Christmas and New Year's Eve on Balkan

Although sun is shining brightly here for the last 4-5 days and I don't need warm jacket outside, the Christmas feeling is here!

Tomorrow, on the Catholic/Protestant Christmas Eve I am going to the family of Ante, one team-mate of mine who was so glad to invite me to spend Christmas together with his family. It will be in Sinj, a small town 20-30 km away from Split. I am grateful to him, because otherwise I would spend Christmas alone in my dormitory room :)

It reminds me the situation of 2 years ago, when I was studying in Germany and also could not go home for Christmas due to lack of money. My course-mate Chris from UK invited me to his family in Germany. It was very nice experience then...

And I have great plan for the New Year's Eve! I am going to spend it together with the friend Jaan who is coming to visit me from Estonia. Since last year we have tradition with Jaan to spend New Year's Eve together somewhere abroad. Last year we were in Vilnius, Lithuania.

This year we are going to Serbia. AIESEC in Novi Sad (in Vojvodina which is North of Serbia) is organizing big party with around 300-400 people. We are also going through Belgrade and Sarajevo in Bosnia&Herzegovina. I met some few Serbs when I was intern in Berlin this summer. Also I know some cool AIESEC people from Serbia because of EuroCo, international conference, held in Split in October. I have never been to Serbia. So, it will be definetely fun! :)

I wish all of those who are reading my posting peaceful Christmas time and new year full of events, happenings, people around you and most important - full of fullfilment of your dreams!

And one more thing - just here in Croatia I discovered how sexy I am actually ;) Take a look on the picture. :)

"Watch out who are you sleeping with"

The sentence in the title of this posting is the name of one song popular here in Balkan. It is energetic and nice song. I learnt it and have been extremely popular while singing it on Croatian National Conference of AIESEC last week :) One can see me on the picture while I am singing...

I recently got two letters from my mom. "Deniss, come home" - was the main point of boith of them, although she wrote about many other things as well, of course. I want to go home, but my Croatian dream is not over yet, thus I am staying, experiencing the warmest winter in my life... I will see the real snow and feel the real cold again in the end of January when I will be back to Estonia.

Remains of the war in Balkan

I have not updated my blog for a long time.

The main reason is that I am not able to use computer in the evenings and I have lot of other things to do during the day. Besides, there is so much interesting happening, so many great people around that I don't want to spend my time in the front of computer. Also, I am using my free time in internet for talking to friends, reading the newspapers from Estonia etc.

My work in AIESEC is still very interesting. One of the reasons is that I am about to launch one interesting and ambitious project (for AIESECars - P-Box) connected with the tourism. Split has a great potential for development of tourism and this area is constantly growing. I have met already with some important people who are dealing with that (president of Split Tourism Board, director of big hotel) and we are in the stage of developing.

Soooooo many people ask me all the time: "Deniss, when are you going home and don't you want to stay longer?". I have been proposed to work longer in AIESEC Croatia and eventually go to some higher position here...

Anyway, my home, my family, my friends, speaking Estonian and Russian languages - that all and many other things are calling me back home.

Tonight I am going for the national conference of AIESEC in Croatia for 5 days and it will be my first AIESEC conference held in hotel.

Remains of the war in Balkan

Croatia has been in the world news last few days. Ante Gotovina, Croatian general from the time of the civil war in 1991-1995 who is suspended for the war crimes during this time, was captured after 3-4 years being in run. He was the one leading Croatian troops against local Serbs.

International community treats him as war criminal. Majority of Croatians treat him as their national hero who saved independence of the country.

There was around 60.000 people in the centre of Split participating in demonstration for support of Ante Gotovina. Many of them are the ones, whose house was destroyed, relatives were killed, injured or were forced to emigrate around 10-15 years ago. Those people still don't even want to speak to any Serb or to read anything written in Cyrillic (Serbs use Cyrillic instead of Latin).

On Sunday I was in Mostar, second-largest town in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was heavily bombarded and was seized many times by different sides during the civil war. It is beautiful town with the world-known Old Bridge, the wonder of European architecture. The bridge was destroyed as well. Last year it was finally rebuilt as well as many houses in the town.

