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Welcome back to a new episode of the All Things Croatia podcast. I'm your host,Stanko Zovak
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born and raised in Los Angeles. I'm now living in Zagreb and studying the Croatian language.
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Before we start, just do me a favor and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're
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listening, as well as the Facebook and Instagram page. In this series, I'll be talking with
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people both in the homeland and around the globe who have connections to Croatia. We'll
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hear from startups, returning to Aspera, musicians and athletes, and the biggest Croatian celebrities
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that will return my calls. But enough about me. Either Moldavia, and let's get started.
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All right, what's up, everybody? Welcome back to the podcast. Today we have a special guest,
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Olivia Slatysilovic. And Olivia started the popular blog and Instagram inspired by Croatia
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after moving there from the US. Inspired by Croatia is a resource for travel and life in
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Croatia, and it gives tips for navigating the country as an expat. Today, we're going to find out
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what sparked her move to Croatia and what motivated her to start her blog and give others
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a glimpse inside her life here. Olivia, thanks for coming on the podcast.
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Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.
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Let's cut right to the chase here. I want to go right off the bat and ask, why did you
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move to Croatia? I saw that you came here in 2014. It was supposed to be just a short
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stint, and now you end up staying, what is that, eight years now?
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Yeah, it's eight years. It'll be eight years this September, which is totally crazy to
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say. Yeah, that's a long time. What sparked that move? What was that original plan?
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Well, I am Croatian. Both my parents were born in Croatia. My mom left for the US with
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her family when she was about a year old. And then my dad grew up in Croatia when he
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was visiting some relatives in the US. He met my mom and ended up getting married and
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staying there. So I was pretty familiar with Croatia. I kind of grew up surrounded by a
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pretty big Croatian community in the US. I'm from Cleveland, and there are like 40,000
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people of Croatian descent in Cleveland. And then, yeah, my parents signed me up for Tamurica,
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which is Croatian folklore. And I had to go to that every Saturday, all day long. And
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I was pretty familiar with the culture then. We did singing and dancing Croatian songs.
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And my family would try and travel to Croatia like every other summer as much as possible
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to kind of visit our distant relatives here. And I actually ended up moving here with my
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family at the start of high school for a couple years. And I did not like it at the time.
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It was very difficult. Yeah, no, I was struggling. It was the beginning of high school. My parents
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thought it would be a great idea to move back to Croatia. And when I came to Croatia at
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that time, I, you know, was thinking, Oh, it's going to be all like sunshine and rainbows
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like it is during the summertime when we visit. And I found out that living here and going
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to school here and trying to navigate life as a teenager in Croatia was like a totally
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different story than, you know, going to the beach and having fun with your friends. And
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especially because I actually didn't know the language very well. And I felt like it
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didn't fit in in high school. And it was, you know, I think it's a challenge for many
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teenagers even like when you're in your home country to be in high school and, you know,
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throw in like not knowing the language and not knowing anybody. It was kind of hard.
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So we actually stayed for a few years, moved back to the US. I wanted to go to college
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in the States, which I did. I went to Miami of Ohio. I learned a lot, had the whole college
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experience. And then after I graduated from college in the States, I like wasn't 100%
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sure what I wanted to do with my life. And my parents were like very much advocates of
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higher higher education. So I kind of started looking into getting a master's degree or
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kind of, you know, seeing what the next step would be. I wasn't, you know, really ready
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to enter the workforce because I wasn't really sure what exactly it was that I wanted to
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do. And I was messaging one of my friends in Croatia at the time who told me she was
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currently in an MBA program in Zagreb and that all of her classes were in English. She
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had like professors from the USA. And then immediately I was like, Oh, this could be
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a great idea. It's a one year program. I'll, you know, get to live in Croatia. All my classes
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will be in English. And then I like researched it and presented it to my parents. They were
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like shocked. They're like, What? You were crying every day in high school. Now you want
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to go to Croatia again? Like what? So yeah, the original plan was to come and complete
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the program, graduate, move back to the US. I really wanted to move to Chicago at the
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time. But life had other plans for me during the program. I ended up meeting my then boyfriend,
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now husband, and we got married a few years later and now we're building our life in Zagreb.
