Croatia

[OnyxCougar]

Even though this isn't really a "city", UT said I could post about Croatia here. I have lots of pictures and commentary from when Kelle and I went over.

My commentary will be in (what else) purple and Kelle's will be in Green.

Little bit of background, the commentary was written a little over 2 years ago. I was going to visit Croatia to see a friend over there (named Ivan) that I had known a few years, and while Ivan was teaching me Croatian, he introduced me (via internet) to his friend Hrvoje. I in turn, introduced Hrvoje to Kelle, and so that's how they met. She wanted to come with me, so I took her to Croatia with me.

[OnyxCougar]

We began our journey from Las Vegas. Kelle was just fine with the flight via National Airlines to New York's JFK airport. I explained that the flight to Vienna would be longer, but basically the same. Once Captain Kangaroo managed to controlled-crash us into the runway, he hopped us into the Terminal. Everyone kind of looked at each other and wondered how we managed to escape crashing for real, the landing was so rough. I mean, it was BAD. And Kelle's first landing. I tried to reassure her that it was not the norm, but I don't think she believed me.

Big place, JFK, and surprisingly frustrating to get around in. There is very little information in the terminals on (1) how to get OUT of the airport or (2) how to get to a different airline or terminal for a connecting flight. There are 9 terminals at JFK, and all of them are little self-sufficient city-like beings.

We landed at terminal 4, where all National's flights land, and were supposed to connect to Austrian Airlines 2.5 hours later. Our baggage had been checked through at McCarran (in Vegas) all the way into Austria, so we didn't have to worry about rechecking them in New York. We had our backpacks, fanny packs, a blanket and pillow each, and sweat jackets. We were ready for anything. We knew where our towels were.

Disembarking from the flight in Terminal 4, we looked around the gate with easy assurance that we had two and a half hours to go, and I was confident that that would be plenty of time. There was a sign with a bag, so we followed it. We checked the arrival/departure boards, and quickly discovered that the flights listed were for the terminal we were in only, not the scheduled flights for the entire airport. Since our flight wasn't listed, we figured we would have to go to a different terminal to get on our flight. No problem.



Except that no one in terminal 4 knew what terminal Austrian Air flew out of. We spent 30 minutes trying to figure out where to go. Even the wonderfully young, bubbly in-duh-vidual at the Not-so-much-Information Desk, who did manage to impart to us that we needed to take the red, white and blue shuttle bus, "Which is FREE!" to the terminal in question, didn't know which one. I just know one day she'll grow up to have the intelligence of a garden slug. Well, maybe that's a bit too hopeful.

We went out to the buses. We asked the driver what terminal Austrian Air left out of, he immediately replied, "terminal one." And yes, he did go there. All the buses did. The catch is that all the shuttles go in ONE direction: from ONE to NINE. Which meant we had to sit on the bus through terminals 5,6,7,8, and 9 before we got to Terminal 1. OK, no problem. We can do this. We still had two hours before the flight left. It's only 5 terminals, right??

Mmhmm, five terminals is a LONG way when you endure the company of the Toothless Black Wonder, self subscribed paramedic and "I'm gonna go to L.A. and be a PO-leece officer. New York P.D. wouldn't take me." Go figure. He knew a LOT about the airport, tho. Give that to him. And he helped people with their luggage if they had alot. He was nice, just a little...weird. And the first person we really conversed with in New York. Memo to self: never move here.

[OnyxCougar]

I had heard of and seen traffic jams in New York on the movies and such, and was astonished to see one INSIDE the AIRPORT. Several Terminals are undergoing construction, and therefore, traffic has been diverted from normal routes throughout the complex, snarling traffic. Finally arriving at Terminal One, an hour later, our knuckles white on the poles of the shuttle bus, and teeth clenched in an effort not to physically maim Toothless, we fled the bus as if it was on fire. We walked into the terminal and immediately ran to check in, where we were advised they were already boarding the plane. We still had to get thru security. Grabbing our tickets and fleeing down the halls like madwomen, we arrive, breathless, at the Security Checkpoint. We managed to get through with no problem, and got to the gate, handed our boarding passes to the friendly agent, and walked down the jetway.

Thus began the long flight to Vienna. Because the wind was at our back, the flight was actually an hour shorter than expected. Going through the in flight magazine, it took a half hour to determine if the movies were free, and then figure out which ones we wanted to watch. Once we figured it out, it took us another 15 minutes to figure out how to manipulate our little remote control pads properly, to get to the film section, only to discover that only 5 of the 30 movies in the magazine were available for viewing. We were served a dinner, then, since the plane was just over half full, we got up and laid down across some seats in the back. And just for the record, I need 4 seats across to be comfortable, not 3. So laying across 3 seats, I tried to sleep. Kelle took 2 in the corner.

