We all scream for ice cream 🍦
In this episode, I answer Croatia questions about:
➡️ Can I get a job without speaking Croatian?
➡️ Can I get an OIB online?
➡️ Where can I do a wellness retreat for 3 weeks?
➡️ Can I freelance outside of my full-time job?
➡️ Can I sell ice cream from a truck?
⭐️ PLUS ⭐️
Lawyer Tip of the Week:
Know what the real estate agency is telling you to sign
Every Friday at 5 o’clock Croatia time, I answer 5 questions from YOU about Croatia.
Want to see your question answered in a future episode? Drop your question below in the comments.
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Hey hey s happy Friday welcome to five question Friday I am Sarah vexat in Croatia and every Friday at 5:00 ctia time answer five questions about Croatia from people who have sent them in on Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedIn xat and ca.com email my Consulting sessions Camp’s Consulting sessions and people
Who draw them in the sand so I have five wonderful questions for you this week before we dive into that just a few administrative things first let me tell you where I am so I am in Park sutian which is my favorite Park in split and
It’s a bit of a Hidden Gem I got to say I think not a lot of people come here I mean locals know about it but I think it’s very common for um for tourists and foreigners who’ve just moved here to not even know that it’s here but it’s it’s
Because it’s it’s I don’t know maybe like a 20 minute walk from the city center but it’s on a cliff that overlooks the sea so I would love to show it to you before we get started so check it out that’s the sea and this little church here yes yeah there a lot
Of people get married at that church so very often when I’m in this park you can see people having their either their wedding or their wedding photos being taken because this is just such a beautiful part it used to be a cemetery but then it was destroyed uh it’s very
Common in Croatia to have these big tall Italian cypresses around cemeteries so this part Park is full of those trees which I really really really love so let me show you the rest of the park see the Gazebo stayed that has remained and then off that way that’s
The city center where the palace is and this here this is Maya that’s a neighborhood here in Split so I like to come here really all times of year one thing that’s really special about it is during the summer when it’s super gross and hot it’s not hot here it’s actually
Quite cool because you can sit under the canopy for one but also you have this beautiful Breeze that comes off the sea and up over the cliff and through the park so it’s a really cool place no matter how hot it is and that’s just fantastic and it’s so peaceful and
Serene it’s never it’s never packed it’s never full so if you’re looking to kind of be in a park and not be in a busy area this is a really beautiful spot and it has great views from every single corner to give you a little bit more
Understanding of where I am it’s next to oy Marina in Split okay next what else do I want to tell you oh yeah tomorrow’s the fundraiser I’m sure you’ve heard about it we’ve been screaming about it from the mountain tops and I just I just
Want to say how grateful I am that the stars are linning on the weather because we just didn’t know like we had to plan this 2 months in advance and it’s March Anything could happen we could have crazy 200 km perh Bora it could be freezing it could be raining there’s
Just no way to know but it’s going to be 19 tomorrow and sunny and no Bora I mean what are the odds seriously on Sunday it’s supposed to rain like we just got so lucky and I’m just so grateful for that everything’s working out we have so many people contributing beautiful baak
Goods more than I could have possibly imagined we’ve gotten so much press about this I’m just so chassed about it I really am uh I love this organization so so much and it just makes me really happy that everything is clicking into place and we’re going to have a really
Successful fundraiser tomorrow so if you’re in Split I hope I’m going to see you there uh next on Monday I’m doing an interview with HRT which is pretty cool I’ve done a few of them before but this one feels like it’s going to be a bit different they’re going to be
Interviewing myself as well as Michael frier who’s someone I’ve mentioned a lot and has been on five question Friday a lot as well as this woman named Elsie and she’s been here a long time here in split and she does a lot of nonprofit work for udas here in the split area so
Uh I will give you more information about that once I have it um I think we can go ahead and dig in now what do you think all right thank you so much for being here this is five question Friday and I’m going to answer five questions
About Croatia all right so this first one comes from Harvey here on Instagram can I get an O online or through email no not anymore not anymore uh so before you could submit it online but now they’ve taken away that option and you can only do it in person at the tax
Office so uh we can send you our guide on how to get in a web and we can also send you the link uh to the list of tax offices if would like that to make it a little bit easier I have to pause right now because I see andr has just joined