Still, there are many houses in ruins and about half of the ones preserved are with wholes from the bullets, grenades, mines etc. When we wanted to take a look on Mostar from the hill above it, there was a road to the hill. But this road did not have destination. On one point there was just big shield: "Attention! There is the landmines' field in the front".

But the remains of the war are even bigger inside of people. Mostar is divided into two parts by the river - Muslim part and Catholic part. Although these people speak the same language the wound of the war are so strong (when Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox were fighting with each other) that they prefer not to enter another part of the town...

Me and Croatia surprising each other

Today is 9th of November. Outside is +19 degrees. Sun is shining. It is amazing for a guy from Estonia. Croatia si still surprasing me.

I am also trying to surprise Croatia by learning its lnaguage. I bought a book of Croatian and now learn it in the evenings when I have time. Local people appreciate it and express sincere interest in a guy from some country of ex-USSR (there are just slight differences for the most of Croats between Estonia, Lithuania and Ukraine). It is great basis for communication and establishing realationship with native people.

This is something that I have learnt about being long time abroad - no matter how good you and local people are in English, it is necessary to posses some knowledge of local language. Especially if you are staying in this country for more than just one month.

One more thing about being abroad that I have learnt. Although I lived 5 months in Germany, still I am re-discovering what many other AIESEC interns, AIESECars and other people have said to me: while being abroad, apart of your family, friends and general environment (lingual, social, cultural) that you are used to, you are able to reflect more on yourself and thus grow as a person.

Third thing that I knew in theory and what I experienced once while living in Germany for 5 months is that the hardest time abroad is around 4 months after leaving your country. You are so much fascinated about new realities anymore, you are less surprised by the new things than in the beginning and, what more important, you are getting tired of every-day-meet-new-people experience. I experienced it around one-two weeks ago. It was almost exactly 4 months after I left Estonia.

What is helping? Calls to your friends or family back home? It is definetely pleasant, but usually it just makes situation worse, because after talking to them you miss them even more. The real solution is lot of activity and less being alone.

For me such solution has been AIESEC. I has been responsible for the recruitment of new members here and worked on it quite a lot, while also preparing facilitation in Local Training Seminar. I just got to know that I have been selected as a facilitator for Croatian National Motivational Seminar which will take place in 1,5 weeks. So, no time for being bored :)

Besides AIESEC, I have been practising in academic area. As the local university does not provide students with lot of internationalism, i got idea to get in touch with some professors and ask them, if I can give some short lecture about Estonian macroeconomics (macroeconomics is generally subject that I really like and have studied along with my main studies). In this way I could also promote local AIESEC to both professors and students that they can see what kind of cool international people is AIESEC bringing here :)

I gave one lecture last week and have one more this week. It is really interesting, as Estonian and Croatian economies have lot of things in common, but at the same time we kind of are a little bit ahead. Therefore, local students seemed to be interested and we had intense discussions around those topics.

During those discussions, during AIESEC seminars and elsewhere, while speaking to local young people I have noticed that they are generally not too optimistic about their perspectives in Croatia and the future of their country (despite the fact that I have not seen more patriotic nation than Croatians!). Maybe I do not remember it so well anymore, but it seems to me that Estonian young people are more optimistic about it.

One more note - local parties are great. One of the things that Croats are really good in, are the parties. They now how to have fun. And this is pleasant discovery for me :)

Generally, I feel grateful to my parents, AIESEC and my own will that I came here and getting all this incredible experience. Croatia was my dream destination before. And I do not regret a single moment here.

La vita e bella!

What does it mean to be famous in Split

I have never been so famous as I am in Split now. :)

AIESEC in Split is organizng EuroCo - big conference with the delegates from all around Europe (http://www.efst.hr/aiesec/euroco2005/). They are stressing on the promotion of AIESEC through this conference. There was traditional Global Village this Monday, where all delegates were representing their countries - food, drinks, booklets etc. The event was happening outside in the very centre of Split on the main square near the sea and it was open to all intreseted people. We had big stage, music and many people participating there.