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So that's like the fairy tale story. Yeah. A bike. Is that what they say? Is that the
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word? Yeah. So wow, a lot, a lot to unpack here. I was going to ask you if you had Croatian
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roots, obviously you do. And actually I saw on your Instagram, I think it was just yesterday,
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you were answering some questions and someone asked if you speak Croatian. Yeah. And then
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I heard you say, Oh, yeah, I should probably got Croatian roots. Then when I asked for
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your last name here, just before we started recording, that's what I knew for sure. But
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yeah, so being from Cleveland, actually, I haven't met a lot of Croatians from Cleveland,
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even though I know that's like one of the biggest cities. I just haven't run in with
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very many. What's it like over there? What's the community like? Well, there's a huge community.
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We have a Croatian church, we have Croatian like picnic grounds, we have a Croatian like
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event center where there are weddings and parties and you know, things like that. We have Croatian
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soccer teams. We have different like music groups, folklore groups. So it's a pretty
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tight knit community, I would say. And at the time, I think when I was little and I was
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like part of that community, not as intensely as a lot of other Croatians were because
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we lived on the like in the south suburbs of Cleveland and the majority of the Croatian
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community lived in the east side of Cleveland. And so a lot of them even went to school together.
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They like played soccer together. So my experience was a little different because like during
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the week I was with like all my American friends and it was only on Saturdays that I was like
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with Croatians. And at the time I like really wanted to just fit in with all the Americans
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that I was in school with. It's funny because when I was little, I was in second grade. I
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remember my mom telling me that it was St. Patrick's Day and there are a lot of Irish
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people in the US. And I remember our teacher asking us in class who like raise your hand
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if you're Irish and I raised my hand and I told my mom that and she's like, you're not
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Irish, you're Croatian. And I was like, yeah, but I want to be like the other kids in school
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and just be more, you know, like not Croatian, which is really ironic because now I'm like
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living and breathing everything Croatian. But when I was little, I was kind of bad,
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not that cool.
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Wow, that's pretty funny. It sounds like when you went to high school in Croatia, you were
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then the opposite trying to fit in there as a Croatian, maybe I don't know.
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Well, when I went to high school here, I was I mean, the only problem was is that everybody
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in class spoke fluent Croatian. I was the only one that could, you know, kind of I understood
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quite a bit, but it was very difficult to like study history in Croatian. I had no
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idea. I mean, I could I could talk about basic things like, let's go to the movies and what's
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the weather like outside and what did you do today? But, you know, learning Latin in Croatian
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and I didn't even know Croatian. I came home and I would literally translate all of my Latin
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stuff into Croatian. And then from Croatian, I would translate it into English. It was
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just like a mess.
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You had to learn Latin in Croatian.
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We had to learn Latin and German. Yeah.
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Wow. I'm trying to learn Croatian in English here. And that's hard for me. I can't imagine
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trying to learn a different language in Croatian and then have to translate that into English.
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It was a struggle to say the least. But yeah. And at the time, I think like a lot of the
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kids in my class had never met anybody from the US. So I think I was more like it was
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I guess I struggled to fit in and find like people like that really wanted to be friends.
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Because I felt like I was really different because I didn't speak the language and what
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people were most interested in learning from me was like, oh, what's it like in the US?
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Do you guys have like, do your houses look like the houses on Wisteria Lane from Desperate
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Housewives and like all this stuff that they've seen in movies? So we couldn't really connect
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because I was from a different world. They were from a different world, even though we're
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all Croatian. So yeah, it was an interesting experience.
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Well, I'm sure. Yeah. And then what was it like for you when you did your master's program?
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Was that the school? What's it called? Zagreb School of Economics and Management?
