We got to London Gatwick Airport pretty late, around 11 o’clock GBT but to us it was midnight. We had to take a ½ hour train ride to get into the city and then walk about 20 minutes to our hostel, but it was cold and Tay was tired (I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t), so she “splurged” for a taxi ride. Plus, she wanted to ride in a cabby. We kind of got yelled at by the cab driver because we “forgot to mention” that our hostel was above a pub; he knew where the pub was, but not the hostel. Whatever.

We checked into our hostel; the reception desk had stayed open an extra hour for us, but when they showed us to the room, our roommates were already fast asleep. We had to get situated, make our beds, lock our belongings up in a locker, all in the dark. Then I climbed in to bed. Now, up until London, our hostels have had surprisingly comfortable beds. Travel Joy Hostel in London might have the least comfortable mattresses I’ve ever slept on (I use this term rather loosely). I have bruises on my arms and stomach from the coils and my back is aching from the humongous dip in the mattress. I think I slept less than 3 hours; I was awake at 6 o’clock, so instead of getting frustrated, I pulled out my computer and worked on my blog.

By 9 o’clock, Tay was awake, so we grabbed breakfast. I downed two cups of coffee, and we set out to walk around and see Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. To be honest, I would have much rathered stayed in the hostel lobby for a couple hours, but I’m trying not to complain.

We stocked up on food at lunch at a restaurant recommended by one of the guys we had met in Zagreb, and went back to our hostel to get our back before heading to the airport.

I’m pretty sure this is where my blog should end. The rest is boring airport crap.

***

Over the past couple days, Tay and I have had many reflective conversations about our trip. We attempted to rank the cities from favorite to least favorite, but found this extremely difficult; there is little difference between the top 5 or 6, and since each city was truly unique, it is difficult to compare them. We did find, however, that we enjoyed smaller towns far more than major cities; Paris is my highest ranked city, but overall, it might come in 5^th or 6^th. Here are my lists:

Small cities:

Santorini

Sorrento/Amalfi Coast

Dubrovnik

Cinque Terre

Hvar

Plitvice

Large:

Paris

Nice

Firenze

Madrid

Barcelona

Zagreb

Split

Athens

Rome

Day Trips:

Osijek/Plavna

Versailles

Toledo

Cape Sounio

Tivoli

We also found that we could categories cities by whether we wanted to go back to them or not, and if not, whether we would recommend them to someone who hasn’t been.

Places I want to go back to:

Santorini

Sorrento/Amalfi

Dubrovnik

Cinque Terre

Hvar

Paris

Nice

Firenze

Places I don’t feel the need to go back to but would highly recommend:

Madrid

Barcelona

Athens (only if you haven’t been there before, and only for one day)

Plitvice

Places I doubt I don’t want to go back to:

Rome

Split 

You’ll note that Rome is consistently on the bottom of my list. If I’m being honest, I did not enjoy Rome. It was hot. It was crowded. We weren’t in a hostel, so it was hard to meet people. And after spending 4 more days there, I realized that the 12 hours I had spent there with my family on our cruise was more than sufficient to see everything. Tay will tell you that Rome in the winter is an entirely different city, as she studied abroad there in the winter, but I doubt I’ll even go there again, except as a layover. 

Tay and I also talked about our memorable moments of the trip. This is what I came up with (in no particular order):

-Canyoning in the Alps

-ATVing through Santorini

-Amalfi hike with Sara

-Cinque Terre hike

-Holocaust section of Army Museum in Paris

-The entire day in Osijek and Plavna

-And of course, losing the key to the Smart car in Hvar

But perhaps the best question we asked was whether there was anything we regretted doing or not doing on the trip. The two of us struggled with the question for a while before realizing that there was nothing. Except for minor changes (like one less night in Rome, or one more night in Santorini) there is absolutely nothing we would change about the trip. Of course, there are places we could have easily added if we had the time. But, alas, we didn’t.

I think Tay and I both consider this the last day of our trip even though we won’t return to the States until late tomorrow night. So, technically, my blog should be titled “46 Days Across the Pond” but that’s just being nit picky. Thankfully, our flight doesn’t leave until 9:20 tonight, so Tay and I got what felt like a full day on of today.

I woke up at 8 to blog for the last time on the terrace. Once I was done, I woke Tay up before making breakfast: eggs and hash browns. We had just enough time to scarf down our food, clean the dishes, finish up packing (ie. put our toiletries and pj/whatever we wore to bed), check out, and drive to the Smart car drop off location. The man who we handed over the keys to didn’t speak much English, which led to their being a confusion about the tires. When we had jumped the car, we had forgotten to put away the expanding foam can (used to fill up a flat tire instead of having an actual spare) underneath the passenger-side floor. The guy assumed there was a flat tire, even though I told him everything was okay. Ten minutes later, I felt my phone vibrate. There was a missed call and voicemail from the rental agency, asking that we call immediately and explain what happened to the tire. When I called and explained that we had to jump the car, not fill a flat tire, the man was satisfied. I was relieved because I thought we were in trouble.

After Tay and I walked to the beach we had visited two days prior. It was conveniently located next to the drop-off location. I swam laps across the harbor, from one side to the other for nearly an hour. Satisfied with the days, work out I went back to suntan and finish Elie Weisel’s Night, a horrifying personal account of the Holocaust.

By 3 o’clock, both Tay and I were sunned out, so we decided to find cover in the nearby shopping center, before taking a bus back to the Guesthouse. There we sat on the terrace and changed out of our bathing suits, and waited for 6 o’clock to come around. Our host was going to give us a ride to the airport.

