The tradition Christmas stage seminar in Croatia is most of all home for Puma Super 9 competition. In this competiotion nine best nanbudokas of the world compete in kata and ju randori.

So the competition is very tough and thus interesting to witness. Nevertheless I didn't go to this seminar to see the competition - not to mention competiting myself - but first and foremost to meet people and practice nanbudo.

The trip to this seminar was - like other seminar trips I've been in - very exhausting. This time the price-check was in favour of Ryanair, so the points of the travel were Tampere, London Stansted (in which I slept in chair one night) and Graz from where a train took to Zagreb. After night in hostel I felt brisk afterall and the day was reserved to take a look into the city.

The seminar itself got really going on Saturday 17th December and due to the emphasis of the seminar - the competition - I didn't expect much of the training. This is why I was so positively surprised. The training was pretty hard and there was one training session more than what I expected.

Unfortunately the mingling part was bit weaker for me. Already during the first day I felt bit cold and the next morning I found out why: I had got sick. Training during daytime went okay, but in the evening, when I was supposed to have nice time with friends, I was sullen because my mucous membranes were ablaze.

On top of catching cold there was another adversity when I was on my way back home.

Lesson learned: do not leave only one hour in between flights when you use low cost fight company, it's not even close enough. So I got to sleep one more night in London Stansted airport and even pay some extra for the pleasure.

Nevertheless I felt good after the trip. People were great, especially my Croatian hosts and Slovenian hostel room mates. Thank you my dearest friends and regrets, I did have some "sand under my foreskin" because of the flu.

Special thanks go to Jana Radic to show me Zagreb and treat me well.

To the next time.

Ossu!

Kalle Lönnroth, 4 kyu