The Ballad of Kristian and Elaine

Today we went and registered for our official wedding! I say "official" because, in Croatia, a foreigner cannot be legally married in a church; the couple must go to the county seat, which in Varaždin
  is this violently pink Baroque palace.  (I got this picture from http://www.twip.org/image-europe-croatia-varazdin-downtown-zgrada-zupanije-en-17321-16260.html, where there are some really nice pictures of Varaždin's wonderful town center).  So, we will have the official wedding in the Pink Palace, and then, on August 23rd, the church  (or possibly beach) wedding on the island.

For someone who fears official paperwork (like me), an international marriage looms in the imagination like a nightmare of Boschian proportions.  The paper trail began in Knoxville, where I got a criminal history report (JUST so you know, there's nothing on it!!  :D)  that it turns out I don't actually need to get married but I WILL need for my visa.  Then Austin, where I had to get a new copy of my birth certificate from the state records office (on 44th street or something) and then get an apostille on that document at the Texas Secretary of State downtown.  And I admit without shame that I shed an expatriate tear as I walked past our capitol building flying the Lone Star!

The fun paper was the one I had to get at the American Embassy, though.  This was one of those cases when not having a car WAS a bit inconvenient. I took the early train to Zagreb, which is a two-hour trip but put me there early enough to do a little strolling around and window shopping.  Then I boarded the bus to the embassy and asked the driver in halting Croatian (but correct, consarn it!) which stop I needed, and he answered, "Do you want to know in English or Croatian?" Turns out he used to live in Canada, singing in a klapa group--traditional Dalmatian music, Of which I THINK this is an example: .  He even met his Croatian wife in Canada: they grew up ten minutes apart but had to go to another continent to meet....which just goes to show that there are a lot of crazy "how we met" stories out there.

So anyway, I got to the embassy, signed a paper saying I was single, got it notarized....and discovered that I had to register that paper at the Croatian Ministry of Foreign affairs, located at a square in the center of Zagreb, but no one really knew where that square was!  So I boarded the bus, rode back to the center, phoned the Ministry, discovered they closed at three, hung up and checked the time on my phone: 2:30!!!!!  I rushed out of the station, hailed a taxi, was told by the taxi driver that HE didn't know where that square is, got another taxi.....and got there just in time (the kind people at the ministry stayed 15 minutes late to finish registering me).  It's interesting: in Croatia you pay for official documents by buying a certain kind of stamp (looks like a postage stamp) at a newspaper kiosk.

So, papers in order.....except that my birth certificate is obviously in English, so we went to the official county translator's office.  $200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That really hurt!  Then we had to schedule a time with the interpretor to come to the marriage office when we register ($30 an hour for her).  Croatia has a law that when a foreigner is married an official state interpreter must be present for everything to be sure that the foreigner knows exactly what's happening (or, more likely, in the event of any later breakup of the marriage, to prevent the foreigner from trying to claim that s/he didn't understand what s/he was doing).  Anyway, we got to state that we were getting married voluntarily and that we are not related (that got a good laugh from everyone in the office).

All in all, the whole thing was pretty painless, except for the bleeding of kuna and the panicky few minutes in Zagreb. You never know in Croatia if you're going to show up and need "one more paper," but happily this time everything was in order. So, our official wedding is scheduled for July 17th (a Saturday, for which we must pay a weekend wage to the interpreter: $60 an hour!!!)

Kristian's mom thinks there's something wrong with me for not getting excited about the ceremonies.  ^_^  For me, the real, public, before-God commitment to Kristian really happened when I said goodbye to my friends and family and boarded a plane in Austin.