Now, I’m surprised I haven’t written about our host yet. This guy fascinates me. He is a man in his late forties, who on first impression, reminded me of Mr. Clean with a Croatian accent. He is a rather buff guy—he obviously keeps himself in shape—and always wears a bathing suit with a plain white t-shirt tucked in to his waist and Tevas. He might be the nicest person we have met this entire trip.

As he drove us to the airport, he stopped to point out and show us many of the hotels and buildings that still had not been repaired since the war. The sight of them was enough to give me the chills. We also learned that he had volunteered as a watchman in the Red Cross building, before joining the army forces in the hills above the city. He said that he was lucky to have never fought and that every day that he woke up, he remembered being glad he was still alive. This is a mindset that I just can’t understand. 

Now, I’m sitting in the airport about to check-in for our flight to London. Tay and I both agree; we just want to be home. Kyle—Tay’s boyfriend, for those of you who don’t know—can you make yourself useful and engineer us a time-travel machine? Thanks.

One more post to come.

Before I even begin, I should revise yesterday’s entry because I lied. I did not in fact blow dry Tay’s hair, as the hair drier stopped working after five seconds. Sorry for the confusion.

I’m not sure I could have picked a better location to end this trip. Dubrovnik is a happy medium of a small beach town and a larger city filled with sights to see, so Tay and I spent the last full day of our trip taking advantage of both aspects of the city.

But first, I had to serve Tay breakfast in bed. I say this as if she made me do it, but she didn’t. While blogging early yesterday morning I got the idea, and when I saw a tray in the kitchen that would make serving breakfast in bed very easy, I was sold. Plus, it is our honeymoon after all, and I take good care of my “wife.”

We grabbed a bus to the Old Town, but because the buses run rather infrequently, we had to wait about thirty minutes. Now, a couple of the cities we have been to on this trip have old towns—Nice, Eze Village, Split—so I thought I knew what to expect. But everything Tay and I had seen previously paled in comparison to Dubrovnik, which clearly deserves its nickname, “the Pearl of the Adriatic.”

The Old Town dates back to the 7th century, and although it was walled in back then, the beefy walls that exist today were built in the 15th century when there was a threat of Ottoman invasion. The walls far surpassed any expectation I had of them; they were massive, in perfect condition, and beautiful beyond imagination. As we entered the city, there was a map to my right of the Old Town. I stopped to glance at it and quickly realized it showed the significant damage to the city that had occurred during the war less than two decades ago. Nearly two-thirds of the cities roofs were damaged, but on the map it looked like two-thirds was an underestimate; the city got pummeled.

We decided to walk the walls of the city and circumvent the Old Town for some of the best views. The cost of this was 70 kuna, but we always ask if there is a student discount even if it isn’t posted. This time it worked; when the guy said 60 kuna, Tay and I both assumed it was 60 kuna each, but, no, it was 60 kuna total. We walked away laughing.

Walking the walls took an hour and a half. It was rather hot in the sun, but everyone was sweating so I didn’t feel too gross. The first thing I noticed was the difference between the old and new roofs; the old terra cotta was browned and discolored, while the new—and much more prevalent—terra cotta was a bright orange. I was amazed to learn that although the walls had been here since the 15th century, the first time they were actively used to defend the city was in 1991 from the invading Serbs. I’m not sure I ever fully understood how major the war was until today. I mean, I knew that there was a war, but not like this. After the walls, we walked around the insides of the city and grabbed lunch, sitting on the steps of the cathedral in one of the many main squares.

Then, Tay and I took the cable car up to Mount Srd. Although Tay was wary of the cable car, I knew that the top would have the best overlooking views of the city. We took tons of pictures, and even managed to take a picture of the both of us without the help of a stranger (the one’s other people took weren’t nearly as good).

After the cable car, we went to the beach for the afternoon. Although the beach wasn’t as nice as the day before, I much enjoyed it. We were there for about three hours, most of which I spent in the water (thank you, Tay, for being willing to sunbathe and watch our stuff). The water was deep—about 25 feet—but once you went down six feet, the temperature dropped significantly. Because of the drastic change in temperature, there was a blurry spot in the water, making it hard to see the bottom from the top. But once you passed the blur and entered the frigid water, it became crystal clear. I ended up writing a message on the ocean floor with large rocks. People were looking at me like I was insane, diving down only to surface a minute later and a hundred yards away.

After the beach, we walked back to the Old Town and had dinner at Sebastian’s. We decided it was our last real night of the trip, so we ate out. Tay got spaghetti and shell fish, while I got chicken and pepper risotto. It was amazing.

Then, we did some shopping in the Old Town. We had left most of our shopping to the last day because we either didn’t want to have to carry it the whole trip, or we were afraid of it breaking.

By nine, we needed to get back to our Guesthouse, as we needed to ask our host a couple questions (and we didn’t want to bother him much later than 9) in addition to packing and showering. Then, I got halfway through drying Tay’s hair before the blow drier faulted; Salon de Scott is closed forever.

Then, while Tay blogged, I read up on the Yugoslav Wars. Seeing the Old Town had spiked my interest and reading only did spiked it more. The whole situation is heavily complicated by so many factors, it’s hard to keep sides straight. There’s no wonder why war broke out.

By 11 o’clock, I was exhausted. Tay turned the light out and I was out as well.

Posts to come.

So, I’ve resolved to wake up an hour before Tay each morning to blog. Mostly because by the time 11 o’clock rolls around, I don’t have the energy to type. But I was also enticed by the terrace at our Guesthouse; it has a beautiful view of one of Dubrovnik’s harbors (it has many). So instead of me talking about today (which has barely started), I’m going to be talking about yesterday.

