My travels and adventures

Plaški

Shortly after returning from Serbia, it was time to hit the road again ! We wouldn't be going very far this time and tourism wasn't exactly our main focus. Most of our friends were headed to Rijeka – a coastal city in Istria, about 1h30 away by bus – to celebrate the new year and we thought we'd tag along. We stayed over at a friend’s and had a blast at the big concert and various bars downtown. It was all rather crazy, as New Year's Eve should be and we took a short but well deserved break when we got back to Karlovac. The youth centre was closed for a week, mostly because of the inventory, which we helped out with a little.

Then, it was time for another little trip, to the delightful town of Plaški, that I've talked about before. We went there to celebrate the Epiphany – on the 6th of January – with one of our friends. In the Orthodox faith, this is a very important celebration, basically their equivalent of Christmas. I was very curious to see what the traditions were and, of course, enjoy the amazing food. We were staying with our friend and her family, who own a little farm and showered us with traditionnal Balkan hospitality. We had quite a feast over these two days, notably with lamb and Olivier salad, which is typical for this time of year around these parts. This dish has become quite the conversation point, has it appears to have very different and confusing names depending on the country. The Croatians actually call it French salad. And the French, Macedonian salad. Because, logic.

We also attended the religious service, which was very interesting, although a bit confusing as I didn't know anything about the practice and it was difficult to understand what the priest was talking about. It was lovely though and I was quite amused by the fact that sweets are thrown at people at the end of the mass ! I guess it's a good way to encourage people to go to church, like the mulled wine served outside afterwards. They also burned a Christmas tree, that you are supposed to shake to bring you luck and money. Believers also collect a little branch to bring to their homes and they burn the one from the previous year, again to bring luck.

Belgrade

On Boxing Day, we took another morning bus, that we were early for this time ! We headed to Belgrade for a few days and enjoyed our stay at the lovely Belgrade Modern Hostel. We were surprised by how cheap it was (around 8€ per night per person) and how clean and colourful the place looked, for that price. It also had a great location, close to the city centre and right next to a café/record store that served excellent craft beer.

Our stay was pretty chilled, as we had quite some time ahead of us and hadn't planned anything specific. We wanted to see the National Museum, but it turns out it's been under renovation for about twenty years. Instead, we went to the Museum of Serbian History, where they had a great interactive exhibition about the inventor Mihajlo (or Michael) Pupin, who helped improve transatlantic communication and all together led a pretty amazing life. The display idolised him a little, showing his friendships with other great minds of the time, like Tesla and Einstein and the praise from his students. But it was very smartly curated and used some really interesting technology, such as an old telephone that you could speak into and the words would form and be projected on a large screen. It seems the Balkans have a cool approach to museum curation and are quite ahead of the game. Well, for the most part.

We also went to the Museum of Yugoslav History, which turned out to be mostly a Tito memorial. The first floor of the main building was closed, as they were setting up the next exhibition, so they were only projecting, on a loop, a film about Tito, made seven years after his death. It was quite amazing to see this blatent propaganda shown without any kind of explanation or context, almost as a documentary. The control he had over his image would make quite a few media obsessed pop stars of our age jealous. Then, you can visit the House of Flowers, essentially Tito's mausoleum, where people still come to leave notes and bring him batons, following a decades old tradition. It was very strange to see the subtle (and not so subtle) ways the curation glorified the former dictator and showed him in a very positive light. A pretty funny and slightly scary moment was when we saw the questionnaire visitors could fill in. It asked why they visited the House of Flowers and one of the possible answers was « because I adore Tito. » Another asked foreign visitors if, in their country, Tito was « respected » « criminalised » or « critically reviewed ». It was quite surreal, but extremely interesting. The last building had a very cool 2001 Space Odyssey look to it and showed a more conventionnal but very good exhibition about the Russian avant-garde.

