Last Saturday night 02.02.2013 Zagreb was a little bit more beautiful, more cheerful and happier than usually.

A big part of Kuterevo and almost all of the Kuterevo volunteers came to the capital of Croatia to spend a wonderful night together with those who lived in Kuterevo before, and to be in another place. This year in this big celebration of life there were about 320 people and it was the 25th year since the first “Kuterevo veće” in Zagreb was organised. The main goal of the event is to make a connection between those who live and those who have lived in Kuterevo in different periods and also to keep in touch with relatives and friends.

Bus trip
We went from Kuterevo to Zagreb in two big buses filled with enthusiastic people who were ready to party, and with musical instruments. So, almost all the way to Zagreb we were listening to and trying to sing along with funny songs about Kuterevo. Even if we did not understand most of the lyrics, we laughed together with others. We arrived to Zagreb one hour early, so we had a chance to visit a big shopping mall. We were like bunch of hippies all dressed up in colorful clothes and with Coklje on our feet. Using the opportunity of being in a fancy place, we got some fancy cocktails. Then, with a sense of accomplishment we came back to the bus, which took us directly to a restaurant where people already started to arrive.

Program
The Kuterevo veće officially started at 7 pm and ended at 4.30 am on Sunday. The program included dinner, which was good. There was always something delicious on our table, and vegetarians got the best dishes with fried cheese and mushrooms. Also during all the night Kuterevo talents were singing and making people dance.

Dancing
Even though there was not enough space to dance without jostling others, we enjoyed dancing to live music. Fortunately, the music was loud enough to hear it outside, so every time when we got too many hits and kicks we went outside and had private open air parties.

Performance of volunteers
The Kuterevo volunteers also contributed to making the atmosphere of the evening warm and friendly. The first big and tasty contribution was a song about Kuterevo written and performed by volunteers, and for dessert there was a masnica which was also prepared in Postaja by volunteers. We couldn´t sing loud enough to be louder than the crowd of our first listeners, but we made a nice input to the evening and reminded others about the bears and volunteers of Kuterevo, so once again with a sense of accomplishment we ate masnica and danced a last dance before going back to Kuterevo.

The way back home
The way back home was a little bit more quiet. Some people slept as soon as they sat down on the bus seat, others were trying to sleep. The third part, which fortunately included the bus driver, stayed awake, and a few people who were still excited by the wonderful evening were singing half of the way home. It was raining in Zagreb and snowing in Kuterevo and Otocac during the night. When we came back to Kuterevo there was about 30 cm of snow and the view from the windshield of the bus was spectacular. It was approximately 8 o’clock in the morning and everything was white and bright.

The day after
I tried to sleep but I couldn´t, and helped to shuffle the snow around Postaja and around the neighbours with Kim. After shuffling snow people usually offer us coffee, so I stayed awake the whole day, cooked some Tatar traditional food, and overflowing with the sense of accomplishment I had a wonderful deep sleep.

Azat