4.22.98

What about Zagreb?

If you keep an eye on international news you might have noticed that, from time to time, here in Germany, there are various racist incidents. If not, let me explain:

Germany is, due to wars, ethnic and/or political prosecution and many other reasons, home to a great number of Turkish, Albanian, Ex- Yugoslavian and other immigrants from near regions. As mentioned in my last column there are unfortunately still a couple of people in Germany still believing we had it better during the Third Reich and so they think it is their duty to 'clean' Germany. Luckily they haven't been very effective even though they keep setting fire to immigrants homes etc..
Now what does all this have to do with me and a trip to Croatia? Well, one of my friends frequently using four urethane wheels mounted to a wooden board as a means of transport wasn't born in Germany but came here in the early nineties. He's Croatian.

When he asked me late last year whether I wanted to join him on a trip still thinking it might not be so safe to go there without an AK or some other sort of protection in case the war broke out again down there but he kept on asking and so after talking to him and others about the dangers, etc. I finally said 'yes'. Although he'd told me the skate scene where we were going (Zagreb, the Croatian capital) was quite good I wasn't sure what I was in for. We left our home of Feising, Germany on Friday the 3rd of April and, after approximately eight hours in a van, ended up in Velika Gorica, a suburb of Zagreb, where we were going to stay for a week. On Saturday, ready for any bad surprise, I took the 15 minute busride into Zagreb and all my prejudged images of this country turned out to be mere superstition. No bomb-craters along the way. No gunmen hiding in the supermarket. One question left: Will there be skateable terrain? All my friend had told me was true: Compared to our hometown, Zagreb is a dream for streetskating. Although there would have been much more, we only skated one spot the whole week because it was so much fun. If you ever come to Zagreb be sure to go to 'Muzej Mimara'. It's the center of all skateboarding there. You'll most always find skaters here that will be glad to show you around a bit. Zagreb also has two skateshops (you can mail me if you'd like the addresses). The owners are really cool. Don't be scared if you can't speak Croatian. I can't either and most of the people there can speak English at least a little bit so I got through pretty well. It was a really cool trip and I'd definitely go there again.

-Alfred Hochrein