Apart from our cultural visits, we mainly walked around the city, visiting the fortress in the fog, yet again. We also stumbled upon a loft like place, where they had a bar and a designer's fair, with nice clothes and accessories from many Balkan creators. The place had a rather hipster but very cool vibe to it, although it was weird to see some people smoking and drinking beer right beside the clothes they were selling ! It's typical to smoke inside bars in Croatia also, but I've noticed that in Serbia and Bosnia, smoking indoors is even more widespread, probably because of the lack of European laws to change old habits. It can be a bit annoying sometimes, but it also has a pretty fun old school feel to it.

Belgrade is a very interesting and eclectic city, where you can find a narrow cobbled street – Skadarlija, the Bohemian quarter – and a few meters away, some very socialist looking buildings stand tall. The architecture is a very bizarre mix of things. We also visited the two main churches, St Marko and St Sava, that are huge and very intimidating. I felt especially awkward, because I'd never been to an orthodox church before and don't really know the customs. It's very common to see tourists with their noses up in catholic churches, but here, it seemed a lot more people really came to pray, light candles and kiss the icons. And of course, St Sava was under reconstruction, as are many monuments in the city. The gigantic grey, bare walls gave an eary atmosphere to the place and it was very impressive, even if a little creepy.

We’re happy to have met you

It’s been a while ! The end of the year’s been a bit manic around here and I’ll tell you all about it soon ;)

For now, I’d like to show you a little project my flatmate and I worked on for the new year. After stumbling upon the video titled People react to being called beautiful, made by American student Shea Glover, we were inspired to do a little video of our own. We tweaked the original idea a little, to make about compliments and give back some of the love that was thrown our way during our time here. So we gave little notes to our friends and colleagues, trying to write nice, personnal messages to them. 

It was quite hard to find the right tone and words to express our sentiment and just as difficult to get people in front of the camera, without them knowing what it was about. But seeing their faces was totally worth it and I’m really happy about how it turned out.

Theatre Workshop

Last Thursday marked the end of my “Introduction to theatre” workshop, where the participants engaged in a friendly improv match to showcase their brilliant sense of humour and new skills. It was a really fun night, full of laughter and with some great moments from the group. It was the perfect end to a fairly intense four week workshop.

I didn't really know what to expect when I first started with this idea, as one can never know what the group dynamic will be like. And the cohesion and willingness to engage of the participants are the key factors in a successful theatre troup, no matter on what level they are. I've experienced various groups, some very serious and efficient but not always fun, some hilarious but messy, most of course, somewhere in the middle. But I was never in the position of workshop leader, despite attending drama class for ten years and majoring in dramatic arts in high school. I was always just a part of the team, following the advice and instructions of different teachers and directors, who always held some kind of authority and had a show or exam in mind when preparing us. This time, my 5'4, 22 year old self had to come up with the creativity, strength and good humour to ease a group of people, around my age or a little older, into the challenging world of theatre, without any particular endgame. It was a lot harder than my English workshop, where I can always rely on some materials and the talkers in the group to help me out. For this, I had to explain the exercises, communicate about my passion, give some useful theoritical information, whithout being boring, too bossy or disorganised.

I was quite nervous but also very excited. I truly love theatre and I had missed this kind of atmosphere, the fun of it all really. And the participants – or as I often call them, my theatre people – made it almost easy. They were amazing and I couldn't have hoped for a better bunch. They were always ready to try new things, engage, give it their all and take direction and constructive critiques. I was a little worried some people might take my advice the wrong way or get offended, as comments about acting can sometimes feel very personal. But they listened, took note and improved so much, so quickly that I couldn't help but feel proud and happy when they performed for the small audience on Thursday. They've showed me that, in the right circumstances, I can almost be comfortable in the “teacher” position, that I've avoided for a long time and always found very daunting. With the right subject matter and good people, it can be less overwhelming and I got to see the rewarding and fun side of it.

