hrvatica / croatia

i'm sitting in the airport hours too early, thanks to the paranoic indoctrinations of my lovely parents...so i decided to use the time to write about the fantastic adventure i just had in croatia.

the short of it is that last tuesday i got an email from my friend dunja, a croatian girl who i met through my friend benny two years ago (benny is the guy i stayed with in berlin). dunja told me that she was back in croatia earlier than she had anticipated, and entreated me to come to zagreb, "that night or whenever!" for we were meant to have an adventure...anywhere.

so the next day i went to the train station, purchased a ticket for the 5 o clock train. while there, i met an american girl, who was going to be on the same train as me, so i invited her back to my apartment, b/c the keleti train station is sucky and saunistically hot. later when we got on the train, she headed for the sleeper car, and i headed for the 2nd class - read: lowest class - train car, which was unbearably hot - no A/C no windows capable of being opened!. met these two brits, and b/c the train showed no signs of moving on time, we did what anyone in our situation would do: bought two bags of beer. as we clinked together our wonderful bottles of hungarian dreher, just outside the window we could see the frenchie who had been on our car, sitting on the ground with blood coming out of his head. later we would discover that he had left for a smoke, and seeing that a train car - OTHER THAN THE ONE HIS GIRLFRIEND AND BAGS SAT ON - was leaving, he panicked thinking it was the one leaving for venice (ours), and got on. when he realized that it wasn't his train, he tried to get off. but the doors were closed, and b/c the train was only moving faster and faster, he did what any sensible being would do, which is to push the conductor out of the way, and jump off the moving train.

another forty minutes were spent convincing frenchie and his girlfriend that getting on the train for 12 hours after he had suffered a head injury was not the brightest idea...so they left in the direction of a hospital that had an MRI machine.

and then we were off. celena eventually emerged from the sleeper car. but by then we had also met andy, another brit who later would regale us with stories involving his being court-martialed and spending two years in jail when he was a UN soldier during the Bosnian war, because he killed a Serbian he saw raping a young girl. also explained to us that the reason he had been living in southeast asia and travelling in europe for the past year and a half (with just a tiny backpack no less), was because after his time in prison, he had been in with the london organized crime scene, and his successes in the trafficking of Special K, had warranted a special request from the Ruskis - your life abroad or your death in London.

Rounds of drinks and 6 hours later, we hit Zagreb, where Dunja was waiting for me at the train station! The next day we hung out in Zagreb....I almost got a massive fine for riding public transport without a ticket EVENTHOUGH THERE IS NO TICKET MACHINE AT THE BUS STOPS! and no way for an english speaking tourist to know you have to buy these tickets at bodegas. we got out of the ticket, after the pervy traffic controller made comments in croatian to dunja about how i would just pay the fine because i'm american and evidently "rich", and she told him that i was far from rich and rather a broke ass student on the tail end of a trip....he let us off with an 8 dollar fine...i'm convinced he just wanted to use his position of power to flirt with us, a much of the 15 minutes was spent with him giggling at us, and making eyes....eww....what a fucking creep.


so the next morning, dunja's friend maja and her friend darian came by to pick us up. as darian was headed for the coast, he took us with him, and for the next few days, while the three of us girls rented an apartment in moscanicka draga (on the istrian peninsula) right by the sea, he would meet up with us in the evenings to take us to places you can't get to unless you have a car....! lucky ladies we were. in darian's high-powered mercedes, one night after dinner at a farmhouse/family restaurant in the middle of the woods, where they make their own prosciutto and truffle cheese, and serve wild boar and homemade pasta, he took us to the smallest city in the world - hum - and then we went to the motovun film festival's closing night on the top of a mountain. another night we went out to opatije and rijeka, two larger cities...got to the seafood konoba (little "locavorian" restaurant) just as it was closing...so we ordered a pre-dinner schnibble of octopus salad and marinated anchovies and ate it on the street, while i wore turqouise eye shadow.....jajaja! the day after that, we went to the beach in the morning and then darian took us to a "haunted house" (it burned down a hundred years ago and then someone committed suicide) - it's now a gorgeous hotel that sits on the top of a cliff looking out to the water far below....and then he drove us to the ferry landing - of course driving like my older sister, which meant high speeds on the windy cliffy coastal road and loud loud pulsating music ;), ....once there, the three of us girls got on board headed for cres, a massive island...

since we needed a ride to the main city, forty minutes away by car from the ferry landing in cres, we had to ask people for a ride. maja and i jumped at the opportunity. i think we asked 7 or 8 people....until finally we landed upon a guy with a van that was full and had room for two (but "we are like sooo thin!" dunja said) but three if we sat on each other. and we met an older belgian couple who confessed that they did not as of yet know where they were going, but that they had an RV so if they decided to go to the main city then of course we were more than welcome...

we met up with the two ride options on dry land. dunja helped the belgians with the map. maja and i discovered that van guy was a film director from austria...belgians decided to go to the city, so they took us...coolest hitchhiking experience ever.

when we got to the city, we went to dunja's friend dora's place....maja and i were to stay there for the next few days, and dunja was off to her friend maja's to stay there. and what did we do for the next few days?

1. played lots of rummy 51 with dora.
2. went swimming every afternoon at the nudist beach, which is really just a stream of tiny rocky beaches....this beach is further than the more crowded beaches, and way cleaner and nicer.
3. had photo shoots.
4. went to semana (spelling?), a festival where local vendors sold oils, and grappas, and fresh seafood
5. ate lots of tiny grilled fish - sardines, anchovies, etc. etc.
6. drank medica - honey flavored grappa.
7. ate burek at 2 am.
8. went to SHTALA (barn) the only club on the island, for all of 5 minutes
9. ate cucumbers and tomatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
10. went out wearing hats.
11. woke up hungover.
12. listened to the church bells ring for 30 minutes straight, while sitting in dora's living room.
13. listened to the church bells ring for what seemed like ages, but not quite 30 minutes, every morning at 7 am.
14. got dehydrated heat exhaustion headaches and then nursed them.
15. had danse parties in dora's saunistic apt
16. watched the sunsets.
17. went swimming.
18. taught amie how to read in croatian, and taught her basic knowledge of croatian....HVALA!
19. left the fridge open for 5 minute intervals at one point to "air condition" the room.
20. stuck up for ourselves on the nudist beach when a sexually frustrated croatian man started yelling at us for being at the same beach as him and his girl, DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT WASN'T PRIVATE, and there was an old couple 5 m away!- we weren't moving, so he finally did! JERK!
21. watched someone get in trouble with the police.
22. generally had an amazing time.

i left cres 2 mornings ago by bus and ferry boat ride...got to zagreb, spent a few hours in the city center, then hopped on a train, got to budapest late night....
yesterday, i packed, went to a housewarming part on buda side, and met someone involved in the arts trade and arts management in hungary.

i think i'll be back in the city that never sleeps in like 17 hours or so if all goes well.
much love to you all,

amie