Operation Schönheit

What is the first thing you say when someone asks you if you want to travel to Croatia? Yes, of course! Even if it involves acting? Yes!... Wait, what?!

Yes my friends, I got myself in this kind of trouble during the final month of the school year. My friend, Milana, has persuaded me to join the German drama class for a one-time-show in Osijek, Croatia. Naturally, I agreed to help out the group almost immediately, not thinking even for a second that it might just ruin my grand finale in school. But that realization comes later.

Firstly, the drama club began its preparations for the show. The group was consisted of six girls, including me, and our slightly annoying but optimistic teacher. We had practices almost every day, before and after classes. Combine that with an enormous amount of tests and you will end up with a group of hysteric teenagers who will bite your head off unless you buy them muffins.

In the end we managed to prepare a 45 minute show in less than a month and now we were just waiting for the trip to begin.

Friday, June 17. I jump out of bed immediately as the alarm goes off. Luckily, no one wakes up but me and I’m delighted especially because it’s not even 5 in the morning and I have a strong feeling that everyone in the building would kill me if I disturbed them before dawn. As I leave the house I remember that I always wanted to sneak out like this before I disappear with my suitcase, not telling anyone that I’m leaving for a coupe of days (because that’s how they do it in the films, don’t they?) but suddenly a feeling of emptiness wraps around my body and I realize that even though you sometimes get annoyed by your family and their unnecessary worry it is nice to have someone walk you out of the house.

As soon as I stepped on the street I forgot all my worries and while imagining I’m some kind of diva traveler I rushed with excitement to the bus station.

The ride was quick and enjoyable, excluding the minor difficulties that we had on the border for laughing too loud while getting our passports checked. I think our teacher lost a couple of pounds while the police officer was interrogating him. After this torture we decided to act appropriate until the end of the trip. We managed to put together almost 8 hours. And we really tried. It’s not our fault that we didn’t check where the theater is and had to ask a bunch of random people where to go until a group of beer-drinking men in the park had given us the right direction, it’s not our fault that we lost half of the group on a wide and empty boulevard and it’s surely not our fault that we had to run through the town to manage it on time for the opening of the festival. Or maybe it is.

The next morning we had some workshops with several teachers that lasted for hours, therefor it is no suprise we came to lunch drained not only because we had physical exercises but because we had to talk the entire time in German. On the other hand, our teacher had a good night sleep and too much time on his hands so our afternoon was reserved for sightseeing and for running to the theater again to see the other performances. Despite having no expectations from this town and being absolutely exhausted both from the trip and the workshops, I must admit that going around the center was not such a bad idea.

First of all, Osijek is not a typical tourist town, it does not have countless museums, it does not have enormous buildings and it does not have a cute and easy historical past. What I liked most about this place was the fact that the were not afraid to show how hard was it to survive here during the 90’s leaving the bullet marks on every building, including the church. Maybe it’s not the nicest thing they have to show, but it’s the bravest. This town has some kind of energy that is at the same time mysterious and scary, quiet as a mouse and mild like a breeze. Though that does not mean it is not amazing.

Anyway, on the third day, we were preparing for the play all day long and in the end our work finaly payed off. I enjoyed acting more than ever, and I wasn’t even worried if everything was going according to the script, moreover, I couldn’t wait to improvise a little bit. And that feeling made the show perfect for me.

With that being said, I can now officially add another unusual adventure to my list to keep reminding me that maybe not every trip is perfect, but if you find yourself caught up in one second that makes you complete, remember that it was worth it.

Dora and the sea

Although I’m currently sitting on my terrace, looking at the sea and waiting for the sun to stop burning my skin so I can go to the beach and swim a little bit, and even though I am exactly three months late with my blog, I cannot leave this short adventure out of my records simply because it radiates with such different energy that it would have been a shame not to share it.

And so my quick trip to the seaside with my family began on a rusty, cold morning in the end of April. I got even the honour to drive the car a couple of hours while listening to my mother quietly crying in the backseat and my brother praying to the unknown not to get us killed. It looked as if only my dad and I enjoyed the ride.

In the end we arrived safe and sound to Sutomore, Montenegro, where our grandparents have already been waiting for us with a huge dinner.

