Christina In Croatia

Hello everyone!

I was in Zagreb, the capitol city of Croatia, the past few days.  We took a bus from Split to Zagreb which is about a 5-hour ride.  Once there, we stayed in my cousins dorm.  We showered, we ate and we went out.  I had no luck in Zagreb, everything was closed but I got to see the city nonetheless.  I saw the famous square, Trg bana Jelačića, Zagrebačka katedrala, Parliament and the National Theater to name a few places. 

We ate icecream and went out to the center for some drinks with friends.  Eventually we found ourselves in a night club where we drank more beer, danced and sang.  We got back quite late/early.  We woke up after a few hours of sleep and went to the Zagreb Zoo (for those of you that really know me, you understand why!).  They have a great collection of animals and is a great place to walk around and relax.  It wasn’t Woodland Park but it was still great

Later in the afternoon, we had lunch with friends and soon headed towards the stadium for the U2 concert.  U2 was great – I don’t think that I have ever been to a stadium so full of people.  To put it in perspective – Zagreb’s stadium held 63,000 people, Seattle’s Qwest stadium can hold 67,oo0, the Gorge only 25,000 and the Key Arena 17,000 – and I have never seen any of our venues full.  U2 – Great show!   They had an amazing stage and as can be expected, a great presentation.

The next morning, we ate at Mconalds for breakfast, yay!  We had to, I don’t eat there back home and it was weird walking into one here.  Then I went to the bookstore in the center where I purchased a few books and found the best movie of all time with Croatian sub-titles – Terminator 2!

I come home in about a week.  The rest of my time here will likely be spent hanging out with family, swimming and soaking up as much of this place as I can before going back home to my hectic life 

Hello everyone!  Sorry for not posting for a while.  Things have not been very eventful and I have been a bit sick the past few days.

I finished up school last week.  The course was great!  I went out afterwards with my instructors and some classmates for beer and quesadillas, yum!

It has been very hot here, up to 104 F, I know Seattle has been getting quite hot, up to 101!  I feel for you all, I really do

Last weekend was more of the music festival in Kastela, they had more modern bands.  They were really great and it was, of course, followed up with more music on the square.  The following day was a motorcycle party.  They had the classic, 80′s – like metal bands and of course, tons of motorcycles and bikers.  They had beer and cheap food, it was great!  This was also the first time since coming here when I thought I could use a sweater.  It got very windy and cold but overall, it was a fun experience. 

Last week was the last week of school, didn’t do much besides swimming.  Over the weekend I got sick.  I took a friend from class out to Trogir and have been pretty much at home since.  My family took me to the doctor two days ago.  All is well, I just need some rest.

In the news here, there was a train accident that killed 6 people.  There is an investigation and there have been a few arrests in connection with the wreck.

I’ll keep everyone posted, I head to Zagreb, the capitol city in about two weeks!

It has been a few days and I have been very busy!

Friday night, I went to Kaštel Kambelovac, close to Kaštel Lukšić where I am staying,  for a music festival.  I listened to some traditional music sung in Dalmacija by some local groups.  Here is the official link to the website:

http://vdp.hr/ – It was aired on Pay Per View so they should have an English page if interested.

Afterwards, there was a band outside on the square, where they were also grilling fish and dancing.  I went Friday night and did not get home until about 3:30 – 4am.  I was to wake up and be heading to Dubrovnik by 7am.  The band played until about two and right after the band stopped playing, it just poured down rain, and I mean POURED!  We went under a balcony to try and wait it out were everyone began singing songs.  The beer carts were also abandoned which ment free beer wilewe waited – it was quite the experience.  Eventually, we figured the rain would not stop and we walked home, three of us, under one umbrella in an attempt to to stay dry – no such luck.  We woke up a bit late, but my cousin and I made it in time to meet the group and begin the five-hour drive to Dubrovnik.

The drive to Dubrovnik is an interesting one.  The drive is along the coast so the scenery is absolutley georgous.  There is no free-way or high-way from Split to Dubrovnik so at times, we went right through towns along the coast.  We also have to pass through Bosnia, as Croatia’s border is a bit strange in its arrangement in the south.