[OnyxCougar]

As OC took the middle seats I took the last seats by the window two rows down from her. OC might have gotten 2 hours of sleep, but since I only had two seats, I might have gotten 15 minutes here and there. Every time I woke up, it was the SAME MOVIE over and over again: Unfaithful. I think I can recite all the lines.

We didn't sleep much. Maybe 2 or 3 hours at most. It was now October 26th, and we sat up, exhausted from trying to sleep. I went and put my face on, then waited for breakfast and started getting antsy, it was time to get there already. The little baby plane on the monitors in front of us was NOT moving across Europe fast enough. So we tapped our toes and Kelle took pictures out the window.

The Alps:

[OnyxCougar]

More Austrian Alps:

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Austrian Countryside:

[OnyxCougar]

Turned it to Atlantis: The Lost Empire by Disney. Which I have at home. *sigh*. Boring trip, and I was tired. I had gotten 2 hours sleep before we left, and another 2 or 3 on the flight, and I was tired, but excited at the same time.

Before the journey had started, we did some research on what there was to do in Vienna, and decided we really wanted to see Saint Stephen's Cathedral. We weren't real sure how to get there, but we had about 7 hours until our bus left for Croatia, and we wanted to do something in Vienna while we were there.

Finally, the plane started to descend and we looked at each other. "This is it," we thought, "we're finally here." After 30 minutes of descent, Kelle's ear clogged up and it's been that way ever since. Happy to be on the ground where we could WALK, we grabbed our stuff and walked off the jetway into the land of where-they-speak-German. Only. Thank god for pictures on the signs, or we'dve been screwed. We weren't sure at which point our friends, who had come up from Croatia, could meet us, so we just walked around slowly, and kept our eyes open. We went through passport Control, and got stamped. We went through to baggage claim to grab the luggage, and waited. My bags came down the chute just fine, but Kelle's 2 bags, with both of our jackets and some clothes, were nowhere to be found. No problem, I thought, there's probably another cart to be unloaded. So we waited.
and waited.
and waited.
and waited.

A lady in the red livery of Austrian Airlines approached us hesitantly. Apperantly my jaw was set a certain way so as to make me look like someone she really didn't want to talk to at this point. Nevertheless, she did find the courage to ask, in heavily accented english, if we were missing some luggage. Yes, I said, we were missing two pieces. She invited us to follow her and we walked into the Austrian Airlines Baggage Reclamation Office. The lady took the luggage claim tickets and took a report. "They aren't lost," she explained, "They are in New York." I blinked. "We know right where they are." I blinked again, and opened my mouth. "We are putting them on a flight to Munich." I closed my mouth, then opened it again when I realized we weren't in Munich. "Then they will be flown here. We will deliver them to you. Where are you staying in Vienna?" I explained we weren't staying in Vienna, we were boarding a bus for Zagreb, Croatia at 5pm. "No problem," she said rather too happily. "We will have them here by 3 and send a car to the Vienna bus station where your bus leaves from at 4." Oh. That was ok. "Which bus station are you leaving from?"

Keep in mind I must have looked like a fish opening and closing my mouth, and now I was truly stunned. I had no idea which bus station the bus left from, but I knew the guys would know, since it's the station they came into that morning to meet us. So I explained the situation, and she understood immediately. "Are they here waiting for you?" Yes, we said, but we don't know where. "Oh, probably right outside customs. Would you like me to page them?" Uh, yeah. Sure. So she did. We waited, but they didn't come. So she said, "Well, tell you what. Take the bags you do have, go through customs and find your friends, and bring them to this window with these papers. We'll have them explain which bus station you're leaving from, you can give us a phone number to call if they have a cellular phone, and we'll get the bags to you at 4pm today at the bus station. OK?" Slightly confused, but completely understanding her intent, we got up and went through customs.

Tired, slightly pissed our stuff was gone, but happy someone with intelligence was helping us, and confident we'd get the missing bags in a few hours, we emerged from customs and looked around. Didn't see the guys.


As we walked thorugh customs and the tightly meshed group of people I saw Ivan. He looked right at me. He was holding a bag. I didn't see Hrvoje. As I turned to watch where I was going, I almost walked into a man with a long black jacket. I paused briefly so I wouldn't run into him and as I looked up at his face, I realized it was Hrvoje. I don't know why I kept walking, I could have reached out and grabbed him, but I knew if I didn't sit down, I was going to fall.

[OnyxCougar]

As we got to the table, I told OC I had seen them and layed my head down. She kept saying, "Look up at them, they are right there." I couldn't bring myself to. I couldn't move. As OC stood up to go to them I slowly stood up, walked about 3 steps and I was finally in his arms.