After the stressful day that got us to Dubrovnik, Tay and I both wanted to sleep in. I was up a bit earlier than she. She rolled out of bed by 9:40, we had breakfast on the terrace—some cereal and a couple spoonfuls of nutella. Gross but amazing.

We then hoped in our car and drove towards the beach our host had highly recommended. Plus, we were able to drive and park for free instead of paying for the bus. Our guesthouse, along with the rest of this part of town, is built into the side of a very steep hill. They zigzag down (or up, depending on which direction you are going); the straight-aways are slightly inclined, but they are only wide enough for one car; it’s a two way street.

We parked in a grocery store parking lot and went in to grab water and lunch for the day—that way we wouldn’t have to walk back from the beach. The part of town we were in, Lapad, is where most of the large hotels are, so the pedestrian only streets were rather lively. The beach wrapped around a huge inlet from the sea. There were a couple pebbly beaches on the left hand side, but since our host had circled a beach to the right as his favorite, we followed the path around that way. After a 25-minute walk, we found that the only “beaches” were large rocks jutting out into the water. And although the swimming looked great to me, it would have been difficult to get in an out, especially trying to avoid the sea urchins. So, we opted to walk back and plant ourselves on one of the pebbly beaches that were originally to the left.

Tay and I both needed a quick dip in the water to cool off, so we took turns watching the valuables while the other plunged into the cool water. The inlet had some of the best water we’ve swam in. It is cold at first—a bit of a shocker—but it is more refreshing the longer you stay in.

We suntanned for a while, before I grabbed my pair of goggles and set off for a long swim. The inlet was roped off by a line of buoys and I decided to swim the length of the buoys a couple times. It was well over 35 feet deep where I was swimming, but I could see straight to the bottom; it was perfect.

We stayed on the beach for most of the day; since it was extremely hot, I ended up standing in the water with a book in my hand. People were looking at me like I was strange, but I didn’t care. I get my weird habits from my dad, who used to stand with his elbows on the side of the pool, reading.

By the time 6 o’clock rolled around, the sun had drained every bit of energy from my body. So we headed back to the car and bought food for dinner; I made burgers from scratch, with onions, garlic, bacon and ground beef. I’ve never done this before, but it was absolutely delicious. Except I burnt my hand badly with the bacon grease.

After dinner, Tay blogged, while I relaxed in bed and listened to music. She tells me I was singing but I don’t believe her. After she showered, I opened up Salon de Scott and blow dried her hair. Yes, Sara, you are jealous. And although we had said earlier in the day that we would give each other backrubs, I was exhausted and opted out. Tay was rather disappointed. Oh, well!

Posts to come.

If today had worked out as originally planned, Tay and I would have boarded the 6:30 ferry to Split, hopped in our SMART car by 8, which would have gotten us to Dubrovnik just after noon, leaving us the majority of the afternoon to relax on a nearby beach. Let’s just say that today didn’t work out as planned. As a matter of fact, everything that could have gone wrong, did. I would say today came straight from hell, but the high school English teacher in me tells me it’s too cliché.

My alarm sounded at 5:30, although I didn’t hear it until 5:34—that how deep in my sleep I was. We quickly gathered our things and walked down to the harbor. Thankfully, we were able to get last-minute tickets on the 6:30 ferry, which we were told was fully booked as of yesterday. But if we came to the ticket office thirty minutes before departure day-of, there were likely to be some spots available. When we got the tickets, we were happy because taking the earlier ferry would save us 50 kuna (50 kuna = $9, but every dollar, or kuna, counts).

The ferry was only an hour to Split. Once there, Tay suggested I get the key to our car out so we could just hop right in and get to Dubrovnik. My heart dropped as soon as I heard the word “key.” I didn’t remember seeing the key recently, but since we weren’t using the car, I hadn’t been hyper aware of its whereabouts. We stopped at the next park bench, and I rummaged through my entire back. When I didn’t find anything, Tay did the same with hers. Two quick calls to both hostels we had stayed at in Hvar were fruitless; nothing had been turned in.

Plan B: Since the car had a number for the rental agency on its bumper, we hiked back to the parking lot and attempted to call that number. The agency was closed and wouldn’t open until 10. It was 8 o’clock.

Plan C: We knew the rental agency had an office in Split, but the address wasn’t listed online; it just said “Split Center.” So, we went back to the port and found a tourist information office and waited in line for nearly forty-five minutes. They gave us directions—a five minute walk that was more like twenty. And when we got there, there was no agency in sight.

Plan D: At this point, it was past 10, so I called the agency and told them we had lost our key. The man told me that it would cost 200 euro to get a new key and that the only way for us to get it was if he put it on the next bus from Zagreb to Split, a 6 hour ride. We would have to meet it in Split at the bus station when it arrived. When I hung up, my phone died. I had plugged it in the night before, but it apparently hadn’t charged. Perfect.

Plan E: We walked back to port to an internet café, hoping they would let us charge my phone. They did. Once I could make a call, I called back the first hostel we had stayed at, because Tay and I were 99% certain that was the last time we had the key. The woman who owned the place agreed to search the beds we had slept in and asked that I call her back in thirty minutes. About twenty minutes later, she called me back saying she had found the key. Huge relief. We asked if it was possible to have the key put on the next ferry from Hvar, which she more than willingly did. The ferry would arrive in Split at 2:45, so Tay and I had a couple of hours to kill.

We left our backs at the internet café, as you could pay to leave your luggage in their storage room. And we walked around Split. Tay had really wanted to see the Old Town and Diocletian Palace, so in a way, we were lucky to have been able to do this.

Just before 2, we went back to the port, got our bags and staked out a place where Tay could sit, while I went to meet the ferry.