Despite coming to the seaside in the spring for a couple of years now, it seems that I am hardly getting used to the mixture of waking up under a bunch of blankets, looking out the window and seeing the sea. The two just doesn’t fit.

Nevertheless, I decided to sunbath a little on our only sunny day during our visit and I can now officially confirm that the sun does burn even in the spring.

The afternoon was reserved for a lovely walk in Bar, the biggest city in the municipality. The more I visit this town, the more I love it. Not only that it has wide boulevards stuffed with palms but it has the greatest marine in Montenegro. I am personally not a fan of ships and yachts, but this place reminds me of my childhood when my grandfather always took my brother and me to see the marine.

On this afternoon we walked past the magnificent castle of the ruler of Montenegro, king Nikola, while we were on the quay and I was so delighted with its decoration that I promised myself that I would come back next year to see it from the inside.

The following days were supposed to be rainy, so we decided to stay home and study for our tests (my brother and I) or just simply chill and read a book (our parents). And it miraculously worked for the first 24 hours. But as long as I know my father that period of silence could have not lasted much longer. 

The next day we decided to go on a trip around the surrounding beaches despite the rain and the cloudy weather. We visited Petrovac, a lovely little town with a small fortress and Sv. Stefan a magnificent peninsula which is at the same time the most luxurious place in Montenegro.

 Although I have seen these places many times during summer, it was a real surprise to see them in the spring too. The water may not had been so blue, and the sand may not had been shining like gold, but this mixture of greyish blue water with the red sand gave me a sense of freedom. I was extremely grateful for that moment because I know that only a handful of people have the opportunity to see the calm, tourist-free side of the sea, and appreciate its power.

As the biggest fan of the Mediterranean, I can only recommend spending there as much time as possible.  Even when it’s cold outside, the sea will find its way to warm up your heart. And that is the only magic the sea does and the only thing it should be doing.

The romanian (mis)adventure 

The local train station, dawn, Friday morning. A group of sleepy students are gathering around the bus and talking quietly, as if they don’t want to wake up the city. That’s until I arrive.

For some inexplicable reason I can never stay calm before a trip, my adrenalin level jumps way above average and I usually end up bursting out with laughter every single time I see a bunch of people with colorful suitcases standing next to a vehicle.



~A small fact~

This is an exchange between our and two of the romanian high schools: one in Bucharest and one in Campulung. The first part of the exchange was in October when the Romanians came to Novi Sad and now we were going to visit them.

Since there were two high schools in Romania who have applied for the exchange, our group had to divide in half; 20 students were going to stay in Bucharest, the capital, and the other 20 were supposed to sleep in a village of 30 000 inhabitants, Campulung. Can you guess where have I been listed? Oh yes, to the countryside. Nevertheless, I could not complain because both juniors and seniors were put there and the younger ones were honored to stay in the capital. 

The first thing I’ve noticed about the Romanians is that they are really similar to the Serbs in character. They are as crazy and free spirited as were are if not more. Guess that’s why we got along with them so well. The second thing was that they have a really melodic language, not quite as I’ve expected. Of course later they explained to us that their language belongs  to the same language group as italian and that is the only reason it sounds so appealing to the ears but still they got me pretty amazed. The third thing had something to do with food. Of course. They have some very similar local dishes that are even called as ours and they persistently claim that they originate from their culture. We almost had a fight about that. And they eat their dessert with yogurt or sour milk. What a combination!

Anyways, the first day we visited the Dracula’s castle in Bran. The rest of the group was fairly disappointed that the castle had only one torture room and that count Vlad was actually just a human being, but to me it was an amazing experience, with the view from the castle and the and furniture in it.

Later there I stumbled upon a few shops that were selling hungarian specialties declaring as theirs so after I bought them all I came to the conclusion that Romanians love to steal local dishes from their neighbours. And I had nothing against it as long as it was delicious. ;)

The second day was reserved for Bucharest. What a beautiful city it is! A slight combination of Athens and Budapest but still with its own style and charm. We spent the whole day visiting a handful of museums and establishments with the teachers and our guide after what we had a couple of hours free to grab something to eat and wander around the city. I have ended up with two of my friends in a park drinking coffee and I can say that it was amazing.



