2. 13th January (Tea & Stela)
On the plane again… I’ve collected quite a lot of miles
in the last month or so. It’s getting a bit expensive,
but I don’t want to lose much of my time. It was
important for me to meet all of my eTwinning
friends. After Croatia I might slower down and take
interrail pass for Austria or Germany… When I get to
Ploče, I’ll look it up on the Internet. Anyway, I
haven’t decided where to go next…
3. The nearest airport to Ploče, the town where my
eTwinning friends live, is in Dubrovnik. Mrs
Bojanović arranged for Tea, Stela and Magdalena to
wait for me and be my guides during my first two
days in Croatia. Then we will meet with the others
in Ploče. I noticed they have these letters – ć and č –
I wonder how they pronounce them…
Oh it’s great I got a seat near the window – the view is
breath taking! Look at those islands! We’re landing
– we’re already in Dubrovnik?!
4. My dear diary, it’s late in the evening, and I’m really
exhausted. The girls waited for me at the airport
and we took a shuttle bus to the town of Dubrovnik.
On the bus they explained to me that people often
refer to Dubrovnik as “Grad” (meaning the town in
Croatian), especially because they pronounce it a
bit differently in Dubrovnik. I asked them about
Croatian language and the pronunciation – well, for
every sound they have a letter. Ć and Č are
something like CH in “change”, with the difference
in softness. Ć is soft and Č is hard. It sounds a bit
funny when they explain it…
5. Our first destination was the Old Town of Dubrovnik.
When you enter the Pile Gates, there you see
Stradun - the main street of Dubrovnik. The street
runs some 300 metres through the Old Town, the
historic part of the city surrounded by the Walls of
Dubrovnik. In recent times, Stradun and some of
the surrounding houses were damaged in mortar
shelling during the Siege of Dubrovnik in
1991/1992, but most of the damage has been
repaired since.
7. I needed some time to enjoy the view, so the girls
suggested going for a coffee. We sat on a terrace of
a coffee shop – luckily it was a sunny day and it was
pretty warm for this part of the year. I asked the
girls about this siege, and they told me a bit about
the war in Croatia in the early 90s. Stradun was
always famous for numerous pigeons, and during
that period they were all gone from Dubrovnik.
Now they are back and looking so funny flying in
flocks around the square.
9. And the coffee… It was the most expensive coffee I
have ever drunk, but I guess it was worth it because
of the historical and cultural meaning of this old
town. The girls didn’t let me pay, since I was their
guest. It is usual that the one who invites for a
coffee, he is going to pay the bill.
10. After Stradun we went to some other locations like
Walls of Dubrovnik and Rector’s Palace.
11. The Walls of Dubrovnik are a series of defensive stone
walls that have surrounded and protected the
citizens of the afterward proclaimed maritime city-
state of Dubrovnik (Ragusa). Dubrovnik used to be a
Republic and it was independent. Later it became a
part of Croatia.
12. So, Rector’s Palace is a place in the city of Dubrovnik
that used to serve as the seat of the Rector of the
Republic of Ragusa. The Rector’s Palace was built in
Gothic style, but it also has Renaissance and
Baroque elements, harmoniously combining these
elements. Interestingly, when the south wind was
blowing (they call it “Jugo”, as “jug” is south in
Croatian), it was prohibited for the senate to have a
meeting and no important decisions were to be
made. They say it’s a hard wind, when everyone
feels a bit under the weather.
14. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time to visit
more locations, it was getting dark, so we went to
dinner. They know I like trying different food – so
we went to a local restaurant and the girls ordered
for me “Šporki makaruli” (dirty macaroni) and
“Fritule” for dessert.
Now we are at Tea’s aunt, she has a huge house,
which she rents in summer. She was really kind and
offered us to stay at her place. Tomorrow we’ll
continue our sightseeing of Dubrovnik and travel to
Ploče by bus – that will be an adventure!
