Friday 28th of April was the second day of the project and, since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the program started at 08:30 am with it. It consisted of delicious ingredients such as home-made jelly or a selection of cold meats typical from our region.
At 10:00 am, having gained the necessary energy to face the day, the participants were led towards the cultural center of Ocland, where all the partners were formally introduced to each other. Each of them presented their association, their perspective and their goals. Once they became acquainted, we started with the round-table discussions. One of the goals of this project is to acknowledge, analyse and propose solutions for some current issues happening in Europe. Some of these topics are the military conflict in Ukraine, immigration, or global warming among others. Although each of these topics would be dealt with in detail in the following days, we wanted today to be an introduction in every way. To meet this need, the participants were grouped in different tables and, from time to time, they were changing positions so that all of them could get to know each other’s viewpoint. Since we had people from many different organisations and from three different countries, we had the opportunity to hear a wide range of opinions and comments. This was definitely a very fruitful and educative experience.
This activity was followed by a more tasty one and, if your guess was lunch, you were right! In order to continue with the cultural exchange, the participants had to prepare typical Transylvanian food but by adding a touch from their own countries. As you can imagine, the result was not less than exquisite. We were able to enjoy different types of dishes such as soup prepared with deer meat, or sheep’s and bunny’s roasts. Cooking together was a great team-building activity, and it was also a creative way to taste the cooking style of Hungary and Croatia without actually travelling there.
Afterwards, the participants had some free time to relax and prepare for the next activity which was going to take place in the evening. Until now, we had showed our guests our culture through our typical cuisine and our perspective of the world as a community, but to make this project even more colourful, we had the great pleasure to count on the presence of Támás Gábor.
It is well-known that music is a universal language, and we cannot think of a better way to continue showing our guests our culture than with a concert of one of the most representative voices of our region. During the evening, we could hear some of Gábor’s best hits as well as other traditional songs from Transylvania. Although this event was originally meant for the participants of the project, local citizens from Ocland could also enjoy it. It was very emotional to see how people from our community could sing along the lyrics they knew so well. We think it’s safe to say that it was a great concert and that everyone enjoyed every minute.
The day was closed, as it should be, with a delicious dinner. The menu consisted of vegetables and meat soup as a first dish, followed by stuffed cabbage with home-made sour cream and roasted pork as the main course. We also had the opportunity to taste Kürtőskalács for dessert, which was the perfect end to this amazing day.