First day of Erasmus

Prije otprilike godinu dana odlučila sam da želim iskusiti čari Erasmus razmjene. Sada približno godinu dana nakon, on je počela! Ukoliko vas zanima moj proces prijave za Erasmus razmjenu možete o tome pročitati ovdje.

About a year ago, I decided that I wanted to experience the Erasmus exchange program. Almost one year has gone by since then, and now my exchange has begun! If you are interested in reading about my Erasmus exchange application process you can click here.

Put

Vožnja do Venecije, let za Sevillu, autobus do Huelve i stigla sam! Nakon otprilike 10 sati putovanja došla sam na svoju željenu destinaciju. Let iz Venecije, s aerodroma Treviso, u Sevillu je za mene bila najbolja i najjeftinija opcija jer su sve ostale kombinacije uključivale dva leta (točnije presjedanje) i bile su puno puno skuplje. Kada rezervirate letove koristite aplikacije kao što su Skyscanner ili Kayak te gledajte ponude letova utorkom ili srijedom jer su ti dani kojima aviokompanije objavljuju najbolje ponude za svoje korisnike. Ukoliko ste zainteresirani da vam u detalje ispričam sve o letovima i samoj rezervaciji napišite u komentare ili na mojoj facebook stranici.

The journey

Driving from Croatia to Venice, flying to Seville, taking a bus to Huelva and all that in 10 hours until I finally reached my destination. Flying from Venice to Seville was the best and the cheapest option for me because all the other combinations included two flights (connecting flight) and they were much more expensive. When you are booking a flight I advise you to look at offers on apps such as Skyscanner or Kayak. Also, I advise you to look at the offers on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when the airlines put their best offers forward. If you are interested to hear more about tips for booking a flight, in general, let me know in the comments section below and I will make a post about it.

Dolazak

Kada sam došla bila je subota i ljudi su ručali na terasama restorana, pili koktele, djeca su igrala nogomet, za razliku od hrvatske djece koja većinu vremena provode na telefonu. Sve je nekako na svome mjestu. Dvokratni način rada poprilično me zbunio; jednostavno nisam navikla. Nakraju sam upravo iz tog razloga ostala bez ručka jer se restorani zatvaraju u 17h i ponovno otvaraju u 20h. Dok za razliku od restorana, dućani s robom rade od 17 do 20 tako da možete svoje vrijeme između ručka i večere upotpuniti shoppingom. Genijalno!


Mogu službeno reći da od jučer razumijem sve ljude koji su iz Hrvatske ili područja balkana otišli iz svoje zemlje raditi i živjeti u druge europske zemlje. Razumijem vas! Ljudi u Huelvi žive život. Ne životare, ne preživljavaju, nego ga žive!

Arrival

When I arrived on Saturday, I saw a lot of people eating on the terraces of the restaurants, drinking cocktails, children playing football unlike kids in Croatia nowadays who only look at their mobile phones. Everything is how it is supposed to be; in order, in its place. Spanish people have a thing called siesta; that means they work from 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. and from 17 p.m. until 8 p.m. or 9. p.m. The restaurants work from 12 a.m. until 5 p.m. and from 8 p.m. until 12 p.m. After lunch, you can go shopping and then go to dinner. Brilliant!

I can officially say that as of yesterday I completely understand every1 who left Croatia or the Balkan area to work and live in other parts of Europe. I understand you! People in Huelva live their life enjoyment while our only goal is to survive today and the following day. 

Huelva

Jedna od stvari koju odmah primijetite kada šetate niz ulice Huelve jesu stabla s narančama ili mandarinama, nisam točno sigurna što su. Čudno je to što ih nitko ne bere. One samo tamo stoje nitko ih ne dira, neke su već gnjile, neke su krenule opadati, ali IH APSOLUTNO NITKO NE DIRA!

Većinom je ovdje niska gradnja, do otprilike osam katova. Kuće su predivne, većinom žute ili nekakve boje vanilije i ukrašene brojnim ''tapetama'', uzorcima raznih boja, oblika, dizajna. Stvarno posebno za vidjeti.

