In the English-language travel press and TV, Croatia is made up of Dubrovnic, Istria, and a titch of Split, with absolutely nothing in between. I'd certainly never heard of Zadar until I married a man who was raised there.
Now our part-time home -- the city on the Adriatic we flee to when the grey winter skies above our homes in New England and Sombor Serbia are too depressing -- has gotten a big fat glorious write-up in the New York Times. Complete with color photo, and a rather nice slideshow, no less.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
US Government Watching Money Wired to Serbia
My husband went down to our local bank in the US today to send some money to Sombor Serbia for home repairs, etc. We've done this occasionally before, so it's no big deal, although you can tell it gives the local bank manager a bit of a thrill; international finance, even our paltry transactions, not being something he is remotely used to.
Everything went routinely. Then a few minutes after my husband returned home, the bank manager called up on the phone. Our transaction had been flagged by the Feds and they had a critical question that must be answered before the funds could go through:
Were we sending this money to Kosovo? If so, it cannot be allowed because it might fund terrorist activities.
We laughed and said, Sombor is on the other end of the country. You go any further north and pretty soon you hit the Hungarian border. You can't expect a small town bank manager in New England to know that. It's impressive enough he doesn't get Serbia confused with Siberia, which is awfully common for Americans.
Anyway, the whole thing felt weird. Being a suspect. Homeland Security. Honestly. Weird.
Everything went routinely. Then a few minutes after my husband returned home, the bank manager called up on the phone. Our transaction had been flagged by the Feds and they had a critical question that must be answered before the funds could go through:
Were we sending this money to Kosovo? If so, it cannot be allowed because it might fund terrorist activities.
We laughed and said, Sombor is on the other end of the country. You go any further north and pretty soon you hit the Hungarian border. You can't expect a small town bank manager in New England to know that. It's impressive enough he doesn't get Serbia confused with Siberia, which is awfully common for Americans.
Anyway, the whole thing felt weird. Being a suspect. Homeland Security. Honestly. Weird.
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