I had luck to be host of this event - it was interesting experience to be on the stage in front of hundreds of people outside and speak to them.

Besides that fact EuroCo and AIESEC found great promotion in media thanks to good external relations job. And local AIESEC was presenting me as their "foreign specialist from Estonia". I gave interviews to the local radio station, television and newspaper. I pretty much enjoyed to be interviewed, especially after I showed my "amazing" capabilities to speak Croatian (I am learning Croatian now and was trying to speak at elast partly Croatian during the interviews). Hope, I impressed them :)

Nevertheless I must admit that no-one has asked for my signature in the town or wanted to take a picture with me yet :(

This conference is taking palce in small town outside Split (around 60 km from Split) and I have been travelling to the parties of it each evening there and morning back since Monday. Meanwhile I have been working in AIESEC office during the days in Split. Now, while writing this post, I feel quite exhausted after 3-nights long marathon of sleeping 2-3 hours during the night and partying with the foreign delegates. We decided to take a break and not to go there today. But me and my colleagues from AIESEC Split will definetely be kings of the dance floor on Friday and Saturday nights ;)

But as like as parties and fun is just certain part of AIESEC, so is my life here. I have quite big responsibility in my work here - I became main responsible for the recruitment of new members and it means that I have to manage my own team (6 people). It is quite tough sometimes, as I don´t know many simple and banal things - where can I print out something, how can I agree to have room for the meeting, who should be contact person for what etc. But challenges just make you more enthusiastic about what you are doing. Besides it is great to feel that people take you seriously and believe that you can bring real value to them. It is different from when you are going for internship to some company, where you are just a young guy who does not know anything yet.

Are there many possibilities when a 23-years old person comes to the foreign country and is being given big responsibility and his own team? Thanks to AIESEC I have this possibility.

Members of LC Split take me as one among themselves already. Interesting that I deserved love and appreciation of locals thanks to the fact that I have been drinking a lot on the party two weeks ago. One gets nickname "The King" in Split after one gets drunk here. :)

It was pleasant to see again Viljo, Herdis and Liisa who came to this conference as well, to be host for them and show them Split around. And we were swimming in the sea last Sunday (16th of October)!

Some facts and observations about Croatia / M6ned faktid ja tahelepanekud Horvaatia kohta

Autumn is slowly taking its place in Split. This means that it is raining time-to-time and one should wear sometimes shirts with long sleeves. Still, I was swimming on 2nd of October.

Croatia was invited for negotiations with EU some few days ago. It has been discussed about it a lot here. Croats got independence in 1991 and they are very proud of it - patriotic feelings are here very strong. Interesting that one can see Croatian national coat of arms on the walls in almost every pub or cafe. Croatian national flags are to be seen quite often in the town picture as well.

Croatia went through the civil war in 1991-1995 and the economics of the country is still recovering. Average level of living is quite high in comparison to other post-Communist countries, but still much behind Western countries.

The civil war in 1990s was especially bad for one of the main income sources of Croatia - tourism. Now the world is re-discovering Croatian beauties. There were 20% more visitors in the country this season than last one. Lonely Planet, the world famous publisher of tourist guides, has declared Croatia to be the world's most popular destination in 2005 (www.croatia.hr/misc/LonelyPlanet.aspx).

If to say few words about local people, then young people do not differ very much from youth in Estonia or Germany. The main difference is that Catholic traditions are to be felt (Catholic church plays an important role in the country like in Poland). For example the family plays generally important role in the lives of young people (it makes task of AIESEC more difficult - students often have to ask the permission to go abroad from their parents).

Young people look just like in Estonia or Germany. Split is known as the city with the most trendy and fashionable people. One can see clothes-shops with mainly Italian brands at every step in the city. There is no other city than Split, where so many beauties have come from who won the title Miss Croatia. Indeed, one can see quite many good-looking women in the streets.

Croats are generally temperament nation in the context of Europe, but not as much as Italians or Bulgarians for example. Music plays very important role in the live of local people. For instance, young people sing at almost every party here.

