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What's up everybody? Welcome back to the All Things Croatia podcast. I'm your host,
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Stanko Zovak, and I'm bringing you the best of Croatia from around the globe.
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This episode is brought to you by Adriatic Tours, the best place since 1974 to book
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your cruises, tours, flights, and simply All Things Croatia. Use the personalized code
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All Things Croatia to get a special discount and book your trip to Croatia today. For more
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information, go to www.adriatictours.com or click the link in the description. Now,
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either modalia and let's get started. Alright, welcome back to the podcast everyone. In this
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episode we have a special guest, Peter Hasdobats. Peter is a Croatian-American and a very active
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member of the Croatian community down in the Los Angeles area. His family company, Adriatic
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Tours, which he works for, has long served the community in helping Croatians return to the
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homeland, both for vacation as well as with documents and papers and other services. In this
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episode we're going to learn a little more about Peter, his family, and the effect they've had on
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the Croatian community. Peter, thanks for coming on the podcast. Thank you for having me. I really
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appreciate it. I'm excited to join you. I've been listening to some of your other podcasts,
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so I'm excited to be a part of it. I appreciate that. Yeah. Well, let's start this off a little
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by telling us about your family and your Croatian roots. Both my parents were born in Croatia and
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surprisingly they met in Northern California when they immigrated here. My dad is born on the island
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of Niet and my mom is from Konaveli, which is a village near, well, it's not really a village anymore,
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it's getting bigger, but it's near Dubrovnik and they met up in Northern California actually in
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Watsonville. And then from there it kind of, that's where it all kind of started and ended up
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down in San Pedro and we ended up, my parents started Adriatic Travel in 1974. And since then
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we've been in San Pedro and been in part of the Croatian community and obviously selling and
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helping people get back to Croatia. So we've been pretty connected with kind of everything
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Croatia for close to 50 years now here in Southern California. And what year did your
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parents immigrate to the US? Oh, geez, you got me on that now. So it's got to be, I think it was in,
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the business started in 1974. I know they started, they came in sometime, my mom came when she was
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about eight or 10 years old, she started and went to high school here in Watsonville and then my
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dad came later. But ultimately they ended up down in the Southern California area in the early 1970s.
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Okay, cool. And I didn't know you also had roots from Konaveli. It's a really nice area over there.
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Yeah, so that's where my whole mom's side of the family there. I still have quite a few cousins
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living there and we make a point to go visit them every time we're there. So it's, yeah,
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where that's definitely a stop for us every summer when we come there.
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And now you mentioned you grew up in San Pedro and for listeners that don't know,
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San Pedro is a community in Los Angeles, but it really separates itself in a lot of ways from
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the rest of LA. For example, we have a Croatian church in downtown LA and that's sort of what,
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at least I think of as the LA Croatian church. And then San Pedro has its own church and its own
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Croatian community over there and maybe it's what, an hour, hour and a half away depending on traffic.
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Yeah, San Pedro's is, I think there's different numbers out there and people can give different
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ideas of the amount of Croatians here, but the way to look at it is they say that there's probably
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30,000 approximately Croatian people of descent in San Pedro and it started off as a small fishing
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community and obviously with Starkis Tuna and Bogdanovic and they brought in a lot of Croatians
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to work in that industry and then it kind of grew from there and, you know, Croatia is kind of,
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excuse me, San Pedro has always been kind of known as having a big Croatian and Italian
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community due to the fishing industry and then that translated it down to most of them becoming
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port workers and working as lockshore men and so forth. So yeah, beautiful little town, you know,
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right by the ocean and I love living here and grew up here and, you know, where I plan on staying.
