Those of you who are actually reading my posts could have found out that I'm from Croatia but 3 months ago I moved to Portugal, Lisbon to live and work. For how long? I don't know. As long as I'm happy here I'm staying.

Croatia - so beautiful, but so shitty country ruined by the greedy politicians and religious extremists.

Back to the subject...

(photo:www.patheos.com)

So far I realized some, let's say, funny things that I do here, but when I'm in my homeland I would never do it. Some of them are just personal things and some of them are mostly in common with all of the other "diaspora" people.

So let's begin:

• Public transportation

For everyone across the Croatia it is well known that in general nobody pays for public transportation. Only students and pensioners who have free or really cheap subscriptions and very often neither they pay for it. For the rest of the population, it's too expensive, since on the side, we have very low standards in Croatia till the other side with all the high cost living and high taxes, and most usual way of paying the public transportation is NOT to pay public transportation - you just smuggle in, mind your own business and pray that security guards don't show up because you will need to argue with them and at the end, we all know, they can't do a shit to you without a police. Why I'm saying this?

(photo: www.vijesti.hr)

Because I didn't even think about smuggling into the public transportation here in Lisbon, even though monthly subscription is 1/10 of average Croatian salary. I'm paying it like it's normal to pay public transportation and like I'm so used to it. :)

• Meeting people from your city or state abroad

This is a phenomenon. Let's say it like this, you have friends, like the best friends with whom you're in touch almost every day. Then you have the acquaintances, people you know, but you don't hang out so much with them and you respect them. And at the end you have people for which you know that they exist, you maybe know their names, but you will not even say hi to them on the street. (Of course, you also have people you don't like and people you don't know haha)
So the last group of "friends" are the subject. If you meet them somewhere outside of your homeland or even outside of your city, those people will stop you, greet you and start talking with you like you know each other for life, and if you meet them after, in your hometown, they will turn their heads off, like you never talked to them before. Awkward or not? :)
Even if you meet someone abroad who you don't know yet, and all of the sudden he is from your homeland, you will probably have a "nice" chit-chat with him.

• Waking up for work

If someone told me that I would be waking up for work at 5 AM, I'd probably tell him that he is insane. But here I am. Every day waking up at 5 AM asking myself "Do you really need this in your life!?", having a breakfast, getting ready for work and at the end leaving for work. I always lived near the place I'm working and I never needed to wake up so early to arrive to work on time. Now my shift is starting at 7AM, so... 5 AM it is. :)

(photo: www.dailymail.co.uk)

• Hunger is the best spice

Ever since I was a kid, I was always very selective when it comes to food. Lots of things were not on my menu. Cheese, sour cream, almost all vegetables and I didn't even wanna try something new... I'm not trying to say that now I can eat anything, I can't, but I'm not choosing. If I'm hungry and there is nothing special for me, I would eat that just to kill the hunger. "Hunger is the best spice" they say.
If there is something new for me to taste, I would tasted it for sure, but before, no chance :D

• Be who you want to be

I come from a small town where everybody knows everyone. News is spreading so quickly, and rumors even faster. If you want to do something there is always the question: "What will people say?". It doesn't matter if it's the matter of clothes, hobbies, acts or just random things, there is always that mind brake which controls you. When the people around you don't know you and your habits, it's much easier to relax and don't think about that famous question (What will people say?) and just act normal and be who you want to be. It is also much easier to try new things in your life, like surfing lessons, dancing lessons, new sports and occupations. I'm not trying to say that you cannot do it at home, but I think it's much easier to release that mind brake of yours when you are surrounded with people who don't know you so well and to whom you won't be a weirdo if you are different.

(photo: www.photocommunity.es)

I will now conclude this quite long post with the next words:

If you see me abroad, in public transportation at 6 AM, say 'hi' to me, we'll have a nice chit-chat and we can go to eat something that we haven't tasted before and do things we haven't done so far. Trust me. :)

Until the next time.

Kind regards!

GG