15. 14th January (Magdalena)
We were all woken up by the smell of pancakes.
Magdalena got up first and made us some pancakes
and cocoa. They say the breakfast is the most
important meal of the day, and I couldn’t agree
more with them. :D
16. After breakfast, they suggested going to Srđ, a
mountain just behind the walled city of Dubrovnik.
Its height is 412 metres, the top of which is adorned
with “Fort Imperial”. From its top, the walled city of
Dubrovnik, Island Lokrum, Adriatic Sea and various
local attractions can be seen. The view was
spectacular and they told me more about the
geography of Croatia. It is called the land of a
thousand of islands because it has 1244 islands,
islets and rocks in the sea.
17. Srđ was covered before with pine forests, and they
used to call a forest “dubrava” in Croatian – so
that’s how Dubrovnik got its name. Nowadays, they
are planning to make golf courses on Srđ – local
people are totally against it. I guess it would be pity
to lose such a piece of nature.
18. There’s a cable car and we took a ride back down and
looked for a coffee shop to have a coffee. The girls
ordered some tea and juice and I was wondering
why they suggested going for a coffee, and ordering
something else. They just laughed and explained
that coffee is not just a drink, it is a social event for
Croatians and it has a significant role.
Someone once said: “Croatians love coffee, but more
than that, coffee in Croatia is where everything gets
done.
19. It’s where friends meet, where deals are made, it’s
how favours are asked, it’s how people are hired,
fired, introduced, married, divorced, everything.
Everything involves coffee.“ Also, when they say
“Let’s go for a coffee…” or invite you “Why don’t
you come for a coffee?”, it doesn’t necessarily mean
that they are going to drink coffee, but meet and
socialise.
20. This was the end of my visit to Dubrovnik and I’m
really glad that I visited it. I didn’t expect so many
beauties. I’m really thankful to Croatian team, they
were a really good company through my trip in
Dubrovnik. Now we’re on the bus to Ploče, Mrs
Bojanović is waiting for us at the bus station.
The bus ride will take us for about two hours,
depending on the customs… Can you imagine?! On
our way to Ploče we’ll pass the borders with Bosnia
and Herzegovina. Dubrovnik region is actually
separated from the rest of the Croatian mainland by
this small part of Bosnian and Herzegovinian
seacoast.
21. The bus wasn’t the cosiest one, but it was fun with
the girls. They are pretty chatty. The bus made a
longer stop near Ston – it’s a small old town on the
peninsula Pelješac. It also has defensive stone walls,
more than 7 kilometres long. They are known as the
“European Wall of China”. We decided to take
this opportunity and have lunch – we were starting
to get peckish. In a small restaurant on the road we
ordered some mussels – a small shellfish, you open
the black shell and eat the meat inside. You eat with
your hands and you also take some bread and dip it
in the soup. It’s very tasty. However, you’ve got to
be careful – if you eat too many mussels, you could
get sick!
23. We continued our ride. Soon the girls warned me that
we are near the Neretva valley. As far as I got it, the
river Neretva is very important for them and their
lives. I mean, their families in the past all lived
around and from Neretva. Its source is in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, and the final 22 kilometres of
Neretva are in Neretva-Dubrovnik County in Cro.
Here Neretva builds the wetland delta and spills out
in the Adriatic Sea several kilometres away from
Ploče. atia.
24. In the 50s of the past century, this was area of
swamps and marshes, full of mosquitos. After
melioration and cultivation, the Neretva Delta was
turned into agricultural area, with lots of fields of
Tangerine trees. The view from the bus reminded
me of lace – so many small fields with water canals
between them, some thin, others wide…
25. When we arrived in Ploče, it wasn’t just Mrs
Bojanović, it was the whole group waiting for us at
the station. Ploče is a small town, with nearly 7000
people. It is the youngest town – it was set up in the
1950s and started to develop since 1960s rapidly.
