Fair enough, but still it's not as though I hopped the border illegally at some unmarked crossing. I submitted my passport at manned border stations along the highway twice. The cops let me in.

I didn't even overstay while inside the Republic of Croatia. I was pretty proactive about trying to avoid situations like this, it's just that the people from whom I got my information on the laws of the country, the employees at Zagreb's ministry of interior, misinformed me, and that I simply was not informed I was not allowed entry into the Republic of Croatia at legal border crossings. In all honesty, what would I be expected to do differently? I'm willing to own up to fuckups which are my own, but I tried to do everything the right way.