Eurotrip 3.0: Oh Osijek!!

My second (and last) evening in Zagreb was an amazing one. Vladimir came back from work and we decided to cook ourselves a meal! I cooked some Indian style egg plant/aubergine/brinjal/baingan curry and cut up some salad. Vladimir a.k.a. Leny, made some tomato+mushroom+onion sauce and also cooked some turkey meat in the oven. I had made the curry with an assortment of ‘spices from Istanbul’ that Leny had purchased on a recent travel to the city. I had never imagined I would be cooking a meal in Croatia with spices from Turkey! :)

The next day, I had my drive to Osijek starting at around 2 pm. Leny’s friend Marco offered to drop me as he was headed to Osijek as well! We took a longer, more scenic route, rather than the regular 2 hour drive on the highway. But it was raining all the way and I didn’t manage to get much of a view beyond a few meters from our car! It was belting down, but we were still doing a 100 km/hr on some stretches!

Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia, with a grand population of 90,000 people! The whole city can pretty much be covered by an hour’s walk and in my three days there I took at least 3 such walks! It was cold and drizzling when I arrived on Thursday evening, but ‘Katty & Shek’ were not going to let that dampen our spirits. A Hollywood/Bollywood romance of love across continents, my friends Katarina & Abhishek were to be married on Saturday! And the party in Osijek was just about to begin.

Outside club Tufn@ in Osijek!

It might be a small town, and it might look quiet, quaint and laid-back, but boy do these folks know a thing or two about all night partying! In my 3 nights in Osijek, I tucked back into my hotel room at 5am, 5am and 8am respectively! After each night I’d think, “no way I’m going to be able to do this again tomorrow”, and then, we’d go out and do it again!

Between all the partying there was the walk through the old town and by the river, football at a plush green local ground, and of course, the most amazing, awesome wedding!

After a groggy Friday morning & afternoon, the evening was perfectly setup for a nice walking tour through the city. All the ‘internationals’ got together at the Cathedral and led by our Professor in Psychology plus part-time-guide, we were off. At 95m high, the Cathedral is humongous, and looks like a whole football field could fit inside of it.

Osijek is super green - there are parks, parks & more parks…! The guide told us about an award that was instituted for the ‘Greenest European City’ in 1981. Osijek won that award for 3 years running, but was subsequently ‘banned’ from consideration as there was no other city that came even close! What’s great is that even after 30 years, it’s still just as green, and just as much a walking/biking paradise! All roads and parks are flanked by separate biking/roller skating and walking lanes! And it’s not unusual to find people cycling even in the middle of the night!

And then there’s the river. The Drava meanders along the Northern edge of the city and is dotted with walking paths and cafés… I could imagine spending early evenings playing some football at the ground just by the river and following it up with a drink at one of the cafés!

I happened to do just that on Sunday evening and… oh, the joy, THE JOY!!

The wedding was on Saturday and started at around 4pm in near-perfect weather. The sun was playing hide & seek with the clouds and there was the slightest nip in the air. 17 degrees C. I was nice and comfy in my coat! The flags of India & Croatia led the procession into the hall! I was tasked with waving the flag at the entrance and thoroughly enjoyed my 10 minutes of fame doing it!

Then, in the hall, we were treated to a traditional Croatian song & dance with sword-wielding women in colorful dresses. It was an absolute treat to watch! The scene shifted to the church soon after for the wedding vows.

The couple arrived on a horse carriage with two gleaming-white super-horses! It’s the grandest entrance I have seen at a wedding and I think it will be tough to match for any other weddings that I will get to experience in my life.

The sweetest little princess angel girls led the way for the couple into the church, dressed in sparkling silver white with magic wands that have a little star on the tip! It was perfectly choreographed and worked to the smallest detail. Ruzica, Jelena & Ana, the ‘project owners’ for the Osijek leg of the wedding had already done a fantabulous job!

After the ZNMD style bridesmaid, best-man & couple ‘woohoo’ outside the church, the scene shifted back to the wedding hall where a cultural extravaganza awaited everyone. After a short round of speeches, everyone was treated to a special Bharatanatyam dance performance by Katarina’s friend Maya. As the wine & drinks began to flow, a traditional Croatian band played some peppy music. Soon, the couple and the entire guest list were on the huge dance floor beginning to have a ball! I hadn’t seen a wedding where each of the guests was singularly enjoying so much! The music soon switched to a Serbian rock band, attracting cheers from the Croatian guests as the previous band was getting a bit too traditional for their liking!

The drinks and party and after parties continued till Sunday morning, and so ended one of the awesomest weddings I will get to see in a lifetime, if not the best, in one of the prettiest cities I will ever be to!

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The trip now moves to Wattens, Austria & as I type this in the train en route, I’m going past snow capped peaks, green valleys and crystal clear rivers shining in brilliant sunshine!! Looks like Osijek is already going to face some competition in the ‘prettiest city’ race in my head!