How it is to live in Croatia? Part 2.

In one of the previous posts, I listed the best aspects of living in Croatia and now I thought I’ll balance things a little and mention the negative aspects for those who may have a little too rosy picture of living here. These aspects might put you off from moving out from your country in a short notice, even if you are fed up with the “summer” in Finland (or in other cold country) and bored with your current job. Even here you will find the treadmill you are escaping from and everyday life might look a bit different than on the travel agencies’ advertisement of one of the tourist destinations.

Reasons why we dislike living in Croatia:

Standard of living

It came as a little surprise, that it is relatively expensive here considering an average wage. As a tourist from Finland, the price level is still rather delightful, but with local wages we are living with now, the point of view is quite different. For example, the price of a monthly ticket for public transportation, in my opinion, is quite shaky, 342 HRK (46 €) and the average wage is 5914 HRK (798 €). The minimum wage can be as low as 433 HRK (58 €) ... Although recently, the public transport provider introduced 30-minute tickets for just 4 kuna, which brings monthly commuting costs down to around 160 kuna. As I was told by locals, those cheap tickets were introduced just before the elections so, it’s possible they’ll disappear as quickly. I'm not surprised that many people prefer to buy bulk tickets than the monthly pass, in case traveling time is shorter than that 30 minutes. The price of public transportation tickets is just one example of the price level here.

Unemployment

Although, unemployment rates have decreased in recent years, unemployment among young adults is still considerably high. This is one of the reasons why emigration is common and about 20% of Croatians have moved to work elsewhere (source). Locals find it almost irrational that both me and M are actually working immigrants, or as people like to call economic immigrants here, expats. We know few individuals who followed their loved ones here and then struggled to find employment for years. You need a lot of luck, connections and, of course, education that might be interesting for local job market.

Healthcare

I come from a country where healthcare is nowadays something you take for granted and maybe don’t appreciate it enough. Only when you come to a country, which made it so difficult, you value what you had. Honestly, I'm still not quite sure how public healthcare works here, but it does not seem too easy for locals either. You should have your "own doctor" and finding for it might be difficult because doctors have a limit of patients they can accept. One of my colleagues has been without a doctor for five years and only hopes she won’t get sick. Moreover, it is a common practice to "bribe” a doctor with a chocolate or small gift in order to get better and faster service. Friend of M told that Croatia is a good country as long as you do not get sick.

Unhealthy life style

There are astonishingly many obese and at the same time very slim people here. People do not seem to know the concept of eating breakfast at home, and they prefer eat buns and white bread bought from bakeries located around bus stops. There are not many joggers here, and not many people say that they do any kind of exercise. Delicious food is served by restaurants, but it is often far from healthy. It is very hard to find healthy, nutritious, and inexpensive food. Some of my local colleagues have told me that they would eat healthier if it was cheaper. It's also expensive to go to the gym. Of course, we chose the "best" gym in Zagreb and pay about 40 euros a month, just for the gym. I would pay the same amount in Finland where obviously I make a lot more money.  

Bureaucracy

Generally, Croatians speak very well English, except of course in the offices, banks, hospitals, and any other useful places! Few days after M arrived to Zagreb, he went to a bank to get his account open. He struggled a lot because none of three bankers that served him spoke English. On a way back home he stopped by at a local market to get some potatoes and lady selling them spoke perfect English with a beautiful British accent. To tackle the unemployment, the government seems to create jobs with the extra workforce in the bureaucracy sector just to have more hands to play with your papers. When dealing with bureaucracy, you should remember to take all the papers you could imagine to be useful, have a lot of patience and take copies of just about all papers you have with you. They won’t copy anything for you. Not even when a copy machine is in a room. Instead, you are asked to go to the other side of the street to the conveniently located copier stores, where you pay one kuna for one copied page. Then you return, queue again and maybe you get to submit your papers. Unless, something you didn’t think of is still missing and waiting is then even longer. My process settling in took over a month and was relatively "easy", because I already had a job waiting for me and I am an EU citizen. M had his paperwork done even easier, because his company handled all of it (and even part of mine).

If this list did not kill your desire to move to Croatia and you believe that you will survive, then I dare to cautiously recommend moving in here! Although the price level is higher, I have also noticed how little you can survive with. There is no constant thirst for shopping and I totally enjoy the glass of white wine in vinoteka nearby on Wednesday evening without a "just in case pullover" in case it gets a bit too chilly. The mind is relaxed and the face is no longer so pale.