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Yes. Zagreb School of Economics and Management or Zosem for short. I actually came into that
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program thinking that there were going to be a lot more like international students and
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there weren't. Most of the students in class of me were Croatian. At the time though, I
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did speak Croatian a lot better. And I don't know, maybe because I was older, it was just
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a little bit easier. Plus at the time, I think in my head, I was like, oh, I'm only going
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to be here for a year anyways. So, you know, after years done going home to Cleveland or
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you know, to the US. So it was definitely a much easier transition when I was here in
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the MBA program. And that was in what, 2014 you said? Yeah, 2014 to 2015. Okay. And did
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you like that program? Actually, I was looking into that at one point and then kind of lost
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my interest for a master's. But I've heard good things about it. Yeah, I actually liked
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it. It was interesting because we had professors from all over the world. So I really liked
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that aspect of it. You know, we had like professors from the Netherlands that taught, you know,
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specific course and professors from the States. And it was all in English, which was very
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good for me. And it was cool. We had a lot of group projects, things to collaborate on.
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I really enjoyed it. And I also did another study abroad program while I was at Zeshem.
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They actually have a pretty good like exchange program. So while I was studying abroad technically,
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in Zeshem, I did another study abroad program in Thailand. So that was that was cool. Yeah.
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And that's only a one year program, right? Yes. So it's one year for the classes. And
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then once the classes are done, I believe you have another year to like write and defend
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your thesis. But then you were a whole what one semester in Thailand? No, I did a summer
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program in Thailand. So it was just like, how was that? It was short. It was honestly
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incredible. I loved it. That was my first experience with Southeast Asia, and Asia in
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general. And that experience totally made me fall in love with the region. We're actually
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planning on going to Thailand this year. We were planning on going before but then the
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whole you know, pandemic happened. But I'm really excited to go back. We're hoping to
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go at the end of this year. But that that experience is one of the ones that inspired
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me, you know, to travel more and to experience new places that you know, I probably wouldn't
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think think to visit. So it sounds like that's a must see place I got to put on my list to
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try. Oh, yeah. I am like such a Thailand fan. You have to go there.
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I'll put it on my list for sure. I've had other friends that had told me the same thing.
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So yeah, I believe you. I've heard it's really cool there. It's an amazing place. So Olivia,
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tell me after you finished after you finished your master's your MBA there. You had originally
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planned just to stay that you know, one year, what made you extend your stay? Well, full
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time. Well, so in the program, I mentioned that I met my then boyfriend now husband.
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So that was part of the reason. And we had started dating, I don't know, maybe like six
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months into the program when I was still kind of like planning on going back to the US.
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And then I did the Thailand program. And after that, I had an opportunity to work at a local
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hotel in Zagreb as part of the marketing team. And I thought, okay, that would be a cool
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experience since I'm studying marketing for my master's. And I at the time thought it
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would actually be good experience to have, you know, some international work on my resume.
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When I went back to the States, you know, I could be like, Oh, yeah, I worked for international
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marketing team and stuff like that. So I ended up I ended up starting on the marketing team,
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helping them with all things digital and social media. And I ended up really liking it. And
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actually surprisingly, that job helped me learn a lot of Croatian. I wasn't expecting
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that. But you know, when I got there, I could barely even write an email in Croatian. I
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didn't know any business terminology. So that was actually very good in in helping me learn
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that part of the Croatian language. And then after that, I ended up transitioning into
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another job at a local agency also doing like social media management, where I was writing
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and doing all the all their content in English for one of the largest hotel chains in Croatia.
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So I was on like their travel team doing social media. And I really, really loved that job.