The ferry was over forty-five minutes late, and the whole time, I was thinking I was on the wrong pier. Had it come in and left and I didn’t even know it? My anxiety level was close to as high as it’s ever been—anyone who knows me knows that’s really high. I started to pace and put in my headphones, hoping the music would distract me. Finally, the ferry came. When it docked, I asked the first worker where I should go if I was expecting an envelope on this ferry. He didn’t speak English. So, I waited for everyone to disembark, walked on the ferry and found it myself. I probably wasn’t supposed to do that, but I didn’t care.

At this point, I had the key in my hand. Everything was perfect. We would get to Dubrovnik around 6:30. Perfect.

Not so much. We first noticed that the remote unlock button wouldn’t work, and neither would the rear hatch pop open. When I manually opened the door with the key, I put the key in the ignition and the car wouldn’t start. The battery was dead. Perfect.

I went to the man at the gate to the parking lot and asked if he had jumper cables. He did not, but a quick call to an auto shop down the road produced them. The guy said we could jump our car with his, so he drove his car around, but because of the way our car was parked, the cable cars didn’t reach. When we put my car in neutral to try and back it out, the car wouldn’t move. I guess the car needed some electricity in order to switch into neutral as it was semi-automatic.

The guy called his auto-mechanic friend to come and help. They did, and after half an hour, we finally started the car. They told us not to turn the car off for at least an hour; otherwise it would start. We were off to Dubrovnik.

In order to get back to the highway, we had to drive up the side of a mountain. Halfway up, I started getting a wash of déjà vu. When I looked down the cliff, I realized my family and I had been here, looking down on the same village three years ago. At the top of the hill, I pulled over in the same pull-off location we had parked in on our Jeep excursion. But because we couldn’t turn the car off, we didn’t get out to see the same view.

When we got to the highway, we were running low on gas. We would need to get off at the first gas station. Problem was, the first gas station wasn’t for at least 150 kilometers. The entire time, I was thinking that we were going to get stranded without gas; I started to panic. Meanwhile, Tay was asleep with her headphones.

At the first toll, we asked for directions to the closest gas station. The woman told us 8 kilometers on the left. I was instantly relieved, worried that we would have stranded ourselves in Bosnia (you have to drive twenty minutes through Bosnia to get to Dubrovnik). The rental agency told us not to stop in Bosnia as it “wasn’t safe” for our Croatian license plate car.

In order to fill up, I had to turn the car off because the gas tank cover wouldn’t open unless it was off. I said a prayer and turned it off. Once the car was filled, I climbed back in and hoped that it would turn back on. It did.

We got to Dubrovnik at 8:40. They man who runs the guesthouse we are staying in told us we would have to run in order to get to the grocery store before it closed at 9. We didn’t run. We sprinted down the humongous flight of stairs and got there just in time to buy food for dinner. Dinner was delicious, by the way. A lemon-garlic chicken pasta. I made some homemade sangria, and Tay and I blogged for a bit before passing out.

I guess everything worked out. We’re in Dubrovnik, thankfully. But today was awful. There were many times I could have used a double dose of Ativan (my anti-anxiety medication), but we made it through what has to be the most challenging day of our trip. I’m sure my family at home has been waiting for me to do something stupid like leave the key to the car at a hostel on a island that is only reachable by ferry. And they would be right, this is totally something I would do. I can only be thankful this is the first time something like this has happened on this trip.

Now, we get to relax on the beach for three days. 

Posts to come.

Recently, I have been waking up about an hour before my alarm, and today was no different. Instead of lazily falling back asleep, I decided to get up and sit on our hostel’s terrace overlooking the Adriatic while catching up on my blog. When I got out of bed, I noticed that my toe was in a lot of pain, and upon inspection, I found even more sea urchin spines stuck under my skin; I’m not sure how I didn’t notice them the day before. I attempted to get them out but didn’t succeed, so I just put a bandaid and Neosporin on it.

Tay got up on her own maybe an hour after me, around 9:30 because we needed to check out of our hostel by 10. Because we only booked Hvar a week ago (while in Nice), we were unable to find a reasonably price hostel for two nights. So, instead we decided to suck it up and book two places that were a stone’s throw from one another.

After checking out of Villa Skansi, we walked 100 meters to Orange Hostel and dropped our bags off there for the day. Not wanting to waste any beach time, we were off to the beach. We walked along the harbor, figuring we’d likely stumble on a pebble beach at some point. We didn’t really like the idea of sitting on a large rock for the day (since we’re too cheap to pay for the lounge chairs), so pebbles it was.

We found a spot quickly and staked out our tanning beds. I put in my earphones and checked out. I may have fallen asleep, I forget. Tay continued to read The Runaway Jury by John Grisham, a book I suggested she buy at the Paris airport for a good beach novel. Side note: I hate Tay because she can read about twice as fast as I can.).

By lunchtime, we were hungry, so we walked back to grab lunch meat and a baguette at the local market in town and then grabbed a scoop of gelato to finish it off. Instead of walking back to the beach we had just been at, which had started to get crowded, we just found a closer one in another direction for the afternoon.

Soon there after, nature called so I made my way up to our hostel to check in. The man who works there asked where “my girl” was, and when I told him she was on the beach, he responded by saying, “Well, don’t you take good care of her. It will be nice that you have a private room tonight, yes?” My jaw dropped at his comment, but I couldn’t help but laugh. While back at the hostel, I was able to pull out the sea urchin spines stuck in my toe; let’s just say it was just short of excruciating. 

When I returned to my bronzing girl, we headed over to the supermarket. We were going to grill some steak and potatoes, as we were both craving something of the sort. The kitchen ended up being less equipped than we hoped—the oven was broken, and there was no grill as advertised on the internet—but I was able to figure it out. Tay was pleased.

