rijeka

rijeka is great for a visit, precisely because its not a place a guide book would ever tell you to visit. its a city of about 200,000, harbor town, got a university so lots of young folks, not at all touristy. the beaches are really just small areas with lots of rocks, no umbrellas or hotels or restaurants or anything commercial, just families and not a spot of shade, haha, but it suits us very well. our private beach behind the warehouse is surrounded by scrap metal and the like, as you can see from the photo, but the sea sounds just as lovely there :)



what else? there is colorful and elaborate graffitti in the tunnels and around town, which we are smitten with. also stickers that say space invaders against racism/sexism/homophobia. like they do in this part of the world people young and old just sit in the square and drink and hang out in the evenings. and lots of punk kids asking for money and cigarettes (apparently i gave one to the singer in the most famous all-lady punk band, hah. she was very cute and very bratty so i batted my lashes and rolled my eyes back at her.) the weather is phenomenal. the food is yummy when we're not eating the slightly undercooked 3 kuna pizza at the student cafeteria or living off marmalade and coffee. my favorites are ajvar, this spicy red pepper spreads, and čevapčići, which is too much fun to say.


we are having a happy time, currently staying at an infoshop housed at this warehouse that also holds some small ngos and an art space right on the water. it is gorgeous - incredible light (the windows cover 2/3 of two walls), hills and city on one side, sea on the other. books and couches and free computers with internet, hence the blogging...

it is perfect, relaxing, just enough but not too much to do. we are reading and writing and chatting and musing and wandering and napping in parks and falling asleep to the whistle and bang of the south wind slamming through the warehouse. long walks with new friends. art openings with white wine and ouzo with honey and nervous chatter in several languages, etc. we are leisurely plotting a next move.

by total luck, yesterday i was spending time with our new german friend who was also staying at the infoshop, when he mentioned he had an interview planned with the director of programs of lori (lesbian organization rijeka http://www.lori.hr/) for a free radio show and perhaps i would like to come along.

i did (after all this is a research trip!) and it turns out that one of lori's primary projects right now is forum theatre work with croatian youth. seriously?!? ahh i was so excited. queers and street performance and theatre of the oppressed, it was almost too much. they have been doing forum/theatre of the oppressed/interactive theater/boal/whatever you want to call it performances for more than two years now, in the public squares, in classrooms, in small towns and in the cities across croatia.

they are doing a workshop today at molekula (the warehouse space) and then starting tomorrow there is a performance festival (http://ink.hr/index.php?id=491) in pula, another beach town about 100km from here. such serendipity.

so the universe is smiling and all feels beautiful and terrible, as it should.