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So it's, you know, we do have a Croatian hall in town that we have and we have the Mary Star
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Crafty Church that also has a Croatian priest and Croatian Mass every week. So yeah, it's still
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a very Croatian connected community for sure. Now, I know you and your family, you know,
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are very involved in that community over there. You know, what are some of those ways that you
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guys involve yourself? Well, I was, my parents, I mean, first off, they've been involved with
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multiple organizations and obviously supporting and fundraising. Both my parents run the Libertas
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Foundation, which is based out of San Pedro, but that was put together right when the war started
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and it was a way for them to raise money for the people of Dubrovnik and send resources and send
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kitchen equipment and clothing and so forth. And now that's translated into, you know, we have,
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we haven't had it due to Corona, but, you know, up until that point, we were having kind of a
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gala dinner at St. Anthony's every year, which would have probably around 400 people and they
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still continue to do with the proceeds that they make and what they still have accumulated is they
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offer scholarships to high school students in Dubrovnik and the idea is to help kids there who
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aren't going to your standard universities. These are more people going into like the service
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industry. So waiters, cooks, bartenders, and, you know, as you know, in Croatia, they have those
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fields and so it's been a way that for the last 20 or so, 15, at least years, they've been offering
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these scholarships to about 10 to 15 students every year, so in about $1,000 each. So that's
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been some way that they've kind of stayed connected with helping Dubrovnik and then,
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I myself, I was a part of the Croatian American Club here in San Pedro and was the president
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there and the vice president there. And so, you know, we, as you've been to Estonko, I think you've
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been to some of our street parties here in town, that's kind of what we're known for is that,
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that Memorial Day party that we have in town along with the soccer tournament. And that's kind
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of been our big thing. Obviously, our fame there was when the Croatian national team came to play
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in LA and it happened to fall on the weekend of the street party where Croatia played Mexico at
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the LA Coliseum. And I don't know the exact number we had that year for the street party,
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but it's got to be over 2,000 people. And so that club still exists in the sense of, you know,
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having events here and there and we have weekly lunches and so forth. That's kind of the
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background of what our family in the sense of helped with various organizations through Saint
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Anthony's and Croatian Hall and Liberta Foundation. So, are you guys planning anything for the
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upcoming World Cup? Oh, yeah, I'm sure we'll have, you know, when the Croatia played in the finals
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of the World Cup, we were able to shut down the streets in front and in a matter of three days
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find a jumbo screen and get the city to allow us to put that in the street with and finding enough
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power to run the screen. So, for me, it was the most stressful day probably of my life in the
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sense of knowing that there's going to be a few thousand people in front of there. And if we don't
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have power or the screen doesn't work, but it ended up working out great. So, yeah, we will have
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some sort of showing party. Obviously, in LA, the times for the games are a little rough for us here.
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I think we have like a two o'clock, a four o'clock in the morning kickoff. So, we'll make the best
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of that and see who can stay awake and who can make it. But yeah, definitely. Yeah, true. Well,
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speaking about soccer, actually, I just came across this the other day when I was doing some
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research for this episode. But you actually played professional soccer in Croatia. Yeah. So, I mean,
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I played, I played in college here for four years. And then when I was done, I wanted to kind of
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continue. So, I trained in Croatia and played and actually played a played a game in Makarska,
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and it's my against my. So, that's funny that you're living there. And I actually played in that
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stadium at one point. And one of my better experiences there of soccer was when we were leaving the
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stadium there, a lot of the fans there, I don't know if you've been to one of the local games yet,
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but they seem to there's a tunnel when you walk out. So, you know, I thought it was water being
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thrown on me, but I think a couple of guys were spitting on us when we were leaving there. So,
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that was a fun experience. But yeah, so I played for Gosht Dubronik for half a season and played
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there. And then I was kind of bouncing around between I tried out for Zadad before I went to
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Gosht. And then after I kind of during that winter transfer, I ended up in Sesfete, which was in the
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first division. And then it didn't work out where I didn't end up staying and came back and then
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kind of played here for Hollywood United, which is kind of a lower division team here in the
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MLS, kind of what they call the PDL division, which is kind of a lower division here of the MLS.
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So, I did that for a few years until I realized that, you know, it's kind of it was time to stop
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chasing the dream and kind of get serious and get to work. So, that was, but it was fun. I got to
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play around Croatia and played a lot of cool places and meet a lot of great friends that I'm
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still close with. So, that part of it was great. Was it a big difference coming from, you know,
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the LA Croatian community to the Croatian Croatian community? Well, listen, you know, I
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kind of, even though I was kind of generalized as the American, I speak Croatian. So, I, you know,
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it wasn't hard transition like you and myself. I've been going to Croatia almost every summer, my
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whole life and spending time there. So, a lot of the players on my teams, I, if I didn't know them,
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I knew a friend of theirs or something. So, I kind of, I didn't feel like so much as an outsider in
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the sense as some people would imagine, but it was definitely a great, you know, culture shock to
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kind of just see that grind and to see how hard they train. And, you know, these guys are trying
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to, obviously, and myself, we're trying to make it to the first division and sign a contract with
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a bigger team. So, you know, it's, it's, it's definitely a battle. And, you know, you, you had
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some great experiences going and playing against these teams and seeing, meeting a lot of people.
