There is one thing I hate about the center of Zagreb: suits and ties. And loads of them all over the place. This has little, if anything, to do with the Croatian capital as such, for suits and ties can be found in any city, but I still hate the scene. In my mind, the absence of these paraphernalia of contemporary officialdom makes Motovun so much dearer to me than it would otherwise be. Although I cringe whenever I spot someone wearing a suit and a tie in the hilltown, this happens pretty rarely—say, once a fortnight. And it is regularly someone visiting the municipal office in the upper town. But why am I so disgusted by suits and ties? I, too, used to wear them in my heyday! Well, that is precisely the reason for my strong feelings. I know quite well that I wore suits and ties because I was in shackles back then. Add a wristwatch to the accursed gear, and you have a perfect slave. In an act of rebellion, I stopped wearing suits and ties on a regular basis some five years before my retirement, but I got rid of them all once I retired. I was a freeman at last!