Full Circle: Zagreb and Homeward Bound

After two days of wandering and two nights of dancing in Split we were back on the bus, this time to Zagreb, the city where we started and the city where we'll wrap this up. Most of Friday was driving, Marco faithfully got us to Zagreb on time and we checked into our extremely fancy hotel.

le very fancy hotel

Zagreb is in full Christmas swing, and they do it bigger and better than anywhere I've been so far. The main square (where we met Ena and her friends for ice cream two months ago) is covered in twinkling lights with a huge Christmas tree and a stage set up where there are performances every night from choirs to dancing groups to musicians and bands have been playing. Several of the streets have been transformed into outdoor markets selling all kinds of fun wintery things, luckily for me things like gloves included because it is very cold here.

Winter arrived Friday night while we were walking in the market. The streets were alive with people, music and lights. From every corner we heard laughter and singing, various versions of familiar Christmas songs. Almost everyone on the streets held a steaming cup of something or a hot pastry from one of the stands. We shopped our way up and down the rows of vendors admiring all the interesting things laid out before us. I felt the change in the air and then it started snowing. It doesn't get any more ideal than that my friends.

And fall it did, all through the night and it didn't stop the next morning either, I heard that it was the most snow Zagreb has gotten in a single day in 57 years. By the time we were bundled and ready to go to out on Saturday there was at least a foot and a half of snow in some places. Snowplows of all sizes scurried through the city trying to make it possible to travel again.

My first order of business was to acquire boots. Having lovingly chucked my work boots at the end of the program I didn't have any practical weather shoes left so some friends and I shuffled and slipped through the snow and ice to the shopping district.

With that task finished we moved adventured through the icy city, popping into football shops and coffee shops. We visited the Cathedral along with all the other tourists in Zagreb for awhile before going to lunch.

Tesla under a snow blanket.

Srna and her friend also battled the elements to get to us from the other side of town. It took them almost four hours to reach the city center where we were. It was great to see them one last time before we left. Most of us found our way to a brewery/restaurant with the best beer I've had over here and the rudest service. We all went out to a pub afterwards but I had gotten the plague- the newest cold going around our group and was feeling pretty terrible by the end of the day. At the pub I said goodbye to Srna and Sean who left early the next morning.

The last couple of days in Zagreb were emotional and difficult. The next morning I said goodbye to the people from Florida, then a large group of us from Seattle, the next morning and afternoon even more people from Seattle. By Monday night there were only three of us left and I was an emotional wreck. 

And it's not like I'll never see the Seattlites again. They'll all be back in studio in a few weeks. But it won't be the same.

Tuesday morning at 4:30 my taxi arrived at the hotel. On the drive to the airport I got my last good look at Zagreb lit up by Christmas lights and committed the image to memory. It will be awhile until I get to see it again. So somewhat tearfully, I got on my plane, sat in my seat and watched Zagreb, Croatia and eventually Europe fall away behind me. Homeward bound.

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This experience has been one of the best of my life. It started out on a little bit of shaky ground not knowing exactly where we would be or all the rules of the project having it get set up so quickly. But those unknown elements just added to the adventure of it. I've never worked harder or been more focused on any project. To wake up and have the whole day be about one thing without getting bored or manic is pretty amazing.

I grew emotionally, physically and academically every day. All that schlepping and shoveling did make me stronger, more patient and understanding that just because a job isn't glamorous, doesn't mean it isn't vitally important to the cause. I learned how to work in a group when not just working, but living with them as well. Also, how to keep entertained on a tiny island in the off season is a skill not to be overlooked. It's impossible to count all the lessons I learned, they would be several of their own blog posts. 

So where the heck is Caitlin now? Back in a rainy city in the heart of the Pacific Northwest. 

To be honest I still have mixed emotions about coming home. There is no question of how happy I am to see everyone I love here and how nice it is to see the mountains thick with lush forests of home. But this experience was so wonderful I can barely put it into words, (though I have tried, obviously). 

