Final Spring Break Blog

After Budapest, Greg and I headed off to:
Croatia!
I wasn't sure what to expect of Croatia...after all it's a country where we had to make sure to stay on the path because all of the landmines haven't been removed yet. However, I absolutely loved the country. We visited more cities in Croatia (three) than I had in any other country in continental Europe, and all of them were wonderful. We started in Zagreb where we had a delicious (and cheap) meal and then walked around the city at night (we got in late). We came across a random sculpture of the Last Supper:

And a stormtrooper:

In other words...it was a random city, but full of wonderful people and places. I wish we had more time to explore, but the next day we were on our way to Rijeka. We only had a few hours in that city as it was just a layover before catching a bus to Pula (our next stop in Croatia) but I was glad that we had the time to explore the beautiful city:

We just walked around for a bit and then ate in a college cafeteria where we got delicious food for fairly cheap (yay pretending to be Croatian students without speaking any Croatian!). But anyway, after that we were finally on our way to Pula! In this city on the coast (which I have dubbed the "mini-Rome) we saw lots of Roman buildings including a Coliseum!

It was beautiful and, even though I haven't been to the Roman Coliseum, I have decided that this one is better (with the help of Greg who went to Rome earlier in the trip). We basically had the whole place to ourselves and could walk all around the structure, so it was an amazing experience (unlike the crowded, touristy one in Rome). We also explored underneath the Coliseum where they had a mini-museum including the one and only true love of my life, a Crusade knight:

If only he was real...Anyway, later that day we decided to watch the sunset as Pula is right on the Adriatic Sea and we climbed cliffs and finally found the perfect spot to watch it:

We didn't do too much else in Pula and the next day we were finally on our way to Slovenia, my last new country on the trip. We made it to the city of Ljubljana (pronounced Lubliana) in the afternoon so we actually got time to explore the city, something we previously didn't think we could do. We ended up seeing the three most famous bridges in Ljubljana including the dragon bridge:

And then we walked up to the castle (more steep hills...joy) and saw a beautiful view of the city:

Saw a really cool picture of a reflection:

And ate my very first horse burger (it wasn't very good...tasted processed and frozen...which it was):

Overall I really liked Ljubljana and would definitely go back...but I was disappointed because I didn't find any statues of Jason (apparently Jason and the Argonauts were the first people to found Ljubljana...oh Greek mythology...how I love thee...let me count the ways). Anyway, from there we went to Lake Bled (also in Slovenia) which was beautiful!

We took a boat to the island in the center of the lake with a church on it:

And then just wandered around for a while until our train to Nuremberg. Unfortunately this was the first time when the train system in Europe failed me...and it failed badly. For some reason the train stopped in Villach, Austria where we were stranded for a few hours before taking another train to Salzburg where we had to take a bus to Munich where we got stuck. We were supposed to stay with Greg's friend in Nuremberg but there were no trains running that late at night so we had to wander around and find a hostel. The first three hostels we checked (including the one where I stayed the first time) were completely full, but luckily the receptionist at the last hostel called another hostel and saved us the last two spots. Thank god for her because I don't know what we would have done without her...probably sleep at the train station or something. We stumbled to the hostel, paid the money (boo) and stumbled into bed, passing out almost immediately. The next morning we overheard someone in our room talking about his friend's flight which was cancelled, but we thought nothing of it. I took Greg to the Hofbrauhaus where we saw the ceilings finally that were still left over from the time of Hitler (look very carefully at this picture):

And then we went into a souvenir shop where I saw a plate with Ludwig's face that I just had to take a picture of:

And then we met up with Greg's friend Jo sh. That night we went to an electronic concert D'J'd by a really famous German (Paul Kalkbrenner). The next morning we checked our flight and it was CANCELLED because of the silly volcano in Iceland. We went to Nuremberg with Jo sh and spent the next couple of days just relaxing and seeing the city which I loved! I bought a Stephen King book which was really good (Needful Things) and then we explored the city with Jo sh's roommate Johannes and learned some interesting things about the city that Hitler considered to be one of his seats of power. We saw the blocks on the street where Hitler developed his walk (with wide steps and awkward marches):

And the place where he gave most of his famous speeches in Zeppelin Field:

When we finally left a couple of days later, I was kind of glad for the extra almost week, just because I got to relax and not worry about school work. And now I have finished the stories of my Spring Break extravaganza. I skimped on a lot of the stories and definitely didn't tell them all (and didn't include most of the pictures) but that's just so you all stay interested. I hope you enjoyed all 5 (gasp) parts and don't worry...I will continue to update you all on my life in jolly ol' England.