 

The last day we went around our small city with the Romanian teachers, but since we’ve seen almost everything the previous nights we were mostly concentrating not to get sunburned. Or burst into flames.

Fortunately for us, the tour was soon over, so we went on a barbecue to one of the Romanian exchange students. Actually I haven’t seen much of the barbecue, because it was gone the second it had been taken of the grill, but at least I had a great time dancing with the others to the romanian hits.

The last morning began sad and rusty, nobody wanted to go home. I can still clearly see everybody wrapped in their sweaters nervously waiting for our bus to leave. I promised my exchange student that we’ll see each other one more time and that we’ll party in romanian style. Because there is much more to Romania that the developing cities. It is the people who live in it that make it amazing.

The Czech Chick

In November 2015, about 40 students from our school took part in a student exchange with the Czech Republic. That was my first time in that country, and I have to add, I was amazed. Not only the places we’ve visited were breathtaking  but also I was sincerely stunned by the Czech culture and the hospitality of the locals.

Now, it was their turn to come to Serbia. 

On Monday morning, at 6.30 AM our school was wiggling from excitement. Some of the students were still sleepy  (I can’t blame them) but  most of them were already joking around and jumping across the classroom. Do I have to add that I was in the second group?

As the Czechs arrived the lisping turned into shouting. Furthermore, the shouting became just a hot mess with people pushing each other to find their guest/host. I, personally, could not find my Czech girl until the teachers have calmed everybody down and called us up. I was at the bottom of the list and I had been really nervous about seeing my exchange partner before they called our names. But then everything fell into place. We were so glad to see each other that the teachers had to ask us to stop hugging and get out of the way.
The afternoon had been organised for a group walk around the city. Our students were freed from school on one condition: that they would stick to the group until the end. I bet you can imagine the students strongly nodding with their heads in the sign of approval only to see them slowly drift away at every corner during the mentioned walk. Our group in particular ended up in a small café. We were  I the middle of an important discussion we got a message from the remaining (three!) Serbian  students that the teacher was angry and that he had uttered that all ditchers would be grounded. We had no other option but to run and try to blend in with the group like we’ve never left. As well as the others, we were caught but in the end we didn’t care.


In the evening Bara, my Czech exchange partner, asked me to take her to the Petrovaradin fortress. As a good host I felt obligated to do so, so we had a long, three hour walk to and back from the fortress, finishing our evening in a pub with the other exchange students.





I was so exhausted on the second day already, that as soon as I dropped off Bara at the school in the morning, from where they went to their trip, I went straight home and slept through the whole day. I must add, I realized that I was spoiled to its finest, because I was used to getting help from my parents making the lunch package for every exchange student who was staying at our house,  but this time our schedules didn't fit in, so I ended up making alone double portions, going to bed last and getting up first. That’s why it came as no surprise to me that I felt like I’ve come straight out of the dishwasher. The situation at my friends’ wasn’t much more different either. 

In the evening I found out that the Czechs had a couple of free seats in their bus and I asked a handful of students, both Serbian and Czech, if there was a possibility for me to join them the next day for their trip to Timisoara, but nobody could give me concrete information except the shortest comment that ‘I might get in’. With my adventurous spirit I took that as a high enough possibility for a yes and as soon as I got home I prepared my passport and some money for the trip with great excitement.

But with the morning came other problems. Since I was the only one who had known about the trip, I was the only one who had taken a passport. And there was no way that I was going alone with the Czechs. Until the last evening they seemed to me as if they were judging us. Fortunately, it was all a product of my imagination and I wish I knew that on that morning too.


At the last moment I came up with the idea that one of the seniors should go with me because she was there by car and she was the only one who could’ve made it to and back from home on time.

Our rush to her house is a story for itself, but I will just add that during the ride she was fast and that she was very, very furious.

On the other hand, Timisoara was a nice surprise. I truly enjoyed my first time in Romania, the buildings, the spirit of the city along with the egyptian (haha) food for lunch and the National museum (which had kicked us out because they were closing in twenty minutes). All that combined with the main square full of pigeons, the playing clock and the sunny day  gave us a complete look at the Romanian spirit.



