Some of you might be wondering "why Croatia?" and to be honest, I couldn't have answered that question, but now, I have a million and one reasons why everyone should travel to Croatia. Landing in Croatia,
we had to exchange our money for the Croatian kuna... The only problem was that we had no idea how far 1 kuna (or 200 for that matter) could get you. We know that 1 kuna was about $0.18 but we didn't know
whether things would be really expensive or really really cheap. Luckily, the latter option was the correct one, a fact that instantly made us (and our parents) very relieved. After settling in to our hotel, we met Mirta (a friend of our sorority grandbig, Valentina, who is Croatian). She was so hospitable and took us on a tour of the entire city, which we had completely memorized by the end of our trip. Although she didn't really understand the appeal of Zagreb over California or New York, she showed us the highlights of life in Croatia and explained the Croatian
way of life... "Laziness" (in her own words). As we quickly saw, Croatians are not as high-strung and tense as Americans and it is not rare for people to meet at a cafe for several hours before, during, or after work, a custom I wouldn't mind adopting. Life is very relaxed and everyone seems to appreciate each day.
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| "Flower Square" |
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| Me & my "nanny pie" |
Mirta took us to Vincek, a famous ice cream and bakery shop in Croatia (you have no idea how badly I want there to be one in America).
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| YUM YUM YUM! |
Because I can't do kremsnite justice with an explanation, I will just let you look at it and imagine all of its goodness.
As it got darker and colder, I started to lose the feeling in my face, which made it only slightly painful to laugh at Nebojsa, Mirta's good friend with the most hilarious and witty sense of humor. He joined us on Mirta's tour (poking fun at her along the way) and then we all went to their favorite pizzeria where the laughs continued to
roll. I was so grateful that their English was so great because the Croatian language is very very confusing... I still can't properly pronounce Nebojsa. We also met their friend, Zeljko, who is a really great salsa dancer but is very self-conscious about his English. After talking with him though, Cally and I tried to encourage him to not
give up because he wasn't bad at all! I know I could never leave a single Croation except for "Bok" (hello) and "Hvala" (thank you). After a long day of traveling, we headed back to our hotel to sleep and prepare for our next day in Croatia.
After sleeping in, we made it to town and knew instantly what we wanted to breakfast... "Nanny pies". After enjoying two each, we set off the explore the city during the day. From the beautiful fall leaves to the cathedral to St. Mark's church and the Parliament building in "upper Zagreb" to the architecture of the stores,
everything was beautiful and I was happy to be spending time in such a unique city.
After a few hours of walking around the cold city, we decided to engage in the culture and take a break at one of the cutest
cafes in the world... The Hansel & Gretel cafe. With coffee, ice cream, and dozens of pastries, we literally felt like the fairy tale characters, except that we found nice waiters instead of a scary witch. For lunch, we went to Valentina's favorite restaurant and returned on our last night for two great and inexpensive meals (huge pizzas were 30 kunas, or less that $6!!!)
Although Zagreb doesn't have tons of attractions, it's such a pleasant city to visit, so we didn't mind all of the walking. We even enjoyed a lovely stroll around the lake, playing with fall leaves as we went along. For lunch, we returned to Vincek's.. not for cake, but for the most delicious ice cream I have ever had!! (As you might have guessed, we went back the next day for more). That night we met up with our new friends to go salsa-dancing which is apparently very common among the younger crowd. At the "salsa party", we saw everyone from beginners to one of the Croatian dancers on Dancing with the Stars. After about an hour of trying to learn the art of salsa, we said goodbye to our new friends and went back to our hotel and tried to get a good night's sleep, knowing that the following night would be spent "sleeping" on a night train.
We spent our last day in Croatia roaming around and purchasing souvenirs including little ornaments that are unique to the country. Originally, these ornaments were actually gingerbread cookies, but over time, the design has been used to as the model for these cute decorations. To pass the time, we went to a movie theater and saw the "Social Network", a newly-released movie, in English for only 29 kunas (about half the price of what we would've paid to see the movie in San Diego). Afterwards, we enjoyed a long dinner and then headed to the train station.While the cars on our night train looked very similar to Harry Potter's annual train to Hogwarts, the experience was no where near magical. From freezing cold air to scorching heat, the train car was never comfortable and we were awoken every time our train jerked to a stop. Another part of our frustration was the European time change that night, meaning that our train was even longer than we had already come to terms with. In the morning, we arrived at the first Venice station ready to catch our train to Florence, but our plans changed as the train started moving again before we had a chance to get off. Great.
Luckily, we were able to hop on a train at the next station and return to our original destination just in time to catch the Florence-bound train. When we returned, our long night was topped off by a 20 minute walk through the rain... the last thing I wanted to do. With my suitcase, purse, and slightly-broken umbrella, I toughed it out (only complaining a few times) and finally made it home to our cold, but comfortable apartment.
11 days, 1 suitcase, new and old friends, and plenty of stories... My fall break was definitely a vacation that I will never forget!
