Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Boldog Húsvétot!

Happy Easter everyone! He is risen!

I had the opportunity to travel to Croatia and travel to Croatia I did. It's not someplace I ever thought I'd visit, but I did. A full 24 hours by bus and train both ways, but believe it or not, it was worth it. We spent 1 night in Split, the second largest city. In Croatia it's a big tradition to meet a local at the train station and rent a room in their house for the night, so that's what we did. Not something I'd even consider in the U.S. but totally fine in Croatia. Split is where Diocletian built his retirement palace and we walked around that place for a bit, although it's been largely rebuilt into an old-town-esque, high-end shopping district. We then explored our adventurous side and rented a scooter to travel 40 minutes by highway to a little town called Trogir. I don't know Trogir's story, but it was an amazingly beautiful little place by the sea (as many places in Croatia are) and completely charming.

The next day we took a 5 hour bus ride to Dubrovnik which is THE place to visit in Croatia. Incidentally we drove through Bosnia but as we were all non-Serbian tourists, we didn't have any problems. And can I just say that 5 hours along a winding, curvy coastline highway kind of sucks, but it's totally worth it for the amazing view. Really. I have no idea why anyone honeymoons in Mexico when they can go to Croatia (other than the exhorbitant price of an airline ticket).

We got to Dubrovnik, found another local eagerly awaiting our arrival, and walked down to old-town to see what we could see. And let me tell you the view was brilliant. We took a ferry out to an island, Lokrum, where Richard the Lionheart landed and built a monastery. Now the island is one large nature preserve to we hiked around and climbed a huge hill to the old fortress. It was so nice to spend the day outside walking the same paths as the Romans.

On Sunday we went to mass in a centuries (possibly millenia) old monastery in Dubrovnik. Didn't understand a thing, but then that's not always the point. David tried to dunk me in true Slovak Easter tradition, but I was having none of that. Instead we travelled a full 24 hours back home and now classes start up again tomorrow. Sadly, we did not have more time in Croatia, but what can you do?

Pictures to come later.

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