This week the 23rd Citroën 2CV World Meeting is taking place in Samobor, Croatia. I went with my dad and I took a lot of pictures, but as I was wearing polarised sunglasses, I couldn't see my phone's screen that well, so most ended up ruined (mostly because of my finger ended up in the frame or because of my own shadow). I might post more tomorrow after I go through all of them (which I'll do while uploading them to my IG profile), so here's a small taste of the meet:
Among the first photos I took, this one was taken on a street near where we left our car, outside the camp:
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In the camp. I like this picture particularly because my father used to own an Ami 8 saloon, which was one of the main reasons for visiting this meeting, but more on that later. You can see in the picture that there were many old Citroëns, mostly 2CV's and its derivates, but there were some other pre-1990 Citroëns as well. Only while uploading this picture I realised there is the owner of the Ami 8 in the background (under that nearest and biggest tent on the left), along with the rest of the people we met and hanged out with.
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There were cars from many countries, I saw Israeli, Turkish and Moroccan plated cars amongst the others, mostly from various parts of Europe.
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And yes, there were tonnes and tonnes of 2CV's. All kinds of them, various colours and model years, even some quite early ones, but I think the dominant ones were Charlestons. Despite that, there was variety, and one could spend hours and hours roaming the camp where the meeting took place. I only saw a small piece of it, it was definitely a well-visited event.
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Now, a bit of a background on the main reason my dad and I came. We have a Citroën BX 15 RE that needs a certain part (the return pipe loom for the hydraulic system, commonly known as the octopus or the spider pipe) to be drivable and therefore registered as a historic vehicle. Through my dad's friend, we contacted a guy from Osijek, Croatia, who knew a guy from Novi Sad, Serbia, who was a mechanic specialised for Citroëns with a lot of experience with the BX, and knew which part to get and how to get it. Sadly, the guy from Novi Sad passed away, not long after my dad contacted him.
The guy from Osijek was participating in the meeting, so we came to meet him and thank him for helping us anyway, but also for another reason. As I mentioned before, my dad had a Citroën Ami 8 that's been rotting in our family friends' backyard since 1990, while the guy from Osijek has a few Amis and collects parts for them. Now, my dad's Ami 8 is so rotten none of the body panels are of any use, but the windows, headlights and possibly wheels as well as some mechanical bits and bobs are in usable condition. We arranged that he takes those parts if he needs them one day, while in return, he helped us find the specific part for our BX. We also met some other Citroën fans from Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia who were in that tent you can see on the picture with the Ami 8 and 2CV.
In short, an interesting experience. We got to see old Citroëns and meet fans of old Citroëns from the region, so now we have a better network of old Citroën fans, in case we need any parts or mechanics. Not only was it fun, but actually useful to visit the meeting. Looking forward to our further Citroën adventures.