Now there are new pictures of mine to be seen: the last weeks in Berlin, trip to Slovenia and first week in Croatia. Enjoy! www.flickr.com/photos/deniss

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[EST] Spliti on j6udnud sygis. Mis tahendab, et aeg-ajalt sajab vihma ja vahel tuleb pikkade varukatega sarke v6i kampsuneid selga panna. Aga 2. oktoobril sain veel meres ujuda.

Horvaatia sai paar paeva tagasi ametliku kutse labiraakimistele EL-iga. Ehk siin toimub see, mida Eesti elas yle 7-8 aastat tagasi. Ja selles suhtes on palju sarnasusi.

Nagu Eestigi, oli Horvaatia suure kommunistliku yhenduse osa, kus esimese viiuli roll oli kellelgi teisel (N6ukogude liidus venelased, Jugoslaavias serblased). Nagu Eestigi NSVLis, oli Horvaatia Jugoslaavias koos Sloveeniaga yks k6ige edumeelsemiad osariike. Yhed olulisemad probleemid teel EL-isse olid seotud Horvaatias vahemuste 6igustega, mida EL on riigile ette heitnud (kohalike serblaste situatsioon). Sama on toimunud ka Eestis, kellele Euroopa Liit on kohalike venelaste olukorda ette heitnud (kyll mitte nii j6uliselt nagu Horvaatiale).

Horvaadid said iseseisvuse 1991. aastal ja on selle yle vaga uhked. Patriotism on siin vaga tugev. Huvitav, et peaaegu igas baaris v6i kohvikus v6ib seina peal naha riigivappi. Ka riigilippu v6ib kohata yldiselt sagedamini kui Eestis.

Majanduslik olukord Horvaatias on sarnane Eestiga v6i pisut parem. Inimesed teenivad suhteliselt hasti ja majandus areneb. Siinkohal tuleb arvesse v6tta, et 1991.-1995. aastatel elas Horvaatia yle kodus6ja ja see andis tundliku hoobi kohalikule rahalehmale - turismile.

Nyyd areneb turismiala Horvaatias hoogsalt. Sel hooajal kylastas seda riiki 20% rohkem turiste kui eelmisel perioodil. Lonely Planet nimetas Horvaatiat maailma k6ige populaarsemaks sihtkohaks 2005. aastal (www.croatia.hr/misc/LonelyPlanet.aspx).

Hinnad on riigis yldiselt natuke k6rgemad kui Eestis (samas olin ma Eestis viimati juunis, nii et ei oska oelda, mis seal preagu valitseb) :) Transport ja sook on tunduvalt kallimad. Ehk tuleneb see ka sellest, et elan Splitis, mis on eriti suvel turismimagnet.

Kui oelda paar s6na kohalike inimesete kohta, siis noored ei erine suures osas Eesti omavanustest. P6hiline erinevus on see, et katoliiklik taust annab tunda (Horvaatias mangib katoliiklik kirik olulist rolli nagu naiteks Poolas). Naiteks perekond mangib yldiselt suuremat rolli noorte elus (see teeb AIESECi ylesannet vahel raskemaks, sest yli6pialsed peavad sageli vanematelt loa kysima, kui valismaale minna tahavad).

Noored inimesed naevad valja samamoodi nagu Eestis v6i Saksamaal. Split on tuntud kui linn, kus elavad Horvaatia k6ige trendikamad inimesed. Peamiselt Itaalia paritoluga riietepoode naeb igal sammul. Mitte yhestki teisest linnast ei ole olnud nii palju kaunitare, kes said Miss Horvaatia tiitli, nagu Splitist. Ja t6epoolest naeb linnapildis ysna palju kenasid naisi.

Horvaadid on yldiselt Euroopa kontekstis temperamentne rahvus, kuigi mitte nii vaga nagu itaallased v6i bulgaarlased. Muusika mangib siinsete inimeste elus vaga suurt rolli. Pidudel naiteks lauldakse peaaegu alati.

