Author: Mika Lempart /
First a few words about me. I am Mika, a 21-year-old from Germany and I am doing my Erasmus Internship at the Academy of Arts and Culture here in Osijek. My goal for this internship is to open up communication between universities in Germany and Croatia.
While I am studying economics at home, I came here for a more creative task which is to write articles for “Artos”.
The ride here happened with my car and it was one hell of a ride as you can imagine but once I left Austria, things started to ease up. It’s definitely an experience to drive for this long but I’d say it was worth it.
Of course, the story doesn’t end there.
The next step was to move into my apartment but unfortunately there was a gas leak, mold and ants all over to place, so finally after a long night of searching for apartments I was able to find one in a nice neighborhood named “Naselje Vladimira Nazora”.
And from here on my journey will continue for the next month.
I am really looking forward to writing about my stay here and hope to meet a lot of interesting people to learn about their culture.
Zagreb
For the weekend I had a road trip to the capital of Croatia, Zagreb. The number of possibilities is beautiful: quick trams, a lot of bars and coffee bars, as well as a surprising amount of nature parks all around the city. The whole city emits an alive and young atmosphere and wherever I went I felt welcomed. I also went to Samobor where I visited the castle and later on drank a coffee and ate a kremšnita, a traditional cake from Samobor. While in Samobor, I also climbed the mountain to see the castle where I took a lot of breathtaking pictures of the landscape. I really hope my stay in Croatia will continue like this.
Osijek
My second week in Osijek starts where my first one ended with an ESN party at Tvrđa, in the club Exit. There I have met two other students from the Academy of Arts and Culture. They were both Croatian and helped me to get around Osijek better. For example, the following day we visited the Drava River and walked on the Promenade, we saw the Osijek town center with the co-cathedral and then sat for a coffee at the caffe bar Trica. In general, I must say that the life in Osijek really reminds me of other German cities, the architecture feels like a fusion of Yugoslavia and Austria which makes sense when looking at the city’s history. Another interesting thing to me is the language. Even though I’m trying to talk in English or Croatian, a lot of people approach me in German and it is impressive how many elderly people speak accent free German in Osijek. On Monday, I visited AUKOSajam where I saw the students selling their art. The students really impressed me with their diversity of arts: dresses, paintings, sculptures, jewelry…
Opatija
I was invited to a barbecue in a small village close to Kutina. I was amazed by the nature and the diversity of Croatia. Every part that I have seen so far has a different landscape.
Later that week, I continued a tradition I started on my first Erasmus and that was to get a tattoo or piercing in the new countries I visited. This time I got my first ear piercing at a small local jewelry place in the center of Zagreb. Afterwards, I went for a walk in Tuškanac, Dubravking put and finished the walk at Cmrok.
On Sunday, it was Easter and I was invited to join my host family for Easter breakfast and lunch. Therefore, I had a chance to try all of the traditional Croatian Easter food.
During my last week in Osijek, I was mainly trying to find German speaking contact persons in Osijek at the German community, the 2nd gymnasium and the Faculty of Philosophy in order to create a network with them so future students from my university in Germany can have the same opportunity to come to Osijek and expand my university’s list of Erasmus partners. I learnt a lot about Osijek’s history, especially about the history of the German folk in Osijek.
My stay here is sadly coming to an end but, luckily, we had one more trip planned, to Opatija at the seaside.
As expected, it was also beautiful. I will definitely come back to Croatia in the future and I must thank everyone I have met.
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