Hello!!
As always, my apologies for the delays in updating. My last month in Copenhagen just flew past in a blur of hurried tourism, Eurovision, final exams, Distortion, cleaning, packing, all the fun stuff. As I write this, I am in Vinkovci, Croatia, at my second cousin Adriana's apartment, and have some time to update. They'll be a bit out chronologically but I feel like the most recent things get priority for now!
Saturday - Sunday, 21st - 22nd June
Erdut, or more specifically, Erdut Planina is where this branch of my family live. They have a farm where they grow 'everything', and have pigs, hens, a funky well, and two kitchens-- one nice one upstairs, and one less nice one downstairs for feeding when coming straight from working fields. My Aunt Erica takes goods to the markets in the nearby big town, Osjiek, every day during summer. I first met her there, then we went to the house.
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| Coffee (well, a frappe) with Adriana |
We then went to the Aljmaš fish fair. Ain't no party like an Aljmaš fish party! Almajš is where my (paternal) grandfather was born (whose brother is Adriana's grandfather).
The church there is new, the original having been destroyed in the Croatian independence war. Being a fish festival, we had grilled fish for dinner, which was really irritating to eat because of the bones, but rather tasty. I also met my cousins Sindy and Sabrina! Adriana waved at some people, then was like 'oh, they are our cousins', and I was like, oh, cool. We then went into Osjiek to watch a film, and we were going to go out for a drink in Erdut, but alas the few bars and one disco in town were closed.
Sunday we had lunch - Hungarian soup and chicken and sausages and memories at my grandparents' coming back. Absolutely delightful! Those are wild pig teeth on the wall. Casually.
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| I like the gnomes. |
Adriana was worried about me seeing weeds.
I can't tell the difference. #citygirl |
My great-uncle |
After some photo sharing and cake, Adriana and I went to the old Turkish castle overlooking the Danube and climbed around it for a while, then checked out the Erdut church. There is also a winery with the largest operational barrel in the world, but we aren't allowed inside to see it :(
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| Remnants of the Ottoman Empire |
The Danube (and Serbia) |
Adventuresome Adriana! |
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| A shadow in the window... |
Erdut church |
The Winery |
We then crossed the border into Serbia for dinner in the Hungarian village (yes, in Serbia) where Adriana's boyfriend lives. Fish soup! Yum!!
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| Entering Serbia |
Adriana's boyfriend's mum does the garden. |
She's pretty good at it. |
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| Catching dinner! |
Cooking, Hungarian style |
Yum! |
Us rebels then climbed up onto a rail bridge (apparently the train only goes by every two months. I asked when the last one was, two months ago? Got laughter as a reply.) Nice view up there!
We then retired to some beers on the lake before returning to Croatia. Could absolutely get used to this life.
Tonight we're going to find a bar to watch Australia play, and then Croatia play in the World Cup. Should be pretty exciting, I hope for my neighbour's (and my) sake that Croatia wins! (Sorry, Ricardo!)
