Made in Croatia

April the 17th, 2023 - The producers of Varazdin pumpkin oil won four gold medals at the 62nd Monde Selection in Brussels, a prestigious worldwide product quality competition. Oils from the Agroprom Patrcevic Oil Company, Andreja Petrovic OPG (family farm), Damir Crleni PG and Cafuk PPP received the highest ratings. The great news was announced on Friday, April the 14th, on the Day of Protected Croatian Autochthonous Products in Uljara Agroprom Patrcevic in Strmec. Experts including chefs with Michelin stars and members of the French Culinary Academy praised and complimented Varazdin pumpkin oils. Among more than 3,000 products from around the world,…

 March 20, 2023 - A first for TCN - a new correspondent focusing on poetry. Please welcome Katarina Bučić, contribor 189 for TCN, with some of the most beautiful words.   Katarina Bučić is a writer and poet born and raised in Toronto, Canada by first generation Croatian immigrant. She has now returned to the motherland and is living in Zadar, Croatia. Katarina has a long history in creative arts and has a specific passion for poetry. She has taken part in many creative projects and with her recent move to Croatia, her love for her new home has inspired her most…

March 19, 2023 - I am not political at all, but I do like to support great ideas, such as yesterday's Dangerous Ideas 2 conference in Zagreb, which was opened by Split Mayor Ivica Puljak. You can view the entire conference on the embedded YouTube video below.  If anyone is interested in my presentation, The Vukovar Card, a New Deal for Eastern Croatia, it starts at 07:30 and last 10 minutes.  Below a translation of from the Croatian media about the event. "We gather open-minded people who are not afraid to test both dangerous and best ideas. Positive selection…

February 2, 2023 - Which takes longer in Croatia - to change the registered name for a property in the cadastre, or deliver some lemons from Hvar to Zagreb? Just another random day (or month) in Absurdistan. This a tale with a VERY happy ending, and one which points to huge positive change. Genuinely. It just didn't look that way for 18 days. Our story begins on the morning of Monday, January 9, 2023. A new year, a new start. For some, a new zest for life. What could be better to help with that zest than a shipment of…

January 22, 2023 - After an astonishing 30 years of official golf strategy in Croatia, is it time for someone to be accountable? This is not an article about golf. I also hereby state that I have no real opinion or expertise on the merits of golf tourism, and so I offer no opinion on whether or not golf tourism is a good thing or not. This is an article which uses the official golf strategy in Croatia to highlight the seeming incompetence and unaccountability of those in official positions in charge of charting (and delivering) Croatia's tourism direction.  While…

January 7, 2023 - Croatian is a logical language, but it is the Croatian dialects that will kill you. How many of you can understand these dialect experts from Hvar and a forest in Zagorje? As per my YouTube video a few weeks ago, I still maintain that Croatian is a logical language, but those je*eni dialects...  It is almost a decade since Professor Frank John Dubokovich, Guardian of the Hvar Dialects, stormed the Internet with his iconic Dalmatian Grunt. The Professor's ensuing niche series on Hvar dialects brought him a cult following of (mostly young, attractive, and female)…

November 18, 2022 - The first public presentation of Croatia, a Survival Kit for Foreigners, took place at the Hocu Knjigu Megastore in Zagreb on Wednesday. If you think living in Croatia is a challenge, try self-publishing a book.  It is about 4 months since I started writing a series on LinkedIn called 20 Ways that Croatia Changed Me in 20 Years, as I looked to improve my presence on that increasingly relevant platform. Around six weeks later, ably assisted by TCN Editor, Lauren Simmonds, a 256-page book to help foreigners understand the realities of life here, as well as…

October 29, 2022 - Croatia, a land of inspiration. Meet Sam Brown, a British digital nomad who came for the lifestyle, stayed for the coffee, then launched a spceciality coffee app called Kava.  Kava, a new speciality coffee app that was conceived in Croatia, has just launched on iPhone and Android. Sam Brown, the founder and lead developer of the app, first thought of the idea after spending time in several of Croatia’s world-class speciality coffee shops, so it was natural to name the app after the Croatian word for coffee, Kava. In an interview with Total Croatia News, Sam…

October the 8th, 2022 - The Croatian KEKS Pay application (app) has only been gaining in popularity ever since its arrival on the domestic market, and it has now exceeded an extremely impressive 300,000 users. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, more than 300,000 users use the Croatian KEKS Pay app, which the popular bank Erste bank launched a little less than four years ago. Compared to around 230,000 users at the end of 2021, this is a more than encouraging increase of 30 percent. The total volume of transactions which took place through this app over the three quarters of 2022 we've…

October the 5th, 2022 - The Croatian Highlander brand which started right here in Croatia and refers to itself as the ''Adventure of a lifetime'' and a ''global series of long-distance hiking events which will take you on hikes to some of the most iconic mountains'' has crossed the pond. This Croatian-made event which centres around physical fitness and giving yourself a true challenge has taken many countries by storm, and now it has headed across the Atlantic Ocean and found a home in the United States of America as well, marking an important step forward for the brand. As…