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‘’Famous five’’ EVSers from Opatovina ulica 23

Hello , my name is Andris and I am one of the ‘’Famous five’’ EVSers  from Opatovina ulica 23, what is opatovina ulica I will explain a bit later. Todays post will be about my first impressions about Zagreb city.

My first meeting with Zagreb happened about six month ago in Latvia I was still considering to go or not to go to EVS in Zagreb, so I decided to go on a virtual tour around Zagreb through google streetview. What I saw was a dull city with block houses and that wasn't what I wanted to see, but one thing I like was that Zagreb was very close to mountains what is something very special for a ‘’flatlander’’ like me so,  I was tempted, but not completely sure if I want to go there.

But as you are reading this blog you may sense that I made a descision to do a reality check  for the google streetview. My real life meeting with Zagreb started after I exit bus station and it was quite shocking to be honest, because all I saw around were nice houses and fancy gardens. What’s wrong with google I thought to myself, how it turns out later, while I was sleeping in the bus we were passing all the block house districts what I saw previously on google streetview and now I was in the center of Zagreb which was quite different from what I expected to see.

Besides beautiful architecture and nice garden  Zagreb is also environmentaly friendly city with a lot of bike roads and nonpoluting electric public transport in city center which shows that it is sustainable and modern city. In the end it turned out that Opatovina Ulica 23 is adress of our flat which is situated in center of Zagreb oldtown only few steps away from ‘’Zagreb’s Cathedral’’ and  ‘’Ban Jelačić ‘’ square which is the central gathering place for Zagrebs inhabitants in national celebrations. One of this gathering I had a chance to experience on the second night of my stay. It was a calm monday evening and I decided to go for a late night walk around 23, I went out of our flat and hear a loud noise comming from main square, when I went that direction I saw many people listening some local concert.

Suprised and curious I went to ask why do they have a concert on late Monday evening, on what I got answer that it is just a concert before Cilic(who is a famous croatian teniss player)game in US open finals. Game itself wasn’t much of fun for me, but it was a while intresting to watch the event itself, after a while I went back home to sleep, around one o clock I heard a big cheering noise outside, it was clear that Cilic won.

As for me I understood that sometimes google can disapoint you in a good way and that that the city of Zagreb is full of suprises.

Croatian and Croatians

                               

  Dobro došli u Zagreb! I assume that my first Croatian lesson occured right on the famous Dolac market in the centre of Zagreb on my first day in Croatia when I started to feel starving after my two-day trip for EVS program.
- Dobar dan!
- Dobar dan! (Good afternoon. They might say it for the whole day regarless time)
Silence in between, a lady weighing potatoes for me.
- Četiri kune. (Not sure if I got the price right and give her 10)
- Hvala. (Thanks.)
- Doviđenia.
- Doviđenia.
  In my atempt to be nice and friendly I managed to learn my first Croatian words and came to a conclusion that 1 year is enough for having even a decent talk, not only buying food.

  Croatian is everywhere. You see 'Zlatar' and 'Ban Jelačić trg' on our way to work, you hear our Spanish pal practising Croatian numbers for the fifth time in the kitchen cooking pasta:
- Nula. Đedan.
- Jorge, it's jedan.
- Đedan.
- Try it like 'yes': jedan.
- Jedan.
  One small victory in this endless fight with foreign sounds.
  It's not only Croatian that is heard on every corner. Here we're in the bus going to Studentski centar.
Me (trying my best):
- Gdje je Studentski centar?
- Entschuldigung. Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
Really? German? Here?
- Ja, natürlich. Wo finde ich Studentski centar?
  And then, in the very evening our apartment turns into chaos: Spanish, Italian, English, skyping in Romanian, Croatian 'Volim te' videoclip on music channel. Aaaah! I'm going crazy. Can I still speak Ukrainian? 'Слава Україні! Героям слава!' Ok, it works.
  As soon as I stopped panicking every time being asked in Croatian, I started to pay attention to Zagreb people. Here is a lady next door. She seems to be in her 50-s, but she kindly asks us if we need anything in perfect English. Here is Roman, a so-called 'head of the house', who very emotionally reacts to me being from Ukraine in the light of latest events. Here are our colleagues: 'Hello dear! How was your trip? Do you wanna some coffee? How do you like the city so far? Let's make a party!' Open-minded, easy-going and supernice. And it's not only about working with other people, it's about being really cool. And here is our team: 5 of us, from 5 different countries, who are used to 5 different lifestyles and yet, being ready to start a new page in a lifebook.

  I'm sure that my stay here will be as emotional and cool as it has started to be so far!
Kisses and hugs, Juliya.

Dobrodošli kući

So here we are in our awesome home in the very heart of Zagreb. Our home for the next year is a nice, cozy house located right next to Dolac market, where you can get practically anything that comes up to your mind. The house has everything that we need – our own rooms on the second floor, so that everyone can have their own space and a big, comfortable living room downstairs full of international atmosphere and already receiving its first couchserfers and yet many more friends to come. Apart from Dolac, another big neighbor of ours is the spectacular Zagreb cathedral, whose priests make sure that we don’t oversleep and remind us at 7.45am sharp with their bells that is time to wake up.

Just 10 min by walking from home is our lovely international office where everyone works pretty hard. Right now it’s a little bit overcrowded but that makes the atmosphere even better. Soon probably we will have a new office since the team is getting bigger and we need more space. So,we have the back office where all the big stuff are happening and there is a lot of planning, budgets, numbers and stuff. The front part is for the EVS-ers - right now shared by the two “generations” of EVSe. And right between, we have the kitchen where we prepare our vegetarian ( L ) lunch every day. It may look small at first sight, but it hosts quite a big table and a lot of people at lunch time. And of course, there is the terrace where you can have a nice cup of coffee or tea and enjoy the sun (as soon as you see some).

First days in Zagreb

When you are in a new flat, in a new city and all that you see is completly new your biggest worry is “How will all this affect to me?”

 It would be almost imposible for me to survive to an experience like this if I don’t have a good relationship with my flatmates. I really learn from them as much as posible and I think this could be.

In fact, in the first 48 hours I’ve learnt many things, they say that Knowledge does not take up any space, and some of these things are not important but they help me to improve our relationship.

With July and Bojan I’ve found out how easy it’s for people from Bulgarie and Ukraine to understand a lot of croatian words, and they can easily learn foreign languages. They can help me to improve my english.

Bojan has a very funny face in the pictures,  He doesn’t like to get wet with the rain and his laptop is driving he crazy. 

Althought, they didn’t let me choose a room I’m quite sure that Julia and Cosmina can be quite good flatmates. We can learn from each other and we’ll have fun together.

Bulgarian guy will be for sure a great  party partner and I already love him because He told me that my english it’s no so bad.

Finally the Latvian guy came, I really like him. It seems that it’s going to be almost imposible to have a problema with him, I’d like running with him, and He’s always helping me with my english.

In summary, I’m quite sure this is going to be an interesting time, I’ll learn a lot from SYNCRO, from these guys and from this experience living abroad. 

Vidimo se!

Discover Zagreb

The Museum of broken relantionships is in Upper Town Zagreb and showcases some very interesting items, such as a broken dwarf, an axe, a wedding dress, broken mirrors, travel keepsakes, a clock on which is written “We broke up on Skype” also you can buy from here a bad memories eraser or a pen that is writed “in case of anger break here”. It received the Kenneth Hudson Award for Europe's most innovative museum in 2011.

My motto: I don't believe in broken relationships, it's just about a new beginning!