"Croatia - the summary of Europe. " a Croatia Travel Page by diocletianvs

- 2-letter Internet abbreviation of the country is "hr". This is short of "Hrvatska", which is local name of Croatia. Although I'm sure that you can pronounce letters "h", "r" and "v", I'm also pretty sure that you'll have problems pronouncing them together. (Back to the Internet: Croatia is one of the few countries that has its homepage - www.hr is usually a good start for your hr-Internet search )

- We lived more than 800 years in various kinds of union with Hungary. We don't speak HungaroCroatian. We lived 72 years in union with Serbia. Surprisingly, but we don't speak SerboCroatian either. One of the main elements of our national identity is Croatian language.

- In 1409 king Ladislav sold Dalmatia (coastal part of Croatia) to Venice for 100,000 ducats. That's why guy from Dalmatian island who speaks Croatian with many words from Italian will have troubles understanding guy from Medjimurje who speaks Croatian with many words from German, Slovenian and Hungarian.

- If you learn some Croatian words from a book (like "rajcica" = tomato) you won't be able to use it anywhere: in continental part people will call it "paradajz", on the coast it will be "pomodor". Same goes for skartoc / skarnicl - words for "papirnata vrecia" (official for paper bag you'll need for tomatos :-) And please, if you're coming from the continent, don't refer to the sea as to the water - It's called more.

- Balkans in geographical terms starts south of Sava river. That leaves Zagreb and Slavonia in central Europe. Mediterranean influence is defined with the area where you can grow olives and figs - this includes coastal parts of Croatia. Although you will find many influences (like strong, Turkish coffee which is prepared all over Croatia), if you're interested only in Balkans you'll be quite disappointed here.

- Yes, we were a part of Yugoslavia, which was a socialist country. But we always had our passports to go freely abroad and never had eastern airplanes. You'll have troubles finding someone that speaks Russian since we almost never learned it at schools. Our capital city Zagreb doesn't have a metro built by former Soviet Union, it is situated western (16,0E) than Vienna (16,4E), at the same distance from Paris as from Athens, closer to Madrid than to Moscow.

Europe map: Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection

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- If you drive from Split to Dubrovnik you'll have to pass a border crossing twice. That's because small part of the coast belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina. If you take Zagreb suburban commuter train until its last stop, you'll need a passport since its first/last stop is in Dobova, Slovenia. Pula in Istria is connected by railroad only to Ljubljana (in Slovenia), and not to main Croatian rail network. Croatian port of Rijeka was built for Hungarian export, port of Ploče is used mainly by Bosnian companies. Country's peculiar shape is described as banana, boomerang and bread roll. If you lean your head to the left, you might even see a butterfly!

- Story says that Croats invented a necktie (scarf a la Croate which became known as la cravat). Faust Vrancic (1551 - 1617) from Sibenik invented the first parachute. Ivan Vucetic (1858-1925) from Hvar invented dactyloscopy (fingerprint identification). Nikola Tesla (1858-1943), the father of the radio and electric technology also originates from Croatia. Slavoljub Penkala from Zagreb invented the ball-point pen and fountain pen in 1906. Whether Dalmatian dogs originate from Croatia is widely discussed, but it is for sure that their name is somehow connected to Dalmatia.

- James Joyce was teaching English in Pula from 1904 to 1905. Agatha Christie spent her second honeymoon in Dubrovnik and Split. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was set in Dalmatia. George Bernard Shaw said: "Those who seek paradise on earth should come to Dubrovnik". The first naturists in Croatia were Edward VIII and his beloved Wallis Simpson who were spotted without their clothes in 1936 on the island of Rab. And English still refer to Croatia as to the "Best kept secret of Europe" .!?

Welcome to Croatia - Dobrodosli u Hrvatsku!