Nearly three weeks ago I went to the Croatian Telecom office in Pazin, the capital of Istria, and asked for several telecommunications services: wide-band land-line for my house, connection to the Internet, and mobile phone. I got a new mobile phone subscription on the spot, but I am still waiting for the other two connections. Whenever I mention my long wait, people shrug their shoulders. “It’s vacation time,” they comment helpfully. Actually, I had been warned about this when I submitted all the necessary forms in Pazin. Today I wrote to the Croatian Telecom headquarters in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, but I suspect my intervention will turn out to be pretty useless. Chances are there will be no-one there to open the mail. To my surprise, I feel the lucky bastards who are still on their vacations deserve the break. I can certainly live a while longer with the break in my own telecommunications.