-----Original Message-----

From: Dan Burke

Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 4:13 AM

To: Dan Burke

Subject: English Please...

Did you know that people speak different languages

in foreign countries? The brain does a funny thing

when you first land in a different region, where they

speak no, zero, English. Your mind tries to kick on

the back up language -- in my case, that's a fairy

broken-down Spanish.

Someone at a cafe or a gelato stand will blab

something to me and my mind tries to decrypt the

jumble in Spanish, but no Spanish is spoken here, I'm

in Croatia now. It's good for the time when I do go to

a country that speaks Spanish, but that won't be

anytime soon. Funny, I caught an American girl on a

train doing the same thing -- except she was actually

replying to the Croatian ticket taker in Spanish. She

knew it was foolish, but she was hung over, she told

me, and couldn't quite control herself.

Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, is dramatically

different from Ljubljana, the capital city of

Slovenia. I enjoyed both; perhaps more than any other

city in the world. Slovenia is incredibly

sophisticated and wealthy. There is a Venice meets

Vienna thing going on there. And Zagreb is a blown

out, run down feast for the eyes.

The Croatian war-torn coast was boggling as well. The

intense 9-hour trip via bus, through the small towns

and villages that once thrived there, is all but

bullet-holed shells of history past. It was really sad

to see, and Croatia lags far behind the rest of the

developing Easter European countries I have visited so

far. But there is beauty in that, and the geography is

stunning, so that helps.

Just now I'm off to an island called Korcula. It's on

the Adriatic and should be fabulous! Unfortunately,

I'll only be there for 24 hours... then to another

coastal mainland town called Dubrovnik. That should be

cool too.

On Tuesday, Italy. Hummmmm.

Hope you are all well and good.

Love from Croatia,

Danny B.