These past 4 months were just incredible. I enjoyed every second of my stay in Croatia. Besides the beautiful nature, landscape, buildings and cities, I noticed a more beautiful thing in this country, the people. Croatians are not very open at first sight but when you make the first step, you will discover very soon that you’re talking with very honest, kind and loyal people. Although, Croatians know that their country is not perfect, they are very proud and loyal to their country. They also have a beautiful “life is a sharing” mentality. Croatians won’t hesitate to help or share without expecting anything in return. There is also a good balance between hard work and enjoying life, which is very typical for the Mediterranean culture.
The country is known for its beautiful nature, old beautiful cities, and more. I can confirm that this is true. It even surpassed my expectations, everything is so beautiful, especially the Plitvice Lakes. This lovely country is just charming by its nature. Even in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb, you can find large lands of beautiful nature. The capital is very nice and has a lot of activities to offer like: museums, clubbing, shopping, skiing (in winter), and more. Talking about clubbing, a lot of clubs play Balkan music. This type of music is very popular in Croatia and foreigners usually don’t like this type of music. But, of course, they also have clubs that play “foreign” music. Still, I recommend foreigners to go to few Balkan parties because the atmosphere is great. Everybody is drinking and singing together and even if you don’t know the lyrics, they will appreciate your company a lot.
Although this type of music is not my style at all, I started to appreciate it because of all the memories that are attached to it. The strongest memory is the “FOI Elektrijada”. This event is a kind of Balkan tradition that gathers all the Balkan universities together during one week to compete against each other in sports or intellectual competitions. Of course, a lot of parties and drinking comes with it. This experience was great and I feel so lucky that I got the chance to learn more about the Balkan culture. I’m planning to come back to learn more and to see my Balkan family back.
Besides studying, I had to gain 17 ECTS credits for the internship. I did my internship in the digital agency Arbona in Varazdin. Here you can read about my 4-months experinces in Arbona.
Van To Phuong, student from Odisee College in Brussels, Belgium
