‘What are Croatian men like?’ Natasha asked Lisa who had just returned from a sailing holiday.
‘Croatia is one of Natasha’s target countries,’ I said. ‘For potential business partners,’ I quickly clarified after seeing Lisa’s confused look.
‘They are hot,’ another friend exclaimed, referring to her previous trip to Hvar.

Natasha and I are using LinkedIn to connect with potential business partners. I decided against connecting with one man who had listed ‘Watches, shoes and yachts’ as his interests; a construction company-owning Greek whose profile photo was taken in a private jet; a Serb who waffled on about the love for his family in his ‘summary’. One man accepted my LinkedIn request adding, ‘Must say, an extraordinary beauty. Gentleman’s apologies for being forward.’ But generally people’s responses have been serious and positive, asking about my business proposal and forwarding on to people they think are relevant.

In contrast to the responses from many cold call-type contacts we’ve made with Eastern Europe, the replies from our long-term contacts in London have been slow to non-existent, which made us wonder if Central and Eastern Europeans have more time or are just more polite?

‘Central and Eastern Europeans are big drinkers,’ Natasha’s Russian ex Aleksandar, once said. The high levels of pancreatic cancer, commonly associated with long-term heavy drinking, in Central Europe seems to back Aleksandar’s claim.

‘All Eastern Europeans are tortured intellectuals,’ he also stated. Aleksandar is a self-proclaimed tortured intellectual. He learnt English in his pre-teens by translating the works of Shakespeare and Chaucer, sitting in a candlelit (even though his family’s home had electricity) attic and was ridiculed for his use of antiquated English when he arrived in NYC at the age of 18.

I’m not sure if my initial brief encounters with mainly Central and Eastern Europeans through LinkedIn reveal the traits of tortured intellectuals, but they certainly have that look. We have also noticed that a lot of our new connections have more international connections than our London-based contacts and speak more languages. There is a sense of worldly connectedness, which reminded me of the Hungarian philosopher Emile M Cioran’s quote, ‘I have no nationality – the best possible status for an intellectual.’