Hi what’s up so glad you’re here uh okay back to the topic what is an O So an O is a tax ID number every country has some kind of tax ID number in the US it’s a social security number in the UK it’s an NHS number in the Netherlands I
Don’t know what they call it now but when I live there it was called a Sophie number so here it’s called an o o i and uh I’m going to tell you what it stands for and I’m not going to say this gracefully but that’s what you’re here
For right for me to foul up catian also identific ski Bry I think I added an extra syllable in there but I don’t think the language place are here [Laughter] right okay so the next question comes from Vesna on Instagram how to get work for someone who is not speaking creation
Is in the field of it okay so it is more possible than ever for non- Croatian speakers to get jobs in Croatia I want to get that out there especially if you are in it because Croatia has a tech scene that is rapidly growing especially around the area of
Zagre so yes this is definitely possible in the field of it what I would recommend in terms of finding those jobs is a few different things so one Target companies like do research on the biggest tech companies in Croatia and Target them specifically second I would look at the job ads so we
Have a pretty ex we have a job guide finding I let me try that again we have a guide on how to find a job in Croatia that includes the links to all of the different sites with job listings we would be more than happy to
Send that over to you so I would also look there I would like to point out in particular Rim uh which means today I work and they have a live chat in English and they will help find you a job I know they did that at one time but I I would check
Them out remat uh they are big big big big company here they have hired a tremendous number of foreigners from abroad like they brought them over and gave them work permits so that would be the first place to start for sure so those would be my suggestions
Okay uh oh oh I have one more suggestion follow split Tech City split Tech city is a community down here in Split obviously and they bring together all the tech companies in the area and they are very very good about posting the jobs that are from their members on
Their Instagram profile so if you follow their Instagram you’ll be able to see those jobs there and they post them quite often so I would check that out as well these are all the guides we can send you if you send us a DM our guide
On how to get a job our guide on worker rights our guide on how to obtain a work permit and also we have a guide on call centers that hire foreigners because they’re typically looking for people who speak non- Croatian so English and like 30 other languages so that is also like
A path of least resistance to get a job here ah Andres uh says yeah LinkedIn and mu Pau I always forget about LinkedIn yes LinkedIn actually that is a great choice LinkedIn is very active in creation so you could definitely find a job there and mu Pau for sure whenever
We’re looking for people we always hire through mu Pau doesn’t mean that that’s where they end up coming from but we always post our jobs through muy Pau that is in our jobs guide but incidentally the last three people we hired even though we put job ads in mu
Pau they ended up finding the listings on Instagram here we go uh okay let me scroll down to the next one oh yes this one also comes from Instagram this is from stay golden one where would you recommend a great destination for a 3-week health Retreat gyms Pilates yoga healthy food options
Hiking scenery all walking no car easy the island of loen oh so the island of loen is called the island of Vitality it’s in the name I spent two weeks there this past September I hadn’t been there before I loved it I loved it so so much it felt
Like it was just on a totally different frequency and I felt renewed after being there I met with the director of The Tourist Board while I was in loen and they told me that when tourists come there they stay on average of 8 days which is actually a pretty long holiday
Compared to most places in Croatia and it’s because it’s this more of a long-term destination it’s h it’s great so you can rent a bike and you can bike around you don’t have to have a car it has all these little quaint little Villages like Mali loen
And V loen which you can easily get between those two because there’s this amazing bike walking trail that goes between those two towns that just looks it just it doesn’t look real it doesn’t look real in the best way I was is absolute magic and B loen just looks
Like a movie set it really does I’m like how is this a place that really exists in this world and then they have uh I can’t remember the name of it right now but they have this giant giant forest like if you’re familiar with split you know
We have Marion they have their own thing that’s kind of like that it’s not quite as tall but it’s quite quite large it’s on this peninsula and then there are rocky beaches that go all around it so you could be out there by yourself I
Mean I was out there in September and I was totally by myself so it just kind of depends on which spots you choose but then you can also kind of hike up in there and there are hiking trails all over the island and you can also take a