After dinner, we walked around town and did some shopping. We also grabbed a second gelato, and went back to the hostel early because we knew we had to be up by 5:30 in order to catch the 6:30 ferry to Split.

Posts to come.

For the most part, today was a travel day. I guess I never realized how few days we’ve spent exclusively getting from one city to the next. I think this is one of those times that I need to thank Tay for her masterful planning. She literally spent days (not hours) designing this trip so that it would be as inexpensive and as convenient as possible. Tay, you have exceeded.

So, we needed to get from Plitvice to Hvar, which included driving three hours to Split and getting on a ferry to Hvar. If you are familiar with our original itinerary, you would know that Hvar is not on it and that we would have been staying in Split for two nights starting today. But after talking with multiple people, Split is less of a destination than stop-over, and Hvar is the place to be. So, we cancelled our booking at our hostel in Split and booked Hvar.

When we got to Split, we had to find a place to leave our car for two days, as we didn’t want to pay to take it with us on the ferry. After talking to a woman at the port, she said we could park anywhere we could find a space for free since we had a Croatian license plate, and the police would unlikely ticket a Croatian car. Or we could pay to park in an official parking lot. Since we had no idea what a parking violation could cost in kuna, we decided to pay to have park in a legit place; it’s also safer that way.

We had about two hours to kill before our ferry, so we just staked out a spot on a bench in the sun and changed into our bathing suits and sunbathed on the dock. The ferry itself was quick, only about and hour and a half. For the majority of the trip I continued organizing our pictures on my computer.

Once on the island of Hvar, we had to take a bus from Stari Grad to Hvar Town, where our hostel was located. The hostel was up on a hill, looking down on the town and water, but walking up the hill with our backpacks wasn’t ideal.

Once we checked in, we were off to the beach. It was close to 4 in the afternoon so most of the good sun tanning time had passed, but we were anxious to lay out and relax. I should revise my previous statement, because I use the term “beach” loosely. Although there are some pebble beaches, most of the water’s edge is rock. It looks beautiful, but isn’t so beautiful on the butt.

Of course, I had to test the water. But I quickly found out that there are sea urchins just below the surface. Yes, I definitely kicked a sea urchin and paid the price. I have many spins in the side of my foot. But did this keep me from swimming longer? No. Did the jellyfish keep me from the water? No. I swam out into the harbor, attempting to get some exercise to counteract the majority of the past few days I spent on my butt in a car. At one point, a guy who was standing on the stern of his boat waved me down and asked if I could help him. His motor had run over a rope line, and it was jammed. Since I had goggles on, I obliged. For the next ten or so minutes, I struggled to free his motor until I had succeeded. I’m not going to lie. I felt good. It was definitely a good Samaritan moment.

Tay and I watched the sunset on our rock, and then walked to the closest market to buy food for dinner. Over dinner, we had a long chat about the trip as a whole. Mostly we tried to figure out how much this trip was actually worth. Obviously we knew how much it had cost, but we also knew that it was worth far more than what we had spent. I don’t think we actually came up with a figure, but let’s just say the trip goes above and beyond in every way possible.

We ende our night walking around the town, which was very lively. Hvar is a pretty big party destination, but we did not partake as it would be severely expensive. Instead, we walked around the shops and grabbed gelato before heading back for bed. All in all, a pretty great travel day. Except for the damn sea urchin.

Posts to come.

Waking up this morning knowing that I had another three hour drive was difficult. I love driving, but I had spent over ten hours in the car yesterday (and that’s a generous estimate). But we had to get to the national park in Plitvice, and the car wasn’t going to drive itself.

I’m incredibly impressed in the signage in Croatia. If I’m being honest, I expected few signs and half paved roads; but there is a sign for wherever you want to go about every 5 kilometers on a brand-new four lane highway (two in either direction). And I should also admit that the Smart car is nearly as roomy as my highlander at home. I’m fairly certain that there is more space between my head and the ceiling, my seat isn’t even close to all the way back, and there’s at least a foot between mine and Tay’s shoulders. If you didn’t peer forward to look at the non-existent hood of the car or look behind to see a rear window instead of a trunk, you would think u were in an SUV. I guess the only frustrating thing is that while the car is automatic, it drives like a standard; the computer chip doesn’t change gears very smoothly, and it seems to change gears at inopportune moments, which only enhances the jerkiness of the ride. Luckily, I can switch the car to semi-standard, where I can tell it when to change gears. Either way, I’ll be happy to return to Harper, my Toyota Highlander, next week.

When we got to the park, we were able to find our hotel/villa very easily. We checked in and dropped our bags off before driving to the closest market to buy lunch and then on to the park itself. The woman who check us in said we would be able to park for free in the hotel parking lot across the street from the entrance, but they turned us away and told us we had to pay to park at the entrance. The guy told us it was full, but he looked at the car, laughed at the size of it, and told us we’d be able to make room for it.

Although the morning had been overcast and slightly raining, which we hoped would cut down on the crowds, the sun had broken through, making it a perfect day for the park. Thus, the park was infiltrated by a ton of people. We got our tickets and headed for the trails. As we entered, there were six wooden signs just to the right on the trail with crossed out images on them. No fires. No picking plants. No unleashed dogs. No swimming. No stepping off the trail. And perhaps my favorite, no playing children.

Once in the entrance, we had to trek down mountain to the bottom of the canyon where the lakes lay. As we descended, we could see bits of the lakes which were neon bluish-green (not greenish-blue). The girls we had roomed with in Zagreb recommended that we take trails F and C, as there were about 7 or 8 different trails of differing difficulty and length. F was to take 3-4 hours, and C 2-3. It sounded perfect to us. It was only 2 in the afternoon, so we had 6 hours until closing time.

