vineri, 10 iulie 2015

Three things that surprised me the most about Croatia/Croatians

There are million things, but let’s make it easier so I am going to say 3 specific examples.

1.       Are you a robot?/ let’s eat…/let’s have a party

Ok, I am from Spain so since we are human beings when we meet people we kiss and we are kind and we smile a lot so obviously when somebody say “Bok drago mi je” and shake your hands is a bit uncomfortable, even if I knew this before because it is happening in the rest of Europe I am still freaking out how people can be so distant and so cold, let’s make it clear:

Me: “ Hey, ho are you man? Everything ok?”

Random Croatian person : “hey, everything ok, thanks”

Me : “Do you have some plans for tonight maybe?”

Random Croatian person: “Yes, I have some”

Me: “ahh, ok cool, what are you doing?”

Random Croatian person : “I am having some drinks with some friends, WHY??????”

(It wasn’t clear that I wanted this person to invite to join them??)

Let’s eat

Something easy to understand:

Morning-Breakfast
13:30/14:30 lunch
21:00/22:00 dinner

People having dinner when is still sunny? At 17:30/18:00/19:00? Are we crazy or what? I can’t go to sleep if I am hungry and of course I will be hungry if I have dinner at 18:30! Plus it is not healthy to be 13 hours without eating ;)

Let’s party

Party=having fun, forget about problems, talk, drink, eat, dance, do whatever you want to do. NO STRESS

It was quite surprising/annoying/depressing to see how people have a lot of problems just to understand that there is no need to have a reason to make a party:

Me: “We have a party this Friday, would you like to join?”
Random Croatian person: “A party, this weekend? Why?”
Me: “Why? You need a reason to have a party?”
Random Croatian person: “Are you celebrating something or what?”
Me: “Oh, yes, I guess we are celebrating we are young, e are abroad, we are happy and we are ALIVE, do you think is it enough to make a party?”
So we just spread the word all around because you ant to have as much fun as possible but for Croatians live is not that easy little Jorge…
Random Croatian person :“What wait a second? What are we buying?
Me: “Buy and bring whatever you want, this is a party, just relax”
Random Croatian person “Wait, wait, are we cooking?”
Me: “This is a party not a dinner, anyway bring whatever you want, feel free to do it, this is a party, let’s enjoy”
Random Croatian person “What time do you want me to go there, should I invite more people, is it ok if you don’t know them??”
Me “Bring with you whoever you want, there is no need to ask me, this is a party JUST RELAX”
Random Croatian person: “What are we doing after the party, are we going to some club? What time?”
Me: “Go to hell… :D”

Crosswalk

Zagreb, Croatia, random street, 08:00 AM (or whenever….)

An intrepid Spanish guy is about to do something quite reckless, he wants to cross the street using the crosswalk and he thinks some Croatian driver gives a shit about it!!!!

Sorry dude this is not going to happen NEVER, if you want to cross the street you have to risk your life, you should be extraordinary brave, you have to look into drivers eyes and tell them “U picku….” Because, don’t get me wrong, courtesy is not working here, they will be making fun of you if you try just with the “Molim vas…” so, this is my advice:

“You could die in every single crosswalk in this beautiful country so enjoy every second because drivers don’t care at all about you”

3.       English

It was surprising/embarrassing to discover how almost every single person working in a store in Zagreb have a quite better English than mine:

“Oprostite…Engleski…?”

“Yes sure Sir, how can I help you?, just please let me know if there is something that you need, and I have to apologize because I started to talk to you in Croatian I didn’t notice you don’t know my language, anyway if there is something I could help you please let me know. Oh sorry Sir, you may don’t understand me? You want me to speak in German? Italian? Spanish maybe?”


“Ok dude…”


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