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It was a lot of fun. There's a lot of work. And I don't know, just kind of, you know,
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I was working there. And then I didn't really have any reason at the time to start like
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looking for a job in the States. I was content, you know, in a great relationship. I was working
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at this agency, which is a lot of fun. And then it just kind of gradually happened. There
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was no, I don't know, I didn't I never woke up one day and thought to myself, Okay, I'm
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just going to, you know, officially move to Croatia. It was just like a very gradual
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thing, you know. And then we ended up getting engaged. And then it kind of like our engagement
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kind of solidified my move a little bit more. Even though we did actually discuss maybe
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moving to the States, but we ended up deciding that we really enjoy our life in Croatia.
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So we'll just, you know, kind of stay here for now and see where life takes us. I mean,
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I never say never because I did say before that I would never move to Croatia again,
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that I would like never marry a Croatian guy. Look at me now.
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Well, yeah, I was going to ask, where's your husband from? So he's Croatian.
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He's Croatian. Yeah, he's very Croatian.
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What part is he from?
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Well, he was born and raised in Zagreb. His dad's side of the family has roots in Trogir.
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So we spend a lot of time down there and that town has, you know, become very special to
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me as well. So.
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Well, that's cool, especially for the summers. You can go down there and definitely. Yeah.
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And actually, I've never made it down there only. I've been to Split, of course, but I've
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never made it to Trogir, but that's on my list for sure.
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You should. It's a really nice town. There's lots of beautiful beaches nearby. It's a nice
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place to visit.
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Well, Olivia, now are you still working for, I mean, I think I saw that you were working
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for a company in the U.S. remotely. Is that correct?
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That's correct. So the agency that I mentioned, that was a Croatian company. And then I ended
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up transitioning to working for a company in the States. And that's who I'm working
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for now. I've been working for them for a little under a year. And I really, really
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enjoy it. I'm also, it's still digital marketing. Basically, I'm kind of like a creative producer
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where I help guide the content and strategy for a lot of niche e-commerce businesses.
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So it's definitely an exciting role. It's a challenging one, but I really enjoy it.
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Well, that sounds kind of similar to what you're doing, you know, also in your, in your
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other time, which is your blog and, you know, your social media inspired by Croatia.
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That's funny, actually. So I, when I started inspired by Croatia, it was kind of, you know,
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just a hobby. And I started experimenting with, you know, my knowledge of social media
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and really trying to get into, like, the trends and how to, you know, build a social media
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platform from scratch. And alongside that also builds a blog. And I never really looked
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at it as anything other than a hobby. And when I was actually in my interview for my
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current position, inspired by Croatia is what got me the role. Like that was the ultimate
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deciding decision from my employer. They decided to hire me based on what they saw me doing
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and inspired by Croatia, which was totally like not anything I would ever even think
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of. I almost didn't even tell them that I was doing that because I didn't even think
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it was relevant. And yeah, once I told them that, that's, that's kind of what tip the
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scales in my favor.
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That's pretty cool. I mean, that's, that's awesome that you can have a hobby that, you
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know, also helps you in, in other things as well, like getting a job. I mean, that's
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yeah, it's crazy.
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And so when did you start that inspired by Croatia?
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So I, I started inspired by Croatia in November of 2020. Earlier that year, when COVID first
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started, we were all quarantined. I had a lot of free time on my hands. And it seemed
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like the perfect time to start a travel blog. And I always wanted to have a travel blog.
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But to be honest, I never had the courage to do so. I was always worried about like,
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Oh, what are people going to think? Or, you know, I don't know why, but that was just
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always in my head. And when COVID started, I was like, Oh, this is a great time to start
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my travel blog. I'll write about all the destinations around the world that we visited up until
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that point. But then kind of as the pandemic continued, I realized that we wouldn't really
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be venturing outside of Croatia for some time. And I kind of got to thinking that maybe it
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would be better to, you know, establish myself as an expert in one destination that I know
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really, really well, instead of, you know, writing about places that I only spent a short
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amount of time in. And obviously Croatia was the one is the one country that I knew like
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the back of my hand. And that's when I switched my general travel blog to inspired by Croatia
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that November. And my husband and I began exploring more of Croatia and like seeking
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out different locations that we had yet to visit. And yeah, and then since then it kind
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of just transformed into, you know, all things life and travel in Croatia.
