The People of Croatia

The people of Croatia were nice when I would come upon them when I was walking. Croats are mostly Roman Catholics, too. Most people do speak a little English so I can communicate. It's easy to make friends, and the place it was a bit more difficult to communicate was the local grocery store.

Selfies on the beach, S. Galo

I talk to people sometimes when I take my daily walk. I found that most people are out and about around 6:00pm, or 18:00. A lot of kids hang out around then. A large amount of kids use roller blades, bicycles, skateboards, and scooters as transportation.

Going for a walk, S. Galo

Having fun on the beach means paying a visit to those who sit in the cafes. There are of course the people on the beach. However, it isn't that warm yet so there isn't a particularity large amount of people on the beach yet. 

The beach during the day,  S. Galo

-S. Galo -

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Split: Making Friends

When I got to Croatia, I found it was fairly easy to make friends. Kids played in the basketball court, and walked around a lot. It was easy to just come across somebody and say hi.

In fact, I went down on a Saturday afternoon to the beach. I then learned that there was a really cool setup down there. If you payed a bit of money, you could go jumping on trampolines.

Walking around. S. Galo

I jumped around for almost an hour, and for such a small cost, it was really fun. I met a friend there, and talked a bit. Even when I wasn't down by the trampolines, I 'm able to say hi to kids, and talk with them.

Overall, in my experience, making friends in Split is a calm, simple process.  I hope to be able to meet many more people,and have a lot more fun.

Riding The Bus In Croatia

My family had a hard time finding the bus station when we were going to the apartment.  My mother asked person after person, and it seemed we wouldn't make it to the apartment that day.  But, we did find the bus station, and waited for the number eight to arrive.  It felt like forever, but the number eight finally came.  My mother had bought tickets at the station, and we got on the decent sized bus.

We did arrive at the apartment that day, with new found knowledge on how to ride the bus.  And we are still using that information to get around.  It will not be long before we master the direction of where the bus is going.  All of us know plenty know how to get down to the beach and the to the bus.

When I got on the bus, it was very bumpy,  and I almost fell down when I got into my seat.  There was a place where you could buy tickets, and it was ten kuna a person.  The seats were pretty comfortable, and they were a faded dark blue, lowered from the floor.  There was a long rail, as the bus could get full easily.  Overall, it was a interesting experience that made my day

We kids at the bus station.
Via Skype (Li Galo)

Solina and I on the bus

Via Skype(Li Galo)

By Cristiana  Galo

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Croatia: Riding The Ferry

When I heard I was taking a ferry to Croatia, I was really excited.  I was even more excited when I saw that the "ferry" looked more like a cruise ship.  I boarded to find out there was a restaurant, a bar, and in the bottom of the boat, even a section for vehicles!  I later came to know the vessel could could hold 3,600 vehicles, and 27,540 people!

Jadrolinjia Ferry, Emilio Galo

I went to eat in  the restaurant, low and behold, it was fine dining! The food was way better than I thought it would be.  I ate "pancakes" which were a bit different than the ones back in the US, but still tasted good.  I didn't visit the bar, but there was an outside seating area for that.

Selfie outside, Emilio Galo

After I had settled into my cabin, I went outside to see the shore slowly fading away.  It was fun to see it, but after a while it got cold, since it was night.  It also got windy, but luckily I was wearing a pretty good so it didn't bother me too much.  When the ferry got fully onto the Adriatic, and there was no shore in sight, it was eerie.  It was so dark I couldn't even see the sky from the ocean.

The Shore, Emilio Galo

I was delighted to experience the free breakfast in the restaurant that came with your purchase of a cabin.  Eggs, muffins, butter, all of that good food.  Granted, it wasn't a huge meal, but it was filling and just perfect.



-S. Galo

Where is Croatia?

According to mapsoftheworld, Croatia is a country located in Southeastern Europe.  It also shares its boarders with Hungary, Serbia and Bosnia.  It is one of the 18th most visited places in Europe, with rich culture and diversity.  It is also the 127th largest country in the world, according to mapsoftheworld.  It is easily accessible from other countries of Europe, due to its respectively decent size.  It also has the largest coastal line in Southeastern Europe on the Adriatic Sea.  Here's a map.

Simple Map
Via Flickr (Dennis Jarvis)

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By Cristiana Galo

Happy Easter - From Croatia!

I met a friendly Croatian lady who speaks fluent English. She now lives in Zagreb, a major city here, but she was raised in Split - where we are renting a short term apartment in Croatia over the Easter break and late spring time. She told me of the Croatian traditional Easter game, where each person cracks a hard boiled egg for Easter. This is known as egg tapping, egg knocking or egg boxing, among other names. The person with the least cracks is the winner. I told her of our American tradition of how one person hides the eggs and the rest look for it. She thought that was a lovely idea.

Although this video is of Greek Americans, the game is the 

same one as in Croatia. Red is the traditional color, to symbolize
 the blood of Christ. However, other colors are also used. It can be
played in the air (as in this video) or on a table top.

Croatians are Catholics so Easter is a major holiday here. The stores and shops are closed on Easter. You'd be hard pressed to find a taxi. That is because everyone is with family - at church, visiting homes, cooking, playing games or eating. Though I considered visiting a Croatian Catholic church, in the end, due to our limited knowledge of Croatian, we decided to stream the Easter service instead. We had our normal Easter foods we easily found in the local market: ham, potatoes, carrots, and corn. Delicious!

