Croatian Differences

I've now been here for more than a month, and I thought I'd share a few key differences I've noticed while being here:

• Going for coffee is by far the most typical pass time in Croatia. There are abundant amounts of coffee bars around that serve tiny tiny cups of coffee (200mL) which they can drink for like two hours. There are no Starbucks/Second Cups around, but there is one single coffee bar that does serve larger portions of iced coffee. It serves as my haven when trying to escape the heat and get something cool to drink.
• Smoking is much more abundant here. I would say around 45% of the population smokes and this is usually coupled with sitting around with their tiny coffees on the patios. They recently implemented the law of banning smoking indoors in public places, which has caused a huge impact on business in clubs/bars and also the general workplace, so there are talks that this law may even be reversed.
• Parking is quite a different concept here. There are very few public parking lots and parking available on the streets, so people pretty much park wherever the heck they can fit their cars; most often they pile them onto the sidewalks. I almost got clipped by a guy who was parking. I thought walking on the sidewalk was safe... silly...
• Fast food is neither like that of North America, nor what I experienced in Germany. Both McDonald's and places for donairs can be found here, but they are few and far between. What's most common is the food in their small bakeries. They have tons of pastries that serve as meals, and sandwiches ready to serve, so that's what is considered fast. It may be a slightly less deep fried option, but in terms of healthiness, I'm not too sure if the processed meat is all that much better. But hey, I guess that's the nature of fast food.
• Most people carry around 2-4 cell phones. The way their networks work is that calls to the same network is significantly cheaper than calls to different networks. And with prepaid plans not really that much better in terms of cost, most people choose to go with the "pay-as-you-go" and do it with several networks. Man, I can barely stand having carrying one cell and a wallet in my pockets, I can't imagine the weight of an extra three.
• If there is one thing that has caused an ounce of "homesickness", it would be the lack of variety in foods here. This has been one area that has emphasized the multiculturalism of Canada for me. Just being able to go to our local Superstore and buy anything under the sun, from Naan bread to soya sauce to habanero peppers, the ingredients for buying foods of the world are at our finger tips. Not so much here... I have like half an aisle of Nutella products, but cannot for the life of me find peanut butter. But I guess part of this reason is also the change in lifestyle of not having a car and being able to drive to a Superstore, but still, even my neighbourhood IGA had Bok Choy...
• On a similar food note, the one thing that really makes me sad is the lack of flavours in chips. If you know me, you know I love my deep-fried potatoes saturated with powdered flavouring. Here, I call them recession chips, due to both the lack of flavours and concentration of flavours. The most common flavour they have for chips is paprika (bell peppers), which frankly, doesn't taste like anything. Even just to find another flavour of chips is a luxury. Too bad when I did find flavours like chili or cheese, the little amount of powdered flavour they put on it really makes little difference in flavour from the paprika chips. It's like being trapped in Chip Hell where all you get is regular, 24-7.

Overall, I've been having a really great time here, meeting tons of great people and opening my eyes to the intricacies of this new society. It's hard to explain, but even these small differences have such an impact on the cultural experience here. If you have the chance this year, come to Croatia and I'll gladly show you what I mean.