That evening Bara and I didn’t have any energy left so we decided to stay home and have some sleep.




On the last day the Czechs visited Belgrade and the hosts either went to school or went home to sleep and since I cannot recall I believe it was the second option.

In the evening the weather was nice so we stayed at a square in the city center nearly until sunrise. We’ve connected with each other more during that night than we’ve had during the whole exchange. And that is why I was even more devastated when we had to say goodbye in the morning. I promised them, but mostly to Bara, that we’ll stay in touch and that hopefully we’ll see each other sometimes soon. I hope for once that we’ll all keep our promises.

(A post from the 10th of April)

The last escape

So this post was supposed to be up at the end of March, but I got stuck with a bunch of stuff to do, so with a little delay, here is my blog from the 25th of March.

Some people have a list in their minds what do they want to do before they die. I had something similar, but with a different deadline; until I turn 18.

Since I am not the type of person who likes to throw massive birthday parties, I thought that it would still be nice to make something memorable before I set foot in the (in my opinion) boring world of the adults.

The outcome was that my friend Annabella and I decided to make a jaunt to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

It was a beautiful spring day and I was so excited about the trip that I wasn’t paying enough attention what time it was so in the end I had to hurry up to make it on time. Naturally, I didn’t and Annabella was not happy. Given the circumstances, I don’t blame her. To make the situation  even worse, when we arrived to the station we bumped into an enormous crowd, with nervous people standing in the lines, all waiting to buy their tickets. That was 10 minutes before our train was supposed to leave. On top of that, we didn’t know how much money  to prepare so we lost two precious minutes on adding and recounting to pay for our tickets and ended up running like hell. In the end we managed to catch our train in the last thirty seconds before it was about to leave.

When we arrived to the capital we agreed to go to the Kalemegdan for a walk. We were even proud of ourselves that we managed to find a sterling way on Google maps that would lead us directly to the fortress.  We thought that from now on everything would go smoothly.  And of course we were wrong. 

During our forty minute walk we were lucky enough to go through some of the most suspicious parts of the city: a bunch of narrow streets with a lot of street art, with only trucks passing by, a Lebanese rugby team whose players were hard to get rid of and a gang whose members couldn’t stop looking at our phones. By the time we reached the quay we were traumatized for life.

  

After  finishing  our photo session at the fortress, we continued to the main street of Belgrade, Knez Mihailova. There we took a short break and drank some coffee/tea. Then we went to meet a friend of mine who showed us some hidden  parts of the city, including a photo gallery in a building that was in such bad shape that we’ve nearly mistaken it for an abandoned house.

Then came my favourite time of the day. Lunch! After saying goodbye to my friend we decided to go to a mexican restaurant and eat some burritos. This was my first time eating this kind of food and I must say that I was delighted! Except the part where I accidentally put some spicy toppings and spent the rest of the day drinking water like a camel, but at least  Annabella had fun laughing at my horrifying face expressions.

The next stop was meeting Ella, the girl whose parents are supercool yet, she is somehow always grounded. This time we was not different either. When we left the mexican restaurant she called us to  say that she will arrive to the center in half an hour, but fifteen minutes later she informed us that she had a fight with her parents and that she couldn’t cut loose for an hour at least. That left us with a major problem because is was getting colder and we were not up to walking around the block in the freezing sunset.

 

Just when we were about to give up on searching for a place to warm up, we bumped into  a girl on the street who was selling tickets to a Salvador Dali exhibition. The next thing I recall is that we were up in the gallery looking at Dali’s illustrations for Dante’s 'Divine Comedy'. Both Annabella and I were delighted and we were truly happy that things turned out this way.

We eventually managed to say hi to Ella, and while waiting for the train to a couple of friends of mine with who I have been hanging out in the summer for years now.

With this adventure I closed the official part of my childhood but at the end of the day I realized that years don’t define our maturity and that it impossible for me to  change anytime soon. I came to the conclusion that I will probably stay awkward for the rest of my life and I have made peace with that. And once for all I promised myself  never to join the (again, in my opinion) extremely boring, grey and, above all, complicated adult world.