After what seemed like an hour long hug, we went into the restaurant and I made Hrvoje stand up and hugged him too. They presented us with stuffed animals. We were pleased. We each had a coke. We talked, and explained the baggage situation. Ivan got out a map of Vienna. We found where everything was, and Ivan and I went to the window and found the nice lady.

We pointed on the map. "Ah," she exclaimed, "Sudbahnhof!" I felt like saying "Bless you", but figured it was a little too cliche. We gave her Hrvoje's cell number and she promised to call around 4 and we'd tell her exactly where we were, so the bags could be delivered.

Leaving the airport, we bought tickets for the bus into Vienna proper, to the tune of 5,80 Euros each.

After a half hour, we arrived at the Sudbahnhof. That's German for "You'll never find your way out of this God-forsaken bus station." It's SO true. Ok, actually it means "South Bus Station". Not only buses go there, trains are also there. It's really a train station with buses around the outside. Which means the people at the ticket counter don't speak English, and don't know what the word bus means, nor do they know where to find one. So after we put our 2 bags, pillows and backpacks in lockers, we went looking for the bus to Zagreb, thinking that it's better to find where it leaves from now, rather than waiting until the last minute and getting lost. We spent 2 hours in the Sudbahnhof looking for the damn place, and still didn't find it. Giving up, we finally decided to see something other than the bus/train station, and went to an Italian restaurant across the road and down the street. I had a 4 cheese ravioli type substance. It was good. We sat at that restaurant for like 2 or 3 hours, talking and laughing our asses off.

We DID leave, after I paid a 46 Euro bill. The exchange rate was $1.00 = 1,05 Euros. I left my sunglasses on the table in the restaurant.

On the way back was the Belvedere Museum. The grounds were huge, so we went to the door. It was too expensive to go in, so we loitered for an hour or so. There is a little mazish type thing there, and we sat on a bench and talked for quite a while. At that point, we found out Hrvoje speaks German and had been letting us flounder around Vienna (well, the Sudbahnhof, since that's all we really saw of the city). *grumble*


Belvedere Museum:

[OnyxCougar]

Me at the Belvedere:

[OnyxCougar]

Me and the infamous Kelle (partners in crime):

[OnyxCougar]

It was getting cold, so we decided to go back to the Sudbahnhof and try to find where the bus would leave. We got the phone call from Austrian Air, and waited for them. During the wait, Ivan and Hrvoje recognized a corner of the station, so Hrvoje and Kelle went to investigate. Surprise! The large sign saying "Zagreb" was the big tipoff. We only had about an hour now, it was too late to try to find the Cathedral. So we just waited for the bus to come.

Finally we boarded the bus, which looked like one of those chartered things that we see in Vegas all the time.

It was 35 Euros for me, (I got a return ticket) and as night fell, I fell asleep against Ivan. My hips went numb several times, and I was wakened by very stern looking Border guards wanting to see my passport as we passed from Austria into Slovenia and again from Slovenia into Croatia, but I slept most the way. It was night time anyway.

We pulled into Zagreb at 11:30pm. Hrvoje called his brother, and Kelle went with them, Ivan and I took a tram to Borongai (Bore-on-guy), and walked to his place.

[OnyxCougar]

Hrvoje's younger brother Goran was to meet us at the bus station but he wasn't there when we pulled in. Hrvoje called him and they arrived soon after. After opening up the cases and separating some of our stuff, OC went with Ivan and I went with Hrvoje, Goran, and Goran's wife, Anna. Three blocks away was the car. As Goran pulled out, I remember thinking, "How do they squeeze this many cars in one space without hitting each other?" I couldn't have gotten out of there. On the way home we decided to get food, so we stopped at what I guess was a hamburger joint. Hrvoje asked what I wanted. "Like I can read the language!" I looked at the pictures (pictures help ALOT there) and found something I recognized: a hamburger. We got everything to go. We got to Hrvoje's apartment feeling a bit odd still, especially with Goran and Anna there. I quietly ate my hamburger, which was twice the size of any burger Burger King could dream of. Goran and Anna left to go home, and I had planned to take a shower but decided against it. I was way too tired.

Ivan lives at his cousin's house, and normally stays in the "lair", which is what we would call a "casita". You know, one of those bitty houses in the back that can't really be called a house, cuz it's a room, a kitchenette and a half bathroom. The larger house, in front, was about the size of a small 2 bedroom apartment. I stayed in the larger of the 2 bedrooms, since his cousin lives somewhere else. The sizes of everything reminded me of England so much. That and the radiators, that pump hot water through them to warm the place. It was a really odd sort of deja-vu feeling. I didn't have a long time to really look at anything, because the nice, comfy looking twin bed was calling me. I slept like the dead.

