Going Donji Miholjac for the folk dance festival

From the tourist information booklet of Osijek we found about the folk dance festival. Starting off late after a lazy morning, we took tram and bus to the edge of the city to start hitch-hiking. We waited in the cross-road near a sunflower and plum field for an hour, then we were picked up by a trawler. We were at the back and it was slow but we enjoyed the scenic ride.

The driver was a baker who worked in a nearby food factory. He took us to his house and treated us an early dinner. In this sufficient and simple family we enjoyed their hospitality. They made their own cheese and reared their own chicken. It is this simple village life that we from the city are looking for.

After the dinner he drove us to Donji Miholjac. Thinking that we would just find a grassland among the trees in the central park to camp for that night, we went straight to the stage where the dance show would start. We put the heavy backpack aside and looked for suitable place to camp. Then we made a friend with Stella who helped in the festival. She said that actually the festival started this evening. We hitchhiked the whole day and worried that we missed something, in fact we did not.

We attracted so much attention as the audience for the dance show. Many local people wanted to take pictures with us. As for the dance on stage, it was refreshing to see local costume and local melody with folk dances.The organizer Migel found us and even offered us free beer and food. We felt so thankful for the hospitality. He asked us where we slept that night, we said camping. He even arranged two nights in a hotel free of charge for us !!! Feeling so fortunate, we fully enjoyed the night on the dance show and the later folk music concert in the bar.

 On the same night we went to the culture center and saw the young people having party and beer. They were the dancers. We expected them dancing differently, but we were wrong, they danced folk dance in the party; sang folk song; and there was life music by accordion player.

The next day we visited a 19 century castle and appreciated how the oak was used to build the interior. Initially we were not allowed to go in, but the tourist information officer gave us a free tour into the castle.
 

 After some lovely ice-cream we went to the city center to see the march of traditional folk dancers from different part of inland Croatia, Macedonia, southern Hungary and Bosnia. After the march was the final show-off of the dancers. We sat before the stage for the whole night to see them dancing on the stage. However they were mostly facing each other, we would enjoy more if the dancers danced on the ground and people went around them to see their performance.

The festival ended with a great party. There was live band playing traditional musics and people on the ground stood up and dance. It was a really local party that people dance folk.

We enjoyed a quiet and local weekend in the small town and thanked so much for their hospitality. We highly recommend this to other visitors for next year.

A short stay in Libertad - the town famous of a jail

The name meant freedom, but it had the largest jail in the country and we did not have a chance to visit.

The night we left Pedro in Montevideo, we went to Pablo’s car to go to Libertad, 30km away. It was a quite town and a good break from the city. If our host, Pablo had not planned going to Colonia the next day, we would have stayed a few more days in Montevideo. Colonia was a sailing port and I wanted to visit. It was also a heritage site.


Back to Pablo's place. It was behind a chemical retail shop owned by his parents. It was a studio flat that we stayed on the upper attic. The town was small and pleasant. He always have friends hanging around his house and Diego was there all the time. We shared our chinese cooking including fried rice, noodles and chickens.

Walking around the town, we found a small zoo in a park. There were animals jailed in small cages, including a peacock, two goats, a pig and a poor monkey, who used to be in a zoo near Montevideo. According to Pablo, some stupid politicians proposed a zoo and brought these animals in. We saw the monkey "entertained" himself by rotating in the cage, with shits on the ground. Maria made a dance with the monkey (M: l'll call it 'The Solitary Roundabout') and hopefully this video could get notice of the animal group in the country.

Although Pablo lived by himself in the studio flat, his mother did his laundry. We were surprised and feeling uneasy when his mother did the laundry for us, while we expected to be shown the washing machine and we do that ourselves. The washed clothes were even well-folded and put in a big plastic bag like what a laundry shop does. It was a pity that we did not meet his mother often and thanked her for that. There were also two big dogs. One was in his seven year old (in his teen) but he was so huge that he was taller than Maria when standing up. He was very friendly and eager to get our attention.

We had a good time in his place, watching the boring draw game between Barcelona and Milan, listening to Diego’s guitar and Pablo’s candomble after dinner, with beer and chocolate, till 2 am was a good experience indeed.