However, girls say that recently it just stands,
nothing being opened or changed to better. We
took a walk towards the hotel, the only hotel in
Ploče. It’s small but standing on a beautiful place on
the promenade where you can see the bay around
which Ploče is situated.
26. After checking into the hotel, they gave me some time
to relax and refresh. I had dinner in the hotel and
went for a night walk around Ploče, just to clear my
mind and put all impressions together… I’m going to
bed now, tomorrow I’m back in school – they’re
taking me to their lessons. Hope I won’t have any
test. ;)
28. 15th January (Marija)
My dear diary, I’m back in school. The school starts at
7,50 and they have seven different lessons today, so
we’re in school till 13,50. Between the lessons they
have a five-minute break, and after the third lesson,
they have a longer break – 20 minutes.
29. Their class is 3B, and there are 23 students in it. There
are only three boys – and they say they are the
lucky ones. The school isn’t very big – it has three
floors with 4-5 classrooms on every floor. The walls
are painted by students, so you can see many
interesting creations. All the teachers wanted to
know about me, and they also asked me what we
studied at school, which subjects we had. They are
pretty curious, but not rude. They all smile a lot,
and during the breaks they always sing or act
something out.
30. Ivan, Romana and Dora play the guitar, so whenever
they have an opportunity, let’s say someone’s
birthday, they organise a small party. They play and
sing, and, of course, they eat – Valentina, Anja and
Tea are usually in charge of cakes, especially
cupcakes, their favourite sweets.
31. In Geography lesson, they study touristic geography
of Europe, so we talked about London and tourism
in England. It’s interesting to see how much they
learn about other countries and their history. In
Maths lesson they were doing percentages and
averages. Oh, so many numbers spinning around. :D
Their head teacher and pedagogy worker came also
to meet me during the English lesson – they were
really interested in our school system. I gave my
best to explain how it works in England.
32. After school we went to the school restaurant where
the pupils prepared our meal today – a true Neretva
specialty – eel and frogs brodetto. It’s a watery fish
dish and served with polenta. They usually put hot
pepper and garlic to make it spicy and hot, but it
was just right for me to eat it.
After lunch, we made it to Baćina lakes –these are six
connected lakes, two very big and others smaller,
with a long road around all of them
33. There are several things you can do there – go for a
walk, take a bike and ride around the lakes, take a
lake tour by boat (old boats that were used in this
area for transporting in the past) and recently they
opened paddle surf club. It’s like surfing board, and
you’re standing on it and paddling. You can guess
what I was into! It reminded me immediately of
skate boarding and I wanted to try it.
34. Although lakes are warmer than the sea, in winter you
have to take a suit, like diving suit, so you don’t get
wet if you fall down and catch a cold. It was
amazing! Magdalena and Anja wanted to try it with
me and soon we were chasing each other along the
lakes. Great fun!
Now I’m back in the hotel, having hot tea and getting
ready to go out. It’s Friday evening and we’ll go to
different coffee shops and have a drink and dance.
Tomorrow we’re going along Neretva to see small
villages where my friends live. They’ve rented a
minibus so we can manage it all tomorrow. Hope
we won’t be too tired
35. 16th January (Romana)
We are going to the land of Neretva, we are on the
bus, singing. They are trying to teach me one of the
“klapa” song – “Ružo moja crvena” (My red rose) –
it’s slow so I’m keeping up with them…
Oh, the day was so busy I couldn’t write the diary. So
I’m back in the hotel now and I’ll try to describe
some of the things we did today.
36. I am amazed by the weather here. It is very pleasant
and warm, it’s sunny since I came to Croatia. I
would expect it to be a bit colder in winter, but you
don’t even need a scarf.
Riding by the river I was able to see a lot of fields of
grapes, tomatoes, potatoes and the most important
clementines and tangerines.
