A week and a day after the commencement of our trip to the Balkans, we have been to Budapest, Zagreb, Krk, Omišalj, Baška, Punat, Rijeka, Vrbnik, Plitvička Jezera, Šibenik, and Seget Vranica. Being back in Europe after so long has been glorious. I was nearly in a state of tears when we landed in Budapest. But, perhaps I should start at the beginning.
Day 1, May 11, Houghton-Toronto-Budapest
I had stayed up late the night before to go to the Charcoal Corral Drive-in Cinema and watch Iron Man 2 and How to Train Your Dragon (the latter being the better of the two and an adorable film), so I started packing at around 01:00 on Monday. By around 01:15, I was done, so I stayed up on the computer for a little bit and then went to bed. I got up later that morning, threw the last few things into my baggage, and went down to the Campus Center. At 10:30, I departed on board a shuttle with a number of others for Toronto Airport.
The trip was largely uneventful, except that one of the two shuttles started emitting strange noises and we were uncertain as to whether or not it could get us to the airport on time. Needless to say, we made it. We met up with the rest of our group, checked in, sat around at our gate for a while, and flew out of Toronto at 18:55 EST. On our transatlantic crossing I watched Invictus and The Book of Eli. The former was fantastic, the second not as much.
We reached Heathrow at around 06:50 GMT, and hurried through a very crowded terminal to reach our departing flight. We only had a few minutes to wait by the gate before boarding, and by 08:45 GMT we were on our way again. The flight was exquisite. I started to feel emotional when we were flying over the Czech Republic, and on our brief stint over Slovakia I nearly cried. Go me. I was in more or less the same state of emotions when we touched down in Budapest Airport.
From the Airport, we took a bus into the city and had to walk several kilometers to our hostel. After settling into our rooms, we left the hostel and started our tour of the city. We went first to the Jewish memorial, in memory of those who died at Auschwitz. It’s a tree that’s like a Weeping Willow, but each leaf has the name of a victim on it.
From there, we went to a park and ate a picnic lunch, and then we walked to the Cathedral of St. Matthias. It was very impressive. It had a chapel and a tomb (Béla III) in it. It was very impressive, but I felt no fantastic feelings of being closer to God because of it. Then we wandered down to St. Stephen’s Cathedral. It was also cool. Very, very cool. But it was not that impressive, either.
We then went out to eat, and I had Gulaš.
Day 2, May 12, Budapest-Zagreb
We got up, ate breakfast (having real rolls again was glorious), and then we went first to the headquarters of the Aras movement. It was closed until 10:00, so Katie, Christian, and myself walked around looking for a place for Christian to buy a backpack for the next hour. And looking for a place for me to buy a towel.
Then we went to Heroes’ Square. It was awesome. Especially King Istvan I and Béla III. The statues of the Magyars were epic. From Heroes’ Square we drove to Zagreb, and there we went first to our Hostel after jumping off of the bus. The guys threw the entire luggage into room 405, and then we went to St. Catherine’s Church on the hill ‘Gradec’ in downtown Zagreb. We walked through Trg Bana Josip Jelačića to get there. The church was really cool. From there we went to Nocturno and ate. Then we went to a lecture by Melanie. Then we had Sladoled. Then we went to bed.
Day 3, May 13, Zagreb
We woke up, had a decent breakfast at Nocturno, then we had a brief period of free time in which I got Fornetti. Then we went to St. Mark’s Church. After that, we had more free time and I went to the bakery and got Makovnjak. Ben and Ted and I wandered all over and then made our way back. From there we went to a museum about Ivan Meštrović. And then to a restaurant for lunch, where Ben and I had a large pizza. I bought a towel. From there we went to the cathedral, admired it, and then proceeced to go to the National Theatre for the performance of Mazepa by Čajkovsky. Then, as the day overlapped onto Friday, a few of us went back out into town to 'celebrate' Lydia's birthday. But....a few of the girls were uncomfortable, so we weren't out for very long.
Day 4, May 14th, Zagreb-Krk
Breakfast at Nocturno, etc....went to bakery for Makovnjak. Wandered with Katie and Briana and Lydia, found Hannah Larson's camera at Internet cafe. Went to museum of natural history. Went to Strossmeyer gallery. Went to Museum of Naive Art. Went to Krk. Ate at Nono's. Went to bed.
Day 5, May 15th, Krk
Went to breakfast at the Pearse's house. Went to Omišalj, then to Pula and Košunj, where we saw a Franciscan Monastery. Then we went to Baška, where we climbed up to a Church on a hillside. It was cool, and I scratched my arms up by climbing a tree. It was a pretty fantastic day. I bought 500g of Gouda in a Trgovina because I was hungry, and the Pearses weren’t really feeding us as much as I wanted. We went out to eat at Restaurant Galerija in Krk. Then we parted ways, and pretty much everyone got lost. It was epic. Also, I got to an internet café briefly.
Day 6, May 16th, Krk
We got up, packed, ate, and drove to Rijeka for church. It was good. We ate lunch there, then we drove to a cave, which was also cool. After that, we went to Vrbnik and looked at the museum. That was pretty much the entirety of the day.
Day 7, May 17th, Krk – Trogir
It was a long drive. Kind of boring, but not really. We made it to Trogir a few minutes before it got dark outside. Then we walked down to the beach, splashed around, kicked a football, and then went back and went to bed. Uneventful day.
Day 8, May 18th, Trogir
We went to Solin (Salona), where there were extensive Roman ruins which we were able to climb all over on. I climbed a wall with Hannah Larson and got my arm all scratched up. The amphitheater was sobering, because people were executed there. We were meters from where Christians were executed.
Then, we went up to the fortress of Klis, which was wicked awesome. I would hate to have climbed up there and attacked—any attackers would be exhausted by the trip up. After Klis, we went to Split, where Diocletian’s palace is. That was pretty awesome. We went to the same bakery twice, and then I got more Fornetti.
After Split we went to Trogir, where we went to the Cathedral of St. Someone. It was cool. Then we wandered, saw a car getting pulled out of the Adriatic, and then we ate. And then we wandered a bit more. Well, most people did. Katie Gaffney and I talked, and it was fun and good and rather like two months ago. Then we finally drove back to Trogir and went to bed.
Day 9, May 19th, Trogir – Dubrovnik
We woke up in the morning, put our bags on the bus, ate breakfast, then drove for three hours until we reached a place called Ston, which has the most extensive single-piece wall in the world after the Great Wall of China. JC and I ran most of the way, actually, before we had to turn around and head back. It was pretty cool, though.
Lunch was pathetically small, so Christian and I picked up some more stuff in a Konzum and ate it later—cheese and bread and Fanta. It was fantastic.
After lunch we drove another hour or so to Dubrovnik—the coastline was gorgeous, but the city itself, while being a ridiculously cool display of intact fortifications, was actually too overrun by tourists to be enjoyable for me. And I withdrew 200 Kn instead of 100, which was a bad idea.
I am finally sharing an abode with Christian and with Ted. Katie, Christian, and I went swimming (briefly) yesterday in the Adriatic. We had to watch out for sea urchins. It was fun, though. I brought nothing that really functions as a swim suit, so I wore my cargo pants. It was exciting, especially after I realized that they were destined to fall off after not long of kicking my legs like that.
We went to bed at around midnight, which would normally be early for me, but I’ve been burning a lot of energy recently, so it wasn’t that bad.
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