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So, yeah, that part of it was great. I guess I didn't think about that, but I'm sure there's
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also a culture shock coming from the U.S. to, you know, an actual soccer country. Yeah. I mean,
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I guess the biggest, the biggest, like, and I had some friends and family watch some games and,
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you know, there could only be 100 people at a game in Croatia or 200 people. But,
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I mean, when you compare that to 500, I mean, they're louder and make more noise and I feel
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like the atmosphere with those couple hundred people is equivalent to a few thousand people
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watching a college game here in the U.S., you know what I mean? So, there's definitely a lot more
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pride in it. And, you know, you're in the newspaper the day after, whether it's good or bad, if
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something happens. And so, you know, it's definitely, it's treated as professional soccer in the sense
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that, you know, people start to recognize you in that sense of things. So, you know, you do have to
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kind of be ready for that. And it was, it was, but it was a great experience. I try to convince
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so many young Croatian Americans to try to get out there and play and stick with it. And to be
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honest, sometimes I think I kind of gave up a little too soon. I wish I would have kind of pushed
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through that other full half of the season and seeing what would have happened to it. So, but,
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you know, it's hard to leave here and to leave home and to do that. But, you know, if you have
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that opportunity, it's likely something you won't regret later for sure. So, yeah, that's true.
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Getting back a little bit to your family, Peter, you said in 1974, I believe, you know, they started
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the company Adriatic Tours. When, you know, sort of why did they want to get involved with that?
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The idea would be for was, you know, it was about getting Croatians back to Croatia, you know, and
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most of the business relied on selling airline tickets to Croatians who wanted to go back home,
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right? It wasn't like tourism nowadays where people were seeing pictures and knew what Croatia was.
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And there really was probably not as developed of a tourist industry there in the sense of hotels
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and these boats and yachts that you see now, which is hard to believe, but that's, it really was about
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getting Croatians back there. And, you know, my parents' idea of where was the epicenter in the sense
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of the West Coast of having your business, right? And, you know, you kind of had to have a physical
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location that people could go to. I mean, we're going back to, you know, pre-internet, pre-facts,
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pre-all of that kind of stuff. So, they ended up opening the business in San Pedro due to the
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fact that there was a big concentration of Croatians and able to say, oh, I'll get tickets to
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them and get them back. So, that's kind of where the business started. And then, obviously, now we've
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evolved almost 50 years later to now, you know, that's probably the smallest segment of our business,
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even though we do sell quite a few thousand airline tickets, I would say every year. But the, you know,
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the biggest thing now is how many Americans and second and third and fourth generations now of
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Croatians are going back to Croatia to vacation or for business or so forth. And ultimately, that's
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now made up, you know, 70 to 80% of our business as far as income in the sense of selling the boats
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and the cruises and the tours and all of that other stuff that you see now that's so common there,
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right? So, it's evolved for sure. Like, you know, from that, from, you know, your basic Croatian
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ethnic travel agency is what they called it in the sense of now being kind of a full tourist agency,
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you know? So, before it was a little more, you know, with the paperwork and, you know, maybe
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translations, organizations and stuff like that. I obviously can only, you know, remember what I
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was born for, but, you know, I would remember every night my parents would go down and they
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would have to handwrite airline tickets, right? So, I mean, they would have a stack of airline
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tickets and they would have to write down every single person's flight number and their name.
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And I mean, you were talking hours of writing just like on carbon paper where they would pull out one
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copy, give the copy to the other. I mean, this is, this sounds almost like prehistoric times when
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you're thinking about it now, but I mean, my sisters and I, we had kind of cribs at the office in
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the sense that they would be down there writing these tickets at night to kind of catch up and
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there was no printing or sending multiple copies and doing all this kind of stuff. So,
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I mean, to see the evolution of where it is, my dad sometimes just, he just, he can't even believe
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how fast we're able to respond to people and to do things and put together stuff because
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it's just, it's a completely different environment, you know? You know? So,
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yeah, definitely a lot has changed since then. I mean, technology wise.
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Well, let's talk a little about tourism, Peter. You know, Croatia is now, you know,
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more than ever before, not a secret anymore, you know, to the general public. You know,
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as Croatians, of course, you know, we're always wanting to go back, you know, even just for the
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summer or for a few weeks, but now more so than ever, I feel like, you know, non-Croatians
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want to go to Croatia. Can you talk a little about, you know, what you're seeing in terms of that?