Dubrovnik is quite large and is the number one tourist destination in Croatia around this time of the year.  It is a city also a part of UNESCO.  This city, as well as much in Croatia, has a long history.  The city dates back to the 5th century and is surrounded by fortresses and walls. Dubrovnik is well known, my first impressions were of absolute beauty.  Pictures of this place do not do it justice, this is one place that has to been seen and experinced to fully appreaciate and enjoy.  The sea is very blue and goes on forever, everything is made of stone and great archetecture can been seen everywhere.  The only downfall to this place is all the tourists and the price for common things.  We were only there for fiv hours, I could have easily spent another day just wandering around.   – I have posted soem pictures, will post more as well as some descriptions soon.

Sunday, I spent most of the day sleeping.  In the aternoon, I went to the last day of the music festival in Kaštel Kambelovac.  Sunday had more modern songs sung mostly without instruments.  It was quite fun and entertaining! Afterwards, as with on Friday, there was the band outside on the square.  There was more grilling of the fish, dancing and drinking.  Again, I was out until about 4:30am, having to get up at about 7am to get ready for school.

I meet a lot of people Sunday night.  After the band stopped playing, I stuck around to talk about – whatever!  Everyone was great, everyone wanted to be sure I was having a good time. Everyone was helping me understand what the songs were about, helping me out with lyrics ect.  It was great!

Today I finished my first week of school – tomorrow the class all travels to Dubrovnik.  The classes have been good and it has been quite the experience taking the bus to and from Split.  I have about a 15 minute walk from the bus station to where my classes are located.  My classes are located in a building along where the pazar or market is located.  You can buy anything from fresh fruit and vegetables, to liquor and clothing here.  It is quite crowded but great to browse around in if you are not just passing through.

Tomorrow to Dubrovnik – it will take five hours to drive to Dubrovnik from Split, and five hours to get back.  It is a long ride but I hear it is quite worth it.

On another note, I thought I should post some historical context of the city of Trogir.  Trogir is quite old, founded in the 3rd century BC by Greek colonists.  It is now protected by UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) whose aim is to preserve sites of outstanding cultural heritage.

Trogir history begins around the 3rd century BC when Greeks from Issa, a colony from the Island of Vis, founded a trading port here called Tragurion. The name derives from “Tragos” which is Greek for goat!  Later, a warring tribe of Dalmatians launched repeated attacks on Tragurion forcing Tragurion and Issa to turn to Rome for assistance in 156BC.

The Issa community disintegrated in 46BC and Tragurion became a Roman Municipality. The town was becoming prosperous from exploiting nearby marble quarries and became renowned for the quality of its marble.

When the Roman city of Salona was destroyed by Slavs and Avars in the 6th and 7th centuries, Trogir managed to keep its independence. The newly arrived Slavs set up farms outside the town and then gradually moved within the city walls.

After first paying tribute to Croatian rulers, Trogir became the seat of the bishop in the 11th century. In 1107, the first Croato-Hungarian king, Kolomon, confirmed Trogir’s municipal rights. Alas, the era of peace came to an abrupt end when the Saracens destroyed the town in 1123.

Rebuilding commenced and by the 13th century Trogir’s booming economy sparked an architectural renaissance.

When Venice essentially bought Dalmatia in 1409, Trogir refused to accept its new ruler which provoked Venice into laying siege to the town. Finally in 1420 the triumphant Venetians entered the town and ruled until 1797.

Most of the architecture that so impresses visitors to Trogir dates from the 13th to 16th centuries when the town’s cultural life flourished despite Venice’s incessant wars with the Turks. When Venice fell in 1797, Trogir was taken over by the Austrians who were succeeded by the French who then, again, yielded to the Austrians until 1918.

According to ancient Greeks, Kairos was the god of the “fleeting moment,” “a favorable opportunity opposing the fate of man.” Such a moment must be grasped (by the tuft of hair on the personified forehead of the fleeting opportunity); otherwise the moment is gone and can not be re-captured (personified by the back of head being bald). – This is the symbol of Trogir.

I am staying in the South in Dalmacija (purple dots) for some context of where I am.  Right now, I am staying in Kaštel Lukšić, which is in between Trogir and Split.  Tomorrow, Dubrovnik – look farther South.

I’ll post more after Dubrovnik!

