Advice for collecting in Eastern European country

I don't think that the term "Eastern European" is anything bad, of course, but you're right Chris, I wouldn't call my country Eastern Europe... rather Southern European or Mediterranean? The capital of Austria, Vienna, is located, actually, further east than the capital of Croatia, Zagreb. And Austria is not exactly "Eastern Europe", is it?  

If I may just add: I'd say the reason slavic countries (even the more westerly ones like Croatia) get branded as 'eastern' is because slavs are generally considered eastern people with a culture closer to the east than west. A slovak youtuber once described slovakia as 'geographically central but culturally eastern europe' which I think to a certain extent is true for all slavic countries.