As a contribution for the European Youth Portal, I was asked to write about my experience with Carpe Diem. You can read the article on their website or below :)

After an enjoyable and enriching three years spent at university, studying Culture and Media, I found myself in a slightly cliché but very real crisis. What to do now? I could specialise and pursue a master's degree. But that idea was daunting and I needed something different. I had wanted to study abroad but, for a number of reasons, that was not possible and I felt this kind of mobility experience was lacking, not only from my CV, but on a more personal level.

I heard of the EVS programme through a friend and the idea started to simmer, as I was trying to figure out my next step. I went back to my hometown and my mother's house, which was a little difficult after three buzzing years in a big student town. So, I knew I needed a change and contacted a local youth organisation to find out more about the whole procedure.

I wanted to do something that would be beneficial for me, that I could learn from. I searched for projects in my fields of interest, without too much consideration for the country I would be going to. The nature of the projects mattered more to me and I was willing to go pretty much anywhere. I had a slight preference for Northern, colder countries but, as it turns out, this was not where the path would lead me. And I don't regret it one bit.

Carpe Diem was one of the first organisations to respond positively to me. I thought their work looked diverse and interesting and I would be discovering a place I hadn't been before, so it looked pretty perfect to me. I had a good feeling from the Skype interview and thought the team looked friendly. I was very happy to embark on this new adventure, although I didn't really know what to expect.

Of course, I went ahead with a positive attitude, thinking it would be fun and that I would hopefully learn and at least travel and see something new. But I really could not have anticipated how incredible this whole experience has been. Lengthy stories about how life changing living abroad is always sound a bit cheesy, but that's because it's actually true. This experience is incredible, especially when you find yourself in an environment as generous and exciting as the one I'm in.

I wasn't without my doubts though, and they came back running on that long bus ride to Croatia. What if my flatmates were awful, what if the project was boring, what if I wasn't up for the job? But, in the end, I bounded quickly with the two other EVS volunteers, felt nothing but warmly welcomed by my host organisation and met a bunch of inspiring and kind people. They have all become my family over the last nine months, bringing me a lot of joy and helping me grow.

I still can't believe how lucky I've been, getting to travel around the Balkans, from the Plitvice Lakes to Ljubljana to Dubrovnik. I strongly believe that you should travel as much as you can, if given the opportunity, and the EVS is exactly that. Simply living abroad for a year, integrating in the community, making friends, is the best feeling. Of course, the language barrier can be an obstacle, especially for me, as I've struggled a little with Croatian. But a few times now, I have been mistaken for a Slovenian, which I see as undeniable progress considering the bad track record of the French with foreign languages. And I got to know this place well with all it's quirks and, most importantly, it's people. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of the human experience during the EVS. It will surely be my main take away from it.

Of course, I also took part in a wide range of projects; volunteering on a photography festival, helping with Carpe Diem's events, working on building it's social media, participating in the organisation of an art festival and putting together my own theatre and English workshops. All of this has helped me improve my skills, as I got to see up close the workings of a youth organisation for several months.

Hengaonica

Following the idea of Tomislav, one of the local volunteers, we have started organising weekly game nights at the youth centre ! The idea is that people can come every Tuesday, to chill, have some tea and biscuits and play games, hence the name, which literally means a place to hang. It’s a cool idea and brings some fun to regular ole week nights.

We started by some classics, such as Pictionary. It’s always a hit and guarantees a few laugh, especially when you have my lack of drawing skills and a partner that doesn’t understand the inner workings of your brain quite as well as your flatmate. It was a pretty successful start and I was excited for the next week.

As we are approaching Halloween, we decided to decorate the centre and make a theme night for this session. It was all very DIY and I tried to help as much as possible, despite not being very crafty, to say the least. The result was pretty cool in the end and made for an eery atmosphere during our game night. We played Werewolf, a party/role playing game based on the Russian game of Mafia. I’ve played quite a bit with my friends and really love it, so I volunteered to moderate the game. This “Ultimate” version is a little different to the one I’m used to, but the general rules and basic characters are the same, so I had a good grasp and could just do it my way. We were around 15, a nice number for the game to be interesting without dragging for too long and many of the people who didn’t know the game enjoyed it. I was glad and a little relieved, as some of our friends didn’t seem super enthusiastic about it at first and I didn’t want a bust to rest on my shoulders !