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Yeah, you know, and kind of, I guess, to kind of connect that to how I got into it. I mean,
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obviously, I was, you know, this is our family business and we know we've had employees working
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for us for quite a long time and I grew up there. But, you know, I mean, I kind of use
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our generation, Stonko, I don't know exactly how old you are, but I'll put us in the same kind of
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category as like growing up. I mean, what was a travel agent? I mean, when I went to college,
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I would tell people, my people, my family had a travel agency and they kind of didn't even know
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what that was, right? That was like a non-existent, you know, or something that old people used or
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God, it's got to be so expensive to use that person. I would just buy this online instead. And
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I kind of didn't think that this would become the future of mine. I kind of thought that the
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business would just kind of slowly fade away or we would do certain things. And then, you know,
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I would say in those early 2000s, when, you know, kind of the war was done and things started to
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improve in Croatia, and then all of a sudden you saw like, wow, Croatia became this popular place.
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And now Americans were coming there and people didn't know how to get there and finding out how
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to do things in Croatia was kind of hard, you know, and then all of a sudden I saw, you know,
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people, we were getting a lot of business and the idea of like, you know, maybe there is a need for
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this service and to be this company in the US that kind of helps people get back to Croatia or go to
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Croatia for the first time. So ultimately it evolved now to the sense where, you know, we get so many
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Americans, like I said, but, you know, Croatian tourism, like you said, has taken off and now
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with social media, I mean, I would say the last 15 years, it's now, I mean, you can't really, most
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people have been there or are, I would say, are going to be going there very tiddly pretty soon
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because now it's in the likes of with Italy and Greece and the way the airport's there now, you
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can get into, you know, Zagreb, Split, Dubrovnik very easily from multiple cities. So it's just
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evolved to become, you know, now where our business is actually doing better than ever because of the
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fact that now we're, it's established more, we have great relationships with companies over there,
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people value our expertise there and, you know, these drivers and guides and boats that I work
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with, I mean, some of these people, they've known my dad and that worked with him and my mom for
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30 years. And I mean, we have a reputation of making sure that everybody has a cell phone number,
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they can call it, there's an emergency. And I think that people have now come full circle of
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realize that, I mean, you book on Expedia and something goes wrong and God knows what's going
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to happen to your ticket and who you're going to call and how long you're going to wait. And,
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you know, we had people stuck in Croatia and Germany because of the strike or whatever. And,
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you know, we're able to resolve these problems within 10 or 15 minutes, you know, because they
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have somebody they can call who can help them. So ultimately, I think like lots of industries,
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people now value like the service and the idea is to not be more expensive, but to be competitive
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and sure there could always be a special online that can beat our price or, you know, and that
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can happen in anything, right? I mean, at a grocery store, you can be one store can be cheaper than
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the other. And those things are fine. And that's kind of made the nature of the business. But I
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think if the consistency of providing that service and having people to have a resource and to feel
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comfortable and they're spending thousands of dollars and, you know, we've been around for almost 50
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years, we're not going to take off, you know, in the sense of that. So it's now it's kind of crazy
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to think, but now our business is and looking back to where I was 10 years ago, our business is doing
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better than ever where I thought 10 years ago, we would be we'd be closing by now, you know, so.
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Yeah, I do think you brought up a good point about sort of made me think about,
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like in a lot of different industries, the sort of trend back in the day to be more automated and
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yeah, yeah, I feel like as of late, it's been a bigger push to get the human aspect back into a
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lot of these, you know, industries or companies or no question. Yeah. And you know, a little bit
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more on the topic of tourism, for someone going to Croatia for the first for the first time, you
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know, some of these people we were talking about, we have Croatia on their list to go visit.