Huelva

One of the things you notice right away as you are walking down the streets of Huelva are the trees which are filled with some kind of oranges. It is weird that nobody is eating them; some of them are already rotten and the others are falling down from the trees, but NOBODY IS TOUCHING THEM! The buildings are not very high; the highest ones have eight stories or something like that. The houses are beautiful, mostly yellow and with many decorations of various shapes, colors, and design. They are trully something special.

Uređenje

O prijevozu, autobusima, vlakovima i taksijima ću vam pisati u narednim postovima, tako da stay tuned. Na prvi pogled se sve stvarno čini uređeno; da je građeno planski i s nekom namjerom. Uz dok Huelve nalaze se lijepa šetnica i nekoliko kafića. U jednom je čak bila i live muzika, pjevačica koja pjeva uz matricu, koja je davala poseban doživljaj činjenici da ste uz ''more'' i da u potpunosti uživate u suncu i laganom povjetarcu.

The Layout

Everything about buses, trains, and taxies will be featured in the following posts, so stay tuned. At first glance, everything seems very organized in the sense that the buildings were built with a plan and a purpose. I know that that may not make any sense to someone who is reading this and doesn’t live in Croatia, but it makes perfect sense to Croatian people. At the dock of Huelva, there are many coffee and bars in which you can have a drink after taking a walk on the dock. In one of them, they even had a singer and it added a special touch to the experience of wind in your hair while you are walking down the dock. 

Ljudi

Španjolci su izuzetno limitirani engleskim jezikom ili ga ne znaju. Poprilično sam bila zbunjena činjenicom da na 20 stupnjeva nose skafandere i bundice. Ne znam kako im nije vruće, ali ja uz sunčane naočale i kožnu jaknu uživam ne samo u suncu, već i u njima i činjenici da me uza sve to jako jako zabavljaju. 

People

Spanish people are very limited to English; they mostly do not understand English at all. The thing that confused me was the fact that at 20 degrees every1 was wearing a coat, some even a fur one! Aren't they hot? I was wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses while I enjoyed the sum while they were passing by in their jackets and coats. They amused me! 

Restorani

Kao što sam već napomenula, restorani rade dvokratno. Za vrijeme ručka od 12 do 17 i od 20 do 24 sata. Španjolci su naviknuti da ručaju i večeraju nešto kasnije od nas. Večerala sam u restoranu u kojem sam jela na katu. Sigurno kada ovo čitate mislite u sebi pa da restoran ima dva kata. Ne,ne, ne ima jedan kat, međutim oni su iznad stolova dodali još jedan kat i još cijeli set stolova na njima. Žao mi je što nemam sliku da vam pokažem, ali možda ako opet odem u taj restoran ću vam slikati. 

Restaurants

As I already mentioned, restaurants work from 12 a.m. until 5 p.m. and from 8 p.m. until 12 p.m. Spanish eat lunch and dinner a little bit later than me. For dinner, I went to this restaurant which had two levels. To save their space and to add more tables to their restaurant (and with that cater to more guests and make more money) they have added more tables on top of the ones they already have. You have to climb to get there. I do not have a pic of that which I am very sorry about, but if I go there again I will definitely post a pic for you to see. 

Za Kraj... 

Iako sam napisala gore da razumijem ljude koji odlaze trbuhom za kruhom ili iz političkih ili nekih drugih razloga, ne želim da me krivo shvatite. Volim svoju zemlju, ponosna sam njenim prirodnim ljepotama i svemu po čemu je ona posebna. Ali neke drastične promjene se moraju dogoditi, jer u suprotnom će najbolji, a i poslije njih svi ostali otići jer drugdje je jednostavno bolje u svakom smislu te riječi.

In the end...

Even though I wrote in one paragraph that I understand people who left Croatia because they wanted to improve their lives and have a higher wage, or for some other reasons... I understand them, but I also love my country with all of its glory and the beauty of its nature and everything that makes her special and unique. But some things have got to change. If nothing changes, we will all flee somewhere else sooner or later. 

XOXO

Anita