Day 23: Venezia, Italia!

We arrived sometime around 7 AM into ITALIA!!!!!!!

We headed to the hostel we had looked up and they luckily had rooms for us. We just dropped our stuff off and went exploring.

We bought bus passes, which we never really need, they never checked, and headed into the city. We wandered around all day hitting up places like Piazza San Marco and the Rialto Bridge.  on the Rialto

After the bridge, we took a nap literally on the side of the street. I was wearing a NC State shirt and a lady walked by and said “YEAH WOLFPACK!” WHAT THE HECK??!

Then we headed back to the Piazza to people watch and eat lunch. We had delicious turkey and bread, such a nice switch from salami.

Then it was gelato time! I got Fruitti di bosco and Fo got chocolate and pistacchio…so typical for him.

As we were eating it, two people asked if we went to State because of my shirt. We said YUP and it turned out they were from Greensboro. We talked with Juliet and Jeff for a good 30 minutes and then talked about how we were headed to Greece. They said they used to live on Andros and told us to come visit  {this was seriously our plan for a while, but we decided on Santorini instead}

We walked around more, took more pictures, and ran into them again. We found a cute little place for dinner where we had lasagna, which was delicious and had peas on it. Then we bought nutella and bread for dessert at our hostel!!! :)

 

Day 22: Back to Zagreb and Off to Venice!

Another pretty full day of travelling.

We finally headed back to Zagreb for one last time.

We thought the bus was going to take forever, but it actually took two hours less than we thought.  We stored our bags at the train station and headed downtown to McDonalds for free wifi…which they didnt have…They did have ridiculously slow computers that just got frustrating. We sat on a bench and listen to this guy play almost every 90’s song imaginable. Then we decided we had to get rid of all of Croatian money. So we picked up some Surf n Fries. A restaurant that I don’t understand why it’s not in America.  It sells mainly french fries.

That’s basically it.

French fries

So you can order either crinkle or plain and then they have 15 sauces to choose from. They give you a tiny skewer to stab the fries and they were DELICIOUS!

Then we got to the train station and played go fish and war til our train came at 12 AM. We slept surprising well and woke up in Venice!

(Fo’s) The big church in Zagreb… WE FOUND A PLAYGROUND!!!! so typical

Forrest looks like a giant compared to me

This is how we feel about each other…

Day 21: Zadar

So, we did not go on an expedition to the Kornati Islands like this one girl tried to convince us [She was like “It has DONKEYS!”], so instead we decided to swim all day.  We stopped by Konzum, the 1st supermarket in Croatia, and went to the pier we had seen the night before.

T-Mobile was having a streetfest with rappers and Djs and breakdancers and graffiti artists.  So we walked around a little, swam, took a little nap in the shade, retrieved fruit that was floating in the water, etc. We literally did that all day.

Forrest and I tried weird fruit drinks that weren’t t0o bad.

  and we kept seeing these kids everywhere.

Random Roman arch.

  Then we watched the sunset again, but the 1st night’s was definitely the best.

Doing his thing.

After sunset, we headed back to the snack bar arsenal, got some free wifi, some yummy pasta, and checked out hostels for Venice.

On our way back to the hotel, we were scared the expedition lady was going to hassle us again, so we made up languages, and Forrest’s language sounded legit.

Day 20: Zadar (Half way done)

So, after a beautiful time in Plitvice, and not wanting to leave, we decided to head to the coast, to Zadar. We caught the 11 o’clock bus and went there without having a hostel booked because we didn’t have internet.  We asked the ladies at the bus station and they said there was one hotel  and that was it. So after giving us ridiculous direction and us asking at the post office and them getting mad, we finally found the place. Everybody said look for the big beautiful building… OKAYIn the hallway of our hotel.

Anyway, we found the place. The receptionist said “I will give you room 48. It is a beautiful room. It was a little less than beautiful, but it was a room.  So, we threw our stuff down and headed out to explore Zadar.  We walked to the city centre and just wandered. 