37. Tangerine is a symbol of Neretva. There are thousands
of tangerine trees which impressed me. People say
this part reminds of California. Tangerines are very
delicious and refreshing. They export them
throughout the whole Europe and many people live
from this. You could also say that the existence of
many families depends on the crops.
39. First we visited one village by the Neretva - Rogotin,
where you can see a lot of people dancing Lingo,
traditional dance of their region. They love fishing,
just as other people in Neretva. Mostly they fish
and cook what they catch. Domagoj and Ivana (from
the class 3B) live in Rogotin so they waited for us
and took us for a walk. They were eager to teach
me how to fish, so I gave in and gave it a try. I’m
more into active things, in fishing you need to stand
still, breathe smoothly, but, hey, I was lucky and
caught a mullet! I caught myself “marenda” (it’s a
meal between breakfast and lunch)!
41. They helped me make a grill so we prepared the fish
we caught and ate it with some potato salad. It
seems to me, you appreciate it more when you
have to try hard to get your own food.
We continued our journey to Komin where Ivan, Jela
and Nikoleta live (Jela is in my eTwinning project,
and the others are in the class 3B). In this time of
year, it is carnival preparations in Croatia – the big
Carnival events are in the beginning of February,
but they are already preparing their costumes.
42. In the year 2008 they tried to beat the Guinness
record – almost 400 people from Komin dressed up
as Smurfs, marking in this way 50 years of this
cartoon. In Komin they prepared for us a great
lunch – Peka – it’sa method of baking meat and
vegetables under the lid. They put all the
ingredients under the lid, cover it with live coals,
and let it cook. They showed me some old houses,
nets for fishing and different tools they use ever
since for farming. It’s a nice place and they are all
Torcida – keen followers of the football club Hajduk.
45. In the afternoon we went to see village Staševica
which is situated on the rid of a huge field full of
vineyards. We only tried the home made grapes
syrup and listened to some old tales of Deans
grandparents. Manuela and Petra taught me to
dance a folklore dance it was very entertaining. It
was great meeting the whole class 3B, they seem
like very tight friends. Inevitably, we played a
football game with their other friends, who were all
eager to meet me. After the game, it was time for
“užina” (meal between lunch and dinner). They
served us their own made ham, sausages and
cheese. I was full and ready to lay down, but it was
time to go back to Ploče.
47. I forgot to mention that Ploče has the second largest
sea port in Croatia. It is very important for not only
Croatia, but also Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Hungary, since lots of import and export takes place
over this port. It’s an essential part of Ploče, since it
is the biggest employer in the wider region. I can
see the port from my balcony, it’s really huge. I
know it’s important for the financial side of the life,
but wouldn’t it be nicer if this whole place was just
nature… You have a river, the sea, lakes, hills…
Everything on this small area.
48. I’m exhausted, need some sleep
because tomorrow we’re off to Split,the centre of
Dalmatia.
49. SPLIT (Dora) – 17th January
I had a great time in Ploče.At the same time I was sad
and happy because I was leaving Ploče and
travelling to Split. Mrs Bojanović rented a mini bus
for our trip. We took an old road because they
wanted me to see the beauty of Croatian coast. Our
first stop was in Makarska. We took a quick walk on
seafront and continued. Before Split we stopped in
Omiš. Omiš is a small town by river Cetina. From the
town we could see the rivers canyon. It was breath
taking.
51. At noon we arrived to Split. Split is a very beautiful
city on the Adriatic coast. It is an old city, built
around the Diocletian's Palace, in Central Dalmatia.
First we decided to go for a lunch at the famous fish
restaurant. It's amazing how much Dalmatians love
fish. Usually they drink wine with it. After lunch we
went for a walk on the famous Split's Riva.
52. At the end of the Riva is the entrance to Diocletian's
palace. Diocletian’s Palace is one of the most
imposing Roman ruins in existence and where you’ll
spend most of your time while in Split. Don’t expect
a palace though, nor a museum – this is the city's
living heart, its labyrinthine streets packed with
people, bars, shops and restaurants.
