Why
Croatia?
The simple
answer for finding Croatia is fly to Budapest and hang a right. It
wasn’t quite as intuitive for my husband and I.
On the 14th
of September 2001 we flew out of LAX (Yup, first out) to my husbands’
new position in England. He had lived in Europe before, but I had
hardly been out of California. It took a few months to settle in,
but finally I could drive the roads, tell the temperature and even understand
most of the language. I was ready to explore and explore we did.
We became the King and Queen of the short break. Every time we could
squeeze in a day or two, either side of a weekend, we were on our way.
It didn’t take
long for us to realize we loved it. We loved the history; we loved
the culture; we just loved the ‘difference’ of it all. And
like most budding expatriates we started looking for our spot in the sun.
The one we
couldn’t afford in California, or most other places in the U.S. for that
matter. We are water people so there had to be a view of some large
body of water from our spot. We saw some of these dream locations
in France, Spain & Italy and we dreamed. But there was always
a ‘but’. ‘But’ the prices have gone too high (much like the prices
in Ca.) after the entry into the EU. ‘But’ some places have crime
rates that are very high and you had to live with bars on your windows
and doors. ‘But’ some places have been so over marketed to other Europeans
that the areas have lost the indigenous people and culture.
‘But’
then we spotted an anomaly on the map. We were starting to understand
the politics and economics that made things happen in Europe. One
day, while searching the internet for our next adventure, we found ourselves
looking at a geo-political map of Europe. There to the East across
the Adriatic from Italy was this thousand kilometer stretch of shoreline
belonging to a country that wasn’t quite in the EU yet.
We knew there
had been a war there, but ten years should have made some differences.
We resolved to go there, but there was so much else to see in Europe, it
wasn’t until the winter of 2004 that our son (working in London) had some
other New Years travel plans, so we put together a last minute travel package
to Dubrovnik for the New Year.
First Look
We flew into
Dubrovnik airport late in the afternoon. By the time we got our car
we approached the city soon after sunset. Coming in from the hills,
we could see the necklace of blue lights just illuminating the ‘Pearl of
the Adriatic’. After checking in, we set off down the creamy white
polished streets in search of some recommended restaurants. Our first
pick was a winner and we were introduced to our first of many ‘Dalmatian
fishermen’s platters’. This was about 18” of all the basic seafood
groups piled high. Even in this admittedly tourist oriented city
it was well within most anyone’s budget.
Much to our
surprise we found that a good part of Eastern Europe goes to Dubrovnik
for the New Year. This is a story in itself, but suffice it to say
that I saw more fur coats in one area than I have ever seen in my life.
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been able to squeeze out a few more days of vacation, after just barely
surviving a Croatian New Years celebration, we headed north along the coast.
It took us the full four days to make it half way up the coast (about 500km).
It didn’t take us this long because of the roads or the traffic.
It was the
sheer beauty that slowed us down. I’m a native of California. and
have lived on the central coast all my life so I have a good idea of what
a beautiful coast is like. This was awesome! It is like I always
imagined California once was. It wasn’t just the coastline with thousands
of little private coves and mountains down to the sea in places.
I was also the view of the sea. The always awe inspiring view of
waves to the horizon is one thing, but now park a thousand islands up and
down the coast and you want to take a continuous video along every mile.
So now we are
really looking for our spot with a view. There is no end to those
spots and houses to go with them, but there are no sale signs, nor can
we find many real estate advertisements. Reluctantly, we head back
to England, determined to break the code.
The Search
This was the
start of six month of research. Slowly the picture started to form.
English and German agents were plentiful on the internet, but they work
by appointment only. If you were not in Croatia, you needed tickets
in-hand before they would get serious with you. Now all we had to
figure out was ‘who can we trust?’ Luckily we found a well written
book (by an Englishman) that led you through the process and warned you
of the major pitfalls. The first thing we found out was that Americans
could own property in Croatia. Now we know it is possible!
Six months
later we were ready to make the next move. Is six months a long time
to get ready to view properties? Yup, but there is a lot to sort
through from a thousand miles away. Should we have made more trips
to Croatia? Yes, again, but you have to work with what life lets
you do. Risky? You bet! Sometimes you just have to take
a risk.
