Perhaps it was a combination of the two. While one of my travel companions from our trip to the Balkans three weeks ago was forced to move on after a two-day fling, another was feeling the love pangs more deeply with every video call. The Museum of Broken Relationships is the most visited museum in Croatia, the guide happily tells us.
Also Read: Travel: The myths and legends of Ibiza. Across the street from it is a fancy restaurant, one of the most romantic spots in the city. At the end of the street is a church, one of the more popular locations for weddings.
The road has old-fashioned gas lamp street lights, lit with a lighter by a city worker every evening. And then there is the Museum of Broken Relationships. Danielle from Belgium had received that cycle from her partner, who had picked up a new bike. Along with the new bike, he found a new woman too. Then came a pink, home-made vibrating dildo. When he left, she sent it to the museum. A couple of old sexy, lacy bras, one black and one white, yellowed by time, followed the dildo.
The bras were from a woman who associated her womanhood, appeal and beauty with her breasts. She had to get them removed owing to cancer; it strained her relationship with her body and led to emotional turmoil. As I moved through the four-room museum, seeing the exhibits and reading the storiesβsome short, some long, some tongue-in-cheek, some reminiscing about the good times and some outright sadβit took me beyond the obvious romantic relationship, to other kinds of bonds.
Or the rubber gloves sent from South Korea by a woman who was forced to clean, cook and care for her in-laws. Finally, she put her foot down and insisted her husband and she move out. There is a pair of basketball shoes, symbolic of a friendship gone sour. For the exhibits also showcase how desperately we try to cling to relationships.
