Zagreb, Croatia: the land of free wifi, cheap food, and ice!

We left bright and early Friday morning to get to our 8 am bus that would take us to Zagreb. We made it easily on time and after peeing in the most frightening bathroom I have ever been in, we were on our way!  We got stopped on the way and everyone had to pile out of the bus and get our passports checked and stamped at customs. The bus also stopped at a gas station for a 15 minute bathroom/snack break. Well, I guess we took too long getting our snacks, because Olivia and I had to full on sprint back to the bus before it left, Olivia tossing one of her euros in the process. 

We got to Croatia, got our money transferred to the Croatian Kuna, and now all we had to do was find our hostel. Easier said than done. See, street names in Croatia are more of a "sometimes it's called this, sometimes it's called that" kind of thing. Basically, our less than half hour walk turned into two hours of wandering.. in the sun.. with very heavy backpacks.. and no food. We FINALLY found our hostel, settled in, and headed out for dinner. We ate at a local place with chicken and pasta, and they even put a cube of ice in our glasses (Europeans just don't have ice like Americans do). We wandered some more and found a beautiful park with a fountain. We decided to join the locals and lay in the grass soaking up the sun. We spent the rest of the day exploring the beautiful city of Zagreb. A small festival was going on while we were there so we got to enjoy lots of little markets, live music, and locals dancing. The streets of Zagreb are BEAUTIFUL at night: cobblestone roads lined with cute shops and restaurants. 

Our hostel!

That night, we came across my personal favorite part of the weekend: The Cookie Factory. SO many good sweet options and good prices. And it's only found in Croatia, so I mean we had to enjoy it twice in one weekend right? We sat in the square for a bit and watched older couples dance the night away. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful except for when a man walked into our room at the hostel in the middle of the night because we forgot to lock the door. Made SURE we locked it the next night!

The next morning, we had intentions to go to Jarun Lake for some swimming and boating, but the unfortunately the weather didn't comply with our plans. Instead, we spent the day wandering the beautiful city. For dinner, we ate at a really cool restaurant called Leonardo, where we all enjoyed eating some good meat instead of our usual pasta, pizza, or bread. Went to The Cookie Factory afterwards, of course. We sat at a table outside for hours sharing stories, people watching, and laughing the night away. We'll have a lot of memories from that night, that's for sure. 

Yummy and cheap breakfast!

Sunday morning we woke up early and checked out of our hostel and headed to mass in the beautiful church in the heart of Zagreb. Enjoyed another great meal for lunch, and walked through some botanical gardens before heading to the bus station and heading home. It was hard for me to leave this beautiful city that so quickly stole my heart, but I'm also glad to be returning "home" to Vienna.