April 10th The Gypsy House & Vidikovac
This blog post will cover all activities on April 10th, with the trips towards the Gypsy house and the watch tower with the barbecue and cycling there.
The day started a an hour later than the previous days, giving people some time to explore Bjelovar in its earlier hours. At approximately 10 o'clock, everyone departed towards the Gypsy house in Maglenča.
Upon arrival, we were greeted by the people living here. They gave us a tour told their story in Croatian, with an interpreter translating it into English. They talked about the history of the Gypsy people and how they settled in this area.
The Gypsy people also showed us inside a small house, where you had to ring a bell to purify yourself and keep evil spirits away. Inside the house they told us more about the history of the Gypsy and how their culture came to where they are now. They showed us a tradition with cutting bread which contains a lot of antibacterial ingredients, which is also a reason why Gypsian people are rarely sick.
The Gypsy people also have a lot of lavender on their property, making all kinds of goods and oils with these. The lavender is sent to a special place to extract the oils, as they can't do it themselves. They also have small bags with lavender to fend off evil spirits and a different small bag for specifically its scent.
After the time at the Gypsy house finished, the bus continued on towards Vidikovac Veliko Trojstvo, a watch tower in Veliko Trojstvo.
A few people from the organizing school were gathered here to prepare the barbecue for lunch for this day. There also was a small market where you could buy goods from the local people. The watch tower had an impressive view over Veliko Trojstvo.
The lunch, like the day before, was buffet-like. There were all kinds of salads and meat available fresh from the barbecue.
After the lunch has ended, the debates sarted again, with today's topic being: "Rural tourism as a response to mass tourism - Can rural tourism be an alternative to mass tourism and its negative effects?"
The representatives are also known at this day, with the representatives for each team being:
Team SSU
Mariah R.
Team Field of thoughts
Geronimo P.
Dream Team
Boglárka F.
During the debates, all the mentors and members from the AEHT went to bicycle in the area. After the debates ended, each team also went bicycling, in groups for each team as there weren't enough bikes to accompany everyone at once.
Each team traveled a couple of kilometers on a gravel road with a lot of hills, before turning back towards the watch tower.
After everyone had bicyled, we all headed back towards the bus to head back to Bjelovar. This gave people time to explore Bjelovar a bit more and get dressed/prepared for the Final Debate & Gala in the evening.
This concludes the blog post of the Gypsy house & the Watch Tower. The next blog post will cover the final debate.
