Yoga in Pula, Croatia

By Kirsten Chong
6 November 2009 10:26:00

Yoga in Pula, Croatia

I've come to spend a few days in Pula, Istria, Croatia as I wait for a weekly flight to Berlin. The week long yoga retreat on the island of Hvar is behind me and sleeping on deck on an overnight ferry gave me the opportunity to wake up with the sun one morning and practice Surya namaskara at sea. Traveling so much I become weary, and as glamorous or adventurous as it sounds I sometimes long to unpack my bag, put things away on a shelf or in the closet and not have to remove and pack them ... again.

But there is one thing that gives me solace. My yoga mat.

It too contributes to the weight I carry with me and I dream of carrying nothing, but I remember, and I come to my mat with appreciation and respect. As tired as I am, a few moments on my mat in Balasana (child's pose) comforts me. And then those moments become minutes as I sit up slowly, take a deep breath, press back into down dog and breathe.

And then minutes become timeless as my body drinks in the activity and begins to generate energy. My mind focuses and leaves my worries and tiredness behind. I am given a reprieve, that perhaps will disappear when I step off the mat, but for that time I am on it... I am balanced.

In a large sports gymnasium with multiple arenas for basketball and indoor volleyball, and smaller studios for dance I found a Russian immigrant named Natasha teaching Ashtanga in a heavy accent that I naively could not tell from the Croatian accent. Since I knew my Vinyasas I asked her to teach in Croatian for the rest of class and that I could follow along well enough without English. While the teacher and students were warm and inviting, the building itself was cold and concrete and I want to say reminiscent of a communist block of dismal grey buildings... but really it wasn't any different than any other university sports complex. And it was enormous. I had anticipated a small, ill equipped facility. But Croatia has grown since the days of civil war and have created great space for themselves.

We moved through our sun salutations with a regimented grace that incorporated breath and movement, stoking the inner fires. 1... jedan...2... dva...3... tri... As our bodies grew warmer Natascha increased the level of difficulty and before I knew it the daughter of the mother was upside down in wheel crawling across the floor like a crab! Wow! This was definitely a feat, and something I admired, but respecting my own limitations, I held my ground. Dhanurasana (wheel) at a stand still was just right for me.

Occasionally Natascha would give me direction to encourage me and I appreciated the guidance. Being a yoga teacher all the time is great fun and incredibly rewarding but it's nice to be able to slip into the shoes of a student and lose oneself in breath and meditation. And as the nearly two hours came to an end and Natascha talked us through Sivasana (corpse pose) I slipped away to long moments of comfort and peace.

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