Well this was the last trip of my exchange experience and it sure was an amazing one. Some Glasgow friends and myself spent a week in Croatia; and we were largely able to do this due to our friend Fil being Croatian born with family still living there. His uncle was an absolutely fantastic host as he was able to billet us for six of seven nights, provide an 8 seater van for us to tour around in, and even paid for three fantastic dinners. Croatia otherwise wasn't particularly high on my list of places to see as I didn't know much about it before coming here. But over eight months Fil talked it up so much we just had to go visit, and it did not disappoint.

We had to take the miserable overnight trip on the Megabus to Manchester in order to catch our Ryanair flight to Zadar which wasn't fun but is all part of the experience I suppose. While waiting in Glasgow to board the boss a guy whom I suspect was a little mentally slow started talking to us about Canada and the USA. Somehow the topic in Abraham Lincoln came up which prompted him to mention the scene in Planet of the Apes with an Abe Lincoln statue. I didn't remember this particular scene and neither did any of my friends which he seemed to take personal offence over. Anyway, moving on…

The first afternoon/night we stayed in a little coastal town near Zadar called Bibinje which had spectacular ocean views and reminded me a lot of Punta Gorda Florida which is a canal town where my grandparents live. We walked around the beach and through some of the streets appreciating the view, the sun, and the large expensive houses. After that we went for dinner and got some delicious pizza (the first of many) and beer which are both Croatian specialities. This particular pizza was loaded up with delicious seafood like shrimp and squid and only cost about 10 Canadian dollars beer included. Croatia is far more inexpensive than any other country in Europe I've been to except perhaps the Czech Republic. Taking this into account, we all ate pretty well over the course of the trip.

The following day we had a bit of trouble finding a city bus from Bibinje into Zadar as we wasted about an hour waiting at a bus station to which a bus never came. Eventually we found our way to the town centre and caught the bus from there into the city centre of Zadar in order to catch another bus to Karlovac (Karlovats) which is where Fil’s uncle lives. The bus ride from Zadar to Karlovac itself was very scenic as we wound our way up into and through the mountains allowing us to look down over little countryside villages and lakes. The highways in Croatia are primarily toll roads and it’s worth noting the impressive infrastructure of tunnels through the mountains that are an integral part of the highway system, at least in that region of the country. If I remember correctly we were driving through one of them for at least five to ten minutes.

Upon arriving in Karlovac Fil’s uncle Sasa (Sasha) took us all out to dinner and we had these two absolutely massive stone baked pizzas that had ham, bacon, cheese, mushrooms, cream, and lightly fried eggs on it. It was probably the best pizza I've ever had and my mouth is watering just typing this out. Later that night we were just sitting in Sasa’s first floor flat having a few drinks and watching part of the Croatian wedding pre-reception or pre-drink or whatever it was that was going on across the street. At one point some country music came on the playlist, a bit of an odd genre to hear in Croatia, and then a few minutes later two Mormon missionaries about our age showed up at the door. They said they heard the country music and (correctly) assumed there must be some North Americans in the flat. Sasa let them in under the conditions that they could hang out but not try and convert us or anything so we just hung around for an hour and they told us all about their missionary work. They are from Alabama and Utah and are both in Croatia for a couple years on a mission. What’re the odds we would go to Croatia and run into Mormon missionaries?…

The following day we got up and visited the bakery and got some delicious pastries for breakfast which is something we did about three more morning over the course of the trip. There’s like three bakeries within a sixty second walking distance of Sasa’ front door. That day we spent a few hours touring around the town of Karlovac itself which is a very nice, sleepy kind of town. It’s got a population more in a league with Newmarket but I think was closer to Orangeville in physical size as it had numerous apartment buildings in true eastern European style. Also, the town was essentially the front line for a time in the war of independence back in the early to mid 1990's and there is certainly evidence of this as there are some abandoned buildings with bullet holes in them and a few decrepit buildings that are just waiting to fall down. There was also a small clearing beside a road with a parking lot and at least a dozen old military vehicles from Russian MiG planes, to Sherman and T-72 tanks and more. That was all very interesting to see as I have never been to a country that has so recently experienced a major war. Later that afternoon we were walking back to Sasa’s flat to grab the van and visit a few castles near Karlovac when we stumbled onto our Mormon friends once again. We took them (I don’t remember their names…oops) with us to visit the castles which were really cool to us and I think they enjoyed the spontaneity of tagging along as I don’t think spontaneity is something they’re normally accustomed to. The castles were built back when Karlovac was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and was used as a defensive point against the Ottoman empire.

The following day we took a road trip about ninety minutes west to the coastal towns of Rijeka and Opatija. Rijeka was a very impressive city kind of built into the side of an escarpment or some other kind of lengthy extended hill. There was another really cool castle there that looked over the city, and down in the city centre itself there were some very large yachts. We also took a quick stroll through a huge indoor marker dedicated entirely to seafood which all looked delicious. Dead things everywhere! After Rijeka we drove a few more minutes down the coast to Opatija which is apparently where wealthy Austrian dukes would often vacation. There was a lot of extremely nice ocean front property and numerous hotels that looked a little bit like the Grand Budapest hotel from the film (see it if you haven’t yet). We also had a very nice lunch of calamari and chips by on a patio right on the water. Later that evening we returned to Karlovac where Sasa bought us all dinner at a Serbian BBQ restaurant that contained so much meat it was insane. I wish I had taken a photograph of the platter but it had sausages, chicken stuffed with cheese, hamburger patties with cheese, big blocks of bread and more. It was all just so delicious. As Homer Simpson states, ‘you don’t win friends with salad.’