We found random Roman ruins and lots of little churches.  We found a tourist place that was part of the “Snack Bar Arsenal.” It had a map with must see places. We had already seen everything, so we decided to watch sunset.  We saw a sign saying that Alfred Hitchcock said that the sunset in Zadar was the most beautiful one he had ever seen.  We grabbed some gelato and some cappy juice and sat by the sea.

Forrest and his obsession with water decided to  jump in the ocean.

  We had to wait for his clothes to dry and took a little nap by the seaside. We finally watched the sun set and it was beautiful.  We ate at the snack bar aresnal. I got an omelette and french fries (i had a weird craving for french fries) and Forrest got a huge salad.  It was unbearably hot in our room, so we didnt sleep well, but we tried…

           

(mostly Fo’s pictures)

Day 19: River Day in Plitvice Jezera

We slept in a little bit today, but then spent the WHOLE day at the river (11 – 6).  We walked down further than we did before and found  a rope swing!! I did that countless times and Forrest dove off a tiny waterfall.  We found a little cave, where Forrest read and I floated around.  Then Forrest said “You won’t bellyflop!” and I said “Oh Really?!” So naturally, I belly flopped into the water and then asked him to do the same, so I could laugh. 

Another time, I jumped in the water and got swept away by the current. Luckily, I grabbed onto a rock and Forrest was able to lift me up out of the water. After swinging and wading some more, we headed back to the front of the river for our guy to pick us up. Of course, he took a dip and then we made in back to Grabovac. 

Sadly, the kitchen wasn’t free, so we went to the hotel next door and got some goulash.  We caught some more Gossip Girls, some CSIs, ate some pudding, and hit the hay. 

 

Day 18: Plitvice National Park

Jakub, our lovely hostel guy, called up his friend across the street, who happened to manage one of the hotels within the park and got him to drive us right up to the entrance.  So, we got ready, ate some salami, of course, and got ready for a day jam packed with waterfalls. We spent the entire day (11-5) hiking (more like just walking) around the entire park. It was absolutely breathtaking.  The sound of rushing water was EVERYWHERE and it was green and gorgeous all around. 

We were really disappointed because you’re not allowed to swim in any part of the park, even though there’s water EVERYWHEREEEE, and we were getting a little bit sweaty from all the walking, soooo we broke the rules.

We stuck our feet in the water for a good while and we kind of in the way WOOPSIES! After exploring a cave and the rest of the park, we caught the tram back to the Grabovac and made some dinner.  The kitchen we were sneaking into was still open!! So  we made lots of swirly pasta with a bolognese sauce and meat that was definitely not beef. And of course we ate Princesa cookies too! We had some leftovers for the morning too!

We watched the Hugh Laurie show that had been on the last night and then Gossip Girl came on. I always thought this show was so lame, but dang! it is addicting, especially when it’s the only show in English.  We finished the night by watching a really weird movie with Kramer in it.

 

  (gahhh forrest is such a good photographer)

 

(YUPPPP! Forrest watching Gossip Girl) :)

Day 17: Plitvice Lakes!

This was one of the places that Forrest and I had been looking forward to for a while, especially Fo.

We left Zagreb relatively early and got to Plitvice around 3 or 4, not before missing our first bus stop.  We caught the National Park bus back to Grabovac. 

The guy running our hostel (Apartment Kristic) was super nice and funny.

We put all of our things in a cozy little room with a TV!

We asked if there was anywhere to swim and he said we were like 2 km from the river, so as soon as we were ready, he gave us a ride. We brought salami, bread, and Princesa cookies to a little place with a table next to the river.  It was probably somebody’s backyard, but oh well.

We kept walking a little down the river to find a good spot to swim. We wanted a place where we could relax, but also jump/dive in, and WE FOUND ONE!

The only regret we had about this day is that we didn’t ask to stay longer at the river. It was wayyy too short of a time

(Fo’s Photos)