My kids normally cook for me - but not during the holidays. During the holidays, I cook for
 them! I love to cook for my family during the holidays. Sometimes, they want to cook, too! (S. Galo)

The children in this area of Croatia play in the afternoons before being called inside to do chores. But, they also come out when it's dark. This seems odd, doesn't it? So, after the sun sets they start emerging from their small apartments to play in the local courtyard. It's fairly cold by then and there are zero parents present. Some of the children are no more than three years old but the older children watch out for them. They will play out there until about 8 pm, when they slowly start freezing (it's still cold at night here) and head home. The older kids will sit around on a low wall talking while the younger ones play. My kids don't want to go out after dark to join them, though - not because they're afraid but because it's so cold then.

We've only been here two weeks but we've met a neighborhood girl about age eleven, who is shy but friendly and always says hello to us. She has a cute puppy dog she carries around but she, like most of the children, are called inside in the afternoons to do chores so after a short period outside, she is inside the rest of the afternoon. We've also met some middle school girls who love to go to the grocery store for ice cream and pass us on our afternoon walk. They speak excellent English and told us they learned it in school but none of their parents speak English. An interesting thing is that young people are considered adults early here - marriage-ready by age eighteen, if they choose, but most do not. They are legally allowed to leave school at age fourteen to work to support the family, though many do stay in school at least to finish their secondary education (their version of high school). Duty to the family is considered highly important here.

What a relaxing Easter weekend it has been. We did our annual family Easter egg hunt at the beach and had a lot of laughs. We only had one egg casualty that we had to leave behind (someone stepped on it). We laughed about that, too.

First, we painted the eggs. (L. Galo)

Then, we hunted for the eggs... an egg hunt along the beach - how novel! (L. Galo)

- Li Galo (mom to three fabulous and fantastic homeschoolers)



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Split, Croatia... You're More My Style

We arrived in Split, Croatia a few weeks ago. I'm also currently on break from school for a couple of weeks. The university school schedule (in Italy), being different in Europe than from that in the US, is such that midterms happen at the end of the semester, almost on top of finals. It's like your warm up for finals. You get two weeks off after midterms, where they assign you a mass amount of homework (so, that's not really a break, is it?). Then you return to school for three weeks and have finals. Boom, you're done. I am done already. I can't wait to finish the semester. I'll split my time between Milan and Split for the rest of the semester, which is only a few weeks from ending.

My view as I zip across the Adriatic by plane. You won't find many direct flights from Milan to Split so you have to catch commuter flights, with multiple stops between Milan and further destinations. Typically, the first stop the plane makes is Split, a 45 minute to one hour jaunt across the sea. But if you don't know which flights to book, or who to ask to get on a commuter flight, you'll be forking over hefty fees to luxury airlines like Lufthansa to "fly direct." Alternately, you can book a flight out of another major city outside Milan because they'll have direct flights to Split on the cheap. (L. Galo)

So, how did I do in a university system totally unlike my own from back home? I supposed I did okay. I have three B's and one C right now. I still have a chance to pull out of the semester with a couple of A's. The thing is, getting an A is a tall order here... and I'm typically an A student. I walked out of two midterms where I thought I'd aced the exams. But, nope! Not so fast, American. I received B's on those exams. So, while the cultural richness of Europe was fantastic, my GPA suffered for it. It's off to summer school for me back home in the States, where I'll have to make up for those spring grades with a couple of A's this summer.

But, I digress. I was talking about Split, Croatia!

The excitement of seeing Split for the first time - from the ferry! (L. Galo)

I'm in the "old" part of Split, a sleepy little beach area where everything is walking distance. The grocery store is five minutes away, as is the basketball area, the barber shop, and the cafe. If I want to go to the beach, it's roughly a ten to fifteen minute walk away. If I want to go to the tourist area, it's a 45 minute bus ride from my present location. But I didn't come here to hang out in tourists spots or visit museums. I came here to decompress from three months of hanging out in tourists spots and visiting museums... I came here to do nothing and what better place to do nothing I cannot imagine.

There is nightlife in Split but I'm not looking for that. My idea of nightlife is watching Netflix with a glass of wine or baking some cookies. Sure, that's boring but after months of go-go-go, it's a welcome relief. I want nothing else but to write away all morning, take a walk on the beach in the afternoon, and watch some Netflix before I nod off to sleep.

There's nothing more relaxing than walking alongside nature. (L. Galo)

We came to Split as a family with the purpose of writing books, as well. So far, my daughters are half way through their books. My youngest, age eleven, is writing a picture book. She story boarded it first and then began creating her digital art for the book on the computer. My eldest daughter is writing a novel, a whopping 200 pager and she's just about half way done with the first draft. Good on her! My son has elected to hand write his book. He is on chapter four at the time of my writing this blog. So far, so good. That's why the sleepy little beach village is the perfect place to write a book. There are no distractions, no major attractions, no money suction locations... just a beautiful (if not slightly rocky) beach and a fantastic view of a fairly mild sea. The weather here is warming up daily. Most of the time it's what I call sweater weather but the young children in the neighborhood run around in short sleeves. Of course, they're not cold. They're not from Texas!

While I had hoped to write my own novel here in Split, alas I see I'll be spending more time than I expected on school assignments. That's okay. When our respite ends in Split, we are off to enjoy the sands of Barcelona. I hope to write the rest of the story there.

- Li Galo (mom to three fabulous and fantastic homeschoolers)


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