Blogs from Central Croatia, Croatia, Europe

19thMay 2012 Saturday We decided to investigate the rural area around here in Belavici. The houses are very Tyrolean, all have spikes on their rooves and we see evidence of snow poles and snow ploughs also each house has a large wood store. Everywhere is very green and wooded, both deciduous and coniferous plantings. There are small scale market garden type cultivation but very few animals, occasional cows, goats and no sheep that we have seen. There are still some signs of the desolation caused by the war 20 years ago. We crossed many rivers and had vista of rapids and small cascades. The road bridge at Tounji over the Mreznica was very Romanesque! It even had some statues. We lunched at Sinji before walking around Rastocke where the Korana gorge is carved out by the ... read more

17th May 2012 Thursday Awoke to blue skies! After breakfast – lovely fresh bread! - We took a walk around the locality it is beside the River Mreznica which appears to be quite flooded because of the recent rain. It is very rural here. The authorities are replacing a dilapidated wooden bridge with a more modern construction. We understand that this will take another 6 months to complete. Drove into Karlovac to track down a road map – the town appears quite austere, it was heavily bombed in 1991 as the frontline of the conflict was only 5 Kms away and it still shows some of the damage sustained. Back to the caravan sunny but quite cool.... read more

The train journey from Kelenföld to Zagreb was just neverending. I got too distracted reminiscing about my would-be epic fail visit to Komárno/om which never happened in my last entry to explain why I was even going via Budapest to later retrace my steps - people who know me will know this isn't like me at all. I had been held up by missing one connection and my original plan to go via Győr and Szombathely, getting there in 6 hours from Komárom, was voided. So I ended up taking an hour and half journey to Kelenföld, waiting in that café bar for two, then sitting on this dying piece of old Yugoslavian metal for six and a half. I'm very pleased with myself because I managed to make it all the way across Hungary, from ... read more

Malgré nos pérépéties lors du dernier voyage en train, nous avons quand même opté pour ce mode de transport pour nous rendre à Zagreb, en Croatie. Heureusement, le 7h30 s'est vraiment bien passé car Nellie a beaucoup dormi et nous avions un compartiment presque pour nous tout seul (je dis "presque" car une madame s'est jointe à nous pour la dernière heure du trajet). À notre arrivée à la gare, la ville m'inspirait déjà! Il y avait un grand parc devant nous... j'avais hâte d'aller y marcher. Mais avant, il fallait s'installer à notre hôtel, que Phil nous avait déniché. C'était vraiment très bien :) Très silencieux, très sombre... parfait pour dormir! Ce soir-là on était plutôt fatigués alors on a opté pour un souper "achetons à l'épicerie et mangeons à l'hôtel" avec un bon Riesling ... read more

Well 2 trains and a bus ride later, we made it to Zagreb! Since Croatia isn’t part of the EU yet, getting to and from there was tight security consistently checking tickets and passports every 30 minutes or so. We also learned quickly that shorts, or rather showing your bear legs are not acceptable in Croatia… After lots of dirty looks, we went back to the hostel to change; lesson learned haha. Zagreb was very pretty and we could not have gotten luckier with weather. I have to laugh that our hostel’s name was “hobobear” but it was quite nice; we were definitely spoiled with our apartment in Budapest though! Everything in Eastern Europe is so cheap; I never want to go back to spending money in Geneva! We also found the best restaurant with amazing ... read more

I live in small European country, Croatia, which has population approximately just as Manhattan and Brooklyn together. For those who have no idea about what I’m talking about, here’s the map: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/641/croatiamap.gif/ Croatia has stunningly beautiful coast, sea and lots of islands, rich history, greeeat food, beautiful capital city Zagreb, nice people and great climate with a lot of sunny days. Sounds like ideal touristic country. What Croatia doesn’t have is bright future, good business opportunties and an “American dream”. And every girl needs to dream about something, doesn’t she? What place in the world can be better to realize your American dreams than in America itself?! Few days ago I started my final year at Department of Geography at University of Science here in Zagreb. I have six more exams and final work to became ... read more