Oluja

The most proud I have ever been to call myself Croatian.

Oluja, or operation storm, was the last major military battle that ended the fight for Croatian Independence. The celebration of it's victory is celebrated in Knin every year on August 5th. This gathering celebrates that with patriotical music in the actual location of the last battle. The majority of music sung was from the iconic singer Thompson.

Thompson mostly sings about Croatia, freedom and God in a classic rock way.

I even sat on shoulders hoisting up a huge Croatian flag with Mara who was also sitting on shoulders. As we were up there I looked at the big screen and we were right there, front and center with our flag! I was on Croatian national television!! My aunt in Chicago even saw us. It was so cool!! I was thinking of taking a picture, but the moment only lasted 5 seconds and I wanted to enjoy it.

My photos on shoulders are very blurry..

Croatians love their flares. This can be problematic and we were in some tough spots at times. It's dangerous to be near the flares so whenever someone lit one there was always a huge circle around them. 

There was also a fight that happened between two drunk guys arguing over who knows what. It was so scary! The security guards had to come and escort the guys out. In the meantime there was a huge circle around them. My cousins and I all grabbed hands to make sure we were all accounted for and then continued to have fun! Mara and I continued sitting on shoulders and waving the flag.

TRIPLETS

The end of the concert.

We grabbed crepes and cevapi or sausage because we were starving! The cevapi were amazing but I made a bit of a mess of myself and I lost a piece of meat. :( The crepes were not very good, I'm assuming it's because the mixture was in the sun all day, but the chocolate in it was great so I finished that part.

Heading out of the concert people were still singing and lighting flares.

Before the concert.. After the concert.. The stain is from my cevapi, told you I was messy!

This celebration made me feel so patriotic and proud of Croatia because of the amount of people who were waving their flags and screaming the lyrics to powerful songs. Without Oluja, I would not have a Croatia to go to every summer. I would not be able to point to a map and proudly say that this, this country right here, is Croatia.

'Till next year Croatia!

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I'm nervous about making friends in college :/

Also, how are my classes going to work?