I couldn’t work out why the licence plates have HR and not CA or CR! To depict country. Now I know! Hrvatska is the native Croatian name for the country known in English as Croatia. Both refer to the same sovereign nation. Hrvatska (pronounced her-vats-ka) is used by locals, while Croatia is the international name derived from Medieval Latin. The country uses ‘HR’ for, among other things, web domains (.hr) and vehicle plates, reflecting its local name.
We got to Zagreb and turned in the rental car – Oh happy day! We had a bit of an issue with the car which was so great until Sunday. We picked it up in Split – had permission to take it across borders – and were returning it in Zagreb – all Croatia. Except that on Sunday afternoon, in Slovenia, it died on us! After unsuccessful calls to Croatia, I contacted the local Enterprise office in Ljubljana, who (after consultation back and forth with supervisors), sent out a tow truck and came and picked us up (we were on the side of the highway). They gave us another car but without putting our names on any contract, photocopying our drivers licenses, passports, etc. and off we went. We arrived today in Croatia with a different car – one registered in Slovenia!!!! (These are all franchise offices and don’t have cross computer access). Anyway, all’s well – they have the Slovenian car, who knows where our Croatian car is or what ails it, and – so far – our American Express card looks OK!
A teacher trying to teach a history lesson?
At the restaurant where we had some small bites for lunch.