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What would you recommend that they see, you know, as opposed to Croatians who have been here, you
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know, been to Croatia, maybe they go every summer and, you know, they sort of want something different
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or sort of want to see something they haven't seen. Yeah, so I mean, like yourself and myself,
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like we think the places we're from and there's so many Croatian people, you know,
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the village we're from or the town we're from is the best place in Croatia, but lots of Croatians
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haven't been to other places of Croatia. So, you know, the idea of like people going there for
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the first time, and I'm sure you've seen a ton of those boats around and it's become like
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the biggest industry in Croatia, I would say, are those small ship cruises and all kind of
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generalized and like you've seen like the Katarina line type of boats. I mean, these now have turned
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into like yacht style boats where, you know, you're talking 2000 bucks a person for the week and you
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have a chef on board and you have a crew on board and it's a luxury boat. And then they have lower
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end ones, which can be 1000 bucks. So it really can fit any price category you want. But I mean,
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I mean, it becomes a little bit repetitive in the way I'm explaining things, but for people who are
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going for the first time and most Americans really only have 10 days or two weeks of vacation,
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but like that island hopping experience in Croatia, I mean, that's you cannot replicate that anywhere
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in the world where every single day you're traveling in between islands and you're pulling into these
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small ports and it's full of restaurants and bars and history and towns. And then all of a sudden
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you go to sleep, you wake up the next day, you head to the next port and you're talking about
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traveling three, four hours a day. I mean, people say and they finish these cruises and they're
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like, okay, Peter, where can we do this next? And like, you can't do this anywhere else. And that's
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what makes Croatia unique for the first time, at least for people is you do that island hopping type
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of thing and you see these boats and you see these islands in comparison to Greece, where, you know,
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Greece to Mykonos is a nine hour ferry ride, right? I mean, the distances are huge. There's huge
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swells, the water and you've been there and lived there now. So you know, I mean, it's almost like
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a lake 90% of the time, you know, and people are worried about seasickness, but it's so protected
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by these islands. But so ultimately, like the first trip for people, that seven day island hopping
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cruise, I always recommend it unless they really don't want to be on a boat or they want to do
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something different. But because ultimately the feedback, I mean, I've had thousands of people
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go on these things and I can maybe count on one hand, somebody who's had bad experience, it's always
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a positive experience. They love the food, they love the crew, they love being in these small ports.
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Of course, you know, I have the people from Northern Croatia or Zagreb or Eastria who feel
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like those places are nice too. And I can't disagree with them. But you know, I think my normal
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10 day kind of example of somebody going to Croatia is, and this can be vice versa would be flying
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into Zagreb, seeing the capital for one or two days, going to Plitvica, and then making your way
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to Split to do one of these seven day tours and finishing in Dubrovnik, right? So now you've kind
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of seen the capital, the national park, the islands of the Dalmatian coast and Dubrovnik
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and fly home, you know, and that's kind of that can be reversed either way. Of course, if you have
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12 or 14 days, then by all means, I always try to include Eastria in the in the trip because I mean,
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that's kind of like to me the next kind of the part of Croatia that people are going to start
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heading to next more and more because, you know, there's after you've been to the Dalmatian coast,
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the next step is to go up there and the food and the wine and it's just it's almost like being in
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Tuscany, right? I mean, it's completely different than the Dalmatian coastline. So I would say for
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a 14 day trip or 12 day, then we always include Eastria as well. But otherwise, that's kind of our
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normal routine for what people are doing for 10 or 10 days, let's just say. So,
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well, yeah, I mean, you can't go wrong at all with the islands, you know, especially in Dalmatia.
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I mean, and just being able to jump in and go swimming, you know, wherever you are in what,
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if you're on a seven day cruise, you know, you can swim in seven different islands or seven
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different beaches. Yeah, at least I mean, the islands are so nice and walk around the old cities.
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Yeah, I do I do love the islands. I haven't been on, you know, that long, I've only been on a one day,
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you know, little island hopping trip. But yeah, I would love to go on a longer so I mean, and like
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I look at it like stonk, or you and I, we become so immune to it, right? Because being there,
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going there so much that it's us, it just looks normal. But like, I mean, sometimes when you take
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a step back and you realize God, this is like, this is pretty amazing. But like, you know, Croatian
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Americans, let's say, we've seen it so much that it's almost like, just seems normal to us. But
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like, you got to understand that there's really nothing like this in the world in the sense of
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that coastline and that beauty of what that is. So yeah, that's for sure. And so you talked a little
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about, you know, what you should do if you're going for the first time, or you don't have a history
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with Croatia, what about for those, you know, people like us or people who have been here,
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you know, a couple times before, what are some of those overlooked places that you think deserve
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more people going there? Yeah, no question. You know, I tried to, you know, at least, and my sister's
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an example, she kind of did that this summer too, you know, she had rented a car for a week, and then
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she flew into Zagreb and then went to Istra and to all those towns of Barajin, Samabor. I mean,
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I really, I feel like, you know, if a lot of the people who have been to Croatia before or Croatian
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Americans, I think it's really, you're doing yourself a disservice by not going and seeing
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some of these other places while you're there. I know it's beautiful to get to the village or the
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beach, and we all have that beach bar that we sit at where we're from, and it's like I could sit here
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all day and not move for three weeks. I'm all about that, right? That's what I mean. When you get in
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a car and you leave that little village or town that you're from, I mean, it's amazing how much
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you'll be shocked by the food and the people and the service, you know what I mean? And it's really
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something that I feel like you can get in the car now with the freeway. You can drive anywhere, right?
