Episode 145

Dobar vam dan i dobrodošli!

Good day and welcome everyone!

In this edition of LLC, we’re going to work on some sentence-building.

You’ll hear the name of some interesting cities, villages and islands in Croatia along the way. 

Lesson

City - grad

Village - selo

Island - otok

Big - veliki

small - mali

On - na

Near/next to - kraj

Zagreb is a big city. - Zagreb je veliki grad.

Umag is a small city. - Umag je mali grad.

Brač is a big island. - Brač je veliki otok.

Vis is a small island. - Vis je mali otok.

Sutomišćica is a small village on Ugljan Island. - Sutomišćica je malo selo na otoku Ugljanu.

Cavtat is a small city next to Dubrovnik. - Cavtat je mali grad kraj Dubrovnika.

Super Slatko Report

Otok Galešnjak is located off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic, more specifically, located in the Pasman Canal between Otok Pasman and the town of Turanj on the mainland. For a bit more perspective, Turanj is about a 30 minute drive south from Zadar.  

Galešnjak measures .132 square kilometers (0.050 square miles), and its highest point sits 36m above sea level (118 ft), so the island isn’t very large but it makes up for that in internet popularity. The island is privately owned by the Juresko family who lives on the neighboring Otok Pasman.

Until 2009 Galešnjak was just another quiet, uninhabited island,  but that all changed when Google Earth decided to put it in the spotlight. Satellite images revealed its nearly flawless heart shape, and the internet did what the internet does best—it made the island go viral. Suddenly, this tiny Croatian landmass, was on everyone’s must-visit list. Lovebirds, honeymooners, and even brands looking for the ultimate romantic backdrop flocked to it. 

For a place that symbolizes love, Galešnjak is shockingly low-maintenance. There are no hotels, no fancy restaurants, and not even a single souvenir shop selling overpriced “I Love Galešnjak” mugs. In fact, the island is completely uninhabited, covered mostly in wild shrubs and olive trees. But the island does boast a colony of small rabbits and wild pigeons. Galesnjak wasn’t always uninhabited, scientists did find traces of ancient human settlements, meaning that people once called this small island home.

Although we started seeing Galešnjak pop up thanks to Google maps in the early 2000’s, Galešnjak was mapped centuries earlier. Napoleon’s cartographer, Charles-François Beautemps-Beaupré, mapped the island’s striking outline back in the early 19th century, who included it in his 1806 atlas of the Dalmatian coast (kept today at the National and University Library in Zagreb).

Despite its reputation as the island of romance due to its shape, Galešnjak hasn’t always been the site of love and sweet nothings. In 2019, researchers discovered ancient burial sites on the island, suggesting that it once served as a resting place for the departed. So, while couples today visit for sunset proposals and Instagram-worthy moments, the island also taps into that other kind of love, “eternal love.” 

Maybe this island has brought out the romantic in you and you want to visit Otok Galesnak in person with that special someone. All you would need to do is charter a private boat or water taxi to the island, the island is also included in daily organized tours from neighboring tourist locations, where it would be one of your stops as a point of interest for the area. Reminder, if you do plan to visit and spend time on the island, there are no restaurants, hotels or resorts, so maybe use this as an opportunity to make it a picnic and call it romance!

Hopefully the next time you see the famous Otok Galešnjak you’ll remember a little bit of its  history and know that it’s more than just a social media romantic stock photo. Galešnjak does have the ability to deliver the romance if that is what you are looking for, but it’s also another amazing Croatian destination that is both interesting and picturesque and worth checking out for yourself. 

And that’s it for the super Slatko report.