Cedevita - Best way to enjoy vitamins

Cedevita is an instant vitamin drink invented by Martin Stanković (1932-2012) in 1969. Martin died in 2012 at the age of 80 but his invention will live forever. It is a simple instant drink that is powderlike until you mix it with water. Then it turns into one of the best juices ever. And, the best part is that its healthy. 

The production of this magic drink begun in 1970. It's first package was a glass bottle. If you bought it back then you would get one bottle of Cedevita with a dosage spoon altogether packed in a box. Kind of like Coca Cola history, Cedevitas first home were the pharmacies too. And like Coca Cola it started to get popular very very fast. It came out of pharmacies and got into the stores. The demand for Cedevita was rising quickly. In 1993 Cedevita got its 1kg package and in 1999 its half a kilo package. Nowadays, thousands of Cedevita packages are sold. You can buy it in stores, caffe bars, stands, almost everywhere. And if you have a chance to buy one, do it. You will be sorry if you do not buy one. 

Cedevita, the firm that manufactures Cedevita, has its long tradition. The factory that is used even today became Cedevita home in 1929 as a branch of the Swiss company Dr. A. Wander. It produced dietetic products in Croatia. In 1947 the company started to produce teas at a site in Trogir. Cedevita was a part of Pliva for a long time and in 2001 the company was sold to Atlantic group. However, they remained faithful to their first factory in Borongaj (Zagreb) built in 1929. 

Martin Stanković was a simple man, but also a genius. Even though he invented the perfect and healthy drink, he was not rich. He used to say that he knows that he would be rich if he was from USA for example but however he was very proud of his invention. He just knew that millions of people enjoy the drink he created. He made living better. Thank you Martin and thank you Cedevita!

Vegeta - the most important spice

The Powerpuff girls is an American cartoon about three girls that have superpowers. It is said that they were made by Professor Utonium who mixed sugar, spice and everything nice and a secret ingredient called chemical X. The spice must have been Vegeta. 

Vegeta is a mix of spices and dried vegetables that makes every meal taste better. It was invented in 1959 by a Croatian scientist Zlata Bartl. Zlata got her job in Podravka (big croatian food company) accidentally. She was born in Sarajevo and in 1955 she went to visit Zagreb for a few days. But, fortunately for food lovers worldwide, there was a huge storm in Zagreb that made Zlata stay. As a scientist she found a job in Podravka, a company headquartered in Koprivnica. That job soon changed her life. 

Zlata was in charge of a team that produced Vegeta. They developed Vegeta in Podravka labs and created world's most famous spice. Vegeta is yellow, but there is a reason for that. Scientists and major health and lifestyle magazines at the time were talking about the lack of vitamin B in home cousine, so Podravka scientists added riboflavin to the mix. That gave Vegeta more vitamin B and its yellow color. 

The first Vegeta was born in 1959 and was named Vegeta 40. It was packed in small boxes with a chef logo on it. The chef represented quality. The design changed a bit and the packing became better. It also started to spread. Slowly, people from all over the world heard about the spice from Croatia. 1967 Podravka started to ship Vegeta 40 to Russia and Hungary. 1971 it changed the name to just Vegeta.Vegeta soon became number one spice in Croatia and an absolute hit all over the world.

Today, we cannot imagine life without Vegeta. It is sold all across the world. You can find it in New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Toronto, Moscow and basically where ever you go. If you are reading this text write in comments section where are you from and is Vegeta in your town. Just for fun. Vegeta makes food taste better and thus makes you happier.

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is a fantasy drama created for HBO by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. It is based on a series of fantasy novels by George R.R. Martin. Have you maybe heard of it? Of course you have. Game of Thrones is an absolute hit. The first season had an average of 9.3 million viewers per episode and the second season was even better. 11.6 million viewers watched every episode. By season number four Game of Thrones had beaten The Sopranos record with 18.6 million viewers. These people are not just viewers, they are fans. Very active fans that anticipate every new episode as if it was a lottery and you are waiting for the last number because it is the only number you are missing to hit the jackpot. The series has won many awards and even more nominations. The crew won a Primetime Emmy Award and was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series, Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and many more. I mean, who wants to read about all the prizes and nominations. They got tons of them. 

Game of Thrones is a fantasy story about several noble families fighting each other in a desire to control the mythical land of Westeros. It is made to be epic. Dragons, knights, epic fights, intrigues... oh just watch the show. If you do watch it, you will see that the locations are epic and beautiful. They can do what they want on the computers nowadays. They just put a green screen and add what ever they want behind the actors. They can add castles, sea, old cities, hills, woods and anything they want to add. But, the thing is, they didn't. They found perfect locations for their epic story. Epic story equals epic locations. 