First workshops and new volunteer !

As October and the almost non stop rain began, it was time for me to launch my first workshop in the youth centre and welcome our new EVS volunteer, while Dovi was on holiday back home.

It’s been a rather intense period and I was both excited and nervous about all these new things. I have never led a workshop or taught a class before and although this is a non formal setting and the idea is to have a pretty chill environment, I was still a little anxious. The workshop is called Conversationnal English and it’s more of a discussion group, the idea being that most Croatians have a pretty good grasp of the English language, they just don’t get to practice it a lot and are a bit shy when it comes to speaking. 

The first class had a few awkward moments and things didn’t flow very naturally but it went okay nonetheless. And by the second session, people - and me - were more relaxed and time went by a lot faster. I think I found my pace and it was a lot more enjoyable and the participants were more willing to talk and get involved. I’m hoping that by the end of the workshop, they will be more confident and that they will have some fun.

On Monday, 5th of October, the new EVS arrived ! Riccardo is from Italy and I was a bit afraid of welcoming him by myself, as not only Dovi is away but so were Marko and Alex. It went well though and he already found some common ground with some of our boys - who knew a taste for metal and punk could connect people so much? - and he seems to be doing okay. He also got a taste of the Croatian hospitality - well, of our style of partying - as we had a get together at our appartement in honour of his arrival and my birthday on Wednesday. And here in Croatia, the 8th is a national holiday, so we did things right, the guys are still trying to bring planking back and I didn’t get to sleep before the early morning. A good craic, as my people would say.

Time to Move Campaign & Eros, Logos, Demos exhibition

After the Artika madness, I did get to catch a breath before moving on to new projects. It doesn’t mean we had nothing to do, but let’s say things were a little less intense.

On the 23rd of Septembre, Carpe Diem - a Eurodesk multiplier here in Croatia - had their second edition of the Time to Move Campaign. The goal is to promote youth mobility, inform young people about the various opportunities to study, work and, of course, volunteer abroad and encourage them to seize them ! We had a stand in Promenada and the weather was quite nice and the street pretty busy, so we had no problem giving away leaflets to the youngsters coming and going from school. 

Artika, night two

For the final night, a couple of concerts were organised, in bars at each end of Promenada. We were a little worried about the spells of rain that had started in the evening and there was some frantic checking of weather apps. The first concert did manage to take place outside, as planned. It was a cover rock band, Full Monty and one our colleagues from the younth centre is the drummer. It was great fun and I like this kind of music, so I was nodding along and mumbling the words enthusiastically. We then went to the second performance, a jazz band called Valerija Nikolovska Trio, in a much more chill atmosphere.

Artika, day two

The next day, while Promenada was invaded by musicians of all ages, bathing the terraces of the coffee shop in a warm and friendly atmosphere, the volunteering festival took place. Every year, different associations promote their work and the best volunteers in each age category are elected.

As for me, I was in charge of the 1010 ways to buy without money project. It was launched by a Spanish organisation and the idea is simple : things are not free, but can be bought without money. To demonstrate this, people donate books and give them prices such as “hug your mum”, “bake an egg using solar energy”, “make lunch for a homeless person” etc. Most of them are positive and encourage people to do good deeds in exchange for their books. It’s a really nice concept and although registering over a hundred books in an Excel file killed any trace of my childhood dreams of being a librarian, it was fun to put together. 

An exhibition of photographs presenting different interpretations over the theme of sound was also set up. The whole thing was curated by my flatmate, Dovile and she received over 90 submissions from over the world and we were pleasantly surprised by such enthusiasm. The end result was great and the selection is very interesting.

