From the storm to the heat

When I'm writing this I'm sitting on a terrace drinking coke and sweating because it's hot now in Zagreb. Last week we had stormy weather, heavy rainfall and wind. The local weather authorities gave the Zagreb region code red. And as you have probably heard, as a consequence of that eastern part of Croatia as well as parts of Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina is suffering from floods. More than 40 people, mostly elderly people who couldn't leave their homes in time, have died these days. People in the flooded areas have lost their homes - basically everything they had built after the war which ended only twenty years ago. Bridges, roads, factories, hospitals, schools - all gone. Its hard to say how big the destruction is when everything is still covered with water but it will be a lot.

Despite the storm, my sisters could arrive safely in Zagreb and we spent a long weekend together. Even though we didn't do anything special, time flew very fast. I introduced the traditional coffee moment on Saturday to them, we walked around in the city, they visited the museum of Broken Relationships, we prepared dinner together and watched movies. On Sunday we hiked up to Sljeme, the top of the mountain I see everyday from my office. It was on this mountain where we first saw consequences of the storm a couple days before. The trail was muddy and many trees had fallen on our way.

This week has been busy again at the office, because we are getting visitors next week, and I am more or less in charge of the visit. As I am leaving soon, I also have to coordinate the tasks and brief what has been discussed, so that the people who take over from me know what to do. This week Zagreb is hosting an international movie festival, The Festival of Tolerance and the evenings I have spent in a cold cinema. On Wednesday we went to see a movie about the Roma genocide during the Second World War which no one talks about. A well-made movie with a very emotional story, and I am glad we went for a few drinks after the movie because we could summarize our thoughts which the movie provoked. On Thursday we went to see Schindler's List. There were two guests: Branko Lustig, the Croatian and Oscar winning producer of the movie and Ralph Fiennes who won an Oscar for his role in the movie. I have seen the movie before and it is never a pleasure to watch it even though it is well made. We left after we had seen half of the movie - it is too much at once. Even though it is a movie, you know it actually happened to people. How can people be so mean to each other?

This week I have seen the first election related posters, but unfortunately it i
s unfortunately only interesting for the people of the parties
and the rest walks passed uninterested.