Croatia-March 12th-15th

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15/3 The Long Entry
Album I’m listening to: Paul Anka’s “Rock Swings”

Well for the most part Croatia lived up to it’s reputation, but what surprised me most was their capital, Zagreb (Za-greb, pronunciations for mum). People have different opinions about it, mainly because there are about 650 habitable islands you could rather go to than in a landlocked city. But my experience was different, and I guess the weather the biggest part to play. I had been very lucky to have clear skies for over a week but since it was March and not July it had to come to an end sometime, and unfortunately it was the one place on my European tour that I didn’t want it to rain. I arrived there 3 hours earlier cause of my little episode in Ljubljana so when I got there it was bright and sunny and people were out and about seeing as though it was Friday.

I got to Hostel Fulir without a problem and went up to my room. There was only one person there at the time, Juliana from Brazil, and got to talking to her for a bit. After I think 15 minutes I went to the loo (our room had an ensuite bathroom) and I opened the door to find a guy in there. Umm, yeah. That was a good way to meet Steve from Calgary (I checked later and there WAS a lock on the door so that could have easily been avoided). I went to the bedroom and had a bit of a laugh about it with Juliana when a couple of French girls came in, Sophie and Charlotte 20 minutes later Sarah, who was English/French came in so that was our room booked in less than an hour. Since none of us really knew each other we decided (except Steve, he kept to himself for the most part) to go out and try some Croatian cuisine and have a couple of local brews. I had a Bear Paw (little sausages in flatbread) more to take a picture of it than anything cause it was still pink in the middle and tasted awful. I think my stomach took a couple of days to get over that. So we hung out there for a bit and then decided to get a couple of drinks and head back to the hostel, where it was all happening. There’s a great lounge where everyone can hang out, listen to music or watch TV. It seemed like everyone was heading to a club right in the park, and at first I was hesitant as I had a big day the next day but after a 2 litre bottle of Lowenbrau I was ready to go. The rest of the roommates stayed so I got to meet a few of the blokes in the hostel. There were a couple of Welsh guys (one a Fulham fan whoop whoop), a couple of Aussie brothers, Steve, a German named Stefan, and an American from Philly. It was a cool venue, either very small or they let in loads of people. Eventually we got home around 3am.

The next day I was feeling surprisingly good (and with half a pastry on my bed). The roommates and I (except for Steve) decided to go out and see the town. Most of the day was spent looking at cathedrals, buildings, going to cafes, and being general tourists (I was designated “boss” as I was the only guy). There was a Museum of Broken Relationships which is an exhibition around the world with people donating reminders of ex loved ones and what they meant to them. Pretty interesting things were donated like love letters, photos, marriage certificates, an artificial leg. In the afternoon I was keen on going 20 min outside the city to see a massive and beautiful cemetery called Mirogoj so I went on my own to take a look. It was unbelievable, easily the biggest I’ve ever seen with over 1000 graves.

I headed back to the city afterwards, where the owner and a couple of other guys and I watched the FA cup between Man U v Arsenal at the hostel. Later that night about 10 of us went out to dinner where we again had local food and beer. Oh and I have to say, American tourists are the worst!! They are loud, obnoxious, naïve, think they know everything, etc etc. Not all of them, but most that I’ve come across. They think the whole world revolves around them and that everyone must stop what they are doing to help them. Example, one girl (she was from Philly and teaching in Portugal, poor children) was staying at the hostel and joined us for dinner. It was very busy upstairs, and only one waiter. We all ordered and she asked the waiter to help her choose what to eat. After about 10 minutes she said, ah I’ll just have waterrr cause I ate earlier. The waiter said nothing and went to get our beers. 10 minutes into us eating she then decided that one of the plates looked good. As the waiter was carrying 6 steins downstairs she said “Um I’d like to order now” and the waiter said “I don’t have time for you”. Right on. But then she started welling up and said “That is sooooo rude!!” I was very tempted to tell her what was on my mind but I didn’t want to spoil the evening. I said to Juliana “I wish we all had each other’s numbers so we can text each other what’s on our minds”. Eventually she got her food and the waiter apologised for some reason and everything was fine.

I found out that 4 other guys were taking the same overnight train to Split as I was so that was cool. We said our goodbyes and headed to the station, where we caught the 11pm train. Luckily it wasn’t full so we all had 4 seats to lay down and sleep on. At 7:30am we arrived in Split, and Kiwi Scott and I did quite a bit of walking around the city, up to the top of the hill which had a great view of the city, and trekked around the bush for a couple of hours. We ran into the Aussie brothers and we all went to the palatial ruins of Diocletian. Split was formed because he built a massive palace to retire there, and when people fled there in the 6th century, a town was formed outside the palace and people have been living there ever since. I only had a few hours there as I was on my way to the island of Hvar (havar). I said bye to the guys and headed out. It had been cloudy all day, the first since I left, and as I got to the island it started to rain a little. Not what I wanted on an island paradise! As the catamarans weren’t running because of the rough seas, I took the car ferry to the other side of the island. Of all movies they played The Gods Must be Crazy. It’s still as funny as it was 20 years ago! Plus I understand the underlying theme of it now which I was too young to understand before.

On the bus to the other side of the island I met Aussie Dave, who happened to be the only other person staying at Hostel Orange. That meant I got my own room and bathroom which was great. Dave and I took a hike up to the castle and had a walk around, but the island was pretty dead and everything was shut (the owner even asked why we were there this time of year) so I spent the rest of the night in my room catching up with Liv and a couple of other people on Skype.

On Monday I was supposed to take the catamaran to Korcula (core-choola) island but again the catamarans weren’t running so I took the morning car ferry back to Split where I then took a bus to Dubrovnik (doo-brov-nick) 4 ½ hours away. It was a bit of a shame but the way the weather was acting I’m sure I wouldn’t have missed much plus it must’ve also been a ghost town. On the way there I met a mother and daughter from BC Canada, Bonnie (mum’s age) and Olivia (Amanda’s age). They were travelling around Europe for a couple of months or so and were on their last week before heading back. We talked for awhile and as I wasn’t planning on spending any nights in Dubrovnik I asked them where I good place to stay was, as they had already spent time there earlier. They recommended where they were staying as there were dorms as well as apartments so I went with them but the prices of the dorms were a bit steep for me. However the owner made us a deal where we all stayed in the apartment for a cheap price. 2 hours earlier I had just met them on a bus now I’m crashing on their couch for the night. So we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, had a walk inside the city, and went back and watched the 1st episode of Croatian of Big Brother. Funniest thing I have ever seen, even though we couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying.

The next morning I got up early as I only had a few hours to spend there. It is an amazing city, and again a place that would rock in the summer. Words can’t describe it so have a look at the pics on the Book of Face. And there were so many cats! Everywhere you looked they were all over the place. Good think I like ‘em. So much of the city was bombed in 1992 which was a shame as there were still loads of rebuilding to be done. After a few hours of walking I went to get something to eat, which ended up being in the Taj Mahal, where they served Bosnian food to the tunes of Toby Keith. How random is that. 2pm rolled around and I said my goodbyes to Bonnie and Olivia and went to the bus station to catch the 3pm to Podgorica (pod-gore-eecha) only to find out they run every other day. I’ll have to tell you what happens in the next blog as it gets pretty interesting (and completely stupid on my part….)

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