Croatia

So, I haven't posted in awhile. There was never really a decent computer to do so, also not much exciting happened.

We arrived in Zagreb. The hostel was on the main square where there are always people (even at 6 in the morning when we go to catch our train) The hostel owner is apparently psychotic, but we only meet him once. We didn't do much that was exciting except walk to their grave yard. (Not that I'm implying the city was bad or boring) The graveyard was a neat look into their religion. There is a big wall for important rich families, and then the rest of it is giant and well maintained. IN the centre is a statue of Jesus surrounded by plastic containers of flame. Some of them were burning and it was stinky.

They also had a fabulous open market with veggies and honey, and down below was fresh pasta and pastries. Unfortunately, we didn't have a usable kitchen. There are a lot of shoe stores in Zagreb.

Next we went to split. That was the first exciting train ride we've had. As soon as we got off the train, it started to pour. And it poured for three solid days. I can't really tell you much about Split. BUT, our hostel had three turtles roaming around the backyard which was funny and a great source of entertainment.
We did get around to seeing Diocletian's palace...but it's just another tourist trap.

After being rained out, we moved on the Island and town of Hvar. We essentially got our own apartment, the weather cleared, and we were able to go swimming in the mediterranean. It was glorious! We extended our stay because the weather was so perfect. We dog who went swimming with us. We hiked up the hills to see a 12th Century fortress and get great views.

We also rented scooters. Holy Hannah, that is probably the coolest and scariest thing I've ever done. We rented them from some random guy with a sign for about 25 dollars (100cc for those of you who might care) and we drove those beasts around a small chunk of the island. I was dubbed a put-putting granny because I took my corners so slowly. It was just Spencer and I and not many cars at all the entire day. It was lovely. The scarriest part is when we drove through a tunnel that was about 1.5 km long, it wasn't finihsed, so just jagged rocks, and absolutely no lighting. All you could see was the teeny hole at the end of it. Also, it was only 1.5 metres wide and tall. We almost mutually had heart attacks. I swear to god there's a bogeyman in there somewhere.

The most beautiful thing we saw was an entirely abandoned village that a company is fixing up and preserving in order to sell. It's on the side of a mountain, with ver simple elegant church given the primo spot. It was glorious.

The ride home we took switch backs up and around the mountain. There are no guard rails around the uber tight corners, and the drop is frightening. But the view was worth it. Yes Mom, I wore a helmet, and I didn't exceed 40km an hour.

Anywho....that's pretty much it in a nutshell. It was very relaxing indeed.