Croatians live in Paradise! The water everywhere is clean and crystal clear, the light bright and the air fresh and smog free. The skies are always more blue than not and there is rarely any rain and never a breath of wind. See Paradise!
Great, right? Rosie is not sure they realise how lucky they are. Because no one smiles in Croatia. No one looks happy. The ladies here, countrywide, have perfected, and are all total Queens of The Resting Bitch Face.
Rosie has never seen such outwardly beautiful woman, young and old, look so unapproachable, sour, grumpy and down right mean with the world all at once. The men are the same…just not so poisonous looking.
Rosie has observed that there seems to be fewer children here in Croatia than in other countries. Maybe The Bitch Face is something the men…uuummm… have trouble penetrating as well.
Lets face it, Rosie is a smiler. Who doesn’t smile back when someone smiles at you? Well, Rosie can answer that one. Rosie would be lucky if 5% of Croatia responded to Rosie wanting to share her happiness. Even Rosies smile is faltering a little, but she preservers.
What makes a whole country so sour with the world or unresponsive and untrusting to strangers? Rosie wonders if she dropped in the street would everyone just have stepped over her? Is the whole not smiling thing just the tip of the iceberg, does it extend to a general indifference and insular not caring about your fellow human beings? Rosie has not noticed general courtesies and niceties being extended here either. Everyone just seems to go their own way, do their own thing and minds their own business in their own bubble. Are their own lives that unhappy that’s all they can outwardly reflect…surely a whole nation can’t feel this way? If moroseness is a cultural norm, Croatia has it nailed.
Rosie cannot believe this… surely a smile is natural, sometimes contagious…a deep primal muscle memory even, something you cannot switch off. Croatia sadly has.
Maybe they have forgotten to look around and smell the roses, and take a breath of that beautiful fresh air. They have so much to be grateful for living in this beautiful slow paced Paradise….that alone should put a smile on your face automatically. Or, have the trials of everyday Croatian life that Rosie doesn’t understand eclipsed the ability to smile? Rosie would be sad to think the Paradise is the Problem.
