The statue of Josip Broz Tito (1891-1980) is just outside the house where he spent many of his vacation days in the Croatian town of Karlovac, outside of Zagreb.  Following WW II Tito kept all of the republics together under the name of Yugoslavia, meaning, "south slaves."  Even though he had been dead for some time, I saw pictures of him in every store, cafe, gasoline station, school, and anywhere you could imagine a shop!  He was revered by the Croats.  Unfortunately, now there are former Communists in the new Croatian government following the death of Tudjman.  Worse than this, in Serbia, Milosevic ("Hitler No. 2") is hoping to run for the Presidency in that Republic!

One of my favorite Hungarian restaurants is 'Carda' situated in the outskirts of Zagreb.  Needless to say, it is not difficult to make friends of both genders in Croatia and here I am celebrating a birthday in August surrounded by two gypsy musicians, my cousin Nikola in the background and the bass player you will see in the next page.  He wanted me to have a memorable birthday and he knew this would do it, even under the watchful eye of my favorite cousin!