53. A military fortress, imperial residence and fortified
town. Each wall has a gate named after a metal: at
the northern end is the Golden Gate, while the
southern end has the Bronze Gate. The eastern gate
is the Silver Gate and to the west is the Iron Gate.
Just beyond the palace walls are two city landmarks
made by sculptor Ivan Meštrović; the medieval
bishop Grgur Ninski guards the Golden Gate and the
literary scholar Marko Marulić watches over Trg
Braće Radić just off Riva.
54. The Croatian bishop Grgur Ninski fought for the right
to use old Croatian in liturgical services. Sculpted by
Ivan Meštrović, this powerful work is one of the
defining images of Split. I noticed that his left toe
has been polished to a shine and people are
rubbing it, so I asked the girls why are they doing
that. They said that people are rubbing the toe
beacuse the legend says that it brings good luck.
55. We continued to look around the city. They showed
me some of the most famous Split's landmarks:
Cathedral of st. Duje. (St. Duje is the protector of
Split), Peristil (main square of Diocletian's Palace),
Narodni trg (National square), Prokurative (Split
Music Festival is held there), Temple of Jupiter and
many more.
59. It's 5 PM and it was a perfect time to visit park
Marjan, a hill above Split. We took a walk, we could
see the whole city from there. The girls had a
surprise for me, they were taking me to a football
game of their favourite club Hajduk. Before the
game we had to go and buy a lot of snacks and girls
bought me a Torcida's fan scarf. According to the
locals, Poljud is home of the best fotball club in the
world. "Hajduk", however, have a special place in
the heart of every citizen from Dalmatia. Supporting
"Hajduk" is a way of life!
62. You can't imagine the atmosphere on the stadium.
Everyone was singing, cheering, jumping... the vibes
you feel are amazing, the frendship and communion
are unbelievable. The match was so intense, but at
the end Hajduk won. After the match we were all
tired and head back to Dora's apartment, where we
played games, talked and went to sleep.
63. 18th January (Jela)
My dear diary, we left Split early and continued with
our mini bus towards northern parts of Dalmatia.
On our way to Zadar, we passed Šibenik, Lake Vrana,
which is the largest lake in Croatia, and finally came
to Zadar. The girls suggested visiting sights and
beauties of the city with them. Mrs Bojanović
studied in Zadar so she offered to be our guide.
64. According to the stories, Zadar is mostly known for its
beautiful sunset – according to some the most
beautiful sunset in the world. Alfred Hitchcock
visited Zadar in 1964 and wrote Zadar has the most
beautiful sunset in the world. Hah, we’ll see. It’s still
morning, I have to wait till the evening to check if
the stories are true.
65. Again walls! It seems that all these old town had walls
around them for protection. When you enter the
old part of the town, you come soon to the Main
Square. From there you can go for a walk through
small “kala” (passages) or take a long walk along
Kalelarga (long street) towards the Roman Forum.
Next to the Forum there is the Church of St.
Donatus, which I was absolutely impressed with. On
the opposite side of the Forum there is St. Mary’s
church, which belongs to a Benedictine Convent
founded in 1066. In the church we visited the
permanent exhibition “The Gold and Silver of
Zadar”.
69. When you go outside the walls and the Forum, to the
promenade, you can see the unique Sea organ and
hear the voice of the sea. Namely, they play music
by way of sea waves and tubes underneath large
marble steps. So the sounds depend on the waves
and winds. Great idea to let nature have its voice!
71. On the other side of the promenade, there is a huge
building – University of Zadar. We had lunch in the
student canteen and then Mrs Bojanović told us,
we’re going to visit one department. It was a
surprise she kept away from us – we’re visiting the
department of ethnology and anthropology!
The workshop they organised for us there was great, I
could learn a lot about cultural heritage, about
importance of linguistics in ethnology. This was a
great experience, and I might apply for Erasmus+
grant, once I start studying, and come here for a
semester.