Artika, night one

The evening was also eventful and started off with a music quiz on the terrace of a local bar. I hadn’t planned on taking part and initially showed up to unwind after a tiring day but, of course, things didn’t go as planned. A team was missing a member and I got recruited, despite me not fully understanding the questions or not having a clue what was going on. Unsuprisingly, the only questions I got right was recognising a Christina Aguilera song and we failed spectacularly when asked to repeat a little rythm, in sync. But we had a blast and my team mates didn’t blame me for our loss, so we headed to the film screening with a smile.

It was the Croatian premiere of the documentary Imagine waking up tomorrow and all music has disappeared by Stefan Schwietert. It follows former electro star Bill Drummond and his choir project, The17. The film offers an interesting reflection about the way we consume music and our relationship to singing and makes for an interesting watch, although I did think it could’ve been a little shorter. 

 Artika, day one

Last weekend, on the 18th and the 19th of September the art festival Artika took place in Karlovac and, of course, we helped to organise it. This has been quite long in the making, it was initially supposed to go hand in hand with Agathe’s idea of importing music day (la fête de la musique) and be part of a Youth Exchange. The project wasn’t approved and it looked like nothing was going to happen for a moment. But the revival of the festival, that used to be a sort of residency for artists and a way to occupy abandonned spaces, did see the light of day !

We were a little more involved in the organisation of this than we were with other events, as we helped put together the programme, come up with ideas etc. It was really fun and interesting but it landed me in a position were I was in charge of creative workshops for children, simply because I found activities online ! And as the theme was sound, we’re talking musical workshops. The idea was to make various instruments by using every day objects and recycling. It sounds pretty straight forward; straw oboes, rain sticks and funny harmonicas with lollipop sticks. Turns out, they didn’t all quite work out and we had to improvise with what we knew worked for sure. Thankfully, the kids were happy enough cutting straws, banging aluminium cans and discovering bell sounds with a wire hanger and some string. The more noise they make, the more fun they’re having right? 

I was rather anxious before it started, as this is a big step out of my comfort zone. It’s one thing to entertain my little sisters and their friends, keeping the attention of 20 to 40 kids running around with scissors is another. The language barrier was also challenging, although I had great help from Tomislav and Nina, fellow volunteers and Croatian friends. And some of these kids had a really good English, I’m always impressed by them. In the end, I think things went pretty well and I was relieved. Like one of our friends said “nobody cried and nobody died” so, let’s call it a success !

Mljet & Lokrum, 30-31/08

To round the trip up, we headed back to Dubrovnik and used it as our base for our last few days in the area. It’s almost obligatory to take the boat to the island and National Park of Mljet when vacationing nearby, as it is a truly breath taking natural wonder. It’s a very interesting place, with two lakes (literally the big one and the small one) But it’s unique feature is the island one the lake, on the island. Indeed, in the middle of the Veliko Jezero, you can find the Sv Marije (St Mary) isle and church, which offers a beautiful panorama of the park. And also, donkeys. Don’t ask me why, we were walking around and stumbled upon an old stone stable and these two little fellas came to see what we had to offer. 

The next day, we went to the island of Lokurm, about a 10 minute boad ride from Dubrovnik. It’s rather small but climbing up to the fort and, especially, getting back down on the stony roads in inappropriate footwear is a bit of a challenge. Don’t make the same mistake as us, wear your sneakers. We also enjoyed the slightly freaky botanical gardens, with some very cool looking cacti (cactuses?) and, of course, took the time to finish our books by the beautiful sea. 

Korčula, 27-29/08

Korčula is a wonderful island, about two hours away from Dubrovnik by boat. The Croatians call this a catamaran but it’s nothing like what I picture a catamaran to be. It’s basically a slightly faster and smaller ferry. We were greated by more incredible turquise aters, mountains and too green to be real nature and landed in an adorable guest house tas the cherry on top. The old lady who woned the place didn’t speak English and took my few polite words and nodding along as an understanding of Croatian, which made the whole ordeal a little complicated. But we managed to somehow understand each other and my friend and I enjoyed a big doubled bedded room with an amazing view of the port and the bathroom to ourselves.

