Life’s A Journey Not Worth The Rush
Enjoy the journey, not the destination
Every time I visit Croatia, it has a profound effect on my life. Both my parents migrated to Australia at the age of 16 to escape communism for a life unrestricted to create wealth in a country full of opportunity. As a youth in Australia, success is measured in wealth from your income, which justifies your status. However, in more recent years, I have found that people in Croatia live to work instead of work to live.
“Stop this perpetual agitation to go somewhere, see. Get the future. The future is nothing but an abstraction. There is no future.”
— Alan Watts, British writer and speaker for enterpreting Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism.
One of the most enriching parts of travel for me is the ability to soak up different cultures. Being embedded in a different country allows you to see life from multiple perspectives. Whether you’re in a capitalist-driven society, socialist or religious traditions practiced in a certain town, the ability to see life through a different perspective adds dimensions to your own character.
Croatians are laid back.
Croatia’s meteoric rise as a popular destination on the Mediterranean has had July 2021 be one of its busiest summer months on record. Croatia has changed enormously since its entrance to the EU in 2013. More property has been built, luxury hotels established, and more tourists visit from the U.S.A., U.K., and Australia each summer.
I never understood many Croatian sayings until this year.
“Polako, Palako” translates to “slowly, slowly.”
- When friends, neighbors, or people in passing discuss their responsibilities, this is a phrase used often. It’s a way Croatians remind each other that there is no need to rush, as opportunities will arise at the right time.
“Ako Bog da” translates to “if God gives.”
- We all plan our lives in one way or another. Whether you need to find a new job, renovate your home, or hope to accomplish a difficult task, Croatians use ‘ako bog da’ to remind us that things will happen if they’re supposed to.
“Samo zivim” translates to “I’m just living.”
- Definitely one of my favorite sayings. When bumping into friends or family whilst enjoying life, simply taking in your surroundings with no immediate plans, ‘samo zivim’ is used instead of ‘just taking it easy.’
Life happens in Croatia without a specific time.
If you come to Croatia with expectations of life to move fast, then you will be disappointed. People prefer to take their time to enjoy experiences instead of rushing off to the next item on their agenda.
It’s all about the experience.
The journey in itself is the point.
Ordering a cab.
- Cabs will typically give you an approximation of when they’ll be in the area. You will be lucky to get a cab in Croatia in under 5 minutes unless you’re at a cab rank. When it's busy, you might need to wait 45 minutes.
Booking a table at a restaurant.
- Restaurants expect people to spend 2 or 3 hours over dinner. If you’re 15 minutes late to your reservation, they don’t see this as an issue. In other parts of the world, being late to a reservation means that they may need to give your table away because you may not finish dinner before the party reserved after you arrive.
Having a drink at a bar.
- When you sit at a cafe bar in Croatia, you are never pressured to order another coffee or cocktail. You can sit at your table or lounge chair for hours even if you order one drink. This is the experience. You don’t need to order 3 coffees because you’re using their wi-fi in a co-working space.
You don’t need to be rich to sail the Mediterranian.
Last year I sailed the Croatian Islands along the Dalmatian coast with 12 other friends, surprisingly it cost less than a stay in a hotel or accommodation on an island next to the sea. Something I wish I knew when I was much younger.
Sailing a yacht through Croatia is cheaper than getting an apartment. Between 10 friends, you can pay as little as €400 for a week on a yacht, excluding food, drinks, and a skipper. That’s cheaper than paying €60 a night in a hotel or a beach apartment rental.
It is the best way to experience Croatia. Croatia has over 1200 Islands, 78 of which have beautiful towns you can visit. Popular destinations like Hvar or islands like Obonjan offer yoga retreats with unique entertainment in magical natural surroundings.
Not all trips to Croatia have been a holiday.
In 2014 when I returned to Croatia from Australia, sadly, it was to bury my father. A day of mourning had passed when we placed my father’s casket on a small ferry to the small island of Krapanj. As the ferry docked onto the flattest island on Dalmatia’s coast, a reception of violins, trumpets, a cello backed up with some local vocals lined a corridor of three hundred people towards a small church.