Nyyd saab naha mu uusi pilte - viimased nadalad Berliinis, pildid Sloveeniast ja esimene nadal Horvaatias. Aadress on endine: www.flickr.com/photos/deniss

I am in paradise! / Ma olen paradiisis!

What is the paradise? What does it mean to be in paradise? I got an answer to those questions after arrival in Split.

Split is second largest city in Croatia which is situated on the coast of Adriatic sea. It is the capital of Dalmatia (Croatian coastline district). Dalmatia and its beautiful beaches, diverse islands, well preserved old towns and mild warm climate attract many tourists from all around the world. Croatia got a title as "Lonely Planet Destination No. 1 in 2005". And now I understand why.

The most southern point that I have ever been to before that trip was Munich (Mynchen) in Southern Germany. But here I got the feeling of real Southern Europe! It is amazing for me to see palm-trees growing on the streets and in the gardens of people. Amazing is to see the light blue-green colour of the water in the sea. Amazing is the fact that today is 27th of September, but I am sweating in the t-shirt and will go to the sea to swim in couple of hours.

About 300 meters away from my dorms, where I am staying, is the seacoast. There are plenty of bigger and smaller islands near Split, therefore one can get a breathtaking view on the mountainous islands around Split.

It is strange to feel that my real summer has started just in Slovenia in the middle of September and got to its highlights just in Split in 20ths of September. There was too much work in July and August in Berlin to get a real summer feeling probably.

Split is also very interesting because of its history and architecture. It is 1700 years old and its old part has its roots in Ancient Rome. It is considered as one of the best preserved Ancient Rome towns. The old part is under protection of UNESCO. It is great feeling to see 1500-1600 years old stone houses which are still inhabited. It is amazing to walk on the one-meter-broad streets where the others walked also a thousand years ago.

What do I do here? I am staying in Split for about 4 months till the end of January. I will be working in AIESEC Split Executive Board and will be responsible for promotion and recruitment of local students and graduates who want to go for a traineeship abroad. For Aiesecars - I am doing CEED as VPOGX here. This is an interesting challenge because Split has lot of potential, but they just sent 2 people abroad last year (whereas they accepted about 14).

I came to Split from Zagreb, a capital of Croatia, where Is pent three days. Although being an interesting city, Zagreb does not differentiate in my opinion from many other Central European big cities that I have been to before. A very interesting experience was to feel difference in landscape and climate in different parts of Croatia. When I entered the bus in Zagreb, it was around 12 degrees, rainy and grey. When I arrived in Split, it was 25 degrees outside and completely sunny!

I went to the island Brac next to Split on my first weekend here. It has around 14.000 inhabitants altogether. I could walk around 25 kilometres a day on this island. Because everything was just so nice! :) I am going to upload the pictures from there soon.

You wonder where exactly Split is? / Ka su vanaisa ei tea tapselt, kus asub Split?

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[EST] Mis on paradiis? Mis tahendab olla paradiisis? Sain vastuse nendele kysimustele tulles Spliti.

Split on suuruselt teine linn Horvaatias, mis asub Aadria mere rannikul. See on yhtlasi Dalmaatsia (Horvaatia rannikuosa) pealinn. Dalmaatsia oma kaunite randade, mitmekesiste saarte, hasti sailinud vanade linnade ja pehme sooja kliimaga meelitab paljusid turiste kogu maailmast. Horvaatia sai tiitli "Lonely Planet Destination No. 1 in 2005". Ja ma sain aru misparast.

Enne seda reisi oli k6ige l6napoolsem punkt, kuhu ma olen j6udnud, Mynhen. Siin sain tunda t6elist L6una-Euroopat! Imeline on naha palme, mis kasvavad tanavatel ja inimeste aedades. Imeline on naha merd rohelis-sinise veega (parast seda ei saa ma Laanemere vee varvi mitte kuidagi teisiti kui halliks nimetada). Imeline on see, et tana on 27. september ja ma higistan t-sargis ning paari tunni parast lahen meres ujuma.

