Croatia

Hi!

So I think I’ve finally recovered from Croatia and can update y’all on my trip! I have never traveled to so many places in such a short amount of time but it was an amazing experience!

We left Florence around 5 Thursday night on a train. We had a layover in Venice so we were able to have dinner. The first time we went to Venice it was over 100 degrees. This time it was cold and rainy. We definitely have bad luck with the city. Our next train arrived in Zagreb, Croatia at 4:30 a.m. Because everything was closed, we decided to take a tour around the city in the freezing rain. I only brought shorts and dresses so after breakfast we had to buy sweatpants.

That afternoon we took a bus ride to the town of Marija Bistrica. I’m not sure if I told you this, but one of the guys in charge of this trip is a grad of Miami. He has lived in Croatia in the past and has traveled all over Europe. He planned the Munich and Croatia trips, but also has helped us figure out our weekend plans. Since he’s lived in Croatia, his friends had a huge feast for us that night in Marija Bistrica.
We were at a winery house called a klet. It’s essentially a small house overlooking the hills of Croatia. They went all out and I’ve never eaten so much food in my life! We had a porkchop and potato stew (below), sausage, chicken, beef kabobs, bread, tomatoes and a ton of other stuff. They also had these carrot patties, which were made out of carrots, goat’s milk and flour. I’m determined to figure out how to make them when I get back home!

They kept bringing out food and we sat at the table eating for hours. My favorite part was the dessert. It was called Little Hungarian Girls (the picture is below). It’s made out of dough and chocolate and the locals have contests to see how many layers of dough they can add to the dessert. They also had a local band come and serenade us and we stayed there all night mingling with our new Croatian friends.

Late that night we took a bus back to Zagreb to catch a night train to Split. It was a karaoke train so we didn’t actually have beds, but had seats instead. I didn’t get a lot of sleep, but it was a lot of fun! We arrived in Split around 7 a.m. the next morning. We couldn’t get into our hostel until the afternoon so my friend Kelly and I took a nap in a café we found. After this trip, I can literally fall asleep anywhere, anytime. After checking in, we hung out at the Dalmatian Coast all day.On Sunday, we took a bus back to Zagreb, but stopped at the Plitvice Lake National Park. The waterfalls were absolutely gorgeous! That night we took an overnight train back to Florence and I’ve been catching up on sleep ever since.

This was our last real week of class and we all went out for sushi last night to celebrate. I’m leaving in a few hours for Interlaken, Switzerland for our last weekend of travel. It’s an area that has a lot of extreme sports, so I’ll let you guys know what I do when I come back!

Hope everyone’s doing well and I’ll see you in a little over a week!

MH