Walking, the biological ability to simply move our two legs, is something internationally we share and can be defined as a root to our humanity. We learn how to walk as infants from learning from our parents, and they learned from their parents, and so on. Each generation learned from its predecessor and if humanity all derived from a central location then how come hiking (an extreme form of walking) is so different in Croatia than it is in the US? For the answer to this we have to turn to geography, culture, and then history.
The geography of the area, as I have found, is extremely different to what we have herein the US. The countries are smaller, the mountains are rockier, and all around the elevation is lower. The area in which we will be hiking will help to truly show this but the trails we will hike were seemingly impossible to move through until this modern era. The engineering feet of the Premu žić Staza made hiking as a recreational sport possible. This was not the case in the United States where our obstacles were trees and grass; here the obstacles are sheer rock faces that come to sharp points above and below. A little more daunting over there if you ask me.
(a look at "5 fingers" along/on the Bijele stijene trail)
The second aspect to look at is culture. Hiking for days on end is not part of the mainstream culture for three reasons. One, the country is small and you cannot find the amount of true wilderness we possess in the United States this day in age in Croatia. Two, recreational hiking was not made available until more recently and that time has been cut into two segments: pre-war and post-war. Pre-war hiking was growing as a sport but the war halted this progress. Post-war, hiking is having to overcome the halt as well as the land mines. Yes, land mines. May trails along the borders have been shit down due to the numerous land mines set during the war making a small wilderness even smaller. Lastly, culture is shaped by history and the Balkans does not have a history like America does.
Focusing in on the history of the US vs the Balkans reveals that there was no pioneer era in the Balkans. There was no gold rush, there was no giant traverse across the country that shaped a generation and defined a culture in Croatia. Americans are a mobile people and the Balkans does not possess a similar historic background.
This brings me to a bigger realization - everyone views things differently, even if we call it the same term. Its the ultimate question of what if the blue I see is not the blue you see? This is not a literal statement but more of a metaphor, to say when I look at the sky it evokes a reaction to me that is different from any one else's yet it is still the same sky we all consider the same thing despite its uniqueness to each individual. Well this same concept is what I see in the sport of hiking between cultures. It is the same sport, but we play by different rules and it is important to understand not only what their rules are, but also the root cause of why their rules are what they are.
Source: (if you want to read more about the area we are hiking in visit this link)
http://www.summitpost.org/bijele-and-samarske-stijene/154086
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