Zagreb Post 1

After an adventurous trip to the Budva bus station with Nikola (We missed the bus to Dubrovnik in Budva because it left 5 minutes early, so we chased it to Kotor. Luckily it was still at the Kotor bus station, but I had to run to buy and ticket and rush onto the bus. And I forgot to mention that we think we had to outrun the police at one point. Nikola thinks they got stuck behind another car and gave up on the pursuit!) and making an earlier connection in Dubrovnik, I arrived in Zagreb at 5:30 am. The buses were actually very nice and made frequent stops for the passengers to get off to use the restroom or get something to eat. However, I never got off the bus because I was afraid I understood the driver wrong about how long we were staying at the stop, and that the bus would leave without me (After traveling on both buses and trains in the past couple of weeks, I think I prefer to travel by bus. Maybe I was just so tired of trains, but the bus seemed easier and faster.). 

Marina and her boyfriend Damir were both there waiting for me which was great to some familiar faces and get off the bus after almost 17 hours of traveling. We went back to the apartment we were going to be staying in for the next week or so. Damir had to go home to help his mother with something, so Marina and I were alone in the apartment. Although it was only 6 am and neither of us got much sleep the previous night, we couldn’t go back to sleep because there was so much to catch up on. I gave her the Swedish fish I had been saving from Layne’s parents which we ate while we chatted. 

That afternoon we were going over to her grandmother’s apartment so I could meet her mom’s side of the family. After being on the bus for so long and wanting to make a good impression on her family, I decided it was probably a good idea to take a shower. We all got ready and headed over. When we got to the apartment, Marina’s aunt was on the balcony waving an American flag and a Croatian flag. It was pretty funny and her family was so welcoming. While at the apartment, I met Marina’s grandmother, aunt, uncle, mother, and little cousin. Her grandmother went all out with the meal and it was delicious (I would learn throughout the week really how good of a cook her grandmother was!). We ate, talked, and got to know one another before Marina, Damir, and I decided we needed to take a walk because we had ate so much. We walked through a very nice nearby park and stopped for coffee on the lake before picking up Marina’s mom and heading home. With a full belly and my lack of sleep catching up with me, I headed to sleep around 9 happy to be in Zagreb and see Marina after almost a year!