The city of Korčula itself is rather small, though the island is not. We didn’t get around to too much exploring, but we did managed to find the infamous Marco Polo house, although finding the shops that sell travel themed merchandise is a lot easier. Our travel guide advised to simply admire the house and not bother with the visit so we did just that and enjoyed the various beaches and clear sea. We did go on a little walk - in the midday sun, cause were clever girls like that - to Glavica Sv. Antuna or St Andrew (I think) hill. It’s about 30/45 minutes from town and you must climb 101 -102, depedning on the count) stairs to get to the mall church and enjoy the beautiful view of the surrounding nature. We enjoyed a  well deserved little picnic up there and went back to our reading by the beach type of activities. Funny story, I found a boan international bookstore owned by a French guy in Korčula ! We’re an unescapable kinda people. He did recommened the very good Blakans-Transit, the travel tale of French writer François Maspero and Slovenian photograher Klavdij Sluban, so I guess I don’t mind the invasion that much.

Dubrovnik, 25-27/08

So I celebrated the end of the summer the only way I know how : by going on a little trip ! This time it was with my best friend, who visited me from France. We met in Dubrovnik, after a few confused phone calls and a missed stop on the bus and it was the start of a week-long adventure !

Dubrovnik is the textbook definition of a museum-city. It’s rich and complex history dates back to Roman times and it once was an important and well respected city-state, much like Venice herself. To the surprise of nobody who’s seen my travel articles before, it’s classified on the UNESCO’s Wolrd Heritage list. It suffered greatly during the 1991-1993 siege and bombings, with a large part of it’s historical buldings destroyed. It has been restored with great care and respect though, thanks in part to international funds. The city has regained most of it’s beauty and glory and is now one of the most popular tourist destination in the country. All of Croati’as shores are very popular but Dubrovnik is very much the crowning jewel of this incredible coastline. It has come to the point where you wonder wwere the people who actually live there go, the city being so flooded with tourists that they have to put up lines at the city centre’s gates, not unlike the queues in Disneyland. 

Despite these slightly overwhelming crowds, Dubrovnik is a place to see. There is a reason why so many people come to visit this town and it’s not just the Game of Thrones locations. Although they do have tours dedicated to them, amusingly. The walk around the city walls is a little costly - about 100 KN - but the views are well worth it, especially because you also get to visit the fort Lovrijenac, just opposite the walls. I would advise to go there wuite early in the morning, not only to avoid the main tourist flow, but also because of the heat. This summer was particularly intense, even by Croatian standars, but it’s still a very warm city and you should avoid the peak sun. 

The stroll around the centre of town itself is pretty quick, even when you take the time to wander around the narrow and confusing streets in search of the Buza Bar - or hole in the wall, named for it’s small entrance - wich hangs on the edge of the cliff and offers an amzing view over the sea. For the bravest, you can even jump from the rocks into the blue waters. The city is full of little gems as well as restaurants that take up two streets and you will most likely find whatever it is you like. Unless that’s absolute peace and quiet. 

Our hostel was rather nice, despite the small issue of the shower walls being rather, well, see through. It was located outside of the centre as most affordable accomodations are. The money you save is pretty much spent on the bus fares to town but I still think we were better off this way. And we got to drive by the port and the coast every morning, so it’s not all that bad ! 

On the 12th of August was celebrated International Youth Day. For this occasion, Carpe Diem organised a photography exhibition around the theme of youth unemployement, that we helped put up. The idea was to show all the things young people could do - from volunteering to chilling with friends - and was linked to the fact that the girls from Job Club had a little stand as well. This project aims to help young unemployed people to find jobs, with trainings and avice.