I'm going to enjoy being home for awhile, but one thing I know for sure that I've been bitten by the travel bug. I've got to get back out there again, and I don't know if it will be Europe, Africa, Asia or a tiny little island no one has ever heard of again. But keep an eye out for me, who knows when I'll be coming your way.

-Caitlin

Politics and Ice Cream: Zagreb

Saturday morning I took a long shower, ate a big breakfast and prepared myself for the next few days of travel. My flight to Frankfurt wasn’t until the evening, so I spent the morning and afternoon working on the computer and figuring out school arrangements.

I left the hotel at little after three, took a bus to a bus to the airport and was sitting at my gate by 5:30. The plane was late, but other than that the whole experience was as pleasant as it could be with the exception of getting frisked at security because I forgot to take my sunglasses off my head when I went through the metal detector. Sunglasses = terrorist obviously.

I flew Lufthansa to Frankfurt, and the flight attendant giving the safety protocol speech had a serious case of the giggles over the speaker which set the mood for the whole flight. Everyone was giggling the whole time (especially after the cart came around with free alcohol.) I had a glass of wine, my first drink of alcohol this trip hoping it might relax me enough to get to sleep.

We landed in Frankfurt, into possibly the largest airport I’ve ever seen. The signs said “Frankfurt AirCity” and they were not lying.

In the terminal I wandered around a bit, by now it was a little after 10pm but with no windows or glass doors to the outside everything was in a perpetual noon light. The only indicators that it was nighttime were the lack of people and the fact that Starbucks was closed.

I pumped Euros into a free-standing computer long enough to get a frantic facebook message to my family to tell them I had made it to Frankfurt, everything was ok, and that I wouldn’t have much internet access. Then I found a set of three seats in a quieter corner of the terminal looped my hand through the strap in my bag and tried to go to sleep; beginning the long wait to my next flight in the morning.

As you can imagine sleep was less than restful. I woke up every half hour or so because my arm was numb or the intercom was particularly loud, or the guy with the ride-around floor waxer drove past my head. But it was better than nothing. At about 3:00am I gave up and read until I could go to my terminal at 8:00.

There I found John and Ann, two people from my program and very welcome familiar faces. They had just flown over from Seattle and we were on the same flight to Zagreb.

The temperature and the way the air felt were the first things that struck me about Zagreb as soon as we got off the plane. It was comfortably warm, and the air very humid. I started sweating immediately in my long underwear left over from Scotland. Not quite tropical flowers scented the air, creating a complex, spicy smell I really liked.

We took a bus from the airport to the tram station, and after a little confusion boarded the correct tram into the city center. Got off at the main square and after a bit more confusion found our hostel and our fellows.

Zagreb is definitely a town built for warm days and nights. All the shopping and café streets have large, comfortable outdoor seating areas. The alleys and streets are narrower than Edinburgh and the style is more varied. Almost all of Edinburgh that I saw was Georgian surrounding medieval with a little bit of modern thrown in here and there, it’s almost all the same color palette. Zagreb on the other hand has a multitude of colors and styles all pushed into a tight space. But you can tell that neighborhoods were built together because of the similar architectural styles.

The hostel is in a small alley on a hill that is predominantly a café through the middle. At the top of the alley is the beginning of a major market that happens every day. I was in a room with three other people in my program in a room that overlooked the alleyway. Wandering in through the front door and up the narrow steps we were greeted by Winterbottom, and finally I relaxed to know we were in the right place. Our room had a window facing the alley and with it open we could hear all the sounds of the restaurant below, clinking glasses, the ever constant American top 40, laugher, a multitude of languages and the ever present smell of cigarette smoke.