And where are these epic locations? That's right, in our backyard. We got it all here in Croatia. Game of Thrones is filmed in Dubrovnik and Split. King's Landing, the most important place in the whole series, a capital of The Seven Kingdoms, is actually Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik has a rich history and in the year 1979 it was listed on UNESCO's list of World Heritage. Split is a second largest city in Croatia and largest in Dalmatia. As Dubrovnik, Split also has a rich history and beautiful nature. There is tons of stuff to do and to visit in both of these cities, but we will write about that in future articles. If you can't wait you can check the links above for basic info. Both Split and Dubrovnik added a reason to go there. If you are a fan of Game of Thrones then you must come and for a second live in the series. If not, become a fan and then do it. 

Superbowl with a pinch of Croatia

From croatian point of view, Superbowl means that there is a very large bowl in which you can put some great food to make it super. That's how much we follow the one of the most anticipated sports event in the world. Since the 1960's it stops life in the United States of America and millions of people are in front of their TV sets just hypnotized with that event. In Croatia, we prefer football (yes, we are in Europe and it's football here, not soccer). American football, as we call it, is not even in top 10 sports here in Croatia. But, apparently that does not mean we are not good at it. 

1897. Biličić family set sail to the far coast of America in search for a better life. Ivan and Marija from Draganić near Karlovac gave birth to Stjepan or as you may know him - Steve Belichick. Stjepan Biličić americanized his name when he was getting married and became Steve Belichick. Steve had his carrier as a professional football player. He played for Detroit Lions and he was a coach and a scout for over 3 decades. Later, he was an advisor to his son Bill. Bill Belichick is a legend. He won 6 Superbowls, 4 of them as a head coach and 2 as an assistant.

Pete Caroll, the coach of Seattle Seahawks also has Croatian origins. His mother Rita Ban came to America from Croatia and married an Irishman. Their kid is Pete. American media called the 49. Superbowl the Battle of Croatia. Bill Belichick said that he did not look at the Superbowl that way, but when they brought it to his attention he was glad that Croats have such big part in it. He said he was proud of his origin and tradition and that he visited Croatia few times.

Bill Belichick and his New England Patriots won the Superbowl and that gave Bill a chance to visit country of his grandparents once more. Croatian tourist biro offered a free trip to Croatia to who ever wins the Superbowl in honor of their Croatian origin. We are looking forward to see Bill here and we hope he will feel the love that Croatia has to offer. We are very proud that even though we do not play, watch or even know the rules of the game (most of us anyway) we have a champion of the event that is one of the biggest sports events in the world.

A life changing game

It was 13 May 1990. Yugoslavia, a strange union containing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia, along with Kosovo and Vojvodina as smaller entities, was at its death bed. It was only a matter of time until it will break apart. Croatia and actually all other countries were not happy with the way Serbia saw this union. Serbia wanted to rule and to be the first among the equals. They wanted to have more power, more money and more decision making ability than any other country in Yugoslavia. The rest of us didn't like it and decided to split up. The Serbs didn't like that so there was a war knocking on the doors. In that state of mind with war hanging in the air a football (again, it's football, not soccer) game is about to take place. And it was, as CNN called it, a game that changed the course of history.

Dinamo Zagreb was about to play against Crvena Zvezda Belgrade. Croatia vs. Serbia. Zagreb vs. Belgrade. Only few days before Croatia held its first democratic elections and the party that won was in favor of leaving the Yugoslavia and becoming the Republic of Croatia. Croatia was awakening. On that 13th day of May 1990 serbian extremists came to Zagreb to cheer for their club Crvena Zvezda from Belgrade. In reality, they came here to do damage and chaos. They were all gathered in ultras group called Delije and were led by notorious Željko Ražnjatović Arkan, who was later assassinated under confusing circumstances in Serbia. Delije came to Zagreb and started their barbaric campaign. Dinamo fan's, the Bad Blue Boys were not going to let them do that so they fought them all across the city. The fights lasted for hours all around the city. It all culminated at the game. 

Delije started attacking common people on the stands. They were throwing stuff on women and children and just regular guys that wanted to watch a game. They were cursing Croatia and provoking with singing "Zagreb is Serbia", "There will be murders" and other similar hostile songs. Their leader Arkan was on the bench of Crvena Zvezda along with other club staff. A year later, Arkan was leading the Serbian attacks on Slavonija and killing Croats in his mad war rage. That day, on Maksimir stadium, the regime police did nothing. They were just standing there and watching the barbaric behaviour of serbian fans as it was completely normal. All that was just too much for Bad Blue Boys. They couldn't just stand there and watch their fellow citizens being brutally attacked by serbian savages. They had to react. They had to say: "It's enough!". 

