Classes at WU started last week but since they use a weird class scheduling system here, my classes don’t start until Monday. It seemed a shame to waste a week of freedom so I hopped on down south to Croatia to get a taste of life there before it was too cold to fully enjoy the national parks
My first stop was the capital Zagreb, which, to be completely honest, was nothing short of a massive letdown. The city is quite small overall with only 750k residents, the old town is almost non existent, and there was no sign of culture to be found. I gave up trying to find authentic Croatian food and settled for quesadillas instead.
While the city has a strong tourist segment, it seemed the main touristy activity available was souvenir shops. It was also here that the worrisome reality that nobody speaks English here became apparent. Fortunately, didn’t have ant major language issues where I couldn’t communicate what I needed throughout the trip.
Next I went to national park Plitvička Jezera . On the bus there, I met some cool cats from Singapore, Colombia, and the US to explore the park with. Since it’s such a popular destination, entrance tickets are limited per hour and the number of available tickets is displayed on the website and we were freaking out because the number kept plummeting on the ride over and we didn’t think we’d get in but all’s well that ends well. It was also a bit overcast which was initially sad, but because we chose the long walking route, the sun eventually came out and we were able to retrace our steps through the waterfall area in the late afternoon – even better because the tour groups had cleared out and it was peaceful again. The park might be the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I went to the coastal town of Zadar for the night where I enjoyed a relaxing atmosphere near their sea organ.
Next up was national park Paklenica. This turned into a whole thing. From the moment I stepped out the bus I noticed it was kinda blustery like the night owl’s house blew over but it wasn’t anything too bad so I did my hike up the face of one of the mountains which has a summit around 650 meters high. It started raining so the rocks in the path got really slippery but I made it down and everything was fine. Until I got into wifi range. When the bus company informed me the bridges out of this town of 1k people were closed because of worries they might collapse from the wind. Only Croatia things.
Long story short, through patience and cunning I made it back to Zadar five hours later than originally planned and continued on to Split. Sadly my bus got delayed so much I arrived too late to check into any accommodation so I spent the night at the bus stop and stared off into the abyss for six hours before taking a ferry off to Šolta island for a day of relaxing.
Šolta was beautiful. I got some amazing hot chocolate to start my day and then had a beach day with an unmatched view. It would’ve been perfect if some creepy old man hadn’t thought the same.
The main industries in the island are wine and olive oil and fish, so for dinner I had fresh caught bass with locally made white wine and bread with some of their olive oil. Best. Meal. Ever. And for only $22 US equivalent dollars too but I think they mis-charged me so there’s that.
Then it was back to Split to catch the 12 hour overnight bus back to Wien. A truly unpleasant experience I hope to never endure again but hey it was worth it.
Overall, Croatia was beautiful but clearly economically struggling and that led to some unanticipated complications. Even in the touristy areas, stray creatures were shockingly abundant. Still, an amazing week of fun and adventure!
While my week was definitely frustrating I feel like if things had gone the way I’d planned I wouldn’t have learned as much about dealing with situations I can’t see my way through and about taking charge, evaluating all available options and being confident in my decisions. Having things go completely off the rails in a foreign country where people can’t speak my language wasn’t what I imagined for my week of relaxation but I didn’t let it ruin a good time.
I know that there for sure are times in the past where I would have let problems like those I ran into on the trip throw everything off course but studying abroad makes you have to appreciate the little time you have and go with flow to figure out a solution because every day is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
AP 