“It is more complicated than to move to the Moon.”
After three months of living in Croatia, Melissa Blixt has published a blog about the negative experiences she has had after moving with her husband from Sweden. The list of negative things starts with bureaucracy, reports Jutarnji List on September 5, 2018.
“I will never again think of Sweden as a slow country. It is difficult to explain to people in Croatia (who have no other experience) how slow and ineffective the Croatian bureaucracy is. Whatever you need to do, it will take forever. If it ever happens at all. And the Croatian state is still using stamps. Without affixing a stamp, nothing will happen. Just signing a document is not enough,” wrote Blixt, who noted that her husband has a business in Croatia and that it is insane that a signature is not enough.
The hardest part is that the Croatian state expects other countries to use the stamps as well. “Sweden did use them, in the 1970s. It is difficult to get a stamp from a civil servant in Sweden in 2018, but Croatia does not care. They just want a stamp, even if they know that another country (Sweden) is not using it.”
“You would think that a country which is losing thousands of citizens every month would make it easier for immigrants to come? Forget about it. It is more complicated than to move to the Moon. You definitely need a lawyer to help you. Just to move your address to a house you live in is difficult, and we have not been able to do it in three months. To start, you need a lot of stamps from the Swedish state – stamps which do not exist at all.”
The second point of her dissatisfaction with Croatia is the traffic and transport infrastructure. Melissa is bothered by the fact that people use sidewalks to park. Instead of walking, people are driving by car, even when they need to go only 400 metres away, she noticed.
The third issue is tourism, and Melissa says she understands why most Croatians really hate tourists, “completely unconscious of their environment and often rude. Many of them have an ego the size of Russia, blocking the entire street just to make a selfie.”
Rude people are in the fourth position. “I have heard a lot about the fact that Croatians are so nice people. Many of them are, of course, as private persons. But people in shops and services are often rude and do not engage with you as a customer. They simply do not care, and they show it. That is something which cannot be seen in the Nordic countries.”
The fifth issue is the emigration of young people from Croatia. “The old population is left to push for the country’s development and it does not seem it will happen. If the young people are not pushing for changes, the country will lag behind.”
Croatia should do three things, according to Melissa. First, make it really easy to start a business. Second, make it easier for people from other countries to move in. Third, substantially reduce bureaucracy.
The sixth item on the list of things which she does not like in Croatia includes being insulted when someone points out the negative sides of the country. “I have seen it a few times, some Croatians seemingly cannot separate themselves as a person from the country, If I pointed out a few things that really need to be changed in Croatia, some people were offended. It is not personal.”
The final thing on the list of negative experiences in Croatia is that people are constantly complaining about health. “I do not know whether it is because of me, but completely unknown people on the street or in the stores give me their complete history of illnesses. Listening to the elderly on the street, it seems they are trying to compete for who is the sickest person and who has had a tougher life.”
Melissa Blixt was born in Croatia and grew up in Italy. She came to Sweden in 2007. There she met his husband and when they got their son in 2017, they decided to move to Croatia.
She has promised she would soon write about some of the more positive experiences of living in Croatia. It is expected to be a short post.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