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I mean, so it's just about kind of blocking the days and doing it and kind of saying this time
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we're going to do four days in Istra. We're going to do four days around Zagreb, and then go do it
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and see it because, I mean, you'll be pleasantly surprised with how beautiful the other parts
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of Croatia are. And I think that only makes you more feel, I guess, feel proud about where you're
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from and that there's other places in Croatia that are just as beautiful. Yeah, it's easy to get in
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that comfort zone of doing the things you've done before because you know how great it is and
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why do something else if it's, you already know it's going to be so beautiful and stuff. But yeah,
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I mean, there's so many places to see. Especially when it's hot, when it's hot outside, right? You
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just want to sit at the beach and have a beer and not move. But as you're there now in September,
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and that's what I always tell people, September, October for me are the best months in Croatia
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to travel. So I try to tell people if they're flexible with work schedules or if they don't
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have to go because of kids' vacations, then kind of go in the off season, not July and August when
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it's the busiest time. And I mean, it's the water's warm, the weather's great, it's less crowded,
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and you'll get to enjoy some other parts of Croatia. Yeah, well, yeah, September and October,
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a little less hot, definitely less crowded. You can see some of those places easier.
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And this year especially, I feel like the whole year, I mean, there's something,
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September, October is still beautiful. And then you've got the World Cup going on. And then,
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you know, Advent, if you want to go to Zagreb or Irohosek, I think has, I mean, a lot of cities
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have really good Advents too. Have you been to the Advent yet? Have you been to that in Zagreb?
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In Zagreb, I have. And everyone was saying, oh, like it was way better, you know, a couple years
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ago before Corona. And it was my first time. And I was saying, wow, this is amazing. Like,
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I guess the locals were a little disappointed. But for me, it was crazy. I mean, there were so many
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people out and about and, you know, drinking the Kuhano vino. That was my first time having that.
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Yeah, it was really cool. And like, Stanco taking a step back a little bit. I mean, that's like the
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greatest thing. I mean, to talk about, you know, bringing tourism to Croatia in the off season
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is the number one challenge that Croatian tourism, tourism, it has, right? It's how do we get people
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to come throughout multiple times of the year, not just when it's beautiful in the summertime.
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And like what Zagreb created, I mean, that is the epitome of like, beautiful planning, execution,
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people who go there. I mean, that's like those European cities like that, that have those kind
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of winter festivals, let's call them. That's amazing, right? I mean, and it brings in a whole
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different clientele who doesn't want to go to the beach, who doesn't want to go on a boat, they want
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to come and eat good food and be in a big city like Zagreb. I mean, it's, it's, that was the best
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thing that they could have ever, I guess, expanded. So I'm glad that you experienced that. And I hope
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to see that soon too. I would, in the next couple of years for sure. Yeah, well, they, Zagreb in
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particular does a great job of promoting itself as a year round city, I would say, with a lot of
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different things. Not just Advent, but what do they have last year? The Festival of Lights,
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when they lit up a whole bunch of buildings, you know, with different little like animated
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movie things, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, they put on a lot of really cool events.
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That's great. Yeah. Um, just going back to the islands a little bit, you know, you mentioned,
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you mentioned your father's side is from Lyet. And I read, I think it was on Groish week,
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that your family hosts, you know, a little Fechta, you could call it over there on the island every
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year. Can you talk a little about, you know, what that is and how did that get started?
