Boat cruise of the Croatian Coast
The Beach on Opatija near where we were staying
Another beach. pit stop from our cruise
silly beaches there was no sand just rock
Small tidbit from our awesome firework shows we saw
Cool art work of famous people who've been to Opatija. Einstein being one of them
Yellow building in Zagreb
Church in Zagreb
Statue outside church in Zagreb
Croatia where have you been all my life. We left Slovenia around three pm and chose an empty train compartment so that we could spread out except that got interrupted by three little ladies joining us. The one was so cute trying to speak to us in her language, and playing hot potato cuz she kept changing seats every two seconds going from beside Ashley to beside me. We hit customs on the train and I was so excited to finally be getting some stamps where as usually you pass through on the train without anyone checking your passports. As the guy came to check tickets we asked him how to get to opatija, where we were staying for the next two nights and had no clue how to get there, and surprised he said this is the stop so he ran outside to hold the train while we gathered our stuff hurriedly. We got off knowing nothing other then that it was our stop, in the middle of no where! We followed a path down past houses and got to a main street and started asking people about buses since we were on the top of a mountain and we needed to get to the bottom shoreline. After asking a hand full of people someone finally understood us and pointed us to the bus. Luckily a family at the bus was from the states and had been there before so they showed us on our gigantic map we bought where to go once we got to opatija. Turns out the bus station is practically next door to our apartment we rented which is also right up the street from the beach, it's paradise. We checked into our apartment, which has air conditioning (yay!), and then went for a walk along the water. The town is so adorable and quaint, with buildings painted in every color imaginable. We scouted out a good place to eat and while waiting for a table we went across the street to the excursions booth to talk to the guy about doing a half day trip tomorrow, he convinced us to do a riviera tour down the cost to Moscenicka Draga. When we were finished booking our excursion our table was ready and we got the cutest waiter who ended up giving us free bruschetta to start and free shots once we had finished eating. The meal itself was amazing, we split their homemade pasta with truffels (a Croatian specialty) and a chicken dish that was stuffed with cheese and zucchini. After dinner we stopped in at a concert in the park for a bit before heading up the street to our place. As we walked in the door to our apartment we heard fireworks (just our luck) so rushed to the window and were able to watch from there, although two heads out one small window is not that comfortable. Turns out there is a festival going on here for the next four days where pyrotechnic companies are competing by having firework shows every night on the water, what are the chances that we showed up for it. Last night we may have been over excited with the air conditioning cuz it is freezing in here now, I barely slept I was so cold. Good thing it is hot outside and we have to be at our excursion for ten. We got lost on the way and arrived a little late and saw the boat already driving away but a man on shore whistled him back in to the dock to get us just in time. The tour was short but sweet and the guide was really funny telling us about the history of the small towns and how the one house is owned by the mafia. We got off the boat in Moscenicka Draga for two hours and laid on their beach. The beaches here however are not sand they are rock so not the comfiest thing to lay on. We both burnt, of course, and are now in pain. Our guide said there was a storm coming so we headed straight back to opatija. As we were hungry and have a stove in our room we bought some pasta and sauce at a market and made food for lunch before heading to the beach in our town since the guide was wrong and there is no storm, at least not yet anyway. We had the perfect relaxing afternoon, reading and napping out by the water. Because the pier is all cement they have free lounge chairs and we literally stayed there all evening, only to come back to our room and shower before heading back out. We got kebabs for dinner and walked and ate as we continued exploring the town. As the fireworks show is on tonight too we set up camp on some of the lounge chairs by the water around ten to eleven so we'd have front row seats to the show. They were amazing yet again, like no fireworks I'd ever seen before. It's been a blast here in opatija and we don't want to leave but tomorrow we move on to Zagreb, also here in Croatia but we say goodbye to the beach and move inland. The sun these last couple days has taken all our energy so we slept most of the way on the train. Even after our nap on the train I was exhausted arriving in Zagreb. We found our hostel and headed back into town to walk around and take it easy for the rest of the day. We settled into a cafe bar to map out the rest of our trip (we're going to tey hitting Romania!) when a group of army boys on a bachelor trip came on by dressed in costumes. The "to be" groom was dressed in a snow white costume while the other guys were dwarfs. They were all from the U.K. so we chatted with them for a while. It was getting dark though and we had a bit of a treck to the hostel so we left and headed back before it got too dark. Previously traveling with my parents must have made me age cuz I can no longer handle the exertion and I look forward to hitting the pillow at night. Happy shut eye for me.
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