I randomly had asked my friend Dan, another exchange student, if he would be down for going to Croatia on this particular weekend. He asked for a vague agenda, and I told him my ideas...it took him about 20 seconds to agree to it. So I had a travel companion, and we went about setting our itinerary. The first thing we did was book a one-way flight from Zagreb, the capital, to Dubrovnik, at the very southern tip of the country along the coastline, because we found a ticket for something like 45 dollars. Eventual, we agreed that a train to Zagreb on Thursday afternoon and a train home from Zagreb sometime on Sunday would be our main transportation. Getting back from Dubrovnik to Zagreb would be by overnight bus, but we could'nt book that online, only in person at the bus station. A week went by, and we had been slacking on our accomodation booking, so we got together the Tuesday before we left to figure it out. In Zagreb, we found one for $16 a night, which 'claimed' to be 10 minute walk from the main train station. More on that soon. In Dubrovnik, a lot of the hostels were located 15-20 minute walks outside of the Old Town, but we didn't want to do that, so we paid the 20 Euro for one located in almost the very center of the Old Town, which actually turned out to be an f'in great choice!
Thursday, Oct. 8th.
Anyway, Dan ended up leaving Wednesday afternoon to get to Zagreb a day early, because he didnt have class on Thursday and just felt like getting up and going. I left Thursday afternoon after my classes, and a 6.5 hour train ride later, arrived at the Zagreb train station. I hand wrote the directions to the hostel on a piece of paper, and expected a quick walk around a few blocks to get there, but it turned into me walking a little over a half hour to this place. But I did find it no problem, and Dan was waiting outside for my arrival. We walked back to the Bus Station (halfway between the Hostel and Train Station) to grab a small bite to eat before turning in and trying to get a good nights rest.
Friday, Oct. 9th.
We woke up, got our shit together, and were out of the hostel by about 9:45. The city center was past the train station, so we got on a tram heading that way in hopes that we wouldnt be checked for a ticket, which we were not. Zagreb is the largest city in Croatia, with approx 900,000 people, but the main old town/touristy area is pretty small, like many other cities in Europe. We arrived in the main square, which used to be the dividing point between two medieval towns that eventually joined together as one.
We walked around for a bit, Danny already having seen all this the day before, so he was my pseudo-tour guide for the 3 hours we spent in the city. Visited a cathedral where the corpse of the city archbishop was?? although I was not aware of that until after the fact, walked through the open air market as well as the fresh seafood market, which was awesome, as well as visiting the Croatian Parliament, Presidential Palace, and what they call the Green Horseshoe, a collection of parks and open spaces that when viewed from above takes the shape of a, you guessed it, horseshoe.
After our little tour, we hopped back on a tram to get to the bus station, because instead of paying around $40 for a taxi to the airport, Croatia Airlines has a bus that runs back and forth every half hour for $7. Arriving at the airport, we were checked in and through security in less than what seemed like a minute. Even with the lady in front of me having to forfeit here liquids and gels that were in her carryon. Thankfully, somehow, my cologne, toothpaste, deodorant, and what not made it through no problem.
A very, very quick 50 minute flight later, we landed in Dubrovnik to beautiful surroundings and a lovely temperature of about 79 degrees. We caught basically the same bus from the airport to the Old Town, and made our way to the hostel to check in. The Old Town is very hilly, and our hostel was located at the very top of one, but it was so worth it. Our bedroom was on the top floor of this 4 story building, and out our windows this is what we could see:
We settled in, showered, and ran off to go grab a bite to eat. Both of us agreed that a seafood meal was in order, and Danny's guide book suggested a place right by the marina. An order of mussels and a seafood risotto did the body good, and the realization that this may be the last time we have had to enjoy fresh seafood until we head back to the states set in. After, we meandered around the old town, and I was dead set on catching a glimpse of the sunset, so we left the old town heading up the Lapad peninsula to try and find a good lookout point. A late arrival forced us to settle for the beautiful colors that the sky was displaying after the sun had already set, but I enjoyed them as they were.
Arriving back at the hostel, we met some of the other travellers/backpackers that were staying there, most of them being Australian, but also one from Finland and a few from New Zealand. Some drinking and conversing occured, before some of us headed off to the only? club still open, Fuego. I made my way over with two kiwis and the Finland guy, and we stopped at the Hilton Imperial for a drink, Finland guy paying (thank god because the beers were like 15 bucks each). We reveled in our short-lived high-roller status, and proceeded to walk across the street to the club. Many drinks later, and after refusing a few shots the Aussies had bought for me, further evidencing that Americans can't drink worth a crap compared to the rest of the world, I managed to drag myself back to the hostel and passed out.
Saturday, Oct. 10.
Waking up and looking outside was beautifulllll, almost made me forget how much I felt like crap! Holy Hangover! Around 10 after we had eaten a quick breakfast, the first thing on our agenda was to walk the mile and a half along the top of Dubrovnik's famous walls. These walls were originally built to protect the town from invasions and what not, and some are set directly on the cliff side overlooking the water, rising over 120 feet high in some places. I struggled a bit, but slowly was feeling better...very slowly. After our walk, we decided a quick bite to eat was in order before beachin' it. I ordered a salad, but couldn't finish it. My stomach just said no. I was actually really excited to find the beach because I'd get to pass out for a little bit. Well, we found a pseudo-beach, not wanting to walk the extra 15 minutes to the real one, and we both jumped in a swam for a few minutes before Dan retired to a rock to read and me to another to lay down.
Earlier in the day while on the wall, we had seen a few guys jumping off some of the rocks/cliffs on the outside of the walls, and Danny had his heart set on doing it. I agreed, somewhat hesitantly, but definately wanted to partake in it. The place we ended up going was this cliffside bar called Buza. Rows of chairs and umbrellas lined the multiple levels of this place, with an area to hop into the water at the bottom and plently of rocks and cliffs to jump off of. It ended up being the same place that we saw the guys jumped earlier, so we were excited. Turned out to be one of the funnest things I've ever done, and it gives you a real rush. We started off with what we figured were 20-25 foot cliff, but Dan made the suggesting to move up a little higher, and we were jumping off 35+ foot rocks. Everyone loved us. People would stop and watch us from atop the wall, people sailing by would cheer us on as we jumped, and we even got a few others to join us and made a marathon of it.
Later, we grabbed to bite to eat at a restaurant that specialized in Bosnian/Serbian food. We ordered a plate for two, called the Genghis Khan (strange?), which was a plate full of meats veggies and sauces...amazingg.
We caught a bus at 9pm to overnight back to Zagreb, stopping along the way in BOSNIA (for all over 20 minutes) and Split, among others, and arrived back to the capital at around 7am. It was cold and raining, and our train didn't leave for another 3 hours, so we moped our way to the train station to wait it out. After about an hour and a half of waiting, I suggested we get a quick bite to eat at the restaurant, which we did. Finishing our meal, an older gentleman kept randomly looking back at us, before asking Danny where he was from, and offering to buy us shots, which we politely declined, considering the time. As we were leaving, he started to question Danny about what he thought of Zagreb, as well as saying something along the lines of "we are poor f'in people here, do you know how we make money? How I make money?" Turns out he was the Zagreb City Pimp and offered Danny a lay, but we hurriedly walked out of there before it turned any more awkward. We boarded our train and endured another 6 hour ride home to Budapest.
You can see pictures of this here: Croatia Pictures!
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