In any event,
we had our reservations; we had zeroed in on a location (it’s a big
country); we had our agent contacts and we had our list of properties.
Croatia here we come!
It’s not long
before we get our first lesson in the Croatian language. We are staying
in the town of Vodice. We have the opportunity to ask “Can you give
us directions to ‘Vo-dice’?” This results in looks of complete confusion.
Ultimately we resort to pointing at the map. “Ah ‘Vo-dee-tse’”.
It’s really easy, but you need to know how to say the alphabet. Luckily,
there is always some knowledge of English and if you can speak German,
it is nearly as good as speaking Croatian. After that bump in the
road we are lucky.
The agents
are great and the selections are mind boggling. Million dollar views
are the norm. Selections range from stone walled derelicts to true
villas on nearly private islands. There were also lots of things
to look out for in the process. It wasn’t easy to get used to the
possibility that you were buying just a piece of a house and a somewhat
related piece of the land around it. We worked our way through all
this and finally found the house we were looking for, at the price we wanted
and with the view we wanted. A view we couldn’t afford in USA and
the opportunity to live and experience an old world culture and history
in the comfort of our own home. After a little negotiation,
the offer is accepted. |
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| Closing
the Deal
Here the deal
is really made when you shake hands with the owner. Then comes the
Rakija (distilled spirit of fire) & the toasts. The paperwork
may just be a formality as far as the owner is concerned, but not so as
far as the government is concerned. It’s not until later that evening when
my husband and I are toasting over a bottle of Plavic (the original Zinfandel)
that we realize we had really done it. We owned a house in Croatia…well
nearly. Now we had all the paper to process and monies to transfer.
We also realized that our planned time was nearly up and my husband had
to return to work.
There are many
places (even in the US) I wouldn’t consider this next move, but we had
been told many time that crime was not a problem in Croatia. After
being here for a while, we could see that was actually true. You
felt safe nearly everywhere you went at any time of day or night.
This newly independent nation values their freedoms and sticks to the old-world
values. So my husband heads back to England and I settle into the
largest city near our house to finalize the sale. That was the next learning
experience.
Finding an
English speaking solicitor (lawyer), operating with 5 different banks,
in 4 different currencies across 3 national boarders can be challenging
to say the least. Although the sale of the property is usually conducted
in euros, the transaction must be completed in kunas between banks. On
top of that, the seller usually wants to be paid in euros. At one
point I found myself ushered into a bank vault to see a table piled a foot
high with kuna notes representing 50,000 euro converted at around 7.5 kuna
to the euro.
This had
to be counted and then physically transported by me and the solicitor’s
assistant to another bank to be counted and entered into the sellers account.
This looked more like a drug deal than a property purchase, but we managed
to stuff the money in every available carrying case we had and walk down
the street to the other bank. The solicitor had told me that there
is not electronic inter-bank transfer yet so they did this all the time.
If that isn’t a testament to a low crime rate, I don’t know what is!
Another thing
that I realized completing the final arrangements; here I was, a western
woman, speaking minimal Croatian, performing a business transaction with
all male, old-world lawyers, bankers and even a retired army general.
At no point did I feel intimidated or patronized by these men. They
were always gentlemen and conducted business in a professional manner even
with someone that did not speak their language.
It took all
of a week, and a lot of phone calls, as well as some follow-up back in
England, but we did it. So what did we do? We now have our spot in
the sun. A place we can sit on our balcony and watch the fishing and pleasure
boats come in and out of the bay formed by the islands all along the coast.
We can walk down in the morning to the dock and pick out our fresh produce
for the day. We can drop what we are doing during the day and walk
down the hill to swim in the warm clear water. We can join the rest
of the residents in the evening in their pilgrimage to the bistros and
restaurants to enjoy veal, pasta and seafood dishes along with the local
vino while watching the sunset (California style. It sets on the
sea here). We have a whole country to explore that just a few years
ago, we really didn’t know of its existence. It has all been worth
it.
Besides all
the exploring, we have renovations to make on our home and that, as everything
else, is done in a different way, but we keep learning, building our volumes
of stories and it is all worth it for this place in the sun. |
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