When I've been here for a while, in Zagreb, sometimes I get jaded. But often when I leave and return, I notice how much I like it. I was in the center yesterday and was noticing how clean it is. There can be a lot of graffiti in the center (and, well, everywhere). And this sometimes makes it LOOK like it's dirty. But as I was riding the trams and buses around, I was noticing how clean it is. Very little litter. Walking around the center, with the sun shining and looking at the park on Zrinjevac was nice. And taking the train home later, I was just happy to have this fast ride to avoid traffic with.
Sometimes when I travel, other places are MUCH much dirtier. I had the same reaction when we returned from Belgrade. While I really enjoyed my time there, it's a dirty city. And by comparison, Zagreb looks shining, new and clean. Same thing with Bangkok. Bangkok is perhaps the dirtiest city I've ever been in. The infrastructure there is not enough to support the large population they have. Many areas have a bad sewage problem with the horrific smell of raw sewage wafting through the air and mixing with the wonderful spices of the cooking going on in the little stands on the street.
Not all areas are filthy, but many are. It's a city of ten million people, so it's 12 or so times larger than Zagreb. So comparing it isn't really fair. It's a city that is bustling with life and all that entails. It's filled with wonderful chaos, but also immense filth. We enjoyed our time in Thailand. And we will return someday. But man, it's good to be home.
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2 comments:
Hi,
I follow your interview from http://www.expatinterviews.com/croatia/matt-hollingsworth.html
And was so surprised because the first word I saw in your blog is Thailand not Croatia! ^^ It's my home country.
I'm going to work in Croatia for a year. So I would like to ask your opinion about cost of living there.
Do you think is it enough to live there(by average) if I got around $1,000(US) per month?
Well, I don't really know to be honest. Depends on how much your rent is. If you cook at home and shop at Dolac or another Tržnica for your fruits and veggies, that should help. It seems to me that that should be enough to live on here if you don't go out a ton. I *hear* that 5000 kuna per month is considered a pretty good salary. That's about $845 with the conversion rate today, so seems to me that you should be fine.
If you want to go out for beer or something, you just have to find the cheaper places. Mali Medo is a brewpub on Tkalčićeva that has pretty cheap beer, for instance...
Hope that helps! It certainly isn't anywhere near as cheap as Thailand. Not even close.
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