Bad Blue Boys broke the fence and started running towards Delije in order to stop them. That was the moment the police decided to join in. Of course, they had no intention of stopping the Serbs and they actually joined them in a fight against Bad Blue Boys and other croatian fans that couldn't stand this any more. It was Croatia's resistance. When Dinamo players saw what is happening they got involved too. A youngster at the time, Zvonimir Boban, decided he has to react too so he performed his famous volley kick. It was not a usual volley as seen on any other football game, it was a volley of resistance. Boban hit one of the policemen with his volley kick. That picture went viral all over the world almost instantly. And that was before the internet. Boban, who was later a captain of Croatian national football team and a captain of AC Milan, said that he is proud of what he did. He said he did not think for a second. He did not care for his life, his career, he did not care for anything. That moment was a moment for Croatia, for a higher cause. The policeman that got kicked said that his colleagues tried to convince him to shoot Boban in the back, but he managed to remain calm and refused to do it. 

The fight lasted for a whole hour resulting with 79 policemen and 59 fans injured. That was the day that Croatia said NO to Serbia. It was a day the resistance begun. It was in fact a start of Croatian war for independence. The game was never played, but we won anyway. We showed that we are fed up with oppression and that it is time for freedom. Unfortunately the war that followed took many lives and destroyed many more. It set both countries years back and many honest and good people lost their lives. We have won the war and now, 20 years after it, we are a peaceful and normal country that is proud of things we accomplished. We are also proud of wining the war against the people who wanted to take away our freedom and our lives. It took courage and skill to win and to get a chance to be independent and build a country that we will all be proud of. 

Kravata, Croata or simply a Tie

Once upon a time (around 1600) there were mighty warriors. Many have called this brave army to aid them in their battles. They were somehow different than other warriors. They took their job seriously. They were professionals. They were, of course, Croatian Army. 

At the time, battles that were fought included huge amount of soldiers and large battle areas. You had to know who is your friend and who is your enemy so you do not slay your own of course. Since Croats took their Army seriously they had to do something to separate friends from foes and make their battles easier. That's how they came up with a simple solution. They will wear a piece of clothing or a scarf (if you will) and that is how they'll know who is with them and who needs to die. 

The French were the first ones to notice this lovely accessories on the necks of the Croats. French writer Francois Chaille in his book "La Grande Historie de la Cravate" wrote that around the year 1635 about 6 thousand soldiers and knights came to Paris to aid king Lui XIII. Many Croats came with that army. Many knights and soldiers abandoned the French king when they were no longer needed, but Croats chose to stay and serve the king. They had a traditional uniform and tied a scarf with different motives around their necks. The scarves were made of different materials. Common soldiers used rough materials and made their ties from old rags and the noble man that led them had their ties made of fine silk and cotton. The elegant style that Croatians pulled off was completely unknown in Europe and when the French king saw it he loved it. By the year 1650 a tie is accepted in France and it became a fashion amongst the French nobleman. It was considered a sign of culture and elegance. Soon it spread to England. Carol II. brought it to England and from there tie concurred the whole Europe. 

The French named it "croata" in honour of the people that invented it. Today a tie is used as a fashion addition world wide. If you need to look serious, you will need a suit and a tie. You are welcome world. From Croatia with love. 

Who are we and where did we come from?

Who are the Croats? Where did they come from? That, my friends, is a mystery. There are 3 major legends that speak of this. 

Byzantine Emperor Constantin VII. wrote about Croats in his piece called "De Administrando Imperio" in 10th century. He claimed that a 7th century Byzantine Emperor Heraclius decided he was sick of barbarian tribes called Avari. Avari were wild and horrifying and caused a great deal of damage to his Empire. That's when he decided it was time for Croatia. He called to aid a very powerful tribe of warriors known as Croats. They quickly cleaned the area getting rid of all Avari tribes and formed their own state. Other, much smaller tribes that lived in the area were forced to accept the language and governance of Croats. According to this theory Croats derived from Slavic tribes, thus the theory is known as Slavic theory. 

Another theory would make Germans our brothers. By this Gothic theory we once belonged to Ostrogoths, the most powerful German tribe. This theory is based on facts that we shared similar words with other German tribes and one of our first alphabets, Glagoljica, used gothic runes as its base. Also the name "Hrvat" or "Horvat" was a common name in German tribes and Croats call their country Hrvatska and themselves Hrvati. I do not know if the Germans would like it but it would be very cool to be brothers with them from my point of view.

The third theory I will write about here is the Iranian theory. It represents a set of beliefs that we came from Iran. Many scientists believe that a Persian tribe called "Harahvaiti" who had a land they called "Harahvatia" were in fact Croats. Also there are many artefacts found in Iran that mention Croats. This would make us a very old nation. The handwritings found there were written in 2nd and 3rd century before Christ. 

These are just the 3 major stories about the origin of Croats and there are many more. Which ever theory you wish to believe in, one thing is for sure: we were powerful, awesome and many rulers loved us.