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Yeah, so I don't want to blow the cover because I don't want too many people coming to this place
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because I feel like this is like our little hidden gem, but I'll go ahead and release it here. But
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you know, my dad's from, he's from Lyet, and there's a little, little, I don't even want to call it
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a village man. I think it's 15 houses. It's like a, it's, the town is called Kozarica. It's a,
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I have a small little Riva where everybody can park there. There's probably 15 boats park there,
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half the last names in Kozarica are Hasdowatz. So, you know, they're all a sense of a cousin of mine
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of some sort. And a few years ago, they, they, they wanted to kind of make their own chapel or
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church there off the cemetery that they had nearby there. So the idea ultimately started was to raise
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money for finishing this church and building it there. And it's a very small church. I mean,
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really for 20 or 40 people, I would say, but you know, my dad with a couple of the other locals have,
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have decided to kind of make this an annual event where they bring a singer in and it's actually,
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you know, a singer by the name of Ilko. And he's, he's sung, he's sang at St. Anthony's before for
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our Libertas Foundation. And he does, he's your typical Croatian singer with a guitar who can
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sing for seven hours straight and knows every song in the world. So, and he actually lives on yet
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during the summertime. So it works out great. So they kind of just put together a little village
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party has as many of you guys experiencing Croatia in a sense. And they, anybody can come and there's
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tourists that who are staying in apartments there who come and it's kind of on a donation base and
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people leave donations and they try to raise money there for the church to kind of help get that
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completed. So yeah, I wouldn't say it's just my dad doing it. There's definitely a few of the families
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that help put it on. And really, it's all in the sense of kind of raising money for, for a good
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cause and kind of getting the, having fun in the village for one night, I guess, you know, is the
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way to put it. And they don't obviously have many things going on there. So this is kind of now
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become something that they all look forward to every year. So, well, it sounds like a lot of fun.
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I've never been to Omliet. So hopefully next summer, maybe I'll make it over there and in disguise as
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a hasdavats. Yeah, let me know when you go after I'll let you know. Yeah, yeah. And then, you know,
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last, last sort of thing here, Peter, just want to ask your favorite place in Croatia, your top
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place. Oh boy, I think it's Njert, you know, and, and I think for people that have been there, they,
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they can hopefully agree with me. I think it's, it's unique. It's different. I mean, it's with
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half of it being a national park, it is kind of, it's very protected in that sense. But, you know,
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for me growing up, that was for my cousins and I, that was the place where we would come from
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America and spend our summers there and swim and, you know, you, I mean, talk about nothing to worry
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about. I mean, we didn't have it, there's no TV, there's no phones, there's nothing. I mean, we
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literally were eat dinner and we would come back and just walk around and throw rocks and do, you
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know, what normal kids would do and our parents wouldn't see us till the morning, right? I mean,
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but it's kind of a, now that I have kids and unfortunately only able to spend a few days there
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in the summertime because of the way things are with schedule, but I hope to spend more time
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than the future. But for me, that's kind of always been, I would say my special place. But
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as a tourist, I would say Istra, when I, when I did a tour through Istra in the sense of I
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rented a car and drove through it, went to Rovin, to Motovan, to Hume, to Opatia. Yeah, so if you're
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visiting as a tourist and I would say if you had extra time in Croatia, then I would say that Istra
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region and Rovin, Motovan, Opatia, even Pula. So I would say if you have extra time, that would
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be the place as a tourist that I would like to go back and visit for sure. Yeah, I think those are
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my sort of top next destinations as well because I've only, I've only been to Pula in, you know,
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all of Istra and just for a night. So I would love to go explore a little more up there. Sure.
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But Peter, you know, I want to thank you for taking the time to come talk to me on the podcast.
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I'll put links, you know, people can contact you at www.adriatictours.com. Help me out here.
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Yeah, correct. Yeah, okay. Now I'll drop links in the episode description. But, you know, Peter,
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thank you again for coming on the podcast. Sanko, I appreciate it. And, you know, I,
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I really appreciate what you're doing. And I think this is a really cool idea that you've kind of
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taken off and the fact that, you know, it's just another way, I think, for Croatians to network
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with each other and get to know each other. And hopefully this is a way for everybody to kind of
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continue to stay connected. So I do want to give you a little bit of recognition for the fact that
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you've been putting this on and, and putting this together. So thanks again. That's it for today's
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episode of the All Things Croatia podcast. Thanks for tuning in. And I hope you all enjoyed it.
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You can subscribe to the Patreon and check out the All Things Croatia Instagram page to stay
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updated. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions, tips, or ideas. And make sure to tune
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back in to the next episode. Thanks again and vidimos!