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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First Day in Zagreb

Friday (5/28/2010) was our first full day in Zagreb. Wonderful breakfast of burek i krafen (a doughy pastry stuffed with jam with powdered sugar on top).

My mom & I went to the store DM which is like ULTA meets Walgreens. We stocked up on some foods, shampoos, & lotions that would have wasted precious weight had we carried them across the ocean.

Hey! Is that Mr. Clean?

We met Lili i Tonka at Bistro Bonkas where I finished off Tonka’s tasty lignje (squid)…

Before walking over to Slastičarna (sweet shop, ice cream, cafe) Ravnice near their stan for kava i kremšnite (fantastic dessert… look at photo).

Zagreb’s beautiful centar was calling us restless people so we hopped onto a nearby tramvaj (tram) over to the busy town square, Trg bana Jelačića.

Tonka told us that Vincek Slastičarna had a dark chocolate sladoled (ice cream). Hungry for real food we decided to go with the staple pizze (pizza) s gljive (with mushrooms) at Restoran VIP which I guess we scarfed down so fast that I didn’t even take a picture of it. Don’t worry I will definitely be eating it again!

Full, tired, & running out of light we headed home & slept soundly.

This is all of Zagreb centar we have seen as of yet. We are going out early tomorrow, Friday 6/4, to take on the city.

Over That Little Ocean Into Croatia

Howdy yall from Hrvatska (Croatia)!

Thank you for your prayers for safe travel. I’ll try to blog and post pictures on FLICKR of family, food, & fun whenever I can. Each time I come, I love Croatia more & more and keep learning Croatian, both listening & speaking. I will share with you a couple of simple words & phrases in italics.

We are staying with a lovely couple, my aunt (Ujna Lili) & uncle (Ujo Dado), in a stan (apartment) in the east side of Zagreb.

The avion (plane) ride od (from) Houston do (to) Paris is about 9 hours; however, it didn’t seem as long this time since we were all upgraded to BUSINESS class due to overbooking. Fancy-shmancy head rests, extra leg space, bendable LED reading lights, toothbrush & toothpaste, & personal LCD screens with 100+ movies & TV programs. Of course, the flight would not be complete without a cute little French baby boy who not cried, but screamed all the way! I watched Invictus (a solid rugby film, slow at times warranting a couple minutes of sleeping), Fantastic Mr. Fox, & two episodes of The Simpsons.

Paris was… rainy & packed. Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport is massive & we had to travel by bus to & from our plane & terminal.

to landing in

Ujna Lili i Nives picked us up from the airport & brought us to Dado i Lili’s stan (apartment) where tasty juha (soup) & burek (pastry with cheese) was awaiting us.

Jura i Tonka, my cousins, came over with Jura’s girlfriend Jelena i Tonka’s muž (husband) Matija. We were welcomed by Turska kava (Turkish coffee), čokoladna torta (chocolate cake) with a huge sparkler that my aunt brought out (below), i jagode (strawberries).

Moja obitelj (My family):

I’m still recovering from jet lag. On Saturday, I had a massive headache and backache, but today I feel MUCH better!

Friday, first time in town.
Saturday, small open market, Tonka i Matija’s stan, i a walk in the park.
Today, Sunday, party & dinner for my graduating UH and birthday party for my great aunt.

Stay tuned.

Tomorrow, Monday, we are already LEAVING Hrvatska, but not for good :) only to visit our friends Liz i Max in Bosnia.

Check out the Croatia 2010 vacation photos here i here.

Bok (hello or goodbye).