72. At the end of the day we went to give greeting to the
sun - that is a round panel that lights with all the
beautiful colours at night. The Greeting to the Sun
consists of three hundred multi-layered glass plates
and they are the way nature communicates with
lights. They are just next to the Sea Organs, so it is a
unique experience to see and hear the play of the
nature. And yes, Zadar has one the most beautiful
sunsets… It’s really beautiful here…
73. Not to waste our time, and having a lot to
see and do in Zagreb, our next and final stop
in Croatia, we took a night bus ride. We
were all pretty exhausted, full of
impressions, and we quickly fell asleep.
74. 19th January (Valentina & Anja)
Finally, we arrived to Zagreb.Zagreb is capital and the
largest city of Croatia.I heard a lot of great things
about Zagreb,I can’t wait to start exploring it.
The class 3B had some previously arranged visit to a
school in Karlovac, but Anja and Valentina got
permission to be with me and help me around
Zagreb. We’ll meet the other tomorrow morning
again.
75. First we decided to take a walk by river Sava. There is
a beautiful park along the river where we sat and I
talked about my adventures in Turkey, Poland and
Slovakia. As we sat there we lost track of time and
got hungry so we decided go to local bakery to have
a breakfast. We ate traditional pastries. After
breakfast we took a tram to Upper city. Zagreb's
Upper City is a network of little streets that stretch
between two hills: Kaptol and Gradec. It is a
delightful place to explore and hosts some of
Zagreb's most interesting restaurants, bars and
cafes.
76. Start in Zagreb's central square, Trg Jelacica, and
walk uphill to Kaptol, stopping at Dolac, the fruit
and vegetable market. A little further is Zagreb's
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary whose twin spires are visible from afar. Begun
in the 13th century, it was reconstructed in the 20th
after an earthquake damaged it.
78. Inside the Cathedral in a glass coffin is displayed a
body of a Croatian saint Alojzije Stepinac who was
tortured and killed. If you’re walking around Upper
City in Zagreb, there’s no chance you will miss this
place. From outside, it looks like a simple passage,
but you might want to stick around a while longer.
I'm talking about Stone gate (Kamenita vrata) the
only remaining gate out of four that once
connected Lower town to a part of Upper town.
80. In 1242, the Croatian king Bela IV gave Gradec a status
of a free royal city, which automatically made the
Stone gate one of the most important passages in
Zagreb. Yet, the historical aspect of this place isn’t
as important as the spiritual one: today, the Stone
gate serves as a chapel where people take a
moment to light a candle and say their prayers. The
feeling is quite special: in an instant you’re no
longer in the urban rush; instead, you find yourself
in a calm place lighted only by dozens of candles.
81. The main point of the chapel is the painting of Mary
with baby Jesus, which miraculously survived a fire
in 1731, and is now placed behind a beautiful large
iron grille. Near Stone gate is church of Saint Mark,
Croatian Parliament and the seat of the Croatian
government. We took a quick tour, took some
selfies and moved on to Lower city.
84. Zagreb's Lower Town is devoted to business, art and
spacious parks. Unlike the Upper City, streets are
mostly wide and airy. I really loved Upper City, I
can't wait to start exploring Lower City. We were
tired so before exploring Lower City we went to our
hotel to rest.
It's 4:00 PM we decided to go out again, I couldn't
wait. In front of our hotel there was tram station so
we got on tram and went on Zagreb's most famous
square, ban Josip Jelačić square.
85. I really loved the main square, there were shops,
coffee shops, restaurants. On the square there is a
huge statue of ban Josip Jelačić. We sat down at
one of the traditional restaurants and ordered
Zagorske štrukle. They were so delicious so we
order some more. After a meal girls showed me
around square, I bought souvenirs for my family.
