The ship recently spent a stint of time providing support for the USS
SAIPAN Amphibious readiness group in Rijeka, Croatia. Now, your
first thought, if it's anything like mine is "Croatia??? Aren't we mauling
malcontents with mighty missiles and manhunting mass murdering madmen there?" (I
know, alliteration is a misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine).
Well, the warn torn villages you saw on CNN bore little semblance to the
forest of modern shops, conveniences, and satellite dishes that confronted
us. It was actually very strange to look upon. Dig up your
favorite stereotypical image of a Soviet Block industrial shipyard
town. Now, take away the gray garbed soldiers with trained
attack dogs, the concertino wire, and the red stars. Add a slew of
new stores that are brightly lit, play some heavy rock and roll music in the
background, and you've got it!
Croatia, as part of the former Yugoslavia was a Warsaw Pact Communist country
just ten years ago. Now it looks to have the same capitalist flavor as the
rest of Europe. The architecture is interesting. The
very latest is modern American. The
post WW2 stuff is all gray box warehouse looking stuff. However, there's
tons and tons of gothic art on doors, walls, windows, roofs, you name it.
Gargoyles apparently figured very heavily in 19th century Croatian decor.
One important difference we noted between here and the rest of Europe is that
food was INSANELY cheap. You want a super complex meal with however
many courses served by a snooty waiter in an exclusive restaurant? Better
bring a $20 with you, just so you can be sure to cover the tip and drinks.
We worked pretty hard supporting the ARG, so there wasn't a lot of time off
to be had for repair department. We did manage to take off on Sunday, and
a few of us chiefs, led by Master Chief "J.C." Clemens managed to win
control of the keys to the chiefs van. With this, we hopped in and drove
all day, just to see what was out there. We found some pretty country
side, some nice old ruins and such, and a lot of BEACH RESORT AREAS???
Who'd have thought?
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The port of Rijeka. Here you
can see nasty drab warehouses( left), new buildings, and old gothic stuff |
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Elements of the ARG coming into
the harbor. A nice show of American muscle. The back ship is
the Saipan. I think that's the USS Austin in front. |
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My best pic of the month, if not
the year. A beautiful Croatian monastery down in a valley. If you
only look at 1 pic on this page, this should be the one. |
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The intrepid adventurers in the
CPO van. From L to R... JC Clemens, Ron Garner, Me, Tim Wood, Chris
Hamlin. |
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Some locals playing chess. A
very cool pic. |
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Some old castle (more like
fort...it's pretty small when you get to it) we saw on the road. |
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The local church right outside of
the shipyard. |
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Inside the church. Forgive
the vignette ring around the outer edge. it was almost pitch black when I
took this picture |
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The streets of Rijeka. |
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A typical store front.
See? did I tell you these guys were into some weird architecture or
what? |
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