This is my third time abroad and Varazdin smells a little bit like popcorn and coffee and sounds like the rain and people biking and walking around quietly. I’ve come to Varaždin through the Eurodyssey programme, which is organized by Varaždin County under the umbrella of the Assembly of European Regions.
< ANDREAS BLOG (CROATIAN LANGUAGE)
To settle somewhere new takes time, even when your mind is set on living an adventure. A few hours in a plane is all that it took to leave Spain, but arriving is much harder, especially when you don’t know the language and communicating to ask for food becomes some kind of challenge.
The plane to Zagreb lands before 10 in the morning and Andrea, Foix (other two girls from Spain, who also came in Varaždin through Eurodysseey programme) and I still have to take two busses to Varaždin. Like I said, arriving takes time.
Zagreb bus station looks like every other station: a place stuck in the nineties with bright posters and even brighter typography, covering grey and dirty walls that look like they are about to fall apart. Everything is grey (at least in this part of the city) and the rain doesn’t brighten up the mood.
I can only imagine how Croatia is from what I can see through the bus window between short naps. The green covered hills with scattered houses on them somehow remind me of the landscape I saw in Galicia and north Portugal. Maybe it is just the rainy weather that bring back memories from other experiences abroad but everything looks oddly familiar and welcoming.
Rain keeps falling in Varazdin while we take the first walk around the city centre.
The town hall, the museum, some important High School, the market…
Everything seems new the first few days. Even when time merely passes by slowly between breakfast, lunch and dinner, when we struggle to communicate with gestures, mutter ‘hvala’ and smile constantly trying to, at least, seem polite. It’s a pretty funny situation, if you’re the spectator.
After a few days, first impressions lead to details. People biking around while holding their umbrellas, dolls standing on display behind some windows, words with barely any vowels, bars full at exactly 12.00, sunset at 19.30 and old abandoned building in almost every street. Close to the town hall stands daily a wheeled popcorn machine covered by a red awning. Sometimes an old man guards the popcorn during the morning, some days they stand alone.
The old man with the popcorn is almost the only element here that’s always on time. The opening ceremony of the Trash Film Festival is supposed to start at 19.30. However, at that time everyone is talking, hanging out at the door of the cinema while waiting. Meanwhile some children gather around the cardboard box with the snacks. They might not want to eat popcorn but the white-haired man is almost the only thing that’s keeping them distracted until the superheroes come.
The rain doesn’t stop the events for the week: people just take out the umbrellas and stand really far away from the stage while singing. It’s 22.30 and everything is almost finished.
After a rainy week, comes at last a sunny day and at the town hall square the people sitting around stand up and turn around to see the celebration of the Day of the Varaždin County. We leave when they do and arrive to the County Palace. Some typical food is waiting for us there and we try everything possible and ask about everything we see: “What’s this here?” “What is it made of?”. Klipic, some kind of honey liqueur, pumpkin oil and cabbage, that’s what we are told are the typical products from here.
Between the push and pull of people willing to taste some of the food the morning is over and without realizing it we are going on the stage to pick some award in the Trash Film Festival. Organizers proposed to us to do that for fun, since one Spanish movie won some awards. Afterwards some people congratulate us for our work. Pretty funny if you think we were just casually there. “No, not to us” we answer politely, “we were just told to take it and say something.” People start leaving and before we do we catch a subtle smell of popcorn lingering in the air.
*Andrea participates in the Eurodyssey programme organized by Varaždin County, whose aim is to provide conditions for young people to gain professional experience. Varazdinski.hr is one of the employers which have expressed interest to participate in this Programme.
