Zagreb

There were a lot of photos taken at the Zagreb campsite, so an extra page has been inserted to accommodate them. This is the place where the "kilt parade" took place and there was also some Shakespeare rehearsing.

Gordon's letters

Jim Lindsay's diary:
We spent two days at an outdoor sports complex in Zagreb. There were lots of maintenance and adjustment jobs to do, and we got to use the café and swimming pool. The leaders were hauled off to take part in official functions - Fay came back with a bottle of slivovic and was bullied into sharing it. Some of the contingent went off sightseeing but others (me included) stayed in the camp. For the first but certainly not the last time we were visitor attractions ourselves. Families came with picnics and sat on top of the terraces overlooking our camp, to see what the odd young foreigners would do. If they were lucky they saw a rehearsal for a cultural performance, but sometimes they had to make do with people mending clothes.

At Mladost campsite by Liz Y

A nice thing which happened from time to time was that a friendly local person would stop us in the street or elsewhere, interested in where we had come from or what we thought of their country. There were other kindnesses too. One time on the campsite in Zagreb, I was struggling to wash clothes in a basin of cold water, when a kindly Yugoslav lady offered to show me how to do this more effectively. Such small gestures made a big difference to how we felt about a place.

Another thing that happened in Zagreb was that a little girl aged about ten approached me asking for money. There is something poignant about a child begging, although this was the only time I was asked for money during the European phase of our journey.

We had a lot to do in Zagreb. It was here that we tried with some frustration to improve our Scottish dancing skills and to rehearse our ill-fated production of 'Pyramus and Thisbe' from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. In the former, it became obvious that Glasgow's dancing was much better than ours. In the latter our rendering of this Shakespearean comedy was turning out to be a sort of farcical tragedy.

My role was understudy Titania. It's all a bit vague now, but I think the main Titania was either Pru or Kirsteen and that Tony was Bottom. Eileen was definitely Cobweb and for the moment I can't recall who played the other parts. One doomed attempt to rehearse went something like this:
Titania to Bottom ".. I am a spirit of no common rate. The summer still doth tend upon my state; And I do love thee .." SHRIEK (unscripted).

Barefoot, in the role of Titania, I had stepped on a smouldering cigarette butt. The flow was broken. I sensed people were annoyed with me, but .. it .. wasn't .. my .. fault!

We never did perfect our performance but we did for a while address one another using our characters' names. Eileen was affectionately known as Cobweb for the rest of the trip. Our saving grace was that we had Brian, our piper, and he gave us some kudos with the other contingents. A few other talents were also there to be tapped. We had Gordon's mandolin playing and some people joined in choir singing and so forth with Comexers from other contingents.

Kilts were given an airing in Zagreb. The boys took a photo opportunity to perform an ungainly cancan, this to be recorded and raise a smile for posterity. A Scottish male cancan routine, with a bit of choreography, could have boosted our theatrical repertoire. Why didn't someone suggest that!