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Huh. Well, that's a pretty good, I mean, not excuse, pretty good reason for you and your
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husband to go travel because it is. Yeah. I mean, you can get lazy and just say, uh,
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you know, I'm, I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it. We'll travel another day. We'll go there
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during the summer. But yeah, it seems like, you know, this is a really good reason. Oh,
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I've got the travel blog. We've got to go. I mean, how many have you been all over Croatia
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pretty much? We've been a lot of places and it's kind of like what you said. It's kind
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of, um, an excuse to go do something. And I guess not necessarily an excuse, but like
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an additional, you know, additional motivator, something that, you know, makes me get out
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of the house and try something new or see something new. Even my husband is like, Oh,
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let's go here. You can get some great content there. So, um, he likes to get involved like
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that too. And kind of you'll find cool places for us to see. Um, but yeah, we've been all
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over, we've been north to south, east to west. And it's surprising that, you know, even
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though you think you've seen it all because Croatia is a relatively small country, I'm
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always discovering new places and new things that I want to see. Um, so I have like an
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ever growing list of, of destinations to check out.
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What's next? What's your next destination that you haven't been? Oh, what's next? Um,
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I actually have not been to the islands. I don't know if this is going to be correct,
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but, um, in like the Quadranad area, like, uh, Sres, Lushin, um, I've never been to those.
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So we really want to visit those islands. Um, and we've recently been talking about
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Kutuk. Um, I was there once many, many years ago, so I don't even really remember. So we're
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kind of looking into, into exploring those hopefully this summer.
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Hmm. Okay. Yeah. I've heard good things about Kutuk. I know there's a lot of islands to,
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of course, go to. I've only been to some of the ones here in Dalmatia. I'm in Matiska
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right now. So, okay. Yeah. Definitely the islands are, I mean, from what I've seen, really
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cool. Drac, Khar, Korchula.
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Oh yeah. Those are beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Really pretty. And as far as the, the people
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who are following, I mean, you have what, like 17,000 followers on Instagram. I don't
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know how many people, you know, you have reading the blog every day or every week, but what's
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the demographic of most of these people? Are they Croatians? Are they expats? Are they
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just people who are curious about Croatia, but have never been?
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So, a lot of the people, I'd say the majority of the people on my blog, like maybe 70% are
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from the US, UK and Canada. So, those are people who are just, you know, searching for information
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on travel to Croatia and they all come through Google search or sometimes Pinterest. For
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social media, at first, there were a lot of Croatians following me. And that wasn't necessarily
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my, my, like, target. It came as a really big surprise that a lot of Croatians were
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following me, especially because all my content was in English. But, you know, it seemed as
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though a lot of Croatians found it interesting to see their home country through my lens.
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I mean, even though I'm Croatian, but I, you know, grew up and spent the majority of
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my life in the US. And coming here, I was able to kind of shed light on, you know, locations
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and different things that Croatians otherwise might like see as mundane. So, like, I don't
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know, I've gotten quite a few messages of Croatians being like, oh my gosh, I think it's
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amazing that you find, you know, this exciting and beautiful. Like, I, you know, grew up
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here and I never thought twice about visiting that place. Or, so that's really cool that
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I was, you know, and I'm able to inspire the local Croatians to get out and see their
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own country. But I'm also slowly beginning to tap into a more international audience
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as I've been growing, which really excites me because, you know, initially, my whole
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plan was to inspire other people to come and visit Croatia and come and explore and stay
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awhile and, you know, see all of the beauty that the country has to offer.
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Hmm. Well, yeah, hence the name, Inspired by Croatian.
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Yes.
