Zagreb to Sibenik

It was close, but we made it to the train on time. We switched trains in Salzburg and then enjoyed our 7 hour ride to Zagreb in a compartment all to ourselves. We caught up on sleep, read up on Croatia, and found out that almost half of the songs on our ipod had mysteriously disappeared. Random songs are simply gone! It was disappointing especially after spending a lot of time at Henni’s adding more songs and albums, but we’re over it and ready to be surprised each time we listen to an album.

We arrived in Zagreb around 4:30 and hopped on a tram to the Children’s Theater where Roman works as the general manager (Roman is a family friend of Emily, Michael’s colleague at Envision. She gave us his information when she found out we were going to Zagreb. We contacted him with the idea of simply meeting for coffee, but he immediately invited us to stay with his family.) He showed us around the Theater and then we drove to his appartment. He, his wife Daniella, and three children Dora, Karlo and Fran welcomed us warmly into their home, and Karlo even let us have his room—thank you Karlo! After a bite to eat, Roman gave us an initial tour of Zagreb by night—including our first delicious (and big) Croatian ice cream!

The next morning we met Roman at the theater and got a peak at their current show—Peter Pan. We then met the art director Nina, her son Ivan, and Gordon (aka Kinderinno, but more on that later). Ivan and Gordon took us on another tour of the city. We got to hear the daily canon sound at noon, ride the Uspinjača to the upper part of the city, see the beautiful National Theater, the cathedral, and the market. We also tasted the local street vendor specialty—Kukuruz (grilled corn). We highly reccommend it! We also had time to talk and joke. We found out that Gordon is currently working at Roman’s theater as “Kinderinno”, the Kinder Egg mascot (the theater gets money from the Ferrarro company and therefore has to advertise in that way). He told us all about the daily abuse he gets from school kids who see him as a huge punching bag.

After a tasty lunch prepared by Daniella and a short walk around Jarun lake right by their apartment, Roman took us to Kumrovec, the birthplace of Tito. The entire village has been transformed into a recreation of a 19th century village—kind of like Sturbridge Village in Mass. The only big difference is that Kumrovec is not all commercialized and touristy. We were just about the only ones there, didn’t pay anything, and they weren’t selling souvenirs.

This morning we hurried to the Theater once again, this time to catch Gordon as Kinderinno. He told us afterward that we experienced the friendliest group of kids—no serious injuries this time.

Oops, out of time again. We have to catch the night train down to the coast (Sibenik). We’ll have to catch up from there! Thank you Roman, Daniella, Nina, Ivan and Gordon—our time here in Zagreb was made very special because of you!

Update 9/23-9/25
Let me pick up where I left off... Seeing that giant Kinder Egg was like a dream come true and it took me back to my semester in Siena when Charlotte and I would eat at least one a day and ended up with a huge collection of toys (we even had big plans to make a game out of them, but that never did end up happening).

We sat in the theater cafe with Gordon for a while after that, Nina showed up and we arranged to meet her later at the Museum of Modern Art. We went into the city with Gordon and visited the Mestrovic studio. Ivan Mestrovic (1883-1962) was a famous Croatian sculptor who ended up emigrating to the US and became a professor at the University of Notre Dame. We were all mesmorized by his work (so much so that we went to see more of his work today in Split)and the house itself was beautiful too.

We stopped at a Cafe for a bit after that (it's one of our favorite things to do here in Croatia--I love the comfy wicker chairs!) The museum that we wanted to see with Nina was closed, so instead she drove us up to Mirogoj, a beautiful cemetary built by architect Herman Bolle. It's surrounded by an arcade and looks more like a fortress from the outside. A lot of famous Croatians are buried there, including the first president, Franjo Tudman. Nina's grandparents are also burried there, we got to visit their grave and hear stories about them.

On our way back down Nina explained an anti-European Union billboard that we passed. Croatia is moving toward joining the EU, but a lot of people are against it. The billboard was basically saying that if Croatia joins the EU, people will face terrorism and won't be able to buy tradional meats anymore (because the small local producers won't be able to meet the strict EU standards). I can't remember the name of the meat (can you help us Nina?) but we got to try it at the special restaurant that Nina took us to (which doesn't even have a sign outside, only locals know about it). There we drank honey schnapps and sampled meats and cheeses while Nina entertained us with funny stories about her one-and-only vacation to the coast with her husband. (You're a great storyteller Nina, we keep talking about it!)

Then it was back to "our family" for dinner, packing, and a little Croatian 'Who wants to be a Millionaire' (it's not a very good deal for them though, since you divide by six to get dollars). Roman and Daniella then gave US gifts (I guess it wasn't enough for them to house and feed us for 2 days!). Thank you for the chocolates--I love the blue ones and Michael favors the cherry so it works out well! Daniella also packed us enough sandwiches to last for the whole next day.

We ended up having to switch onto a bus about 1 hour into our ride because of construction on the tracks (apparently the rail company bought fancy new trains that they can't use yet because the tracks are too old!) We arrived in Sibenik early in the morning, wandered around town, sat at a cafe on the water, and then got on a bus to Krka national park. Unfortunately we got off at the wrong stop and ended up having to walk almost 5km to the campground. We set up our tent (for the first time this trip!) then headed to the park (this time via a short cut we learned from the owners).

Now I feel like I'm rambling so I'll try to make it short. The park was beautiful. From the dry, almost desert-like land above, you go down into this lush green valley. There's a wooden walkway that leads you over the river and waterfall after waterfall. At the bottom are the big falls and then an area of calm water where I jumped in for a swim. The weather started to turn dark and cold so we caught the boat and bus back to the campground. We stayed warm and cozy in our tent as it stormed all night outside.