The weather in Zagreb has been funny the last few days. It is sunny and warm most of the time, but the bliss is occasionally interrupted by short and increasingly violent storms. Much rain comes down in a quarter of an hour or so, and the old gutters cannot swallow it fast enough. Many streets and squares of the Croatian capital become like rivers and lakes for a few minutes. Passing cars look like speedboats, too. Just after this morning’s storm, I walked past a short and porky woman in her forties. I had an ample umbrella, but she held a large book over her head. It looked like an encyclopedia. I cringed at the sight, but then I heard her sigh of desperation: “God almighty!” Her hairdo was much more important to her than the encyclopedia, which most likely comes from about forty years ago. Communist crap, anyhow. Still, she knew that she was committing a sacrilege of sorts, whence the loud sigh for all to hear.