My mom is on her way back to Seattle today, her first flight was at about 4pm and she will arrive at about 11:30pm tomorrow in Seattle.  We spent the morning in town – she needed a bigger luggage bag and we did a little shopping.

When back at home, we both packed and ate lunch.  I am now in Kastel Lucsic with my cousins.  It is closer to school and I can get the best help with my language homework.

Not a very eventful day, but good nontheless.

School has been great, I think we are moving a bit slower than in classes at the UW.  I am learning new words though!  I take the bus from Split to Trogir which takes about an hour.  On Tuesday, I took a boat back which took just as long but dropped me off closer.  The boat doesn’t run as often as the bus or I would take that everyday, what a cool way to get home!

Tomorrow my mom goes back to the US.  This Saturday, I’ll be making my way to Dubrovnik.

Not much to report, I have been getting eaten alive by mosquitoes – it is not a pretty sight.  My legs have dark red splotches all over.  The good news – I finally got some bug spray and so far, so good.

Hope everyone is doing well back home in Seattle!

It was nice in school today.  There are about 23 students in the class and we are in class from 9:30am to 2:00pm.  Today we had testing, as expected.  I think I did pretty well.  Many people do not know much, if anything, so my score was better than most.  Many of the other students are from Australia, others are from New Zealand, London and Canada – I am the only American.  We did very little in class today and have just a little bit of homework.  Haven’t done much else today.  The weather is still a bit unpredictable and everyone sleeps after lunch, which we eat around 2 or 3.

I’ve uploaded more pics – go check them out! 

I start my classes tomorrow, first thing we will do – testing!  There is nothing I like more especially when I haven’t officially studied anything!  Well anyways, it will be good all the same.

We went to Šibenik and Kirka Falls yesterday, it was great!  It was quite a hot day and it was nice staring at all the water.  We went swimming after in a town nearby. 

Today, all we did was eat!  I swear, I’m going to have to go on a hunger strike.  We had a roast today with four different types of meat, two types of salad, roasted vegatables, and of course bread.  We also had our pick of wines, beer, jucies, or water.  I tried two foods today I have not eaten before – oysters and clams.  I have had clams in chowder before but not right out of the shell, and oysters, never!  They were both VERY good.  Yesterday I ate octopus for the first time too, not exactly my favorite but it wasn’t bad either.

Something else interesting about yesterday:  My last post mentioned the driving here, well, we got in a car accident.  I thought I would see one but didn’t think I would be in one.  My cousins husband hit the person in front of us on our way to go swimming.  The other person was from Poland and did not have their license with them so the police were very angry at him.  We left and the other driver was waiting for someone to bring his license to the scene of the accident.  Wow!

Sorry everyone, I have not only been completely busy since arriving in Croatia, I have had issues connecting to the internet at home in Trogir.  I actually had some connection last night and after writing a long entry, was disconnected.

It has been about a week and a half since my arrival and I have lot to talk about!

First, the traveling to get here:

When we arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (my mother bought a ticket a few months after I purchased mine so we traveled here together), Delta, Northwest and Air France had merged and this was their first day as a merged company – so it was a complete mess.   We stood in line for about 45 minutes and it did not move!  We finally get through and the security was somewhat long but not nearly as long as the check-in line.  We then took the train to our gate, ate some salad and waited in line again to be checked into the gate.

Once on the plane, there was another mess:  My seat number and another ladies seat number were the same and I wasn’t the only one who had a duplicate seat, the surrounding three rows had many people who also had duplicate seating.  It was finally sorted and we were seated and ready for take-off!  While on the plane, and due to the confusion of the seating situation, we began speaking to the persons around us.  We met an Iraq veteran heading to Amsterdam and another man heading to Belgium.  We studied some Croatian language form my notebooks from class, watched movies, talked about hobbies ect.  It was a pleasant plane ride to Amsterdam.

Once in Amsterdam, we needed to board another flight.  We went to the restrooms to change our clothes, as the flight was nearly 10 hours long, and headed to our gate.  Once there, we waited in line for over an hour, the line wasn’t very long but for some reason, did not move quickly at all.  Once to the counter, they had no record of our being on the flight because Northwest had not coordinated it with Croatia Airlines – oy!  We had the itinerary of our schedule and with that and our passport numbers, found our reservation – with more waiting of course – and issued us our boarding passes.  After that, more waiting in lines that did not move, one to get through security before getting on the plane and another for getting on the plane.  You would think they could do this in one smooth, orderly way but I think that would make travelling too easy.

