A slice of home 🇦🇷 in Croatia 🇭🇷
Updated: 3 days ago
From food to fingerprints to funky tunes, Croatia has brought me a bit closer to Argentina in unexpected ways.
In Split, Morfar's* tasty empanadas made for great beach picnic food. I had the classic de carne, of course, an "humita" because I miss them so much and a Croat-Argentinian crossover with spinach and potatoes. Chef's kiss!
In Hvar Old Town, I couldn't keep away from Don Armando's Grill, where I savoured a "clasico de milanesa", choripan and a lomito, whilst sipping another must-have classic "fernet con cola". Though not all in one go! On my one night stop in the town, a fellow Argentinian and I delighted in the lomito. And I got a bonus beach recommendation by Celia which turned out to be one of the highlights of my trip :)
Celia is Argentinian, her husband is Croatian, and as you can see they're wonderful people who have created a little slice of home with heavenly food in Hvar Old town - do pay them a visit, even if you're not Argentinian!
Those of you who know me, know that I often plan my days around my meals, and sometimes even my trips! So, forward thinking and always prepared, I asked if I could take away the milanesa club sandwich for my beach trip the next day! Yes, it was as delicious the next day, and Celia had kindly packed in some takeaway chimi and criolla for me to get the full experience - what a treat!
On my way from my self-guided island hopping tour of Korčula's archipelago to the Jelsa Wine Festival in Hvar island, I had an unexpected and unplanned layover stop in Hvar Old Town again after a delayed / missed ferry journey (a story for another day) left me stranded longer and had me re-arrange my day…
Luckily, a chori and fernet nourished my tired, wary soul in Don Armando!
Food wasn't the only connnection to my home country on my only night in Hvar Old Town. I did, as I always do, book walking tour of the town. In true Argentinian fashion I only booked it on Guru Walk about half hour before the tour was due to start. I arrived at the meeting point 10 minutes early, meeting time came and went and I still hadn't seen anyone matching the description of the guide, so. I dutifully messaged on the app a "I'm here, can't find you, have I missed you?" To which I promptly got a call from the guide, Josipa, who explained the tour had been cancelled as other travellers had cancelled earlier that afternoon and last she knew, 1 hour before the start time when she checked the app, there was nobody else booked on... hehehe
I said not to worry, I understood and kindly declined the invitation to join the morning tour the next day as I had a ferry to catch.
Josipa was the loveliest and offered to arrange to still meet me anyway an hour later, either her or her father, the duo run the tours together - I later found out that unlike my expectation that she had joined her father, it was the other way around with her being the first to train up as a guide due to her love of history and her hometown, and her father following in her footsteps after retiring.
Josipa's love for Hvar is apparent as she gushes whilst sharing the history, culture and tips about the town, and I actually became disappointed I had only planned 1 night in the town after hearing her regale me with stories of the place and showing me Hvar through her eyes.
I ended up having a private, personalised trip with Josipa, who upon finding out about my Argentinian roots added a couple of relevant extra stops on the tour.
Queue Ivan Vučetić's museum and family home, as well as a bust dedicated to him on a square in the harbour.
Now, I knew fingerprints were first used to identify people in Argentina, in fact, in my birthplace of La Plata, but I had no idea that the person who had developed the method - building on lots of work and research by other people before him, was a Hvar-born Croat!
Ivan, or Juan as he is known in Argentina, had left his home town to go to Argentina in 1884 and had found work as a policeman in Buenos Aires the first 4 years, then moving to the newly created town of La Plata.
He didn't return to his native Hvar for 30 years!
He worked his way up to inspector, and in 1891 he used the dactylographic method he had developed to prevent a miscarriage of justice by using a fingerprint to identify the correct murderer in a horrific crime, not perpetrated by the originally accused neighbour but by his accuser.
I also had a chance to find out more about Ivan, fingerprints and whether mine is a common or rare type at the home now turned museum of the father of forensic science**.
His family were barrel makers and the museum is the workshop; the place looks now like it looked then pretty much.
There are 4 types of fingerprints, the two at the edges are the rarest types, and the two in the middle are mirror images of each other; these are the most common ones, found in 96% of people. Guess which one I have? Take a look and find yours too!
And that wasn't all... there I was in a different spot of Otok Hvar (Hvar Island), a couple of days later, enjoying the Jelsa Wine Festival and all its gastronomic offerings, listening to a band...
...when I do a double take to listen more intently to the song the band were playing...
"did I just hear them say "Che Guevara"? and yes, there it was again, unmistakable.
Next song they played he opened talking about Buenos Aires and it had airs of tango.
I've since looked up the band and the lyrics and I don't think there's a connection to home, just cultural references made by the artist comparing to Che, but I have found out that I had the privilege to watch one of the most popular Croatian pop singer of all times: Tonči Huljic, - his new band Madre Badessa!
Turns out, I share a birthday with Tonči ! Wild coincidences!
Speaking of wild coincidences...
*Morfar has sadly closed down since writing this post in 2023.
** ok, maybe an exaggeration by other accounts, but he created the first method of recording fingerprints on individuals on file.
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