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 You know the routine. You get an envelope in the mail addressed to you. It’s from the electric or the gas or the garbage company. You know it’s a bill so you get out your checkbook, write a check and mail it back in the self addressed envelope.
It is not quite that simple in Croatia. We do get our bills in the mail. However none of them are addressed to us – they all have our landlords’ name on them – and weren’t you taught not to open other people’s mail? We were only late on one bill before we learned that we do need to open all envelopes addressed to our landlords that come to our address!
We get the normal bills that we got back in Minnesota- rent, water, garbage, gas, phone and internet service, and electricity. In addition to those, we have a monthly bill for the cleaning and upkeep of the apartment building and one we haven’t quite figured out yet. They don’t use checks in Croatia. So we can’t just send our payment in. Most Croatians pay their bills through the post office. When we have bills to pay, we walk, drive or take the tram to a post office, stand in line at the “isplata” counter and wait our turn to hand over the bills (računi) and the money in kuna. There is a small fee on most bills for this service. Today I went to the nearest post office to pay our bills and mail a letter. When I got there, I counted twenty three people in front of me, all with bills in hand. The line for mailing the letter was minuscule. I decided to pay bills first before the line got longer. About thirty minutes later, the bills were paid but by then the line for mailing letters was long. Sigh… I decided to come back another day!
Our favorite bill to pay is our rent. When our rent is due, we drive to our landlords’ house and spend about an hour, drinking juice, eating wonderful desserts, laughing with them at our stumbling Croatian and getting to know them before handing over the rent- in euros not kuna. What a delightful way to pay bills!
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Our Family 
