[Ravnagora]

[SMARTY]

Tito, the only Yugoslav.

[ontap]

All the great things this guy loves involve getting something for nothing....great communist dream that always collapses in the end!!!

[Hotlanta Mike]

Living in Switzerland in the 80’s my mother came to visit in the summer of 1988 and we did a 2 week trip in my car. She wanted to specifically visit the former competing cities of Dubrovnik and Venice for international trade.

So we departed Switzerland for Salzburg, Austria where we spent a couple of days. Then we traveled to Bled in Slovenia which was a marvellous alpine resort area complete with lake and medieval castle.

After a few days there we took the long drive (13 hours) out to the Adriatic coast and all the way down to Dubrovnik where we stayed for 4 days. The fortified old city was fantastic and the Adriatic very pleasant.

Then we took (again) a long drive up the Adriatic coast to Venice, Italy where we stayed for 3 days.

We very much enjoyed our time in Yugoslavia. Of course at the time the food and local wine was plentiful and very inexpensive compared to Switzerland. And the people were courteous and welcoming.

And we felt quite safe with no signs of crime anywhere.

[gitmogrunt]

The heady promises of communism, leave a society smelling like a stale pile of cow manure.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Imagine living in the US and not locking your apartment or house.

We never lock our doors and we live in the USA. Imagine that.

[wendy1946]

Yugoslavia was probably the closest any socialist system ever came to working. The other question is, how well are any of the “states” which replaced it doing now? I mean we all know how well “Kosova(TM)” is doing.....

[kabumpo]

Alex M is either out of his mind or stupid or a commie propagandist. I traveled through Yugoslavia, in what is now Croatia and Serbia. I spent time in Zagreb and Belgrade. The entire country was miserable, smelly and dirty. There were food shortages, clothing shortages. The people were primitive in a way I've never encountered in a Western country. They were unwashed, desperate, fearful.
When we finally got to Turkey, it was a relief to be in what seemed like a civilized and very hospitable country.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

My Dad and I were in Yugoslavia twice before it broke into separate countries. Talk about an interesting, historical country. I loved it. I could write a book on it; therefore I will hit on two short aspects for those who have never been there.

1. There were a few nasty people there. I realized they were the Muslim side. That took me by surprise because I had never dealt with Muslims. Call it innocence on my part.

2. From Dubrovnik, we flew out to Greece. The Dubrovnik airport was interesting. We sat there where we could see planes land. They landed from left to right. It was horrific. In front, on the far side, was a mountain range, which appeared almost on top of the airport. Then there was the landing strip. Then came, in front of us, a very jagged natural wall of some kind of dark volcanic rock. It ran from one end of the landing strip to the other. I thought of the consequences if a plane skidded upon landing.

This is the same airport where the Clintons polished off a plane load of passengers to kill Ron Brown. The Plane was crashed into that very mountain ranged which was hugging the runway.

[Bokababe]

I was there in 1977. Traveled a bit in Croatia, but spent most of my time in Montenegro. I was coming from LA, so it wasn’t quite what I was used to. But then again being a California city girl, Kansas wouldn’t have been what I was used to, either.

Hated the political system — it was stupid, inefficient and everyone hated their job. Trying to buy something or get something done was just ridiculous. I remember waiting for hours at the post office to get a phone call through to Italy. There was a “no smoking” sign for the customers, but the person who waited on you behind a kind of teller’s cage, could blow smoke in your face. Bizarre.

But loved the place, the location and the people. The scenery was magnificent. The people were warm, hospitable and would give you the shirt off their backs. Third cousins would give up their beds to you when you visited, something my own brother wouldn’t do.

Had quite opposite experience of you kabumpo. Everything in Yugoslavia was clean — sheets were whiter than white — and whatever discomfort I had came from expecting there to be a corner 7/11 to indulge my every momentary whim, in a country that didn’t function that way. (But I was frustrated that I couldn’t get Niksicko beer in Niksic, because they exported it all to Europe and the US.)

Yet when I went to Kusadasi, Turkey, the place was filthy and my husband almost got into a tussle when a shopkeeper started pulling at my arm on the street saying, “You must buy from me. I need your money!” I’ve had friends who went to other parts of Turkey and loved it, but my own experience creeped me out.

Hotlanta Mike, yes I flew in and out of Cilipe Airport outside Dubrovnik, too — a memorable take off and landing, to say the least! (My dad’s family was from about 35 miles South of there in the Bay of Kotor.) I remember reading somewhere that long ago, Sydney Portier dumped Dihanne Carrol at Cilipe airport after a tumultuous weekend on Sveti Stefan.

[SQUID]

If the blood sucking British didn’t support Tito there would have been no war in the Balkans.

[SQUID]

By the way, Tito was not Serbian folks.