Later that night we all sat around in Sasa’s flat trying to help Fil write his 2000 word essay due the next day. The essay had to be on the subject of how the body of the film and its production choices reflects the content/story or something like that. It also had to be based around particular theories which were very bizarre and difficult to grasp. The first half of the essay sounds pretty normal albeit befuddled due to the theory its based on, but there came a point about halfway through where things started going downhill. Using us as grammar/idea feeders, Fil wrote this essay that was mostly flash with little substance. The funny part though is that we used describing phrases to pepper the essay like: Viennese waltz, luxurious velvet, penetrate, viscera, and the word climax even found its way into the paper. Needless to say we are all very interested to see what comments the professor sends back. Fil had already passed the course, and our marks are sent back on a pass/fail basis, so the paper didn't need to be anything amazing.

The day after that we did another road trip an hour north to the Croatian capital of Zagreb. It’s also the largest city with about a million people in the metropolitan area in a country with only 4.2 million people. The first thing we did was go to the zoo which is a fun thing to do in any country, except maybe Denmark. It was a very nice zoo in a massive park in the middle of the city and there was quite an array of animals. And we had more pizza for lunch too. Later in the day we explored the city centre a bit which was very nice. Zagreb and Karlovac as well reminded me a little bit of Finland in terms of that distinct eastern European style of building design. That style was also present in Vienna to a certain extent. It’s a nice change from Scotland where most of the buildings are grey. Zagreb also features a lot of apartment buildings in that blocky, straightforward design. Overall though what we saw of Zagreb was a nice city with a very charming city centre. That evening back in Karlovac we made another trip to Tiffany’s for round two of that delicious pizza. Fil and I split a jumbo between the two of us which, as the picture illustrates, lives up to its name. We both finished our half and I don’t think I’ve ever felt that full, except perhaps for a couple Mandarin trips. If you can’t tell by now we employed a no carb left behind policy on this trip.

The following day we made a trip to a very famous national park only about an hour’s drive away called Plitvice Lakes National Park. Basically there are about ten lakes and each of them are on different elevations. Flowing from lake to lake are numerous spectacular waterfalls that only get more spectacular as you descened from the highest to the lowest lake. There’s a very good boardwalk system running through the entire place as you’re literally walking over-top of the lakes in many parts. The water in the lakes was also incredibly clear and clean looking as the lakes are spring fed. Not only are the coolest and highest waterfalls at the bottom by the last lake, there are also a few really neat caves that you can explore. All of this is located in the middle of a massive forest and the whole think reminded me of something you might see in northern Ontario, although I don’t know of anything quite like that in Ontario. I think we all thought it was a super cool national park and I would definitely recommend anyone going to Croatia to make a stop there.

That evening we took a trip to Fil’s Grandma’s flat and had crepes. In true Grandmotherly fashion she made way too much food; about 70 crepes for 8 people. They were all really good. She also gave us quite a bit of beer and shots of brandy and some wine which I suppose isn't exactly grandmotherly in the traditional sense but it was a lot of fun. After Grandma’s we made a trip to a very spirited, lively, and authentic local bar where there was an awesome live band playing Croatian music. I think the band played literally non-stop for around two hours.

The next day was unfortunately our last but it was great. It was Croatian Labour Day so we all went to Fil’s cousins’s country cabin and had an all afternoon/evening party. This is a place with: a kitchen, living room, a back deck, a bathroom, and a wine/brandy distillery in the basement. The place is literally designed just for partying. There’s also a very nice view out the back of the surrounding mountains. I didn't try any of the wine or brandy (I don’t do hard liquor anymore) but I still think its hilarious how much alcohol is a defining factor of Croatian culture to the extent that it’s commonplace for people to brew their own. Many of these country cabins and homes even have their very own little vineyards for this purpose. Croatia is a rather large country physically for its population size, which is largely urban concentrated, therefore there’s no shortage of land or space in the countryside for this kind of thing. It’s not just wine and brandy though as Croatia brews several really delicious beers that I don’t beleive you can get anywhere in Canada. Anyway, there was an ubiquitous amount of meat grilled up and served at this party as well (no carb left behind, you don’t win friends with salad etc.) and there was even a local musician with an accordion that showed up. Apparently he just wanders around the area looking for parties to play at in exchange for drinks.

The next day was absolutely awful as we were in transit literally the moment we woke up around 7am until getting back to Glasgow around 1am. We had to take a 4 1/2 hour bus back to Zadar, cab it to the airport, fly back to Manchester, take a train from the airport to the city centre, kill a few hours in an English pub, then take a 5 hour bus back to Glasgow which was delayed leaving an hour. Needless to say it was an awful day but for most of us it was our last day of any kind of travelling on the exchange. Again, it’s all part of the experience.

I think I’ve covered all the major things we did, but the trip is a bit of a blur so there might be something missing. Regardless, this trip was definitely one of my favourite trips right up there with the dream trip Taylor and I took over Christmas. This was partly because it was the last trip for our great group of friends together on this exchange, but also because Croatia is just awesome in its own right. We didn't get to see all of Croatia, and indeed I would love to go back and see Dubrovnik and Split and the islands, but what we did see I absolutely loved. It also helped having such fantastic hosts. Most people that aren't senior citizens speak at least a little bit of English which is good from a tourist point of view. Croatia has all the warmth and beauty of other southern European countries however it’s far less expensive than Italy, Spain, Portugal, or Greece would be. It has a small population but one concentrated in cities, therefore there are numerous really cool cities in Croatia to check out as well as the vast countryside. It’s also a haven for anyone who likes alcohol and food, particularly meat and pizza. Know anyone like that? Croatia may not have the history and legendary status of some countries in Europe but it’s certainly a very unique and fun experience that’s very affordable. It’s also typically quite warm, and Dubrovnik is home to location shooting for King’s Landing in Game of Thrones so it must be cool right? I would highly recommend making Croatia a stop there if you can!