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Post by Carol on Nov 24, 2015 10:16:39 GMT 1
I'll give you the motorway between Split and Zagreb. Apart from Fridays and Saturdays in summer, its a fantastic road. The magistrala has amazing scenery. It used to be quite dangerous (people overtaking on blind bends), but that might have changed now that the motorway has extended because 90% of the time people just did it out of frustration after sitting behind a slow moving yugo chugging along.
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Post by Carol on Nov 24, 2015 10:26:25 GMT 1
Low crime rates too. You don't expect to be broken into in Croatia.
I agree with crojoe though that the courts are not reliable. People die waiting for judgements because they take years - decades sometimes. Running a business, you need to keep your wits about you. Some people are intrinsically decent and others will take you for a ride if they can. (Clients who decide not to pay). The trick is to spot one from the other and be careful to limit your losses.
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Post by crojoe on Nov 24, 2015 11:58:50 GMT 1
Ok, I'll bite... tell us why you love living in Croatia? Oh, and do you try to run a business in Croatia, or in any way earn a living? Sorry for the late reply. Croatia is stunning and has some of the best roads I've ever ridden on .the people we have met are open and honest to a fault.the crime is non existent . I'm fortunate to have a pension I can live on which I could not have done in the uk. I too agree the highways are good, and since last year Zagreb has seen amazing improvements on it's roads, but head towards Slavonski Brod and things get a bit more rural and the roads are not as good, or take the old coastal road to Karlovac or Sisak and you get rattled about. Unfortunately crime isn't none existent... we had an item worth 2000 euros stolen 3 months back, and if you watch local Croatian news there are reports of crime almost every day. The Croatian government recently changed the law in favor of criminals (believe it or not) by lifting the threshold of how much an item must be worth before it becomes a criminal offense to steal it... went from 30,000 Kuna to 60,000 Kuna. In short instead of the police going after your item, it becomes a private matter... go get your own investigator. I agree, with a pension Croatia would be a great place to retire (leave the UK to all the workaholics, rain and benefit claimants, not to mention half the world population trying to get in).
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Post by tackleberry on Nov 24, 2015 12:14:34 GMT 1
For me driving is great (even in a golf diesel!) but on a bike croatia is way ahead of the uk,The small roads are a lot better maintained all our visitors from the uk have commented that they are better maintained.i taken the old roads from karlovac and sisak a fair few times and on the bike they were superb .i can only imagine what they were like before the motorway . I'm lucky enough not to have been a victim of crime here so I've not come across the courts though a mate works in a Croatian court which might one day be handy ,hopefully not.but I can only compare my experience with crime in the uk to here ,I had rather a lot of experience of it in the uk and it was rampant. So for me it's croatia every time.
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Post by Carol on Nov 24, 2015 13:44:56 GMT 1
The problem with the courts is that they take far too long to come to a judgement. I don't mean an extra month or two. I mean years. So, in effect the law is not enforceable. If you have a contract with someone, you cannot rely on them keeping to the terms of the contract for fear of a court judgement against them if they don't. So, you have to be smart about how you do things and who you do business with. It makes it all a lot harder than it ought to be.
FWIW someone explained to me (10 years ago) that there were three reasons why the court system was so jammed. 1. The judges appointed after the war were often ignorant of the law. They were political appointees who'd done favours during the war, not trained lawyers. This meant that they either gave bad judgements, which had to be appealed, or they avoided getting wrong by avoiding giving judgements at all. 2. Croats (at that time) seemed to love to sue each other. I don't know why that would be given how the courts were/ are, but from what I witnessed personally, it seemed to be true e.g. you would sue the insurance company to pay you what you were due when the bet they took on you not having an accident (for example) went against them. 3. The time taken to get justice was making real life situations complicated. People were dying and their children would take up the case, or the impact of the loss of the injured party would multiply because of the delay and all this had to be proved before the final judgement was given.
As an estate agent, I've seen a lot of this because so often a property is part of the dispute. Even when it has nothing to do with the property, I've seen deals fall apart because the two co-owners are at war with each other over some dispute that was on the court for 10 years and the richer one would sooner lose the sale, than see the poorer one receive half the proceeds.
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Post by Ribaric on Nov 24, 2015 15:37:52 GMT 1
Wot Carol said. Welcome to my world.
Add to those examples, the notarised deals made between owners and third parties which do not appear on the land registers. They are still legally valid and only seem to come out of the woodwork immediately after a sale.
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emiz
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Post by emiz on Nov 24, 2015 20:16:24 GMT 1
I'll give you the motorway between Split and Zagreb. Apart from Fridays and Saturdays in summer, its a fantastic road. The magistrala has amazing scenery. It used to be quite dangerous (people overtaking on blind bends), but that might have changed now that the motorway has extended because 90% of the time people just did it out of frustration after sitting behind a slow moving yugo chugging along. Were you around in the days before that highway? Oh man the road over the Mountains in winter was fun... We'd been driving 7 hours and I remember having to go outside to relieve myself, the Croats with me were laughing before I got out... they decided against it. I had been asleep so I didn't realise it was -17 it was like being injected with ice into your veins, and the f**kers wouldn't let me back in the SUV.
