This is the blog for Matt Hollingsworth. I'm from Ojai, California. I've worked in comics for 22 years as a color artist.

This blog will largely be used to show my daily life as I live in Samobor, Croatia and as I travel around the region. Lots and lots of photos! Leave me a comment, will you?

All content on this blog is copyright 2013 Matthew Dale Hollingsworth and cannot be copied or used for any purpose without my consent.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Man. Delayed again.

We went to MUP, the police station, on Petrinska yesterday. Waited about 2 hours. That's not the worst. We had to wait 4 hours once. But, this is, hmm, I think our 5th time there, working on my visa renewal. Last time we went they told us all of my papers were in order and that I just had to go to a different police station that's in charge of my district for an interview. Those guys never got around to calling me like they were supposed to so we had to go to them on our own. Got that done. Just a basic interview asking why I'm here, where I live and all that. Easy.

I had a 30 day extension from my last visit to MUP on Petrinska. And it was up and they still hadn't called me, so we had to go in. And wait 2 hours. I was hoping they'd take us in and give me my renewal finally. But no, of course not. My joke has been that to get anything done in Croatia requires at least 3 visits to any place. For instance, we had all sorts of different places to go to renew my visa and each one required about 3 visits before we accomplished what we needed. Same thing with most things here. But with MUP, it's been 5 visits already. Anyway, after 2 hours we finally go in and she tells us that they're still waiting to hear from some finance ministry or something and she extends me another 30 days.

We've been at this for 60 days now. Ah, lovely red tape. But I'm extended again, so that's okay. As long as they eventually approve me it's okay.

15 comments:

Rico said...

Vidim da se polako navikavas, vjerojatno su u Zagrebu jos i azurni

Matt Hollingsworth said...

Samo razumijem pola. Drugi dio je kao "probably in Zagreb they're still blue"????

Yeah, I'm getting used to it. My will has been beaten down.

;-)

Rico said...

:) ma ne, ažurni, mislim da se na eng kaže promptly?
Like when You compare Zagreb with for example my town, Split.

Matt Hollingsworth said...

Ha hah! čujem da je Split sporiji od Zagreba. I've been there a couple of times but only spent a few hours.

Daniel N. said...

Namjeravaš li tražiti državljanstvo prije ili kasnije?

Rico said...

>Ha hah! čujem da je Split sporiji od Zagreba.
Bogu hvala je, i neka tako ostane:)
Coooool maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, eeeeasy:)

Matt Hollingsworth said...

Daniel:

Možda, ali poslije pet godine. Trebam živjeti u hrvatskoj pet godine . I have to be here for five years before I am elligble.

Rumble Bum, Branko:

Yes, glad it's mellower there. We should be spending lots of summer in Tribunj if all goes according to plan. Want that mellowness for a while.

dzuka said...

five years are estimated to be enough to beat down your will completely!
: )

Matt Hollingsworth said...

Sounds about right. So, I'm 16/60th of the way there! I can feel it already.

Rico said...

>Dob: 39
>Spol: Muški
>Horoskopski znak: Strijelac
>Astrološka godina: Majmun

U jebote, tek sam sad vidio, mislio sam da gledam svoj profil:)

Matt, generacijo:)

Aj zivio, i jel "mellowness" znaci "ladit jaja":)))))

Matt Hollingsworth said...

Aha, čini se da smo slični.

Domigorgon said...

LOL, yeah, that's how everything works around here. But it would seem that you're dealing with it well. Get used to it, eh? :)

Viooltje said...

Ah, the irresistible charm of Croatian administrative stupidity.
Just to ease your grief, we all got off on the wrong foot with MUP. A simple procedure like renewing your ID always encourages me to apply for a gun license at the same time and just bring some order among their arrogant, self-absorbed, mentally challenged staff (and I don't mean those few human, heart-warming individuals you run into every 10 yrs). When it comes to coppers, one word springs to mind: A.C.A.B. I hope you get it sorted out soon, my sister's bf waited 3 months for the Ministry of Education to approve his Swedish diploma, in the end he kicked off with them and asked if bribery was one of the requirements, he ended up giving some wanker 100 euros and it was sorted the very same day. Hopefully you will not change your mind during those 5 years, for Croatia is a great country after all, and even the paper work numskulls have their charms in bringing you down, right? ;-)

Daniel N. said...

Možda, ali poslije pet godine.

To improve your Croatian a little: always use godina (konja, žena, vlakova, pasa = genitive plural, you know what I mean) after pet, šest, deset, in fact all numbers except 1-4 and like...

Such minor issues aside, your Croatian in amazingly good; don't know if you managed the accent, though :)

d

Matt Hollingsworth said...

Thanks man. I still make tons of mistakes but I give it a go. My accent is decent but not perfect with certain words. Strpljiv, for instance! I'm good with nj, as they have that in Spanish and I learned that when I was a kid (though have forgotten most), but lj is tough in certain words.

People at the market usually assume I'm Polish or German if they don't already know me, though.