First we got to take a ferry boat from one side of the lake to the other, then another to the other end of the lake. We started out walking on what seemed like a regular hiking trail, but soon, we were walking on wooden sidewalks that were built over the lakes and waterfalls. It seemed as if you were walking, or at least floating on water. I was surprised by the lack of hand railings; if they didn’t want you swimming, you would think they’d make sure you couldn’t just falling in, or walk off the sidewalk into the water as I briefly considered many-a-times. Telling me not to swim when next to a body of water is kind of like tell a baby not to breathe; it just doesn’t work. Since no one was allowed to swim, the water was absolutely crystal clear. You could see straight to the bottom as if you were looking through a glass window into the water.

In a word, the waterfalls were gorgeous. Although I definitely appreciated their beauty while there, when I flipped through the 250 pictures Tay had taken during the day, I was struck even harder by its beauty. At one point we were trying to describe the color of the water, as our vocabulary couldn’t pinpoint the exact color. At one point, Tay said, “It’s so blue, it’s green.” That’s the best way to describe it.

By 7 o’clock, we were starving. So we took the shuttle back to our parking lot and jumped in the car. The woman at our hotel recommended a cute bistro down the road for dinner, so we went there. Tay had minced meat and potatoes, and I had pizza. I was missing my Manny T so I got a cappuccino in her memory. And then we shared a plate of chocolate pancakes—they tasted exactly like my grandmother’s thin pancakes.

At night, Tay and I blogged while sipping on the sangria Djuro and Ljubica had bought us. We took turns giving each other backrubs—a sort of nightly ritual on this trip—and then passed out after a long day.

Posts to come.

I was oddly nervous when I woke up, today. I’m not sure why as today was probably my most anticipated day of the trip. It could have been that I would be driving three hours through a foreign country, to a city I’ve never been to or seen, in a car I had only been handed the keys ten hours ago. It could have been because the details of my day were rather uncertain; although I knew my destination (a library named after my grandmother and grandfather at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek), I didn’t know what it would be like, or even who would be there to meet me. Everything had been arranged by my grandmother who was back in the States. All I was told was, “find the library and call this number.” And somehow, if I did this, everything would be fine. But I didn’t know how I would find my relatives. Would they meet me at the library? I didn’t know. Then, there was the fact that I hadn’t seen these relatives in eight years. I wasn’t sure if I’d recognize them, even though I vividly remember the time I spent with them when I was fourteen when they visited the states. Nevertheless, I was excited beyond belief. Nervous, but excited.

Tay and I woke up at 7:30 and were on the road by 8. Tay, who has severe motion sickness had to take a dose of Dramamine, which made her rather drowsy. So, for most of the trip it was me and the road, with Tay dosing with her iPod headphones in (note: I’m not complaining. I rather like driving). The drive was incredibly easy. For the most part, all I had to do was follow signs for Osijek.

Finding the library was also incredibly easy. After all, it blatantly sticks out from its surroundings, as it is an American-modern, dark steel and glass building in the middle of a typical Croatian neighborhood filled with pink and yellow clay houses with terra cotta roofs and gated entrances. There wasn’t even a sign, but it was obvious we were in the right place. Any and all anxiety I had had at that moment was gone; this was going to work out perfectly.

I called the number my grandmother had sent me, and sure enough there was a man who knew exactly who I was. Antal explained that his car was being serviced, but that he would be there shortly. Maja, a woman who lived on campus, would be out momentarily to let us into the library and show us around.

I parked out behind the library, and as Tay and I were getting our things together, three people came towards us with warm smiles from ear to ear. We all introduced ourselves. Maja, Andrew, and Kevin and all worked at the Seminary in some capacity and had many questions for us. The first of which was whether we had brought any books? I was slightly thrown off by the question. At first, I thought they were serious, but then quickly realized they were kidding. I explained that I had actually just left the only book I had brought on the trip in Paris as it was one less thing to carry. We laughed. Then, they wanted to know where had we come from? How long were we in Croatia? In Osijek? And how did we (Tay and I) know eachother? Were we fiancés? Ha. No.

After introductions, they began the tour of campus. Since their enrollment is rather small, less than 130 students (30 residents and 100 commuters), the campus is comprised of three buildings: the Learning Center, the church, and a third building for dorms, cafeteria, and miscellaneous offices. Campus was deserted, as the seminary was closed for vacation during August. But they opened everything for us to see. The inside of the Learning Center was just as stunning as the outside. The building functions as not just a library but a home to all administrative offices, classrooms, professor’s offices, and even guest apartments for visiting professors. Everything was state of the art; for a moment, I thought I was standing on campus at Boston College, even though their classrooms were even nicer than most of BC’s. The library itself was unlike anything I imagined. I had seen pictures, but not enough to create a mental picture of what it would look like in person. The main area had a high ceiling with a spiral staircase up to the reference section. They were in the process of indexing their books on the computer so they still had the old-school index card catalogue, and many books were stacked in a corner waiting to be given a permanent home on the shelf. Kevin explained that Peter Kuzmic (the president of the seminary) had gotten all the books by befriending the wives of elderly ministers. “You connect the dots,” he said.

As we were standing in the hall of the second floor, I heard some whispers coming from the stairs. When I looked, I saw Ljubica coming up the stairs, and I immediately beamed with excitement. She looked exactly as I had remembered her, and she looked absolutely thrilled to see me. Right behind her was Djuro, my grandmother’s cousins son. I honestly can’t explain how happy I was to see them. Memories from eight-years ago of cooking with Ljubica and chatting with Djuro rushed back to me. I immediately embraced them both.

