will be working non-stop from 10 a.m. almost to the daybreak of the next day. The night from Thursday to Friday, they will be working absolutely non-stop: film reels will keep turning for 40 hours.”

Grožnjan Jazz Festival

Since 19th July and with plans to finish on 3rd August, at 9pm each night, the Istrian town of Grožnjan has been hosting jazz music performances.

Grožnjan became known in the 1970s as an artists’ and musicians’ colony. In those days none wanted to live in the towns from which the Italians had been removed at the end of WW2.

Today, during the summer months concerts and music events are held almost every day – everything from classical to jazz. Walking through the town during the day, youngsters can be heard practicing in many rooms as Grožnjan also houses an International Cultural Centre of Young Musicians.

Diocletian’s Days

Over last weekend, numerous Splicani ventured out into the streets in their bedsheets. They were celebrating the life of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, whose retirement palace stands at the centre of their town. Music was played at various sites around the town and then a large banquet, featuring accurate period meals, was held in the palace’s basements. This year’s attendance was down, as instead of the meal being free, a ticket cost 650 kuna.

A new pizzeria just opened in Motovun – Propeler, for which they had a party last weekend. It means Motovun now has 3 places to eat year around – Pod Voltom, Propeler, Mondo (as it is now named – it was Barbacan).

Pod Voltom is standard Istrian konoba fare – thick soup, steaks and pastas. In the summer they have tables with the best view in town underneath the town’s loggia. Mondo is slightly more experimental, with dishes such as steak with banana sauce.

We had an excellent meal with some fellow expatriates-and-now-Istrian-home-owners, Michael and Marijana, at Rino’s in Momjan. Rino’s has a simple menu of soups, pastas and meats – no complaints at all.

Other favorite Istrian restaurants of ours are Plavi Podrum and Le Mandrać in Volosko near Opatija or Valsabbion near Pula (try their tasting menu).

Michael and Marijana wrote down their tips for dining in Istria. They included Pietropelosa and Tonćić in Zrenj, Dolina near Livade, Toklarija in Sovinjsko Polje, Astarea in Brtonigla, Maslinova Grana in the castle above Buje, Nono in Petrovija and Agrotourisme in Završje. It is good to hear about others happy dining experiences in Istria. We had become a little concerned that Istrian restaurants weren’t performing to their reputations, after we had bad meals at Zigante, Ponte Porton and Konoba Oprtalj. We will have a bit of research to do next time we are in the area.

This week we returned to Motovun and Istria; it has been a long time since we were there in the summer.

Our house renovation continues under Gino’s supervision in Motovun. The exterior rendering has been completed and the floor structure is in. They have added the interior plasterboard walls and ‘roughed-out’ the electrical and plumbing work.

Ranko Bon, the town’s dilettante, held one of his famous Terrace Sundowner Parties. The terrace in front of his house has a unmatched view across the Mirna Valley below Motovun. For a small town, Motovun has a real international community during the summer months – Americans, Australians, Germans, Italians, Danes and even Iranians.

In the small village of San Mauro near Momjan is the Sinković Winery. In the valley near Momjan are the 2 local wine producers that we like the best – Kozlović and Kabola. Now we can add a third. The Sinković Zlato just received the Champion’s Medal at the recent Zagreb Fair – making it apparently the best wine in Croatia. Zlato is made from the local white grape – malvazija. While there Aklie made a new friend, Jack the 12-year-old truffle-sniffing pig – though it took them some time to warm to each other. Truffles are usually unearthed by dogs in Istria, but the Sinković’s use Jack.

Hidden down below Motovun, on the road to Brkač, is the Motovun Ranch. It is run by our friend’s ex-husband. The ranch is over 10 hectares set in an undeveloped valley. They organize lessons, single-day and multi-day tours.

Stephan and Verena, two vagabond German artists, held an opening party for their latest work in a previously dis-used space in Motovun. Each year they arrive in a different town and rummage through its history, rubbish bins and closets looking for usable information, ready-mades and skeletons. Their Motovun-inspired artwork (collages, oils and sculptures) can be seen on their website. The summer-swelled population of Motovun all turned in support.

We went to visit the Hotel San Rocco in Brtonigla, Istria. It won the award for the best small hotel in Croatia for 2007. They renovated several buildings into one new complex including a restaurant, wellness centre (every hotel in Croatia now seems to have one of these) and indoor and outdoor swimming pools. They have finished everything to a top level and the restaurant has some interesting dishes using local produce.

Istarske Toplice uses the water from the Saint Stephan Spring – apparently the Romans even enjoyed bathing in it. We always visit it for a swim whilst we are in Motovun – its just down the road. The hotel complex is still very Communist in the level of quality and service it provides – but the spa was recently renovated and makes for a warm dip in the middle of winter.