Anja and Valentina suggested that we should go
visit some of the famous Zagreb's museums. The
most famous ones are Museum of broken
relationships, Museum Mimara, Museum of
Illusions, Technical museum and Museum of Dražen
Petrović.
86. Museum of broken relationships is museum dedicated
to failed love relationships. Its exhibits include
personal objects left over from former lovers,
accompanied by brief descriptions. It was
interesting and funny. Our next stop was Museum
Mimara, it's an art museum. We continued to
Museum if Illusions - I was really looking forward for
this one. It was incredible and so interesting.
Illusions were crazy and funny. It was getting kind
of late so we decided to skip Technical museum and
museum of Dražen Petrović, but you need to know
that Dražen Petrović was Croatian basketball
player,he had been playing for NBA's Nets before he
died in car accident.
87. We were tired of all exploring Zagreb so we went to
our hotel. On our way to hotel Valentina and Anja
took me to park Zrinjevac. Since they still didn't take
down Christmas decorations and it was getting dark
the park was absolutely stunning, the gazebo in the
middle of the park was still decorated with
Christmas lights, it was so romantic. I wish Ezgi was
here with me. We continued to our hotel since we
were tired and early in the morning the rest if
Croatian team will join us. Can't wait to meet them
all again.
89. 20thJanuary (Valentina & Anja)
We woke up at 9 a.m, talked about how we will spend
my last day in Zagreb / Croatia. We decided that
first we will meet up with the rest of the team and
then we will visit Zagreb's zoo, park Maksimir,
stadium of local football club Dinamo, Zagreb's
cemetery Mirogoj and park Jarun. First we had
Croatian traditional breakfast ham,cheese,yogurt
and eggs.
90. While we were having breakfast,Mrs Bojanović called
to let us know that they are coming to Zagreb in
about 20 minutes, so we can meet them at the train
station. We were about to leave when Valentina
realised that she lost her phone. She was kind of
freaking out while Anja and I were looking round
our rooms. After 10 min Anja found it between her
clothes. Finally we left the hotel, took a tram and
went to the train station to meet others.
91. As we drove in the tram I observed the environment I
loved it. After meet up we went to ZOO. It is located
in park Maksimir so before we went there we
explored the park. Since the park is big, we only had
an opportunity to see a little part of it. We walked
by the river and fed little ducklings. It was so
beautiful and peaceful. We continued to ZOO. We
spent about 2 hours in the ZOO. It was so awesome,
I saw a lot of animals: bears,red pandas,
snakes,lions, tigers,zebras, seals,monkeys... We had
lunch and since my flight was scheduled for tonight
we had to hurry to see everything we planned.
93. Across the park is stadium of a local football club
Dinamo. We went inside, but because the players
had training, we could only take some pictures and
move on. Next stop was cemetery Mirogoj. We
didn't stay too long but the girl to some of the most
famous tombs of their famous people who are
buried there:president,kings,bans, sport persons...
We decided to go to Jarun Lake on our way back to
hotel, because I wanted to go shopping before I
leave Zagreb. The girls took me to Arena centre
which is located near Arena Zagreb,big
sports,concert hall - it has really weird shape.
95. . After shopping we went back to hotel. On the way
we stopped at Jarun Lake. We saw and fed swans,
talked and laughed. They asked me if I could come
back in summer to see the rest of the Croatian
coast, have a summer tour, and party in Croatian
way. Time passed by really fast and we had to go
back to hotel to pick up my stuff.
96. At the airport it was really hard to say goodbye to
them. I promised to come back and they promised
that they will try to come and visit me in London.
Although I had the best time on my tour, I was
really happy and excited to continue my adventure.
97. On the plane, I’m already making plans for my journey
across Italy. I’m on my own now, exploring the
sights and culture. I’ll have to use my knowledge of
Spanish to understand Italians and communicate
with them. All I know for now is I’m going from the
north towards the south of Italy. Who knows, I
might take ferry to Greece, and even continue back
to Turkey… ;)