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emiz
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Post by emiz on Nov 24, 2015 20:17:50 GMT 1
For me driving is great (even in a golf diesel!) but on a bike croatia is way ahead of the uk,The small roads are a lot better maintained all our visitors from the uk have commented that they are better maintained.i taken the old roads from karlovac and sisak a fair few times and on the bike they were superb .i can only imagine what they were like before the motorway . I'm lucky enough not to have been a victim of crime here so I've not come across the courts though a mate works in a Croatian court which might one day be handy ,hopefully not.but I can only compare my experience with crime in the uk to here ,I had rather a lot of experience of it in the uk and it was rampant. So for me it's croatia every time. Now i realise its been some time since I was there but you're telling me local roads in Croatia are in better shape than the UK? Have things really changed that much? Aside from expensive toll roads, the roads there were shocking.
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Post by crojoe on Nov 24, 2015 21:06:13 GMT 1
I'll give you the motorway between Split and Zagreb. Apart from Fridays and Saturdays in summer, its a fantastic road. The magistrala has amazing scenery. It used to be quite dangerous (people overtaking on blind bends), but that might have changed now that the motorway has extended because 90% of the time people just did it out of frustration after sitting behind a slow moving yugo chugging along. Were you around in the days before that highway? Oh man the road over the Mountains in winter was fun... We'd been driving 7 hours and I remember having to go outside to relieve myself, the Croats with me were laughing before I got out... they decided against it. I had been asleep so I didn't realise it was -17 it was like being injected with ice into your veins, and the *rs wouldn't let me back in the SUV. I've known a few people who dies on that coastal road, in fact (if we're talking about roads), Croatia is the only country I have lived in where I have actually known people who dies in car crashes on roads. Take into account I have lived in over 10 countries (4 being in Asia). Sadly all where from vehicles overtaking on blind corners ... something I've seen in person many a time while driving around Croatia, so it's not always the roads fault. One thing I can say is that since Croatia joined the EU they have had to upgrade their infrastructure... one being roads and better road signage.
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Post by Carol on Nov 25, 2015 9:53:40 GMT 1
I can't speak for the local roads around Zagreb, but, yes the roads in Croatia that I know are in better shape than the UK. The UK's roads are given to potholes as we get frosty winters. They get dug up repeatedly by water, gas, elec and BT. Since 2008, local council budgets have been under pressure and sometimes it seems like they turn a blind eye to some of the potholes as a way of avoiding the expenditure.
Croatia on the other hand is enjoying the delights of being a net beneficiary of the EU, and as you know, the EU does like its infrastructure projects.
Signage has improved too. 10 years ago, we had to erect signs from the magistrala down to our office on the riva because we couldn't give directions that would mean anything to a stranger to the area. The only problem was that every other business also had to put up about 10 signs to let visitors know where to find them, so it was just a mess of signs stuck on lamp posts and trees. The council came along about 5 years ago and tore them all down. Then, it put up a few signs saying what the street names are. Genius!
I moved to Croatia a few months before the Zagreb- Split highway opened. I went up to Zadar twice on the old back roads. Wow, they were bad, not to mention some of the ghost towns that you' d have to pass through en route.
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Post by quest on Dec 1, 2015 12:00:40 GMT 1
This thread again... lol The Englishman in Zagreb (EMIZ) brought me to this forum, 7 or 8 years ago. Can I bring your out of retirement on my return? Hey, I'm still making the footy predictions. My only use for the forum nowdays, but better than the politics from 10 years ago. If some of you think Croatia is nationalistic now, you haven't been around in 2003-4.
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Post by margaret51 on May 30, 2016 19:43:27 GMT 1
Hi everyone. Well I was very seriously considering purchasing an apartment on the coast in Croatia. I am a young retiree so got plenty of enthusiasm. One thing I like about these forums it certainly brings people's ideas and thoughts to the fore.!
I honestly feel that I will stick with my lovely holidays to beautiful Croatia and many other areas of the World and finally eventually "stop" and move to the Cotswolds, UK.
Best Wishes to All
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Post by Carol on May 31, 2016 13:40:38 GMT 1
The Cotswolds are lovely.
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Post by crojoe on Jun 2, 2016 9:56:40 GMT 1
Croatia is lovely.....but unless you are the sort of person to stay committed, better to stick with your annual holiday. Yes, I agree with that (Croatia is lovely too and you need to have the right attitude to make moving abroad work). There is a massive difference between a holiday and living there, especially when its a foreign country with different customs and norms. So, if an old thread puts you off, then a move abroad is not for you. and may I suggest.. if coming here for business then bring a truckload of cash, full bank account (3 year plus plan before any profit) and keep any business ideas close to your chest, plus do research and be rational in your decision making, never do anything on the spur of the moment and if it looks to good to be true, chances are it is! If for holiday or retirement... come, relax (plenty of that here), sip coffee, drink wine watch the world go by and no need to worry about anything changing quickly... it takes at least 10 years for any major project to materialize (unless it's a monument in someones honor or fountains)!
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Post by Ribaric on Jun 4, 2016 18:38:25 GMT 1
Hi Margaret. I'm also a retiree, of ten years standing now and have spent all of them here in HR. If you have a pension then there's nothing to worry about if you wished to live here. ALL the problems are concerned with making a living, if you don't need to do that, you can live well here without too much difficulty. Don't let this thread influence your decision.
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