We sat down in the library while we waited for Antal to arrive. Djuro immediately asked about my family. Kelsey was the first; he wanted to know exactly how Kelsey was doing. “Tell us everything,” he said. Then the rest of my family followed soon there after. At times, it seemed he knew more about my family than I did. Every time I mentioned someone or some event, it seemed he already knew about it; apparently Grammy keeps him well informed.

After catching up with one another, Maja and Andrew showed us the dormitory where all the students live; the building reminded me exactly of a dorm on Brooks’ campus, Whitney. The upper floors had wooden paneling, and although they were in the mist of getting ready to paint for the new academic year, I was rather impressed.

Once we had seen the campus, it became apparent that we wouldn’t be able to tour Osijek and have time to go to Plavna, Serbia, where Djuro and Ljubica lived and where my grandmother lived from ages six to ten. I knew I wanted to see Plavna—that was certainly my priority, as I had wanted to see their home ever since I had met them eight years prior. And when I wasn’t able to attend the dedication ceremony of the library in 2006 because of my high school graduation, I was none too please to miss the opportunity to see my relatives. Plus, Ljubica had prepared lunch, and as I remembered, she was a phenomenal cook.  So off we went.

The ride was a little under two hours and included crossing the border into Serbia. The passport control station was rather intimidating; I had never crossed a border except by plane. At this point, we learned that Djuro and Ljubica were dual citizens in Croatia and Serbia; they live in Serbia during the summer and Croatia during the winter. Djuro explained that when the traveled between Serbia (where their farm was) and Croatia (where the rest of their family lives), they use their Serbian passport. But when traveling to the United States, they use their Croatian passport. This made sense as Croatia was significantly more developed—it’s preparing to join the European Union—and because of the conflict in Kosovo, Serbians have difficulty going to the States.

For the rest of the ride, there were bits of scattered conversation. Djuro pointed out some sights and details as we passed. But mostly I gazed out the window at the countryside. Serbia was noticeably more rundown. Although the buildings were painted with the same bright yellows and pinks as Croatia, they were more decrepit and tired. When we reached their house in Plavna, we got out of the car and stretched while Ljubica opened the gate to their house. The house is built around a courtyard, with a large garden in the back, behind the coupes that housed their turkeys, hens, and roosters. They showed us into the kitchen and offered us drinks while Ljubica worked her magic in the kitchen.

In a word, lunch was delicious. I think we were all starving as it was close to three in the afternoon by the time we ate. Lunch consisted of a completely homemade soup; I think it was chicken broth and noodles, though that description reads more plain that its taste. Then, next was boiled chicken and potatoes with a tomato-base sauce. When I saw the chicken, I connected the dots and assumed it had come from their coupe in the backyard; in all likelihood, they had butchered it this morning. But I didn’t say anything because I didn’t think Tay had made the connection yet, and I didn’t want to scare her off. Not to mention, the chicken was incredible.

We ate for nearly 2 hours, mostly because conversation slowed the eating process. Djuro and Ljubica wanted to know everything about Tay and how I was doing. We even learned a lot about them. Djuro told us that he had learned English when he was sixteen and went to Australia for five years to work. When he came back to Plavna, he said that he would married the first woman that he saw. And he did. As he was telling us this story, Ljubica was standing at the kitchen sink, doing dishes (Now, many a time, I tried to help Ljubica with the dishes. But every time she adamantly insisted that I do absolutely nothing but finish my cake). Even though she didn’t understand what he was saying, she knew exactly what he was saying. When he translated the conversation, she stopped him and said she knew exactly what he had just told us. When I verified whether she knew any English, he said, “No. She just knows me.” I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been married for 40 years.

I felt bad since Ljubica was the only one who couldn’t speak or understand English. Djuro translated the important things for her, but I so badly wanted her to understand everything, and for me to understand her. I had remembered her being rather quiet eight years ago, but today, I got to see an entirely different Ljubica. One that is lively, always smiling, very enthusiastic when she talks, and of course, the kindest woman. I want so badly to learn Croatian so that I can talk to her directly. That would have made my visit more than just perfect.

Just when we thought we were finished, Ljubica pulled out dessert. Now, my family makes fun of me and even hates when I eat dessert because it takes me forever, especially when it’s so good your eyes roll back into the back of your head every time you put a bite in your mouth. Well, this dessert was exactly that and more. Djuro didn’t know what it would be called in English so he just said, “a cake with fruit.” I don’t know how to explain it. It had bananas and blackberries and sweet whipped cream and cake. Ugh. I’m salivating just thinking about it.

Djuro gave us a tour of the house after dessert. One more bite and we would have to be rolled from the table. Tay noted that the house reminded her a lot of her grandparents house, what with the décor and set up. Even half way across the world, you can find things that remind you of home. We looked through photo albums of their two daughters, four grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. They said they wished we had more time so that they could take us to Slatina to meet them in person.

Then, he showed us the chicken coupe. When Djuro pointed to a group of chickens and said that they were about ready to be slaughtered, Tay made the connection I had made at lunch. I believe she said something to the effect of, “OH! I didn’t want to know THAT! Well… whatever, the chicken was still good.” The garden was full of plants that Djuro identified. We stumbled on this one tree with what looked like bright blue fruits. Djuro didn’t know what the word for them in English was so he offered us some. Upon biting into them, it was clear they were peaches, wait, no plums.

Ljubica had coffee waiting for us in the kitchen when we returned. Over coffee and a second helping of her fabulous dessert, we continued to talk with Djuro. He talked a lot of former Yugoslavia and how he has a hard time believing that the Yugoslavia he once knew doesn’t exist. He himself is 63 (Ljubica, 58) and was born just after World War II and since then Yugoslavia has changed dramatically. Tay and I could both tell that he was deeply distraught about the current state of Serbia. “There is nothing I can do,” he said. “Now it is up to our children to fix this.”

