I’m nearing the end of a business trip to So-So Capital City in Pretend Balkan Country, the first time I’ve been here. I wouldn’t mind coming back, but this wouldn’t be near the top of my list of places to visit on vacation.
So much of this is so familiar to me as a post-communist place: my language/Cyrillic skills have come in handy; the same sort of communist mentality legacy; nearly everyone smokes during nearly every minute of the day; the cuisine is tasty although the range is somewhat limited; no washclothes in hotels (seriously, bring your own for post-communist countries); and even the same styles of buildings from the late 1800s to early 1900s (Art Nouveau and Secessionist) that you can see throughout Europe from Paris to Sofia. The overlay of Ottoman Empire history is a neat twist on what I’ve seen before, though, but I’m undecided about the local-language version of the Eagles’ Hotel California that has been on heavy radio rotation.
What is new to me is the extent to which the political arrangements here are just pretend. Goodness gracious, I haven’t seen so much pretending since my daughter and her friends dressed up as Disney princesses. Ethnic differences may have been wallpapered over with the assistance of the West, but the differences have become more meaningful, if anything. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to wake up one day and hear on the news that fighting between ethnic groups had broken out, EU and NATO be damned…or to hear nothing because everyone’s OK with pretending…could go either way, really.
