Hello, dear friends from all around the world! We are a team of girls from the class 8B in the Elementary school "Ivan Goran Kovacic" in Slavonski Brod, Croatia. Our names are (from the left to the right): Maja Tadijanovic, Marina Polincic, Mateja Bolfek and Valentina Sunjerga. We are all 14 years old and this is our last year in the Elementary school. Our English Teacher, Mrs Rozalija Baricevic, has offered us to work on this wonderful project. While we are working really hard, we enjoyed learning about different countries, cultures, traditions. Here is our presentation for you! Our teacher promised us an excellent mark in English!

Croatia is located in Southeastern Europe and faces the Adriatic Sea in the west, Slovenia and Hungary in the north and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the south and sothwest. The total landmass measures 56,414 sq km with a further 128 sq km of inland water and 5835 km of coastline. The terrain is comprised of relatively flat plains in the north toward Hungary and a low-lying coastal strip facing the Adriatic. The western region of Croatia is dominated by the Velika Kapela, Mala Kapela and Velebit ranges. These mountains are of limestone formation. The highest point of elevation is Dinara at a height of 1830m. The eastern region of Croatia is a land of many fertile valleis, served by the Drava and Sava rivers. The coastline is a rugged affair, with many offshore islands and islets and beautiful sandy coves.

Can you see? We are that tiny spot on the map of Europe. Croatia is shaped like a flying bird?

The town named Brod located in the region of Slavonia and lying on the river Sava had originally the wooden fortification for defence against protruding enemies, which was called Vukovac. Nowadays it is large, rather solid fortress built of stone on all redoubts, by toil and sweat of border-soldiers after region of Slavonia was freed from Turkish oppresion. (Chronicle of the Franciscan Monastery in Brod on Sava, 1706-1787).

Not one of the empires which ruled this country has recognised the importance of Sava River for realisation of their traffic and cultural mission, like the Romans did. The roman clever eye has promptly seen what the river meant as the intermediary between Danube, the Adriatic and the Alps, and as the starting point for countries lying on the right banks of the river. Its many tributaries open confortable way into interior of the country. Therefore the Romans made Sava river at yonder times the strategic line for the lands of Norick, Panonia, Dalmatia and Moesia. Sava was not to be in its flow the torrential river, while the Tomans tamed it artificially, wherever they considered it for appropiate, by regulating its tributaries and draining of the flooded areas, as witnessed today in the toponims like "Jarcina" (Large ditch) between Petrovac and Progar in the region of Srijem. Navigation of Sava is not unplesant, because the landscape is not so monotonous as when sailing on the middle Danube. Sava valley is surrounded on both sides by the hillsides and mountains, aproaching and withdrawing the river intermittently... (Franco Racki, Vienac, 1886-1887).

The word Brod primarily denoted fort on the river where it could be crossed by wading. Afterwards is designated any device with which rivers and streams could be crossed. The first of these two meanings served later for denomination of human settlements wich developed near such places. (Pavao Tijan, 1908)

Slavonski Brod is located between Brodsko hill and river Sava. It has a population of 55000, and is the largest city in Southern Slavonia. Brod today is an important crossroads, with important road, railroad and river conections streaming from it to north, south, east, and west. It is also the center of Zupanija Brodsko-Posavska, an administrative unit in Croatia. Placed in a flood plain of river Sava, and on the crossroads between east and west, Brod was always an important location. Brod has a temperature continental climate, with dry hot summers and cold winters, with little snow.

The Elementary School "Ivan Goran Kovacic"

There are 29 relieves on the building today. Some of them are the figures of the boys with the pair of compasses, the book and the notebook. The others are the vases with flowers. It reminds us that the school was anticipated for the male children. During the reconstruction of the building its surface was conserved.

Our school was awarded by the Monistery for Science, Education and Spor of the Republic of Croatia as one of the best school in the country.

Ivan Goran Kovacic, after whom our school was named, was born in Lukovdol, Croatia, on the first day of spring 1913. After he had finished Gimnasium in Zagreb, he studied History and Croatian language and Literature. Together with the poet Vladimir Nazor he joined to the anti-fascists in 1942. in 1943 ha was killed by chetnicks. During his short life he worked on literature, journalism, literature critics and translation. His dialectal collection of poems Fires and Roses is well-known as well as his collection of stories The Days of Madness. In his war poem The Hole, he strongly protested against evil and crime in wars.

EUPHRASIAN BASILICA IN POREC is a group of religious monuments datind from the 4th century AD. It is a well preserved complex with famous mosaics of early Byzantine art.

PLITVICE LAKES NATIONAL PARK is situated between high mountains and forests. It has 16 lakes with beautiful waterfalls and rich animal life: bears, wolves and rare bird species.

HISTORIC CITY OF TROGIR has been a city for many centuries. The Greeks founded it. The town is famous for its churches and fortifications and its cathedral and gate way by the sculptor Radovan.

SPLIT - DIOCLETIAN'S PALACE The ruins of Diocletian's palace built in the 4th centuries AD by the Roman emperor.

The Old City of Dubrovnik. The 'Pearl of the Adriatic', situated on the Dalmatian coast, became an important Mediterranean sea power from the 13th century onwards. Although severely damaged by an earthquake in 1667, Dubrovnik managed to preserve its beautiful Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque churches, monasteries, palaces and fountains. Damaged again in the 1990s by armed conflict, it is now the focus of a major restoration programme co-ordinated by UNESCO.

The incredible Roman amphitheatre in Pula, Istria.

It is difficult to define the significance or a group of islands to a country and its inhabitants. You will certainly agree that there is something special about that moment when you set off from the mainland into the unknown. All your worries become unimportant and the everyday routine is left further and further behind.

Each island has something unique of its own. Everyone expects something different. Today, when the islands are well connected to the mainland by the sea and air links, they take a special place in the life of Croatia. Although Croatia has become famous for its untouched nature and the harmony between development and the environmental protection, its islands are something special. The harmony between the best of man's and nature's creations reaches its culmination on the islands, leaving its testimony to the traditional and dynamic lifestyle.

Croatian cuisine is heterogeneous, and is therefore known as "the cuisine of regions". Its motern roots date back to Proto-Slavic and ancient periods and the differences in the selection of foodstuffs and forms of cooking are most notable between those on the mainland and those in coastal regions. Mainland cuisine is more characterized by the earlier Proto-Slavic and the more recent contacts with the more famous gastronomic orders of today- Hungarians, Viennese and Turkish - while the coastal region bars the influences of the Greek, Roman and Illyrian, as well as of the later Mediterranen cuisine - Italian and French.

Croats normally eat simple peasant food, which is easy to prepare but delicious nonetheless. People from the Croatian Adriatic eat food that is very similar to Italian cuisine.

As the authors come from Northern Croatia (Koprivnica, north-east of Zagreb), where dishes are similar to those of Central Europe (Austro-Hungarian), here are a few recipes of meals typical of that region. Please note that some recipes are simplified for quick cooking, and normally people in Croatia would not think about using canned or pre-prepared items. (Anna says: "I greatly admire my grandmother, who is in her 70s, but still cooks meals daily for the whole family which takes 2-3 hours. I don't have to tell you that her dishes are delicious. Hvala Baka!").

The island of Pag produces paski-sir, a hard, distinctively flavoured sheep's milk cheese. The unique flavour comes from the method of rubbing the cheese with olive oil and ash before leaving it to mature; in addition, The sheep eat a diet that includes many wild herbs such as sage.