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Interesting. So, I mean, I guess that makes sense if you put it in the context, like,
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I'm from Los Angeles originally, you know, born and raised there. But even, you know,
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in LA, there's so many things that I haven't done or seen. Like, I haven't even done the
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Hollywood hike. And so, like, that's something that, you know, tourists and everyone who
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goes there wants to do it. I've never even done it. So, I mean, it makes sense. A lot
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of places in your own country, even your own city, you know, that you haven't really done
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or you haven't appreciated.
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Yeah, exactly. You don't really appreciate it until maybe you see somebody else that
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thinks it's really cool. And you're like, maybe I should go check that out.
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Yeah, exactly. And, well, so where have been some of your favorite places that you've traveled
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in Croatia?
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Oh, this is an easy one.
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Oh, really?
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I, Isra, I love Isra, that entire region, like, I cannot get enough. We make a point to go
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at least once a year. Last year, we went two or three times, I think. It's such a gem.
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Every time I go back, you know, I discover a new place. And I especially love the, like,
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central Isra. They tend to break it up into, like, green Isra and blue Isra. Green Isra
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is, like, central, where you have, like, the rolling green hills and vineyards and forests.
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And then blue Isra is along the coast. But we really love central Isra. It's just stunning.
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And the food there is absolutely incredible. So, it's not quite a popular destination,
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like that popular among Americans. So, I'm hoping to inspire more Americans to check
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it out. But in addition to Isra, Trogil is also, you know, very special to me. And I
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also love the island of Kvad. That's probably my favorite island.
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Wow, yeah. Well, I mean, you mentioned central Isra. What cities are, or what's like a main
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city over there? Is it just selloes? I wouldn't really say there's a main city in central
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Isra. I think probably, like, the main city of Isra would maybe be Pula. They have an
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airport. It's probably, like, the, it is, like, the industrial hub of Isra. But that's
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on the coast. Central Isra, definitely worth exploring, are, like, Motovun, Groznyan, Oportal,
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Momean, Uzet. Those are all, like, small, medieval hilltop villages. You definitely
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need a car so you can, like, drive from, you know, one village to the next. Or a lot of
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people actually like to take bikes. I wouldn't say it's like an easy bike ride between the
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villages. But I do know a lot of people like to go there and they, like, take bikes for
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the weekend and just, like, ride around the whole area.
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Huh, that'd be pretty cool. I guess if there's a lot of hills, maybe that wouldn't be such
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an easy bike ride. It is very hilly.
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But you know, I've actually, I've never been to Isra. And actually, just two days ago,
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me and my family's out here for a few weeks visiting me. And we were supposed to go and
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we got, like, 45 minutes from Makarska and the car broke down and we turned back.
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Oh no! And none of us have ever been to Isra before.
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What a bummer. You should definitely go. Yeah, definitely go. Hit me up if you need
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some tips because I have plenty of tips for Isra.
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Yeah, definitely. I'll have to. I'll have to check out your blog. And of course, you
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know, I'll drop some links in the episode description here so people can, you know,
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see your stuff. Awesome. Thank you.
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I wanted to ask what, what sort of cultural differences have you noticed? I mean, I know
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you grew up Croatian, but in, you know, the U.S. Croatian communities. And then once you
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sort of came here, did you notice any, you know, differences or just, I guess, life
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cultural differences from living here versus living in the U.S.?
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Well now that it's summertime, I feel like this is pretty appropriate to say that Croatians
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hate air conditioning. I don't know if you've experienced the same.
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Yes, I'm currently sweating right now in this apartment.
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It's funny because they think, like, too much air will make you sick. My husband says it
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too physical. My God, my head hurts. I have to turn off the air conditioning. I was like,
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it's a million degrees outside. Yeah, I've been in Croatian houses when like the air
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is on and the window is open at the same time so that it doesn't get too cold. I've seen
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a lot of stuff like that. So I still can't understand that.
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What else? I think that, I mean, in regards to like moving here and stuff, trying to get
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anything official done will definitely give you a lot of headaches.
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Yeah, the bureaucracy is, it's always up there at one of the worst things about, you know,
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what everyone thinks about Croatia.
