Love it or hate it?

Last week, I spotted a funny article my friend shared on Facebook. The article was about culture differences in Finland and Sweden, at least what comes to how people react during conversations. For Finns, a conversation of group of Swedish people might sound pretentiously excited and polite. Things are not "good", "great" or "ok" (with monotonic tone), but they are "marvelous!" and "splendid!" (or "spännande!" in Swedish). This is quite stereotypical impression about Americans too, often even right on spot.

After being here in Croatia for four months now, I simultaneously admire and to be honest, I am a bit scared of the Croatian honesty. Here things can be "awesome" or "super" but it can be also "I fucking hate it" or "this is shit". Between these too options I have started to think are we Finnish people a bit odorless and tasteless nation? We do have opinions, but we are usually don't express them too heavily. If we hate something, we usually soften the message a little bit for example saying "it's okay, but I usually prefer xx" and very rarely you can see Finnish colleague bursting out of excitement "oh that is so loooovely!".

Finnish people are often viewed as emotionless, like Kimi Räikkönen. Things are OK, but could be better. If someone is greeting us "Hi, how are you?" you might find yourself listening general feelings of life instead of quick "Oh amazing, how are you?". We have something to learn from Swedish people, because it does make you feel that someone is listening to you more carefully and that you are more respected when what you are telling, is received with a bit more excitement. I also appreciate the Croatian way, if you have an opinion, you should say it. Sometimes I just wish the truth to be a bit more sugarcoated.

Croatian honesty doesn't end on the reactions during conversations, but also applies to a topic. I have been told about difficulties getting pregnant while sitting at the hairdresser and I also know if someone is on her period at work. My food choices has been criticized (this has been mutual though and partially a joke) and I have probably heard more compliments in my life.I love the honesty and I am happy that some things aren't a taboo.

For Finnish people giving compliments and receiving them seems to be sometimes completely alien. Why it is so difficult to say that your friend or even a bit more distant colleague looks great? Nice comments are often hidden in a joke, like the person behind the comment is trying to save itself from possible shame. Only here I have understood that I actually have friends who have never really given compliments to me and it has been normal. I, of course, have friends who are complimenting and it has been completely natural, but I would say it is less common.

I do not need everyday praise, but it is well known how little nice words can save the day and make someone feel much better. And mutually, I have tried myself to pay more attention and give compliments to my friends (and M of course) as often as possible. Next level would be to be more comfortable when receiving positive comments and loose my Finnish "oh stop iiiiiit. It's just some old crap I am wearing" - attitude.

Pictures are slightly related, as I can assure you that Siro had an opinion about our curious neighbor cat. It wasn't love.

Thanks! I mean hvala!

I have been now four months in Zagreb, so what have I learned so far? Not only have I learned some basic words, but also little something about the culture, people, and general lifestyle. I am lucky to be a foreigner who is working with locals. Sometimes I feel lucky and sometimes it is a bit frustrating to be the only one who doesn’t speak the language. I miss a lot of good jokes and I know that at times people might also get frustrated at me, because they have to switch in English when talking in a group. But I have learned something.

I know what is thank you, hvala. This was the first word I learned and I have used it in as many situations as possible. There are also some similarities between Polish and Croatian which helped me greatly with simple phrases, such as saying goodbye is in Polish do widzenia and in Croatian doviđenja. Sounds pretty much the same when spoken. Good day in Polish is dobry dzień (although it is said dzień dobry) and in Croatian dobar dan. Thank you is completely different, because in Polish it is dziękuję. I like hvala more, in written and spoken :D Generally, I find Croatian language much easier to pronounce as a Finnish person, but obviously I have a lot more reason to learn Polish.

I have also learned how to react when people says dobar tek while I am eating. This was funny thing in the beginning. I know that during common dinner people usually give an opening line to start to eat, like Bon Appetit (hyvää ruokahalua in Finnish or smacznego in Polish). But here it is almost a rule to say dobar tek even if you just pass by the coffee room, when you see your colleagues are eating their dinner. It is very polite and I like the politeness, but in the beginning it was confusing. Is it a situation to say hvala, or reply the same (even though the person itself isn’t eating) or just continue eating? After four months, I have found myself saying the same if I see someone eating, or some variation such as “enjoy your food” etc. Catchy phrase!

We have been asked many times why aren’t we signing up for Croatian language classes and reason is because we are lazy. Problem is that we both already have one new language to learn as a priority. M continued his Finnish language studies even here in Zagreb until the woman who was teaching him left one month ago and I was hoping to continue my Polish lessons while I was in Poland. Then I moved here and unfortunately haven’t found time or energy to continue. It is also difficult to find a qualified teacher to help me with the difficulties.

We both have to think if there is a point to start to learn intensively the local language as we do not need it and we both should actually concentrate to learn our own languages? If I was further with my Polish studies, I would probably pick Croatian a lot faster. I am also worried that more words I learn here, the more I forget Polish language. I still have goal to be able to speak with my mother-in-law who doesn’t speak English. That is the biggest downside in a relationship with a foreigner.

I am still childishly proud when the salesperson at cheese desk is smiling at me and is genuinely happy that I am able to ask "deset deka sir gauda. Hvala, doviđenja". Great success!

One of the best weekends in Croatia

My parents visited in Zagreb last weekend and I was so happy to show them the best bits of it. They arrived on Friday and left already on Monday, but we used our two full days well. On Friday evening we went to a local restaurant to try Ćevapi, on Saturday I showed them around Zagreb and on Sunday we went on a road trip to Plitvice Lakes National Park.

If you have a chance to visit Plitvice, do it. It is one of those tourist attractions definitely worth visiting. Autumn might be the best time to visit because it’s not only beautiful, but there is also less tourists. You’ll never be there completely alone at any time as each year more than 1 million visitors are recorded in this UNESCO World Heritage site. We were lucky to see the national park dressed in beautiful autumn colors and weather definitely was on our side. The lakes were magical with their shades of clearest green and blue colors, which apparently change constantly depending on quantity of minerals in the water.

There are few different walking routes around the lakes depending on which entrance you are entering the national park. We entered through entrance 1 and from there you can choose routes A, B, C and D. Entrance 1 is very popular because it starts with the famous large waterfall, Veliki slap with height of 78 meters. Routes A-D take 2 - 6 hours with slow pace (and during most crowded seasons) and fast walkers most likely make it a lot faster. Paths were marked clearly and easy(ish) to walk. I even saw few parents pushing baby carriages, but that I wouldn't recommend as it must have been bumpy ride for poor kids.

The weekend passed way too fast, but because we had a lot of things to do, it almost felt like holiday. My parents did remember to bring some souvenirs from Finland and now we have again my favorite coffee for few months, chocolate and salmiakki from Finland. First chocolate I already opened, but I try to save some of it for the darkest moments ;)