OK people, now I would like to present some facts about my country (Croatia) and my nation (Croatians). As many of you started with „not“ facts, I will also start like that. I will try to be short in explanations, as much as possible.
So, here is what Croatia
is NOT:
1.Croatia
is not „just only one of ex-yugo countries“, which was created in 1990, as a result of „breaking the Yugoslav state“, responsible for it, blah blah.
Croatia was not the only who declared its independence in 1991, also Slovenia did it, (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia in 1992., one year later). Croatia had its statehood also during the entire existing of ex Yugoslavia, just as all the nations who formed it. We had our Croatian nationality (just like there were Slovenian nationality, Serbian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, etc.) Of course, the citizenship was yugoslav. The same thing was under the Austrian - Hungarian Empire (we were the part of it from 1102 till 1918), we also had the same „national“ elements, even though the rulers (Austrians, Hungarians, Turks etc. – some parts of what is today Croatia were even parts of the Ottoman Empire), wanted to take it away from us. But we were pretty stubborn and didn't permit it to anyone.
And last, but not least: the first croatian state (kingdom) was created in 10th century (under the rule of king Tomislav, who was crowned in the year 925). This state was pretty strong.
2.Croatia
is not just the Adriatic sea, coast and the islands!
Of course, we have pretty much islands, more than 1000, (1244 in some statistics), we are very proud of them, and one of the most indented coasts in Europe (along with Norway and Greece), but that certainly doesn't mean it is all we reach. If you didn't know, Croatia is the proud owner of even eight national parks (it is pretty much if we compare it with our surface (56.542 sq km). Of that eight national parks, even five are located inland, more or less (Plitvice Lakes, Northern Velebit, Paklenica, Risnjak and Krka). Plitvice Lakes are announced as a national park in 1949, and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.
Besides the national parks, we have many nature parks, which are situated in continental part (such as Lonjsko Polje, Kopački Rit, Medvednica, Papuk, Vransko jezero, Samoborsko Gorje etc).
3.Croatian language
is not same like Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin language, indeed.
In addition to its standard language, Croatia is rich in dialects originating from the Chakavian (Čakavski), Kajkavian (Kajkavski) and Shtokavian (Štokavski) vernacular. Bosnian, Serbian and Montenegrin don' t have that dialects. Croatian is a Slavic language, belongin to the South Slavic, Western subgroup of the Slavic breanch of Indo-European family, however, like other Slavic languages it developed from Old Slavic. The basis for Croatian standard language is Shtokavian and Ijekavian dialect. Of course, it is mutually inteligible with Serbian, Bosnian and Motenegrin.
It can be considered that Kajkavian dialect is mainly spoken in the western and northwestern parts of the country, Chakavian in Dalmatia, partly in Histrian peninsula and Gorski kotar (region between Rijeka and Karlovac), and Shtokavian in Slavonia and Lika (eastern and central parts of Croatia). But it is not always strict rule, because in many ways that three dialects are mixed (especially in rural areas, where almost every village has „its own dialect“)
.
The Croatian written language heritage goes back to the end of the 11th century. The oldest Croatian textst were written in kind of Croatian cersion of Church Slavonic and archaic Chakavian, exclusively in Glagolitic script (Glagoljica). Bartol Kasic, a Jesuit from the Island of Pag, wrote the first grammar of the Croatian language, in Latin, entitled Institutionum linguae Illyricae (The basics of the Illyrian language). This grammar, printed in 1604. In Rome, influenced nearly all Croatian grammar books written by the first half of the 19th century. The beginnings of the standardisation of today's Croatian go back to the 18th century, and at the end of the 19th century the foundations of current standard Croatian were set. Over 5,5 million people today use Croatian as their mother tongue.
Now some „yes“ facts
:
I think there is no need to waste time with some statistic figures, because you can find it in every better encyclopedia. So I would like to say something about some less known facts about us (for example, inventions of Croats, which are maybe not known).
Warning: To avoid some useless discussions and even fights here, I will tell you that I am going to talk about the inventions which are not always made IN Croatia, but BY Croatians or the people who had Croatian ROOTS or ORIGINS.
Here we go (the most famous inventions and products):
Necktie
The necktie traces back to the time of Thirty Years War (1618–1648) when Croatian mercenaries from the Military Frontier in French service, wearing their traditional small, knotted neckerchiefs, aroused the interest of the Parisians. Due to the slight difference between the Croatian word for Croats, Hrvati, and the French word, Croates, the garment gained the name "cravat".
Parachute
The Venetian inventor Fausto Veranzio or FAUST VRANČIĆ from Šibenik (1551–1617), examined da Vinci' s parachute sketch, and set out to implement one of his own. He kept the square frame, but replaced the canopy with a bulging sail-like piece of cloth which he came to realize decelerates the fall more effectively. A now-famous depiction of a parachute that he dubbed Homo Volans (Flying Man) appeared in his book on mechanics, Machinae Novae (1595), alongside a number of other devices and technical concepts. In 1617, Veranzio implemented his design and tested the parachute by jumping from a tower in Venice. The event was documented some thirty years later by John Wilkins, founder and secretary of the Royal Society in London.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fausto_Veranzio
Azithromycin (antibiotic):
A team of researchers at the Croatian pharmaceutical company Pliva — Gabrijela Kobrehel, Gorjana Radobolja-Lazarevski, Zrinka Tamburašev, led by Dr. Slobodan Đokić — discovered azithromycin in 1980. It was patented in 1981. In 1986, Pliva and Pfizer signed a licensing agreement, which gave Pfizer exclusive rights for the sale of azithromycin in Western Europe and the United States. Pliva put its azithromycin on the market in Central and Eastern Europe under the brand name of Sumamed in 1988. Pfizer launched azithromycin under Pliva's licence in other markets under the brand name Zithromax in 1991.
After several years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AzaSite, an ophthalmic formulation of azithromycin, for the treatment of eye infections. AzaSite is marketed in the U.S. and Canada by Inspire Pharmaceuticals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck.
Vegeta
Vegeta is a condiment which is a mixture of spices and various vegetables invented in 1959 by a Bosnian Croat scientist Zlata Bartl, and has become a product sold worldwide.Vegeta is produced by Podravka, a company from Koprivnica, Croatia, as well as a subsidiary of Podravka in Poland and two Vegeta licensees from Austria and Hungary. There have been around 50 instances of other companies attempting to reproduce the product.
In 2009 Vegeta undertook an advertising campaign featuring Zagreb's very own Ana Ivušić.
The ingredients of Vegeta include (according to the 2008 product packaging):
• salt max. 56%
• dehydrated vegetables 15.5 % (carrot, parsnip, onions, celery, parsley leaves)
• flavour enhancers (monosodium glutamate max. 15%, disodium inosinate)
• sugar
• spices
• cornstarch
• riboflavin (for coloring)
Ok that’s all for now!
Yoghurt is a Turkish-origin word btw 
