International garden party in a small Croatian village

The other day I was browsing the miraculous world of Facebook and my eye hit a release in the Expats in Split -group. It was about this happening that was planned to take place in the next day, 1st of May gathering that was to be arranged at a Dutch couple's house in the small inland village. How did I missed that even though it was apparently communicated for days now? Since I did not have any kind of plans for the day in question, I quickly asked if there still would be one seat available in the minivan going from Split to the venue. There was so suddenly I did have plans for the coming day.

The scenery in our destination consisted of mountains and lush green vegetation.

The next morning I jumped from the nearest bus stop to a small van with a nice international bunch of people allready in. Among them was a British lady who I had previously met in a joint walk in Marjan Park and actually she turned out to be the only person I knew before hand out of all the people joining to this gathering. We first drove the coastal road to Omiš and then followed the Cetina river towards the hinterland. Finally in the small village we were greeted by the host of the day and the other participants of this party. In our international group there were people at least from USA, UK,  Germany, Holland, Chile, Italy, Canada, Russia, Croatia and of course Finland through me. Perhaps others too, when talking to all the wonderfull people I did not allways check the country of origin. All in all, this overwhelming garden party was attended by over 30 people, from children to retired and everything in between. Surrounding nature was lush and green with a view to the mountains, there was good food (a special mention for that Indonesian peanut sauce, it sure was yammy) and a large variety of drinks to keep us refreshed. Above all, there was plenty of jolly good company. A couple of dogs circled among the people and in their cage chickens and a rooster followed the course of the events. The time flew as is does in merry occasions.

The quest house served as a venue to our merry gathering.

Our international community consists mostly of people who for one reason or another have decided to stay here in Croatia and more exactly around Split area a bit longer than 1-2 weeks of vacation. There are some local reinforcements in the gang also, usually they are the reason (= spouse) for the expats to be here. It was so interesting to hear stories from different people regarding how they have ended up here. There surely was a lot of shared experiences related to the difficult language and the Croatian bureaucracy. In the latter case, I was congratulated when I told my own story about getting a temporary stay permit. We received it in one day after only spending about 20 min at the counter in police station. No one asked any "interview questions" or demanded any extra papers with stamps or to translate documents into Croatian (some of our papers were even in Finnish). Many EU citizens have spent much more time and energy on this issue not to mention those from outside of EU, then the stories go wild to say the least. Altogether, this kind of peer support is important and useful. Previously I found an excellent and skilled masseuse after asking for recommendations from this group. Sometimes people coming from abroad can provide a little more objective assessment as regards for example some services. Depends on the matter when it´s best to ask advice or recommendation from a trusted local or from a trusted group of expats.

Our Dutch hosts have settled in a small mountain village, they have build a house for them selves and in the garden there was also this quest house which was now the center of our party. They enjoy the life in a peaceful and unspoilt village in the middle of the mountains. Although the place is seemingly quite remote at the end of small narrow mountain road, it is about 15 minutes away from the Omiš beach town were you can go get some more hustle and bustle if wanting to do so. Rather perfect, I would say. The same thing could be said about the whole day we had yesterday. The weather was just superb, the fruit trees gave a nice shade and a cozy atmosphere entwined us all. Rather perfect, I would say.