Bus over to sess which is not very far they’re connected by a bridge but there’s lots you can do there um there’s also lots of Spas there wellness retreats uh all kinds of active uh things that you can do there so I would definitely recommend loen I think that
Would be the perfect match and it has a lot of wild beaches a wild Beach is like yeah I don’t know um there’s usually nobody there it’s harder to get to and it’s totally worth it I went to one of those it was glorious absolutely
Glorious now if I wanted to add on to that Catia has a lot of thermal spas and I wouldn’t say this is necessarily where you’d want to go for like 3 weeks but they typically have a lot of activities at the spas and then in and around the Spas you can do hiking
And biking and those kinds of activities as well there are a few that I’d like to highlight uh krains uh this is not a word I want to say but I’m going to say it anyways uh to hke and Stu beke top PL say so we
Have two guides we can send so one on how Croatia is a country of wellness and the other is a list of thermal Spas which are called toit in Croatia so we can send both of those to you if you send us a DM this brings us to our lawyer tip of
The week so this one is about real estate okay so this comes from our head lawyer when you request that a real estate agency show you a property they will ask you to sign a document they will make it seem like it’s a simple form to consent to view a property in
Reality you are signing a contract that obligates you to pay commission to that agency if you buy the property they show you even if they are already collecting commission from the seller in most cases you cannot get around this you should be aware of what you’re signing is not
Prescribed by law it’s prescribed by the agency this is excellent advice and I would like to add on to that I would add on to that and just say that real estates in Croatia they are looking after the agency first the seller second and the
Buyer thirdd if at all so it’s also very common for the real estate agencies to provide a lawyer uh don’t use them because they’re not looking after your interest they’re looking after the agency’s interest and the seller’s interest not yours so it’s important that you have your own lawyer
That is going to be your Advocate that is going to protect your money and your interest and your property okay all right cool next this comes from Samantha on Instagram all of our questions are from Instagram today all right what are the rules legalities around operating a
Freelance business on the side of a creation full-time work contract or permit is it similar to other countries like Australia where you can earn personal income on the side Lodge your tax return and at the end of the year pay your taxes or because you’re here on
A work permit you can only earn income from your employment uh the last thing you said yes so when you are here on a work permit that means you are only legally allowed to work for the company that you have a contract for that you
Have a work permit for so you cannot do side work now this all kind of comes down to the right to work which we do have a guide on who has the right right to work which is quite extensive because there are a lot of different variables when you have
The complete freedom to work which usually is is cretian Citizens EU citizens their spouses uh and Third Country Nationals who have permanent residents those are the most common situations of people who have the complete freedom to work so let’s say that you have the complete freedom to work and you have a full-time
Job even in that scenario if you wanted to go work for another employer like as a part-time gig in most cases you would have to get permission to do that now if you wanted to have your own like berbert like trade on the side then you can do
That and we’re not going to dive down the rabbit hole of all the ways that you can freelance in Croatia because that is that is not the question that she asked but that is a big topic and if you would like to understand what freelancing looks like in croati drop us
A message drop us a DM or comment and I can expand on that in a different video okay what I can send you is our guide on our right to work and also our guide on how to freelance in Croatia if you would like that send a St all right
Our last question I think this is our last question yes this comes from celis from where you wonder Instagram so my partner and I are planning to move to Croatia I’m hoping to start a small business selling homemade ice cream treats from a bike do I I need a special certification or
Location to make these icy treats from my home can I even sell food from a bike my creation language skills are good enough for chatting with a four-year-old child same so I figured this would be a great first business for me to make money to expand my language skills and
To meet new people that sounds like a great plan in fuzzy cotton candy dream world here’s the thing and I didn’t I was so glad to get this question because I had an idea of what the answer would be but I didn’t quite know and so my colleague Daniela did the research on