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It will definitely throw you a lot of curve balls, but I've learned to just kind of roll
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with it, you know. What else? I think there is a huge difference when it comes to work
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life balance. I always like to say that Americans live to work while Croatians work to live.
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I do think that Croatians really value their free time and they focus a lot more on maintaining
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and nurturing friendships with, or relationships with friends and family. You know, there's
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always time for coffee with a friend and it's not uncommon to, you know, text someone and
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be like, hey, you want to grab coffee in a few hours and for them to say yes and you
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guys go and sit and have coffee for an hour. Whereas in the US, I feel like a lot of plans
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are made in advance, like even when I go and visit, it's like, oh, what are you doing next
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Friday? Like let's meet at, you know, 6pm. Here, I feel like it's a little bit more
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casual.
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Yeah, well, that's true. I think in the US, it's mostly like at night too. Like any plans,
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anytime you're going to meet up, it's, you know, going for drinks at night. But here,
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you can just, you know, coffee. You don't even have to drink coffee. You can be drinking
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beers at the coffee. You know, during the middle of the day, during the morning, even,
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I see people.
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They're there all day. It's funny because a few years ago, one of my friends came to
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visit from the States and she was on vacation, obviously, and I took a few days off to hang
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out and we, it was a weekday and we were walking down some street and there were like three
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cafes in a row, completely packed. And it was like 11am on a Wednesday. And she's like,
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oh, are all of these people on their lunch break? I'm like, no. It was funny though.
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That's classic. Well, yeah, I mean, that brings up a good point. What are your friends and
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non-crowish friends from the US, you know, think about, I guess, your life over here.
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Do they think you're like, wow, you're living a fairy tale? I mean, maybe you are.
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Maybe I make it look like a fairy tale. I'm generally like a very positive person and
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I always look at like the glass half full. So I, and I don't really complain a lot. So
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maybe it does look like a fairy tale to some people. I mean, last time I went home, one
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of my friends was like, oh my God, your life looks like Emily in Paris. Wow. Yeah, I mean,
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I don't know, I guess I never really, we never really touched on that. But a lot of people
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think I'm like on vacation all the time, or, you know, just like traveling full time, which
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I'm not. It just looks like that on Instagram, because I don't always share things in real
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time. But it's funny though, because they do think I'm like, oh, she's just always somewhere
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exploring a new location like 90% of the time on my desk.
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Well, how often are you actually traveling?
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We try to take a lot of like weekend trips. I don't know, maybe like twice a month, once
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or twice a month depends. I like to get out and explore and check out, you know, the new
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things that are going on in Zagreb. I don't know. I say not that often, maybe like twice
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a month, go somewhere for a weekend or a longer weekend, maybe we'll take like, you know, Friday
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or Monday off and make a little longer trip out of it, or take day trips. So yeah, everything's
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relatively close. So it's easy to do a weekend trip. You know, you can reach a lot of places
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in just a few hours in the car.
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Yeah, that's true. Yeah, for a weekend, you can, I guess from Zagreb, maybe down in Dubrovnik
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is a little too far, but most of the other places you can probably take a weekend trip.
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Yeah, for sure.
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How do you like living in Zagreb?
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I love it. I don't know, I look at Zagreb as like my second home. It has everything that
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you need, but it's not too big. I feel like the size is just right. I actually enjoy in
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the summertime when the city kind of empties out, people like go on vacation to the coast.
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It's a really, I like it. It's a cool city. There's always something going on, like, especially
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in the summertime and where the weather is nice. There's like a zillion festivals to
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choose from. We have like a pizza festival going on, and there's like a classical music
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festival, then there's, I don't know, there's a summer festival in the upper town, and there's
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like a music festival on Yadu and Lake. Like there's literally something going on, I would
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say every night of the week almost, especially in the summertime. And it's nice to get out
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and see the city, and it's nice to see the city so alive with people just hanging out
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and having a good time like Croatians like to do.
