Um... Where's Croatia??

I thought I'd share with you some of the information I've been learning about Croatia. Below is a map of Croatia (Zenica is right in the middle of Bosnia, above Sarajevo and slightly to the left). It's the oddest shaped country, but full of charm, history, and interesting tidbits!




Croatia is a small country with 56,500 square kilometers (km) of land and 32,000 square kilometers of sea. Croatia has 1,777 km of mainland coastal shoreline. It also has 1,185 islands with 4,012 km of of island shoreline and 2600 hours of sunshine every year. Of the 1,185 islands, only 66 of them are inhabited. Croatia has a population of around 4.8 million, with about a million people living in the capital of Zagreb.



There are seven national parks - three in the mountains (Risnjak, Paklenica, and Plitvice (which has an amazing 92 waterfalls connecting 16 lakes!) and four in the coastal area (Kornati, Mljet, Brijuni, and Krka). In regards to the mountains, the Dinaric Alps and a few smaller mountain ranges (Velebit and Velika Kapela) are found in Croatia. The highest point is 1,831 meters. Medvendica is the mountain that overlooks Zagreb from the north. Its highest peak is 1,035 meters.

And now, every time you use a ball-point pen, you can pray for me! S. Penkala, a Croatian engineer, created the first ball-point pen and the first fountain pen in 1906. And who knew CSI started in Croatia? Ok, well, not really, but Ivan Vučetić invented dactyloscopy - identification by fingerprints!

Ok, I guess this is enough for now... I'll post more as the time for the move gets closer!!