Such a magnificent event to be embedded into. Beyond what I could imagine, a well-orchestrated reception, as I carry the casket on my shoulders, with five other family members toward the church. Inexplicable at the time, I could not find a single reference in my mind to stand up to the eloquent way of celebrating someone’s life as death takes their soul onto another journey.
This taught me a sense of community I had never experienced. Not only family and friends gathered but most people who live on the island of Krapanj. We rarely stay connected to our neighbors in fast-moving cities like Sydney, New York, or London. We sometimes can take for granted those who come into our lives for a brief, flickering moment.
Novalja on the Island of Pag.
I love to read.
Every time I travel, I pick up new books to read on my flight or at the beach when I get to my destination.
At 17, whilst I sat on a beach in Novalja on Pag Island in Croatia, I decided to read Alain de Botton’s Status Anxiety.
This book reshaped my view of the world as it delves deep into the human psyche. It is still a book I recommend to people today as it unearths the common threads in which society expects us to go through our life journey.
Alain de Botton’s book covers the miscues of consumerism, marriage, and psychology that today’s world has taught us from a young age.
“The quickest way to stop noticing something, may be to buy it — just as the quickest way to stop appreciating someone may be to marry him or her.” — Alain de Botton, Status Anxiety
- We’re taught that a degree will ensure our success. However, according to this billionaire census, one in three out of ten billionaires worldwide don’t have a degree.
- To own a car shows a form of status. However, owning a car is not necessary if you live in New York, Bondi Beach, San Fransisco, or many other major cities globally. To park a car in Firenze can cost a minimum of €20 per day.
- Who you know in life will get you far, not in Raffaello Follieri's instance, who exaggerated ties with the Vatican to fraud investors of $2.4 million. Even the best of us can fall victim to the lure of status as Anne Hathaway did to Follieri, who faked a letter from the late Pope John Paul the second.
Whilst some of us rush through life to earn status, we sacrifice our very existence for monetary gains. We then use these monetary gains to take time off. Only then, when we can sit to ponder without status anxiety, do we use our time to understand our lives better. We call these holidays, then rush back to our misconceptions of what life should be to earn enough money for our next holiday.
My earliest memory of Croatia.
I was a chubby kid growing up. Okay, most kids called me fat.
When I was five I visited Croatia for the first time with my parents who went to visit Venice for a few days. I was left with my cousins and zero pocket change. After a day, I was eager to find a way to buy a pizza, so I decided to set up a small store. I gathered some of the coolest shells I could find, then laid them in front of me in wait for people to pass by, so I could sell them to buy that pizza that plagued my mind.
When I looked back on that experience, I used to think that the man who asked what I was doing with the shells in front of me on the esplanade thought I might have been a go-getter. Now I think he gave me 20 kunas (€3) because he most likely felt sorry for me since Croatia is not a rich country by any means.
Croatia is still one of the cheapest places to visit. You can buy a large pizza for 50 kunas (€7) or eat at a top restaurant for €25 per head, including a drink. Groceries for any given week can cost as little as €30 per person. As I’m now living here, excluding rent, I spend as little as €576 (US$474) per month. On top of having low expenditures, Croatia is now luring digital nomads with a nomad visa that allows you to pay zero income tax.
Final thoughts
The culture in Croatia is in stark contrast to growing up in Australia or when I lived in the U.S.A (New York and California). It has been a significant life adjustment to the usual way of life for me. As I travel through Europe, I find that these characteristics are shared with other European countries, especially towns along the Mediterranean.
It is hard to reconcile what life meant to me before moving to Europe, especially since the recent unpredicted pandemic.
Life is full of great surprises when you let go.
We’re all on different journeys, with similar life experiences.
What I love about Europe is allowing life to flow instead of trying to force it.
Wu Wei is a Chinese philosophy from Daoism. Translated literally, it means “no action” in English. However, a more accurate translation is “non-forcing.” It is a principle of allowing the universe to unfold in its natural course.
Life’s a journey, not worth the rush.
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Thank you for reading,
Rick Govic
