It's time to update my blog, finally :)
Today I found one quite interesting blog of international MC member of @ Ukraine (Rostik) and there was really interesting post which is called "Ukraine by my eyes..." I couldn't just ignore that one post and after reading it, I was really inspired to write kind of the same post about my perception of Croatia.
As you understand everything is very relative in this world, so my story will be based on my life XP as Ukrainian. :)
Today I found one quite interesting blog of international MC member of @ Ukraine (Rostik) and there was really interesting post which is called "Ukraine by my eyes..." I couldn't just ignore that one post and after reading it, I was really inspired to write kind of the same post about my perception of Croatia.
As you understand everything is very relative in this world, so my story will be based on my life XP as Ukrainian. :)
Economy
This country really deserves to be a part of EU. I've been experiencing financial crisis in Croatia and Ukraine, so I have with what to compare :). Although they complain about their economy or politicians, but believe me, euro and dollar exchange rates were so stable in comparison with Ukrainian exchange rates, just insignificant changes. At the same time you can feel some "notes" of growing economy. Real estate market is quite common with Ukrainian one (of course, not on such critical stage), but some features are quite common.
Sport
The culture of going for sport is just amazing here. The first thing which amazed me as Ukrainian is that all the main roads in the city have two sides, for pedestrians and for people riding bicycles or using roller blades. The other thing which amazed me is that roller blades are used not only by children or teenagers.
Transport and infrastructure
Talking about Zagreb, I remind myself words of one very nice tourist guide, talking about one arch-church (where you should be quite, of course) in Zagreb: "You know, guys, they put barriers to that arch for people just walking through by foot, cos Zagreb's people would go to toilet by car even if they just could". And, yeap, I agree with her for 100%, cos the first impression I had was that everybody in Zagreb has a car. :)
Public transport here is another story. Maybe, public transport here is much more expensive than in Ukraine (tram ticket is 8 kunas and is about 10 HRN now and a bus ticket is 10 kn. And in Ukraine a tram ticket will cost you about 1 kuna). But I have never seen crowded tram in Croatia (in my Ukrainian perception), because people here think that they know what "crowded" tram means :))) That's why you can keep some distance towards other people in a tram and you have some free space around you, what makes you not to worry about your valet or your cell phone to be stolen.
Trains are also quite expensive in Croatia. All the trains are quite fast and really hot in winter, and cold in summer, and quite comfortable, but usually they have only seats in vagons, where you cannot relax that much sitting all the time. Here all the trains are the same for me, they are not that personalised as in Ukraine, where you have a person responsible for every vagon and your time in this vagon depends on his/her hospitality, mood etc. Nobody will wake you up at 2 a.m. for your station or nobody will bring you sheets or pillows, or shity tea, but in traditional cups you like so much.
Public transport here is another story. Maybe, public transport here is much more expensive than in Ukraine (tram ticket is 8 kunas and is about 10 HRN now and a bus ticket is 10 kn. And in Ukraine a tram ticket will cost you about 1 kuna). But I have never seen crowded tram in Croatia (in my Ukrainian perception), because people here think that they know what "crowded" tram means :))) That's why you can keep some distance towards other people in a tram and you have some free space around you, what makes you not to worry about your valet or your cell phone to be stolen.
Trains are also quite expensive in Croatia. All the trains are quite fast and really hot in winter, and cold in summer, and quite comfortable, but usually they have only seats in vagons, where you cannot relax that much sitting all the time. Here all the trains are the same for me, they are not that personalised as in Ukraine, where you have a person responsible for every vagon and your time in this vagon depends on his/her hospitality, mood etc. Nobody will wake you up at 2 a.m. for your station or nobody will bring you sheets or pillows, or shity tea, but in traditional cups you like so much.
Highways
You can easily call Croatian highways as highways for dummies (in positive way), because even if you are the first time in Croatia, driving to some little village, which is not on your touristic map, believe me, if you can read, you will never get lost.
