A Portuguese in Croatia
Hello! I’m Cláudia from Portugal. Today, I will tell you about some things that I miss while I’m living here in Croatia.
Actually, I will start with something that I don’t miss but that is different and I noted right in the first days I was here. Usually, in Portugal, we greet each others with two kisses on the face since the first time we meet. But here, all the people I met, greeted me with a handshake, even people from my age group.
The first thing that I miss is, of course, the language. Speak english all the time is exhausting and makes harder to communicate. Sometimes I really miss being in a group of people speaking in portuguese (and to say some bad words). I also miss portuguese humor. In general, portuguese people mocking with everything, I mean everything. This can be misunderstood, we make jokes with everything and maybe people can think we are racist or prejudiced, but we are not, we just have an amazing sense of humor. I have been living my all life listening jokes about how short I am and I’m still happy with my 1,55m.
Other thing that I really miss is the coffee. I’m a coffee lover and I know that there are expresso coffee here in Croatia. But believe me, in Portugal is so much better. And talking about coffee, another thing that I love in Portugal is that we have the bakeries and the coffee shops at the same place. This means that we can go out for a breakfast, but here we can’t do that. There are just a few coffees that have things to eat. You can go for a coffee, but what if you are hungry? I mean, I’m portuguese, I really like to eat, this means that I can eat even if I’m not hungry. And one thing that I don’t like here is that is very common be allowed to smoke inside of coffee shops. In Portugal, we have some coffees like that, but usually it’s not allowed.
But Croatia also have good things. One thing that is amazing for me is that people usually speak english good enough to communicate. This is a big help for me, once that I don’t speak croatian. Another good thing about you is the way you treat pets. It’s not common see abandoned dogs (or cats) in the street. And there are people with dogs inside of malls, for example. So, looks to me that you really take care of pets. This doesn’t always happen in Portugal and it’s quite normal see dogs and cats in the street.
But well, besides all of this (and other differences that I’m probably forgetting) I like to live in Zagreb. It’s a nice city and I’m enjoying my time here.
Cláudia
