Today is the second class of your new four class set. We will begin class with a casual conversation. Our reading this week is about university admissions and our listening is about Croatia. Please underline any words and phrases you don’t know. I have included a transcript for the listening. Please listen and read at the same time. Once is enough. If there are changes in your interview schedule- please let me know.
Click HERE for the reading
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
If you're vaccinated and looking to travel, Croatia wants you. The land of beaches and castles is one of the first European countries to open its borders to vaccinated Americans. NPR's Rob Schmitz qualified for entry and sent us this postcard.
(SOUNDBITE OF AIRPORT AMBIENCE)
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: The Croatian immigration agent is not impressed with my flimsy paper CDC-issued vaccination card. It was filled out in blue cursive by a pharmacist at a Sam's Club in the U.S. more than a month ago, and it looks easy to forge. She's confused when I had my second dose. They write dates differently here.
In the United States, they do the month, day and then the year. Yeah, yeah. No problem.
She shows the card to another agent. They snicker at how unprofessional it looks. And then, she stamps my passport.
(SOUNDBITE OF STAMP)
SCHMITZ: Thank you very much.
She's not the only one getting used to tourists again.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
SCHMITZ: In the coastal city of Split, among the catacombs underneath the ancient palace built for the Roman emperor Diocletian, a soccer game is broadcast over a lonely transistor radio, one of the only signs of life.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
SCHMITZ: Before the pandemic, these catacombs were filled with thousands of tourists a day. But since the pandemic began, Yusuf Khan has sat here alone, surrounded by stone chalices, crucifixes and other souvenirs nobody is buying.
YUSUF KHAN: I lost 90%.
SCHMITZ: Of your revenue?
KHAN: Yes.
SCHMITZ: For one year and three months.
KHAN: One year and three months.
SCHMITZ: Khan, originally from Pakistan, has sold souvenirs at this stand for 20 years. Before the pandemic, he made around $500 a day. But today?
KHAN: It's about $30.
SCHMITZ: The Croatian government has helped him with monthly payments, but even the Split Tourism Board director admits it's not enough. Josko Stella says what's worse is that in the year leading up to the pandemic, Croatia had more tourists than ever.
JOSKO STELLA: We were hoping for 2020 to be the best year of all years because we have Americans coming back, we have the U.K. coming back, we have Chinese coming on, we kept Koreans coming on. I have been in New York Times Square travel show for two years in a row. Everybody was crazy about Croatia, and then, bomb.
SCHMITZ: As a result, Split went from 18 million overnight stays to just 8 million in a single season. Nationwide, it was far worse - an 86% hit on overnight stays for a country that depends on tourism for more than a fifth of its GDP, the most tourism-reliant economy in Europe. Stella says opening the country to the vaccinated is a step in the right direction. He's crossing his fingers for better numbers this summer.
STELLA: Because we can endure one year. We can ensure two half years. But three, nobody can endure. It's crucial this summer because people will lose hope if this summer they don't go on vacation.
SCHMITZ: The few tourists who have made it here enjoy empty beaches and vacant Roman ruins. Yuri Merkulov and Carina Kumina are here on their honeymoon from Russia.
YURI MERKULOV: So it's very, very good time to be here, actually.
CARINA KUMINA: Yes. You can take pictures of every place of interest you want, and there won't be any people there. And you can walk freely, and you can see the locals.
SCHMITZ: And locals now have their hometowns to themselves for the first time in years.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCHMITZ: Hundreds of miles down the coast, inside the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik, life has returned to a quiet pre-tourism existence. The narrow, winding alleys typically filled with tourists this time of year are empty, filled with the sounds of life - a child practicing the piano, a television left on, neighbors chatter.
(SOUNDBITE OF WAVES CRASHING)
SCHMITZ: The ancient city wall perched atop the rocky shores of the Adriatic is usually a big draw here. In the high season, it's so packed that it sometimes takes tourists hours before they're allowed entrance to it.
Where is the gate?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: The gate is here.
SCHMITZ: Oh, OK. I'll wait for you.
Today, I see fewer than a dozen others in my two-hour walk along the wall. And when I'm ready to get off it, it's so empty that I need to find someone with keys to unlock a gate to let me back into the city.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL GATE CLANGING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: You are from what country?
SCHMITZ: America.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Ah. It is on the city wall. It's maybe 5-, 6% of the normal season.
SCHMITZ: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: For instance, not many tourists. Two days ago on the wall, it was 200 tickets sold.
SCHMITZ: And in 2019, he says, it was 5,00 a day.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELLS CHIMING)
SCHMITZ: Back in Dubrovnik's old town, I order a coffee from Petra Ercegovic, whose surname is a tough one for me.
Ercegovic.
PETRA ERCEGOVIC: Very good.
SCHMITZ: Ercegovic. OK, very good.
ERCEGOVIC: Two, three vodka and you will be fluent (laughter).
SCHMITZ: Yeah right (laughter).
Before the pandemic, Ercegovic worked on one of the several cruise ships that arrived daily to the city, spilling out tourists into the old town. I ask her what the city felt like before the pandemic.
ERCEGOVIC: The city was overcrowded. The cruise ships are coming constantly every single day. The airport is very close by. Every seven minutes, one plane was taking off, and every 10 minutes, one was landing.
SCHMITZ: And now, the plaza where we sit, typically filled with a dozen or more tour groups taking photos of the centuries-old church in front of us, has returned to Dubrovnik's residents, several of them children playing a pickup game of soccer against the church wall.
(SOUNDBITE OF BALL BOUNCING)
SCHMITZ: Ercegovic, who grew up surrounded by tourists, says she's never seen local children play here before. She had only heard stories of it.
ERCEGOVIC: I remember my father telling me, like, and then my grandpa even show me the old photos (ph) And in front of this old church, with him playing with other kids (ph) So it was really weird that after so so many years, I can see kids now. And it's a kind of nostalgic, and it's very nice to see them.
SCHMITZ: Though she says she can't wait for business to pick up. It soon will. Spurred by Croatia's opening up to Americans with vaccination cards, both United and Delta Airlines are opening direct flights to Dubrovnik starting in July. And Ercegovic has been called by her cruise ship to return to work in September.
(APPLAUSE)
SCHMITZ: In the meantime, Dubrovnik's residents are taking advantage of the empty city. And tonight, they're putting on an outdoor concert underneath the stars.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Singing in non-English language).
SCHMITZ: The Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra has invited young musicians like this young opera singer from the local high school to perform with them. They typically perform in the Rector's Palace, a 15th century Gothic structure known for its superb acoustics. But not in the era of social distancing.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Singing in non-English language).
SCHMITZ: Instead, they're in the square in front of the palace, watched by a few dozen well-dressed parents, their phones out, shooting video of their children performing with the orchestra. As they play, one of Dubrovnik's ubiquitous alley cats wanders underneath the French horn section, then the violins, before curling up around the leg of a cellist. Nobody in the audience seems to notice. The cats, after all, are local residents, too. And for the moment, everyone here has their ancient walled city all to themselves.
Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Dubrovnik.
(SOUNDBITE OF THOSE WHO RIDE WITH GIANTS' "THE SAFETY OF THE STILL MOONLIGHT")