Meet Ida Hamer – a Croatian returnee from the UK
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Numerous returnees and foreigners living in Croatia had the opportunity to meet Ida Hamer in her series ‘Stranac u Hrvatska’ for RTL television.
Ida, a television journalist and RTL reporter, interviewed foreigners, people from the diaspora and returnees who moved to Croatia about why they decided to move and live and about their experiences.
Ida was in a perfect position to conduct the interviews because she was a returnee herself.
Born in Zagreb, Ida spent most of her childhood in Zabok before returning to Zagreb to finish high school. After high school, Ida decided she wanted to study abroad and went to study multimedia journalism at the University of Northampton in the East Midlands region of England.
“It was a big challenge for me. I had just turned 19 when I moved to the UK and I didn’t know a single person. When you take someone so far away from your entire support system, your family and friends and everything you knew, you realize you have to be so grown up. It was a culture shock for me,” Ida told za All in Croatia podcast, where she was the last guest.
Ida says that there were several things, such as the gloomy weather and the lack of culture of drinking coffee in a cafe, which made her stay more of a challenge, but it was an experience that she is grateful for today.
“When I arrived in the UK I thought I knew English but I was used to American English and then I heard British English and I was confused and it was hard for me to understand things like the jokes they made in their dialects.” says Ida.
Ida adapted quickly and says that her time in the UK gave her a different perspective and made her realize some positive things about Croatia.
“When I left Croatia I was a teenager, but I saw that something was not working here – corruption, nepotism, lack of opportunities – and I thought the grass would be greener. But when I came to England, I realized the positive sides of Croatia – we have beautiful nature, we can be at the sea in two hours, we still have that great connection around us, people are more connected here and all kinds of things like that and I started to romanticize Croatia.”
After completing her studies, Ida decided to return to Croatia five years ago.
“It was a time when many of my peers and friends went abroad and I came back. People would be shocked that I came back and approach me like I made the wrong decision, but I understood where they were coming from. But my answer is not complicated, I just decided after college that I wanted to come back home, that was it.
Ida says that since returning to Croatia, she has created a great life for herself.
“I do a job that I love, I live with my boyfriend, we are surrounded by friends and family, we have the opportunity to travel. So when people ask me if I regret my decision to come back, I say no.”
While working on “Stranger in Croatia” series, Ida says she hoped local people could find inspiration in the stories.
“Those stories actually reminded me why Croatia is a beautiful country, because foreigners see things that we sometimes take for granted, and that may be the reasons why they moved here, because the country is safe, the weather is nice, the people are nice, the food is excellent , the nature is beautiful and there are so many things to do here and it is so well connected. I really hope that these stories inspired people because they inspired me,” adds Ida.
Below you can watch a chat with Ida, in which he talks more about his series, his time in Great Britain and his return home, his unfettered view of British food, and the continuation of his career in Croatia.
You can find more about Ida at the links below.
Web page: https://idahamer.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/ida.hamer/?hl=hr
FB: https://www.facebook.com/IdaHamer1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ida-hamer-026461111/