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Yes, exactly, exactly. But yeah, Zagreb, I think does an incredible job of putting on
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00:34:59,960 --> 00:35:05,960
events. There's always something, or even during the winter, well they have the advent,
392
00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:11,120
of course, which is really cool. I mean, they always have events. It seems like every weekend,
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00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:15,000
they're putting some sort of event. They do a really good job of, you know, getting people
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00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:18,080
out and about the city, like that festival of lights they had.
395
00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:20,200
Oh yeah, the festival of lights, that was fun.
396
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:25,080
Yeah, that was really cool. And actually the advent, I've only been here, what, a year
397
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:28,840
and a half, so I only saw one advent last year, so I thought it was really cool.
398
00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:29,840
Oh no!
399
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:33,000
Yeah, well everyone says, all the locals say that that's like the worst one, and all the
400
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:36,160
other ones have been so much better, but I thought it was great.
401
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:41,920
Yeah, hopefully it'll get back to how it was pre-pandemic, because that was insane.
402
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:44,280
It was really cool, yeah.
403
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:49,160
Well, it was what, the second best one in Europe, it was ranked something like that,
404
00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:50,160
that happened.
405
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:53,960
Actually, it was ranked best advent in Europe, three years in a row.
406
00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:54,960
Wow, really?
407
00:35:54,960 --> 00:36:00,480
Yeah, so I think they did an amazing job organizing that. That was a lot of fun to go to.
408
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:06,600
Yeah, so Algarov is a really cool city, and you were right when you said, it's small,
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00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:11,040
the biggest city in Croatia, of course, but it's also small enough to where, I mean coming
410
00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:17,880
from Cleveland or LA, it's a good balance of being big enough and small enough for me
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00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:18,880
at least.
412
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:19,880
Yeah, I agree.
413
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:24,800
Well, Olivia, I wanted to thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast
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00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:28,120
and share your experience here. I'm definitely going to have to check out your blog, and
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00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:33,120
I'll have to hit you up if the car ever gets fixed, and I'm going to Istra, because I do
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00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:35,120
what I'm really excited to do.
417
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:36,120
Hopefully it does.
418
00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:37,120
Yeah, I hope so.
419
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:38,120
Hopefully, yeah.
420
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:39,120
Sorry, I want to ask you one more question.
421
00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:40,120
Okay.
422
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:44,240
This is a question that I was asking at the first couple of podcasts, and then I sort
423
00:36:44,240 --> 00:36:48,120
of forgot, but I want to ask, Kymak or Ivar?
424
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:49,120
Oh, Kymak.
425
00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:51,120
Wow, that's a quick answer, yeah?
426
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:53,120
Yeah, I just had it yesterday.
427
00:36:53,120 --> 00:37:02,120
My parents came into town yesterday, and we ordered a bunch of like barbecue, and obviously
428
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:06,120
we had to have lots of Kymak on the side, because it's the best.
429
00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:09,120
For me, it's tough. I mean, I like both, of course.
430
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:10,120
It's a toss-up.
431
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:15,120
Yeah, it's whatever I'm in the mood for. Or both at once is also a really good try.
432
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:16,120
A good combo.
433
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:17,120
Yeah, great combo.
434
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:21,120
All right, well, Olivia, thank you again so much, and again, I'll drop links so people
435
00:37:21,120 --> 00:37:25,120
can check out your blog and your Instagram, but thank you for coming on the podcast.
436
00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:28,120
Awesome, thank you so much for having me. It was great chatting with you.
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00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:33,120
That's it for today's episode of the All Things Croatia podcast.
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Thanks for tuning in, and I hope you all enjoyed it.
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00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:40,120
You can subscribe to the Patreon and check out the All Things Croatia Instagram page
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00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:41,120
to stay updated.
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00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:46,120
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions, tips, or ideas, and make sure to tune back
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00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:47,120
into the next episode.
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00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:52,120
Thanks again, and vidimos!