Idemo na kavu?

Lately I have been struggling with nostalgia. Nostalgia – a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time. It’s not that I don’t like it here in Graz because I really do. I met amazing people who became my great friends; I discovered new cultures and tried out new things. I have grown so much in these past 4 months. I changed, in my opinion, for the good. Moving here gave me a chance to make a fresh start, in a place where no one knows me. Being able to do this is a wonderful gift and I think that I used it perfectly. Like I said, life here is great but there are times when I really miss my family and friends. Not necessarily the big things like living at home but more the small ones like my mom fixing up lunch for me or doing my laundry or my dad yelling from the living room for me to get up because I will be late again. Maybe, most of all I miss someone, anyone, calling and saying „Bok Anita. Idemo na kavu? “

Say what? I can imagine your faces now while trying to read the last sentence and thinking to yourself „What the heck does this mean? “. Well, it’s simple „Idemo na kavu“ is a way of lifestyle in Zagreb and Croatia. We just LOVE, I mean really, really, really LOVE coffee. It’s part of our culture and our daily routine, basically of who we are. According to a 2009 survey we annually drink 5 kg of coffee per person, that’s 22,500 tons of coffee per year, and we spend 2.25 million hours having coffee each year, that’s half an hour a day per person.  Coffee is such an important part of our lives and that’s why I want to try to bring our coffee culture closer to you and maybe help you understand why I miss it so badly.

In Croatia the café mentality is more than just a cup of coffee, it’s a philosophy. To us, coffee is more than just coffee. We see coffee as glue for making new relationships, keeping old ones, and making jobs done. On simple coffee meetings people can even be hired or fired. Having coffee in Croatia is very different than in the rest of the world because, as you might have guessed, coffee in Croatia is a social function. In a lot of other European countries coffee just serves as boosts to work harder, something like fuel for the body.

In a typical café in Croatia almost all tables are occupied by more than one person. Why? Because people are actually talking to each other while having coffee. Not just sitting and playing with their smart phones, iPad’s, laptops or any other modern gadget, but conversing, hanging with friends. In many European countries, or even in the USA, coffee houses are places where people bring in their laptops or iPad’s and WORK. For them it’s just a place where they are pouring liters of coffee into their bodies in order to be able to work on their projects or whatever. Like what the heck? Croatians would be recoiling in horror if they would see a scenario like this in their cafe around the block. Thinking, you don’t go have a coffee to work! You go to talk, meet, relax a little and enjoy the company of your friend. You simply don’t go to coffee houses to work on your projects or study for your final exams. Here, in Croatia, that’s what libraries are for, duh!? Another thing that sometimes seems shocking to us is coffee to go. You won’t find a lot of places that offer that here.  Putting lids on our coffee so we can go back to work, walk or jog while drinking our coffee, seems like a sin to us. Dude, take your time, sit down and have a cup of coffee. It can’t be that hard! We accept coffee to go only in extreme situations like when you really have an important meeting or exam and haven’t slept the whole night and don’t have time to sit down, but only then.

Oh, another important info about our coffee is that we don’t have varying sizes of it. You can either have a big one or a small one. The small one is approximately 354 ml and the big one 473 ml. This is for us perfectly normal. We will rather go and drink a small coffee twice a day than take a huge one. I love Starbucks; I have this routine to visit Starbucks every time I visit a new city since we don’t have it in Zagreb. But sometimes the coffee sizes they offer are just ridiculous (354 ml, 473 ml, .59 , and .91 liters). What am i supposed to do with one litter of coffee, sip on it the whole day!? That’s just not cool. We don’t do that.

When I moved here, I met in my dorm this great girl. Her name is Victoria and she is from Klagenfurt, Austria. She is such a sweet girl. I am really happy I met such a wonderful person. So one day she comes to my room and asks if I have time for coffee. At first I didn’t know what to say, I was shocked. An Austrian wants to go for a cup of coffee, like real coffee not coffee to go!? I was so excited that I immediately said yes. The real shock was yet to come. We sat down in a cafe in Zinzendorfgasse called „The living room“. Everything seemed perfect; I am with a great friend in a cozy café getting ready to drink coffee, almost like home. She drank her coffee in 15 minutes while I still had a full cup. I was looking at her like she way crazy and she was looking at me like I was crazy. Cultures clashed. I always knew that Austrians are different when it comes to drinking coffee but I maybe thought that she was not like all the other Austrians. I was wrong. Now I am teaching her how to be a real Croatian coffee drinker, after all she is coming to visit me in February; she needs to fit in ;)

To some people our cup maybe appears small but I should tell you that our cup actually has more coffee in it then it appears. Not really, it has a very, very small amount of coffee in it, but in our hands its magic. Nearly endless. We make coffee meeting last for two, maybe even, three hours. THAT’S HOW LONG WE HAVE COFFEE! Two hours are a minimum whereas here half an hour is the maximum. See the difference? You will never ever see a real Croatian sip his coffee in 5 minutes and if by chance you see one then he isn’t a real Croatian! Remember having coffee is not actually about the coffee it’s about the socializing.

Another thing that sets us apart from other coffee drinking countries is that here coffee and cigarettes go together, like in the States peanut butter and jelly goes together. It is normal to see people smoking while having their coffee; even non-smokers tend to light up a cigarette from time to time. But lately this is changing too (us, non-smokers are indeed very happy about it). Since Croatia is joining the European Union, in half a year, laws are changing. Now in almost every coffee house there is a separate room for smokers and the rest of us can freely enjoy our coffee without breathing in the toxic air.

Having coffee in Croatia is one of those things that sets the country apart from everywhere else I’ve been. It’s also one of the most enjoyable aspects of living here. Not just having coffee yourself, but seeing people having coffee is even a pleasure. In summer people are sitting on the numerous terraces that are to be found everywhere around the city, with their sun glasses on, enjoying their coffee with friends. Or in winter while sitting out, covered with blankets and warmed by electric heaters.

As you can see coffee is a big deal around here. It’s a must, it’s not like you have a choice whether to go for a cup of coffee or not. Croatians will always find time for a cup of kava with friends and if by some means you try to reject their offer to join them they might end up being insulted. We love coffee so much that even when you are invited to someone’s house for dinner you bring coffee. It’s tradition!

Now, as I am reading on Facebook that my best friends are meeting for a cup of coffee to celebrate their passed exams homesickness kicks in even more. I can’t wait until finally a friend calls me and says: „Idemo na kavu?“ and I answer like it was the greatest thing in the world „Da!“. :)

"Do small things with great love" :D

XOXO A.