Well, the day finally came for us to leave Zadar, and we were up early to be able to catch our taxi to the bus station, in order to get the 10:30 bus back to Crikvenica. We actually made really good time and were able to catch the 10:15 bus. I have to say, besides my Legos, I didn’t have anything new on me, but my bag seemed so much fuller – I had to unzip the extender thing to make it bigger! Why does that always happen?!
Once on the bus, I pulled out my laptop and we started putting together the blog entries for the reviews of the Zadar beaches and Zadar dining. But before long, we were both feeling quite drowsy, and I put the computer away so we could get comfy and catch a few zzzzz’s.
Partway into our journey, the bus made a stop in a small coastal town for a 25 minute drink and rest stop. We grabbed a table at a seaside cafe and ordered some Cokes. It was a nice little respite.
We still had a bit of a ride to go – maybe another hour? But as we got closer to Crikvenica, I wasn’t able to control the emotions anymore. I REALLY tried to hold it together, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I did have a few “emotional moments” that whole day. Hey, I’m a girl – I cry. It happens. Miloš hates to see me cry, so I did my best to put on a happy face, but one only has so much control over such things.
There was still a good amount of daytime left when we got back to Crikvenica. We took our stuff back to Miloš’ grandmother’s apartment and had a bite to eat. (His mom put some food together for us – very tasty. 😀 ) I was a bit bummed when I found out that I would have been welcome to stay longer – but it was too late to change my flight! (Well, it would have cost a big chunk of money to change it.) Sigh… I chose not to dwell on things out of my control, but it would have been SO nice to stay longer! Miloš still had 5 days left at home before heading back to the ship, and it turns out I could have stayed that whole time as well. However, I didn’t know that when I was booking my flights. Anyway, since that wasn’t going to happen, we were going to make the best of the time we DID have.
We got changed into our suits to go to the beach, but before hitting the sand, we first we rode around on the scooter for a bit looking for the best place to go. I have to admit – that scooter is a hell of a lot of fun. I quite liked riding around on it! 🙂 Eventually we ended up at one of the few sandy beaches. And unlike the beach we went to when I first got to his place at the beginning of the trip (which was deserted), this beach was super crowded. They all seemed really crowded on this day, actually. It didn’t matter though, we still had a very nice time swimming and laying out in the sun together. We also got a drink and a bite to eat at a little stand near the beach that Miloš visits regularly when he’s home.
Eventually we went back to the apartment and got cleaned up so we could head out on the town for the evening. We had to be back to the apartment in time to leave for Rijeka at midnight. I was going to be catching a 1:15am bus to the capital city of Zagreb, as I had a 6:45am flight.
When we headed out, I struck a pose next to Miloš’ scooter in my cute little dress for the night!
We walked around town for awhile, kind of aimlessly. Trying to escape the insane crowds, but not with much luck.
I don’t really have any other pics from the evening. We were both pretty sad that it was almost time for me to leave, so I wasn’t going around taking lots of fun photos. We walked around kind of glued to each other until it was time to go back to the apartment. I’m sure I probably cried a teensy bit again at some point. Once at the apartment, his mom heated up a little more food for us, and after eating a bit, it was time to get on the road. I won’t go into the sappy details of our parting (since even though I’m an over-sharer, I respect that others are not), but our good-bye was like it was right out of a Nicholas Sparks movie. We had about a half hour at the bus stop – the bus arrived, had a rest stop and eventually headed out. Miloš waited with me the whole time, and it was all so very sweet and comforting. (Big strong man arms are always comforting.) But also sooooo very sad. I shed more tears, of course. But just like back in Switzerland, I didn’t want his last image of me to be a crying Jen, so I held it together when I got on that bus. Damn it was hard. So hard. I could feel that lump in my throat just sitting there ready to go as we looked at each other through the window. And as soon as the bus pulled away and out of sight, I freakin’ bawled my eyes out.
I started writing a blog post to distract myself. Within half an hour, I got a nice little text from Miloš. For some reason (I still don’t know why), I can’t text him from my phone, so I gave him a quick call. Just to talk for a couple minutes, AND to let him know that I forgot to pack my hoodie. After that, I really did need to sleep for a little, so I put my computer away and dozed off. When I woke up, I had another nice little text from Miloš, and our bus was getting close to Zagreb.
The bus dropped us off at the bus station. But from there I still had to get a shuttle to the airport. Since it was around 4:00 in the morning, it was hard to figure out where I was going – nothing was open. I headed in the general direction that I thought was maybe the right way to go, but I eventually had to call Miloš for help to make sure I wasn’t getting myself lost in a foreign country. Turns out I was heading in the right direction and was almost where I needed to be.
The rest of my journey went off without a hitch. It was rather annoying that I had THREE flights to get home…. Zagreb to Munich…. Munich to Frankfurt….. and Frankfurt to Philly. I had a few emotional relapses, and I was thoroughly exhausted when I finally arrived at the Philly airport. I had been traveling for 22 hours. Finally, almost 24 hours from when I left Crikvenica, I was finally home.
But as usual, our plan is not to dwell on the sadness of parting, but on the excitement of the next time we’ll be together! From the time I left, we knew we had about three months until Miloš’ visit to the northeast United States. So as soon as I got back, I did some more adding to my list of stuff that we could do and see when he’s here. And since we’re now down to a little less than two months, I’m getting super excited for his visit! Not only am I insanely excited to see Miloš (duh), but I also can’t wait for us to head out on more adventures! (And see The Hobbit together!!!!!!! I am so crazy excited for The Hobbit to come out!) So right now I’m in the midst of the normal busy stress-filled fall season that every singer deals with, but on the bright side, it makes the time go by that much faster. 😀
Rest assured, there will be much to tell and show when it comes to our American adventures in November and December!
