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Hi from Dalmatia!
As I am settling into my new environment, in a world that should be much slower out of the tourist season, I realize how time quickly passes by. So, I ended up being late.
I’m late with this newsletter.
I’m late with my Valentine’s Day article.
Still, I’ll share it with you. After I passed by Majerovo Vrilo, a fantastic river source which turned out not to resemble a heart at the moment, I compensated. The result was the compilation of the world’s prettiest heart-shaped lakes. One can, and probably should, visit and enjoy these romantic destinations outside of holiday pressures anyway. So there’s no problem in postponing something you’ve been working on if you deliver.
My heart-filled guide might have arrived three days after Valentine’s Day. But one is never too late to fall in love with nature.
As I’m writing this, I hear wind howling and wild waves boiling behind my window, in the darkness, celebrating their own Mardi Gras. Earlier, the whole building was literally trembling as the strong wind pushed against it, like an earthquake. With nature, it’s easy to feel both love and fear. Sometimes, at the same time.
The local nymph sculpture, which you can normally walk to, is struggling with ever-rising tides. And that pic was taken with an unexpectedly bright sky! But on other days (when I don’t go outside to take pictures), I’m not even sure from which direction the water is coming. Is it raining? Is it just the wind blowing the sea in my face? Or are those Biokovo mountain streams crossing the promenade – splashing against me?
Have you witnessed some extreme weather yourself these days? Or did you manage to find a calm corner to hide?
In other (or very similar) news, this weekend, Croatia chose its representative for a song contest that has a heart-shaped ‘V’ in its logo. Despite Lelek with “Andromeda” being somewhat of a controversial Eurovision pick, it didn’t even have time to matter.
The news has been overblown by a much wilder storm in a cup: Eurovision Live Tour has been cancelled. Well, officially, the EBU announced that they are “postponing” it. Until some inconcrete future. Meaning: indefinitely.
They were Eurovision-style vague in explaining the reasons, calling them “unforeseen challenges” that they “have been unable to resolve”.
Of course, fans have already interpreted this PR blabbering as an escape from responsibility for the fact that tickets had high prices and low sales. Despite focusing the entire tour on only the richest parts of Europe, ticket prices from 55 to 353 euros simply couldn’t have filled up all those big arenas the producers had their eyes on. Eurofan base is shrinking year by year.
We will probably never hear the true reasons from the EBU that loves to hide when the weather gets extreme. Despite being the union of public broadcasters, they are not keen on implementing full transparency in their communication and actions.
For illustration, I sent my press questions on the criteria for choosing the tour locations on January 20. Almost one month later, still nothing. Just like they went quiet on the question of Israel‘s participation, they chose to be united by silence even when defending the live tour project they believed in. It seems there is no strong enough person in the team to handle communication in a crisis.
And all I wanted to know was why they ended up eliminating half of Europe with an invisible iron curtain. This could have been a great moment for them to score – “We cancelled the Western European tour to focus on uniting the entire continent by music”, is something we won’t hear them say.
Well, I wouldn’t hear them say it even if they tried. This crazy Croatian winter wind is having a loud Shrove Tuesday party outside.
Enjoy some slow and silent time, if you can.
Have a quiet week,
Ivan Kralj
Pipeaway.com
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