[OnyxCougar]

Day One (Sunday)
Woke up on Oct 27th at about 9am. Hungry. We walked down the street, around the corner, and there was a market.


On the map, the house is right where the accent on the C is on the big word Volovcica. We bought jaja [yaya] (eggs) and bacon (which they call hamburger for some reason) and sok od višnja [soak ode veeshnya] (cherry juice). This market is like our open air swap meets. It was kind of like a corner strip mall, called Volovcica Trg [Vole-ohv-cheetsa Terg] (Volovcica Square) The grocery store, butcher, bakery, restaurants, tabak [tah-bok] (tabacco) and liquor stores as well as little dollar-type stores and magazine stand formed the strip mall, and the market was in the middle. Parking was along the street if you had a car (most don't). Many of the vendors in the market sell flowers. Of every shape and color. Most I had never seen before. I was sniffing some at this old lady's stall, and Ivan said something to her. She smiled and got a bunch of flowers, like 4 each of 5 different kinds, and bundled them up in butcher paper. She handed them to me, smiling and Ivan paid her what amounts to about 2 bucks.

[OnyxCougar]

So we came back from the market with hands full, and got started on breakfast. Ivan had never had hashbrowns, so I tried making them. Halfway through, after shredding 4 big potatoes and frying the bacon and putting the potatoes in the bacon grease, I realized I didn't have a spatula. So I used a fork. Ivan still doesn't know what a spatula looks like and I never saw one when I was there. I should go over and be a spatula importer. They'd go like hotcakes. (Get it?)

The potatoes looked ugly but didn't taste too bad. The eggs were good, we bought a kilo of cheese and Ivan shredded it, I had cheese on my eggs. Cut off a big hunk of bread, threw some Margarine on it and called it breakfast. We cleaned up and I went back to bed. I figured the first two days would be devoted to jetlag. Ivan's dad, Ivica [ee-veets-ah] was due to arrive that night, around 8ish, and I woke up about 6pm. He showed up with a BIG shoe box of apple cakes that Ivan's mom, Mara, made, a BIG box of mandarin oranges, and a pair of pants for Ivan. He doesn't speak much English, and my Croatian wasn't that great, so we didn't have much to say to each other, but Ivan took him to the lair so he could rest, he had some stuff to do Monday morning and was tired after the drive. Ivan and I stayed up til about 1am and went to bed (man I hate jetlag).

A Croatian Crysanthemum:

[OnyxCougar]

Day Two (Monday)
Got up Monday Morning and made more eggs and bacon and bread. (We gave up on the potatoes.) We needed to go pick up Ivan's new glasses, Register the Americans at the Embassy and I wanted to get my first look around Zagreb. By the time we were ready to venture forth, it was noonish, and Ivica took us to Volovcica Trg for lunch. We had ražnici [Razh-nee-chee], which is marinated pork grilled on a stick, served inside a big thick sourdough roll dampened with the seasoned grease of the meat. A "salad" of raw onions is served with it. I really don't consider it a salad since its nothing but a pile of raw, white onions, so from that point, I ordered everything "bez luka" [bays luke-ah] (without onion). The ražnici was OMG good. I attempted to Ivica. Turns out he is a tennis instructor, and was first place in Bosnia for amateur Tennis players. A couple of his students were in a tournament, and made 2nd and 5th place in their age group. He was really nice.

We split up from Ivica and walked to the Veterinary college (Veterinarski Fakultet) to meet Hrvoje and Kelle to go to the Embassy. It was a 15 minute walk, and I was winded when we got there, but looking at everything, and wondering what the college of Veterinary Medicine would look like.

It was not as high tech as I thought it would be. I guess I was expecting sterile, chrome/blue, antiseptic rooms, but instead, the front opened up into a large foyer with marble stairs, and a second set of 3 doors, which led to another foyer with white painted walls and several doors leading who knew where. Luckily, Hrvoje knew (since it's his college, I was pretty sure he would), and he buzzed us into the door on the right hand side. A door to the immediate right led into the open computer room, and we finally got to meet Marko, who we had known on the game and messengers as Digital. He offered his hand and I grabbed it and gave him a big hug. I think I scared him, cuz he never said a word to me after that.

Checked email, wrote a couple people to let them know I made it fine, and we were off again, headed for the Embassy. We went by a McDonald's and stopped in for a Coke. Hrvoje told Kelle NO MCDONALD'S! except for a coke. Ivan ordered for us, and we sat for about 30 minutes in there, sipping our coke in a place that was almost familiar, yet strangely different. It was the weirdest sensation.