This flight was about two and a half hours to the capital of Croatia – Zagreb.  The fun didn’t stop here!   We had been booked a flight that was scheduled to leave a half hour after our flight before was to land.  Of course this would be impossible and there were many others scheduled to be on the same flight so they had to delay the plane from Zagreb to my final destination of Split.  In the airport in Zagreb, you must get off of the airplane and onto a bus that takes you to the entrance.  Once inside, we had to go through two more line – a gate that checked our tickets and another for security only to step back outside of the airport, onto another bus, and up to our next flight.  They opened a separate security line for those waiting to go to Split.  We made the flight!  It was the shortest one ever, about 20 minutes from Zagreb to Split.

Once there, I could see my cousins Maja and Jasna through the airport windows.  Our luggage came out quickly and we stepped out of baggage claim to meet my family.  To my surprise, my cousins Maja one of her daughters Marina, my cousin Jasna, my Teta Nela and her husband Jashko were all there to greet us.   They gathered the luggage for us and we were going to my Teta Femes and Teta Svejetlanas, where we would be staying, for lunch and conversation.  We were greeted with lots of hugs and kisses and welcomed with a light lunch of bread, cheese, prosuttio and a traditional salty fish.  We drank wine and talked about our travels to Croatia.  I had a video from my grandfather, which I showed to everyone; they really enjoyed seeing his face.  We also had gifts to give everyone from my grandfather.  After, it was time for bed – we had been awake for over 24 hours and had yet to see night-fall, we had also traveled forward a whole day.

We woke up about 5 in the morning and took a walk through Trogir for the first time.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to start my stay here by watching the sun rise.  It was so beautiful and quite at this time, it really was the perfect way to start my stay.

The next few days were sharing pictures and stories as well as meeting everyone in the family and eating, eating, eating.  I won’t go into too many details here, you’ll just have to look at the pictures!

My first impressions are that of just awe, there is so much to look at.  There is such history here.  I know for those that live here, it is all a normal way of life but the United States really lacks this sort of history because it is such a young country.  It is not something normal for me and I was a bit overwhelmed by everything around me.  Culturally, it is much different too.  There are no McDonalds here, no big supermarkets or chain stores – just people within the market selling fruit, vegetables, meats, cheeses, oils, clothing, flowers – you name it.  We saw a lot our first few days too, Trogir, Kastel Luksic, Split and Zadar.  The country-side is much like our own, large rolling hills, lots of trees and vegetation, houses here and there and a large highway.  Each city or town has a market and street vendors as well as a large number of cafe bars, which provide outdoor seating for the opportunity to relax and hang out.  The weather has been a bit crazy but similar to Seattle in that is has been a bit unpredictable.  It will be sunny and hot and all of a sudden it will be cloudy, stormy and pouring down rain.

Family has been wonderful, they have all done so much for us.  They really want this to be a good experience and have been very generous with their time and their space.  They have showed us much and have provided us with history on all of it as well.  They know so much of their surroundings and of the family – the Pomenich family.

My grandfather came to the United States in 1958 and has never returned to Trogir.  He has always wanted to but has just never made it.  We have heard so many stories about him and so many people still remember him and want to see him.  Both of his brothers have died and so have many of his friends.   My grandfather had surgery before I came here and was unable to travel so long by airplane but I am telling everyone that he will be here within a year – so start planning grandpa, they expect you now!!

I start my language classes at the University of Split on Monday – the classes last for three weeks.  I will be taking the bus most days.

Tomorrow, Sebinik and Kirka Watefalls.

. . . . more to follow!

I have been quite busy since arriving here.  My family has been treating me and my mother quite good, they feed us like every two hours!  Oh, and I don’t have a choice about eating here, my Teta Feme says that, “I am young, I must eat” so they just put a plate of food in front of me and demand that I eat.  We have also done a lot of sight-seeing in Trogir and Kastel Luksic.  We will be traveling to Split today.  Everything here is so close because it is so small and that is very convienient to me.  The market is just a few minutes walk away, family lives very close to one another and the waterfront is right in front of Teta Femes house.  I’ll post more soon and in more detail.