DOMOVINA DAY 1
Postcards From Croatia - Dubrovnik
Just six weeks earlier, I was sitting in my bedroom in New Zealand when I received the phone call telling me I had been awarded a full scholarship to the Domovina Birthright Programme. I remember crying on the phone, overwhelmed with gratitude, joy and disbelief.
I was going to Croatia.
Six weeks later, I found myself standing in Dubrovnik. As everyone introduced themselves, I quietly looked around the room, almost needing to pinch myself. It was wild how something I had pictured and felt so vividly in my mind had somehow become the life I was now living.
I had arrived in Dubrovnik a few days before the programme started, wanting time to settle into Croatia before meeting the rest of the group. I wandered through the Old Town alone, explored at my own pace and quietly let it sink in that I was finally there. The evening before the programme began, a few of us who had already arrived met for drinks. Marija, Fabian and Marina were the first people I met, followed later by Marcelo, Luis, Darcy and Luka. Sharing that first evening together made the following morning feel a little less daunting.
The next morning, we headed to Sunny Dubrovnik where the rest of the group were waiting. I still remember arriving and seeing everyone gathered together. One by one, I introduced myself, trying to remember names and where everyone was from. I was nervous at first, but with every conversation I felt more at ease. It quickly became obvious that we were all feeling exactly the same. Looking back now, meeting everyone was the moment it truly sank in that something I had imagined from my bedroom was no longer just an idea.
Within a couple of hours, we were boarding a boat to Lokrum Island for our first adventure together. Although I had already spent three days in Croatia, this felt different. For the first time, I wasn't experiencing Croatia alone, I was sharing it.
When we arrived at Lokrum, I remember thinking how beautiful it was. I felt like I was in a dream. Although I'd already been in Croatia for a few days, it still hadn't quite sunk in that I was actually there.
We spent the afternoon exploring the island before sitting down together for our first meal, fresh bread, olive oil, fish caught that morning, potatoes, spinach and rice. Something about it instantly felt familiar. It reminded me of meals at my Grandma's table and, despite being thousands of kilometres away from New Zealand, I somehow already felt at home.
During some free time on the island, while others went cliff jumping, Fabian, Marija, Estefania and I wandered back to the rocks by the water. I remember floating on my back, looking up at the sky. I felt like a child again. I can't really explain it, but I just felt so happy. So grateful. So present.
As Estefania and I floated there together, we couldn't stop talking about how beautiful everything around us was. We'd known each other for less than a day, yet somehow we were already imagining what our lives in Croatia could look like. At the time, we laughed about how delusional we sounded.
At lunch, I'd wrapped up some leftover bread to put in my bag, something my Grandma has always done and, without even realising it, something I've started doing too. A few of the girls laughed at me, but later Ella was hungry, so I pulled it out and we shared it together. It made me smile how the smallest habits are often the ones we unknowingly carry with us.
That evening, we walked down to the waterfront for our first dinner together. We shared food, drank gemišt, wandered from table to table talking to everyone and watched the sunset.
We'd only just met that morning, yet there was already such a strong sense of togetherness between us. We had all grown up in different corners of the world, but before we'd even had the chance to really know one another, we already shared something that connected us. It was our Croatian culture and heritage. Long before we truly knew one another, we already understood a part of each other.
Dubrovnik
That first day reminded me that culture and heritage are so much more than where we come from. They're the stories we inherit, the traditions we carry and the quiet understanding that exists between people who share a part of the same history.