Thank You! Best Graduation Gift

Thank you Mama i Tata, Ujo Dado i Ujna Lili, Tonka i Matija, Jura i Jelena, Baka Blanka, Kuma i Boško, Teta Zdenka, Max i Liz, Nives i Damir, Gorinka i the boys and the many others who showed me so much love sharing their lives with me & opening up their homes & kitchens for me!!! Now I would love for yall to come to the USA & namely Texas so that we can show you around.

Praise the Lord, I had an amazing & relaxing vacation. What a glorious treat for graduating college at UH! Four years is too long to be away from loved ones & such a beautiful country. Next time I return, I definitely want to bring my friends to explore & introduce them to the splendor of all that is Croatia first hand.

Flickr collection of photos from this trip. Blog posts tagged Croatia & Bosnia.

May God richly bless, protect, & keep Hrvatska!

Until next time, Bog vas blagoslovi (God bless you).

Last Day in Hrvatska

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010. Zadnji Dan u Hrvatskoj (Last day in Croatia).

For breakfast, we indulged ourselves in several krafen (a doughy pastry stuffed with jam with powdered sugar on top) i burek. Exhausted from hours of packing at home, we made one final trek into the always gorgeous downtown Zagreb.

While my mom waited at a coffee shop for us, my dad & I visited the Arheološki muzej u Zagrebu (Archaeological & History Museum of Zagreb) across from Zrinjevac. We perused the exhibits of Roman, Greek, & Egyptian engravings, coins, pots, jewelry, knives, armor, & mummies. On a bit of a time crunch, we sped through time periods like Carmen Sandiego. I could have spent hours upon hours in there! Although we didn’t go this trip, the Hrvatski Muzej Naivne Umjetnosti (Croatian Museum of Naive Art) is another magnificent muzej.

A courtyard behind the museum showcasing several intricate gravestones

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Fužine & Hotel Bitoraj

Our next Tuesday stop after Oštro was Fužine, a small town in the Gorski Kotar region receiving its name from blacksmiths. With 3 nearby lakes, it is a popular quaint mountain resort location for hiking & skiing.

We enjoy the always scrumptious food at the restaurant in Hotel Bitoraj.

My dad & I went out for a walk around the town while we waited for our main course.

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Autocamp Oštro on the Adriatic

After Crikvenica, we visited our old stomping campground, Autocamp Oštro, a few miles up the Adriatic coast.

Every summer that I’ve visited Croatia, we have stayed at Oštro for at least 2 weeks; however, this time even though we stayed for less than 4 hours, it was beautiful. The sea looked amazing and was super chilly compared to the southern Croatian waters around Dubrovnik (the optimal time is July or August).

This summer our family rented out our usual spot only a couple of leaps from the lovely Adriatic. The camper on the left is ours.

We setup our table in between these two trees.

Our view

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Crikvenica, Northern Adriatic Sea

Before leaving Croatia, we longed to visit the magnificent northern Adriatic seacoast (Primorje-Gorski Kotar county) where my family always pitches tent & parks the camper for the summer. TRAVEL WARNING: We crammed an EPIC journey into 1 day. I’ll split it into 3 posts.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010, our target was set first on the lovely Crikvenica, the largest town in the Vinodol coastal area.

The karta (map) of Croatia below shows Crikvenica & Dubrovnik (pt. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), opposite ends of the beautiful coast.

I see the ADRIATIC SEA!!! It’s always an exciting sight, after driving through miles and miles of mountains & tunnels.

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