Umbes 300 meetri kaugusel mu yhiselamust on mererand. Ja kuna Spliti lahedal on palju vaiksemaid ja suuremaid saari, siis Splitist avaneb kaunis vaade lahedal asuvatele magistele saartele.

Imelik on tunda, et mu t6eline suvi algas alles Sloveenias septembri keskpaiku j6udes oma tippu Splitis septembri 20-tel kuupaevadel. Berliinis oli liiga palju tood t6elise suvise tunde tekkimiseks.

Split on aarmiselt huvitav ka oma ajaloo ja arhitektuuri parast. See on 1700 aastat vana ning vanalinn parineb Vana-Rooma aegadest. Seda peetakse Vana-Rooma ajast yheks k6ige paremini sailinuks linnaks ning kesklinn on UNESCO kaitse all. Vaatepilt vanalinnas on muiudugi kirjeldamatu. Umbes 1500-1600 aasta vanused kivised majakesed, kus siimaani elatakse ja ligi meetrilaiused tanavad, kus kaidi ka tuhat aastat tagasi - see k6ik on vaga v6imas.

Mida ma siis siin teen? Jaan Spliti ligikaudu 4 kuuks kuni jaanuari l6puni. Selle 4 kuu jooksul tootan AIESEC Spliti juhatuses, kus hakkan korraldama AIESECi promot kohalike tudengite jaoks eesmargiga neid AIESECi praktikale valismaale saata (ehk teen sama tood, mis Tartu AIESECis). Aiesecarite jaoks - olen CEEDil ning tootan VPOGXina. See on huvitav valjakutse, sest Splitil on kindlasti potentsiaali, kuid eelmisel aastal saatsid nad valismaale vaid 2 inimest (samal ajal kui v6tsid vastu ligi 14).

Spliti tulin Horvaatia pealinnast Zagrebist, kus veetsin kolm paeva. Kuigi huvitav linn, ei erine Zagreb minu jaoks paljudest teistest Kesk-Euroopa suurlinnadest, mida olen seni nainud. Kirjeldamatu tunne oli mul kui sain tunda, kuiv6rd mitmekesine on Horvaatia maastik ja kliima. Kui istusin Zagrebis bussi, oli valjas umbes 12 kraadi sooja, vihmane ja hall. Kui valjusin bussist (s6it kestis 4,5 tundi), paistis paike ja sooja oli ligi 25 kraadi!

Mu esimesel nadalavahetusel olen j6udnud ara kaia Spliti lahedal asuval saarel Brac, kus kokku elab ligi 14.000 inimest. Sellel saarel k6ndisin umbes 25 kilomeetrit paevas. Sest k6ik on nii ilus! :)

A word from beautiful Slovenia

It is my last evening in Slovenia, where I have got two friends, whom I met in Germany two and three years ago. It is a beautiful country! Although it is smaller than Estonia, it has everything from the mountains till the sea beaches.

I was very kindly hosted by my Slovenian female friends. I went to hike in the mountains (Velika Planina). I went to one of the most famous caves in Europe, which goes 100 meters deep under the surface and is 20 km long (Postonjska Jama). I saw the beautiful white horses from the race Lipica. I went to the gorgeous lake of Bled surrounded by mountains and having little island just in the middle with lovely church on it.

Apart of it I went to the night club in Ljubljana, had fun with Slovenian students in the dormitory and had fabulous dinners in the family of my friend.

More than happy! :)

Interesting that I found many similarities with Estonia. Slovenia is also a small country with population just about 2 millions (Estonia has 1,4 millions) - so Slovenes are also the part of the remarks from foreigners like "Ooo! Your whole country is smaller than my city!".

Slovenia is the most developed country in ex-Yugoslavia (it has the strongest economy among all Post-Communist countries in Eastern Europe) as much as Estonia is considered to be the most progressive ex-Soviet country. Mentality of the people is also similiar to the one in Estonia. Slovenia has national minorities from other ex-Yugoslav republics which could be compared to Estonian Russians (mentality, economic and societal position etc).

Picture of the rural areas differ significally from Estonia, being very similiar to Southern Germany: nice white houses with red flowers around.