Djuro explained that he had some things to show us around town before we headed back to Osijek by way of Vukovar, the main sight of the Croatian-Serbian conflict and war. But before we left they gave us both a gift; Tay got perfume and I got a set of shower toiletries (shampoo, body wash, soap… etc). I don’t know if they knew how much we could have used them, but either way the gift was unexpected as was everything they did for us that day.

They drove us around Plavna, showing us Ljubica’s brother’s and sister’s houses, the house where Djuro was born, the fields where Djuro worked during the day; he grows corn and soy beans. And then they brought us to the market in their town. The store was small, especially by American standards, but it surprisingly had EVERYTHING (and not just one type of everything; you had choices.). Ljubica insisted that she buy us something there. We tried to explain that it was really unnecessary, but boy is that woman stubborn (I say this incredibly lovingly). She bought us some croissants, and coffee for our trip and a bottle of sangria.

Then, we were off to the border, stopping quickly to see the area on the Danube River that they often go to swim. Then we crossed the river back into Croatia to Vukovar. While most of the city had been rebuilt since the war, which ended in 1995, there was still a significant amount of damage. Many buildings were left crumbling, with bullet and missile holes. I realized there was a lot I didn’t know about Croatian and Serbian history, so I looked up as much as I could on Wikipedia.

When we got back to Osijek, I wasn’t close to ready to part with Djuro and Ljubica. I promised that I would be back, and next time I would stay longer. I might even overstay my welcome. As we hugged goodbye, I felt myself fighting back tears.

As we climbed into the car and began our drive, we talked about the day. Tay mentioned that they are “the nicest people in the world.” And it’s true. They were incredibly hospitable and would have done anything we asked. We both wished we budgeted more time to spend with them, as we could have easily spent days at their home. But alas, we had to make it back to Zagreb. Regardless, we are hugely grateful for everything they did for us.

The ride home was a bit longer than the ride out, as we hit an extreme lightning storm. It started down pouring. Not knowing how a SMART car could handle the rain. I pulled over to the side of the highway, turned on my hazard lights and hoped the storm would blow over. It was clear that we were driving into the storm. At first the lighting was far ahead, and after a while it was striking next to our car, followed by an immediate shudder of thunder. Now, I love thunder, and I was even scared. I just kept reminding myself that a car is the safest place to be during a lightning storm. Once we got back to the area of Zagreb, we hit traffic just outside the city before the toll. It took us nearly 45 minutes to get through, and since we had spent almost 10 hours in a car that day, neither Tay nor I were happy about it.

By the time we got back to the hostel, I was exhausted. I passed out seconds after hitting the pillow.

Posts to come.

So, today we had to do some logistical planning for our time in Croatia. We needed to figure out how we were getting to Osijek, and whether we would be able to rent a car on Saturday without an international drivers license. The problem was, today was a national holiday—something like our Thanksgiving—so everything was closed. We did our best, asking the people at the hostel about bus and train schedules. It turned out that the bus was 4 hours long (on a good day) and left at 5:30AM. In order to avoid this inconvenience, we wanted to see if we could get the car a day early, so that we could just drive there. To know if this was possible, we needed to go to Hertz, But before that, we had to make sure we had food. Shopping in Croatia proved to be significantly more difficult since everything was in Croatian, and Croatian is nowhere close to mutually intelligible with English. We ended up figuring it out. After all, Tay did graduate from Dartmouth. After dropping off our groceries at the hostel, we headed to Hertz, which was a short walk. Unfortunately, they were closed, and there was no sign saying when the would be open. So it seemed we were stuck with the bus to Osijek. Meh.

We decided to make the best of it and continued on to the center of town. We had planned on just walking around and seeing the city, even though everything was closed. In the main square, we saw that the tourist information office was open, so we stopped in to see if they knew of a car rental place that was open today so we could rent for tomorrow. She explained that their contact with Smart car had just left their office and had two cars available. I guess rental cars are hard to come by during the summer months because everybody rents them and travels to the coast. A quick call explained that the cars were still available, but since we were looking to drop the car off in a different city, we had to rent the car for at least seven days. The price, though, was only a hundred euros more than we had budgeted for a one-day rental, so the added price would easily pay for itself when considering the convenience of having a car for all of Croatia. The would even drop the car off to us later that night at our hostel for no additional cost. And the best part, I would get to drive a Smart car for a week! So, we booked.

For the next couple hours, we toured the city rather lackadaisically. We saw the main cathedral and walked the main streets. Despite getting ten hours of sleep, we were still exhausted so we stopped for cappuccinos at a street-side café (Sara would be jealous to know that the cappuccinos were 9 kuna each—that’s about a sixth of the price she had paid nearly every day in other countries). Then, we walked to the palace and the Botanical Gardens. By that time, I was really hungry, so we returned to our hostel to grab one of the apples I had bought this morning.

Since then, we’ve been hanging out in the hostel, talking with Danyelle, doing laundry, etc. The guy dropped our Smart car off around 7:30 and I got a quick tutorial on how to drive it; it’s somehow a hybrid of an automatic and standard car. I can’t wait until tomorrow to get behind the wheel.

Around eight, it started to downpour. There was a slight incident with the roof of our hostel. The weight of the heavy rains kind of broke the roof, letting water gush into the hallway. It was rather humorous, but the guy who was on duty seemed to fix the issue rather quickly. We all just laughed it off.

Alright. time for bed. Good night.

Posts to come.