Initial meetings use a standard formal greeting which includes a handshake, eye contact and a suitable salutation for the current time of day. Only friends and family member use first names so in all other cases, unless advised otherwise, it is wise to use a title and surname. [Read more...]
Croatian Sports and International Sporting Events
February 17, 2011 By
Football is the most popular team sport in the country and is called ‘nogomet’. Their modern international team was formed in 1990, and by 1993 they had been granted membership to both FIFA and UEFA. Prior to this the Croatians played for the Yugoslavia national football team and Croatia did not have a separate team for international matches. [Read more...]
The Seven World Heritage sites in Croatia
February 10, 2011 By
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has named seven sites in Croatia as part of the World Heritage. Places named by UNESCO are those that they feel hold special cultural and or physical significance. [Read more...]
Education in Croatia
February 6, 2011 By
roatian education is for the most part government sponsored, meaning that all primary and secondary schooling if free. In some cases if a student does well enough at secondary school their higher education will be free as well. [Read more...]
Croatian Music
February 3, 2011 By
Croatian music is a mixture of two main styles, Central European and Mediterranean. Both pop and rock are highly rated among the Croats and they even introduce a subtle hint of Dalmatian and Slovenian folk music to the mix. From the 20th century to present day both schlagers (pop music of central and northern Europe) and chanson (lyric based French music) have been instrumental in the sounds of Croatia’s popular music scene. [Read more...]
Croatia’s People, Religion and Language
January 31, 2011 By
The vast majority of the 4.4 million people who live in Croatia are in fact Croats; however there are a number of minority groups such as Serbs, Hungarians and Gypsies. The main observed and practiced religion is Roman Catholic but there are others such as Orthodox Christian, Jewish and Muslim. [Read more...]
Recent Croatian History
January 27, 2011 By
In 1980, when the Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito died the demand from the Croatians to be given their independence once again took a firm hold. It took ten years but in 1990 the first free elections were held and nationalist party leader Franjo Tudjman defeated the communists and took over. By June of 1991 the Croatian parliament agreed to pass a declaration of independence which would eventually see Croatian lands returned to the Croats. Sadly however a war broke out and over 6 months of intense and aggressive fighting took place which claimed countless lives and left behind it a wake of mass destruction. [Read more...]
Croatian History
January 24, 2011 By
The Croats settled in Croatia around the 7th century, prior to this the region was known as Pannonia which was a Roman province. Somewhere between the 7th and 9th century the Croats converted to Christianity and even adopted the Roman alphabet. Byzantine and Frankish aggressors attempted a takeover of the lands in 925 but were successfully defeated by the Croats. After the attack the Croats founded their own independent kingdom. [Read more...]
Geography of Croatia
January 20, 2011 By
The geography of Croatia is extremely diverse and it has a number of boarders including its long coast line, the longest land boarder is with Bosnia and Herzegovina, the others are Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovenia. The capital of Croatia is Zagreb but other major urbanised areas include Rijeka, Split, Zadar and Cakovec. [Read more...]
Croatia
January 17, 2011 By
Until the end of World War I the area that is today known as Croatia used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Shortly after the war ended the Croats, Serbs and Slovenes formed their own realm which was later known as Yugoslavia. In 1991 Croatia announced its independence from Yugoslavia but it took four years of civil war before the Croatian lands were cleared and returned to them. [Read more...]