KRAFTY PAGE CHRONICLES · ISSUE 3 · INTERNATIONAL VOICES
The Best of My Country
Ankica Anchie · Croatia
Read the original contribution as text
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION · CROATIA
The Best of My Country
The best thing about my country is not something you can photograph easily—it is a feeling that lives between moments.
It is the smell of the sea early in the morning, when the air is still cool and the light slowly touches the stone houses. It is the sound of voices echoing through narrow streets, people greeting each other as if time has never rushed them.
I remember sitting by the water, watching fishermen untangle their nets while the sun painted everything gold. No one was in a hurry. Even silence felt alive.
The best thing is this quiet connection—between people, between past and present, between land and heart. You feel it in shared coffee, in laughter that needs no explanation, in the way strangers become familiar.
My country is not just a place.
It is a rhythm you carry within you,
long after you leave.
Ankica Anchie, Croatia
Humanist, Poetessa, Author
WANDA’S PERSONAL REFLECTION
The Journey I Never Expected
By Wanda
When I met Nelly Vee in 2019, I had no idea that one meeting would introduce me to so many people, stories, and cultures beyond the world I knew. I certainly did not imagine that years later I would be reading a writer’s memories of Croatia and finding something familiar in them.
It has been a journey I could never have planned. Through Nelly’s work and the people who have become part of KVI Network, I have had opportunities to learn about places I have not personally visited. Each new voice reminds me that there is so much to discover when we take the time to listen.
Ankica Anchie’s The Best of My Country made me think about what we remember most about home. She writes about the sea, familiar streets, fishermen, shared coffee, and the quiet feeling of belonging. These are ordinary moments, but that is exactly why they matter.
What caught my attention was the way she described a country through its people and everyday life rather than its attractions. I may not know Croatia from firsthand experience, but I understand how a smell, a conversation, or a familiar place can stay with you long after the moment has passed.
Since 2019, I have learned that exploring another culture does not always begin with a plane ticket. Sometimes it begins with a conversation, a poem, or someone willing to share what home means to them. That does not replace visiting a place or knowing its people deeply, but it can open the door to understanding.
I am grateful for the unexpected direction this experience has taken. Meeting Nelly introduced me to a creative world that keeps growing, and contributions like Ankica’s remind me why those connections are worth nurturing.
I still have much to learn. For now, I am enjoying the opportunity to encounter the world through the words of people who know their own countries best.
About the Contributor
Ankica Anchie is a Croatian poet and prose writer whose work frequently draws on Dalmatian landscapes, memory, love, and everyday life. Her published books include Beside jedne Dalmatinke (2024) and Zvjezdana prašina (2024). The Croatian cultural portal Culturenet reported her 2026 Naji Naaman literary recognition.
References and Further Reading
Ankica Anchie, The Best of My Country, original contributor manuscript, KVI Network Creations, 2026.
Author profile: IK Profigraf — Ankica Anchie.
Bibliography: Croatian National and University Library, 2024 catalog.
Recognition: Culturenet.hr, 2026.
Additional national-library records: Kleknut htjedoh učitelju (2024) · Ljubav na dlanu (2025).