This and reading it I was like wow this is this is like classic classic Croatia and I some of it makes sense but some of it doesn’t make so much sense so I boiled down this novel that she gave me about all the rules and regulations on
How someone could do this into something too tiny so I’m going to run through this right now all right so first ice cream is considered a confectionary so I’m telling you that for the nomenclature so you understand as I go forward okay it is a regulated trade you cannot make treats at
Home it must be produced in a business space that meets the minimal technical conditions for your trade which means there has to be an inspection to produce confectionary you must have a professional qualification meaning you must pass a master’s exam or have completed at least
Three years of school for a baker or a confectioner and if you don’t you can hire someone who does and this one I thought really interesting because well I have a professional qualification in baking but I didn’t go to school for 3 years so
Um does that mean I couldn’t do it if I wanted to ah crazy all right so let’s get to the bike part of this situation the bike and the trailer would have to be inspected and lastly you would need what’s called a concession so whenever you want to use an outdoor space for
Some kind of business purpose you have to get a concession which is essentially a permission from the local municipality that you can do this business there so a great example would be oh we got a question last year oh okay a guy in zadar asked us last
Year uh because he was trying to walk down the beach and there was this Campground that was like no you can’t you can’t come on to our beach and he was really confused because in Croatia there there are no uh private beaches everything’s public you can’t it can’t be
Private and so I was talking to our lawyer about this is like well there are some cases where a business can get a concession for a beach and then in that case they can say no you can’t come on to this part of the beach that is an example of a concession
All right so you would have to get a concession and the reason this is just so silly because if you’re on a bike you’re constantly moving around so it implies that you would have to get a concession at every place that you stop to be able
To sell these treats which is just not real realistic and cuz I kind of Wonder like you have these people that walk up and down the beach that have like um C like donuts or sodas or something in a cooler and you know it’s not official like it’s obvious it’s not official but
I’ve always wondered why we don’t have food trucks and why we don’t have you know more people who are kind of roaming around off offering like really nice food and treats to people who are on the beach and I guess this is why because you need a concession at every place
You’re going to stop and so you’re kind of at the mercy of the municipality to like actually give that to you so to Circle back to the original question this gentleman would like to sell homemade ice cream treats from a bike and that would not work very well
There are a lot of Hoops of fire you have to jump through and a really really high bar that is set for something like that which now makes sense why nobody does that so that’s tragedy I mean I would really love some homemade ice cream treats when I’m chilling on the
Beach in omish that would make my life a lot better I mean who’s who’s with me on that I mean come on but who knows maybe one day graci will evolve and realize that ice cream on the beach is one of the best things in the
World who’s to say all right that’s it guys that’s the five questions for this week I hope you really enjoyed them and got a lot out of them I am going to go home now and bake some more treats I have made three loaves of banana well I
Made three loaves of banana bread today for the bake sale tomorrow one of which uh is not going to work out so this is what happened I use a scale to bake with I had for a very long time and the battery was dying today except the scale gave me no indication
That it was dying so I thought it was measuring things properly it didn’t feel right but I was like no it seems okay the lights the the LED is not flickering or anything turns out it was very wrong so it kind of exploded in the oven so I
Think I’m just going to crumble it up and put on ice cream see ice cream but uh the other two loaves turned out great so I still have to make uh I make this um chocolate cake with cinnamon and coffee and you don’t even notice the cinam it’s like you don’t know that
That’s what it is it’s just this little thing on the back end that’s just like huh that’s nice but I can’t put my finger on what that is it’s beautiful and then I’m also going to make snicker doodles which is this uh Southern American Cookie that I really like to
Make often and it’s a sugar cookie that is coated in and sugar and it’s quite nice so I’m going to go home and do that and bake like crazy and uh then be up at the uh butt crack of dawn tomorrow to head downtown for the bake
Seal so um thank you so much for joining me I hope to see you tomorrow and if you can’t be here I’m going to do my best to post some stuff on stories so that you can be there with us in spirit have a wonderful weekend enjoy the sunshine video say