Another trip to Croatia has flown by….
Well, once again, I’m sitting on a train, writing a blog entry about my travels. I’m on my way back to Vienna after another ten days in Croatia. I seriously can’t believe how fast the time goes by. As usual, Miloš and I had a wonderful time together, and the days seemed to go by in fast forward. And we don’t have long to wait between seeing each other again now, so I’m keeping positive… but leaving day is always the hardest, I won’t lie. (Plus, I’m always extra emotional when I’m tired….. and let’s just say I was especially tired….)
When Miloš’ mom was driving us into Rijeka late this morning (so I could catch my train), I was thinking about how we’re into the month of March already. I’ve been in Europe since January 20th – 6 weeks total so far. Just a week shy of my entire stay last year at this time. Although, since the first two weeks of my time abroad were in Croatia this year, it doesn’t count towards my three months as a tourist in the European Union, so I still technically have a bit of time left allowed on my stay.
When I first arrived on this particular trip, Miloš picked me up at the train station and after dropping off his brother, we headed straight to Burin. Burin is the restaurant in Crikvenica where Miloš took me for my birthday back in January. (He also took me there for a yummy farewell dinner on that same trip.) This time, the occasion was a belated Valentine’s dinner, as we didn’t get to spend Valentine’s Day together. The food was amazing, as usual. (And coming soon, I’m writing an entire post just about my food experiences in Croatia!) But seriously, if you’re ever in Crikvenica, go to Burin! I can’t recommend it enough!
After dinner, we went to Miloš’ grandmother’s apartment (where he lives when he’s home during off-season and breaks), as we weren’t getting into the other apartment until the next day. (As I might have mentioned before, his grandmother’s apartment is really only big enough for us to be there together for a night or two, not for an extended stay, so Miloš just lines us up somewhere else to stay. During the winter months, there are lots of empty vacation rental rooms that various friends of his family own.) We had a little bit of time to get ready, then it was time to head into Rijeka for a long night out on the town. Our night out was great fun of course (you can read about some of the regular bars and clubs in my Croatian Nightlife post), and after sleeping a couple hours after getting in Sunday morning, we headed over to the other apartment and got some real rest.
The weather was beautiful on this trip – not like the constant cloudy rainy days of my January trip. Each day, we slept in a bit and then headed out to take leisurely walks around Crikvenica in the sunshine. Most days, I took my laptop into the town center to use the free wifi to check emails and do some work. And most days, we stopped for a drink of soda or tea at Sax Bar, which is nestled along the picturesque seaside. Some evenings, we visited Cafe Bar Nik, where Miloš’ friend Toni works, or went to Toš for a drink and dessert. And then most nights, we stayed up late watching movies or some of the TV shows we both watch.
We also got into Rijeka quite a bit on this trip as well. Wednesday night we went to the movies to see Silver Linings Playbook. (What a crappy name for a movie. But we actually BOTH enjoyed the film – it was really good.) Wednesday nights are half price with a code that Miloš got from his friends, so it makes going to the movies not as expensive. And I’m always up for movie popcorn. 🙂
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, the two of us went into Rijeka on the bus and stayed out all night, each night. For some reason, my motion sickness was kicking in quite a bit on some of those bus rides. (I get really bad car-sickness sometimes, and the bus drivers all seemed to be driving like mad men this week.) On Saturday night, it was so bad, that it took me two hours to recover once we got into Rijeka. (I felt like I had taken several rounds on the Tilt-o-Whirl.) I was drinking sparkling mineral water at the bar until I was finally able to drink something real. Each night was different at the various clubs and bars. (Palach had awesome 80’s music on Friday night, which was probably my favorite part of our nights out. We danced for hours!)
Alas, like I said, the time flew by.
Once you get to that last full day, you really try to savor it and be in the moment, but the clock keeps on ticking. And so often during our visits to each other, we try to stay up all night on our last night together, but we inevitably end up falling asleep in the early morning hours. And then that blasted alarm clock goes off….
So that brings me back around to where I started – on the train. I’m on the long stretch between my layover in Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Vienna. The layover was around an hour long, and Miloš and I chatted on the phone for about 15 minutes of that time. (If there had been internet at the train station, we could have chatted longer, using the Viber app, but we had to do the old-school expensive way. It would be SOOOOO fabulous if all airports and train stations had free wifi!)
I’ll get home tonight around 10:30pm or so. Then I’ll grab a bite to eat before laying out my stuff for tomorrow – I’ve got two job interviews!
Here are some pics from this past trip….
Great post on travel to Croatia! Have you ever visited Bol in Croatia? It’s a small Mediterranean oasis almost whole covered in beaches. especially nice is Zlatni Rat beach.