After dropping of our luggage and freshening up we went off in search of Croatian SIM cards. Since I bought my phone in Europe it will work here but needs a new SIM to not be roaming. In the oddly long line at the cellphone store I started talking with a girl wearing American flag jeans who lives in Zagreb and wanted to practice her English. By the end of the long wait in line she asked if we wanted to go to dessert with her later and we set up a time to meet.

People in Zagreb, or at least in our district seem to move a bit slower than those in Edinburgh, taking more of their time, and they also seem to put more effort into how they dress. Perhaps it’s because it’s so warm that one is less likely to have to wear a coat over their whole outfit? I’m not sure, but I felt decidedly shabby in my cargo pants and bandanna as we explored up the cobblestone streets.

Ena met us with her friends at a local dessert place with enough seating for our fairly large group that came along. They explained how the Croatian school system works and that they are 16 and have two years left of school. They are all working on getting their French, German and especially English as good as possible so they can leave Croatia as soon as possible. They weren’t sure why we would even come to visit if we didn’t have to. This kind of threw us for a loop,

“Zagreb is beautiful!” We said, “The architecture is lovely, and it’s so warm here.” They begrudgingly agreed. I’m not sure if it was just them being teenagers and wanting to leave home or if their desperation to immigrate has to do with the government and what’s going on with the economy.

“Men are lucky to have jobs here.” They said, “Any job, any one they can get. And it’s actually a pretty conservative country. We don’t like that.”

“But we will be in the EU” One interjected.

“Yeah, someday.” Said another. “I don’t want to wait for it to get good. I want to go somewhere where it is good already.”

I’m not an expert on the Croatian economy at all, but whatever is going on here certainly makes it an affordable place to visit. The currency is Kuna, and $1 is about 5 kuna. I arrived not knowing this, went to an ATM and just got 300 kuna, roughly $50. But my ice cream, a decent amount of good quality stuff was only 6 kuna. About a $1.20. A full meal later was 25 kuna, about $5, A glass of wine for 10 kuna, two dollars. One can get by pretty dang cheaply in Croatia assuming you don’t get screwed over by bus drivers and stall vendors: which happens a lot, especially to young traveling Americans.

This morning we woke up early, my bunkmates are dealing with the jetlag I’m only starting to get over, the kind that wakes you up at 4:30am. But we were the first ones into the showers this morning and even though the water was usually either scalding hot or arctic cold, it still felt marvelous to wash off all the travel I had done.

I popped up to the market to get some breakfast and found out that if you motion to a stack of carrots and say “Two?” and put up two fingers a very nice old lady will give you two kilos of carrots. Then pretend not to understand what you mean when you try to correct it and still demand two kilos worth of money. In the end, I have a lot of carrots.

I was smarter after that and was able to get exactly two nectarines, a small basket of raspberries, a pear, two buns (savory and sweet) and a sandwich for later.

At 10:00 we readied ourselves, and hefted our luggage back into the street off to the tram. The tram took us to a bus and despite the bus driver being kind of an ass and “forgetting” to give everyone their change we started off across the country to Rijeka.

Most people slept all the way but I stayed up and got to enjoy the scenery. We headed out of Zagreb and into the mountains. The woodland turning into deep forest as far as the eye could see over the rolling peaks. This is my favorite kind of view; I like to be able to imagine that the forest land goes on forever and to be reminded that some great swaths of it still exist despite our ministrations.

An hour and a half into the bus ride we started to come down out of the mountains and into the town of Rijeka. It’s smaller than Zagreb but still feels like a city, it also smelled different; less cigarette smoke, more food smells, and a briny saltiness that gained purchase the closer we walked to the marina.

Now on the ferry I have watched island after island go by for the better part of two hours. The two televisions at the front of the cabin are playing MacGyver and something with Chuck Norris in English with Croatian subtitles.

We should be on Rab soon! I’m looking forward to not carrying this pack around for a while, clean clothes and a bed I don’t have to move out of in a few days is also going to be great. I think we start sight analysis of our site for the quarter tomorrow. No easing into this project!