Lazy Days

Saturday was an exhausted day, going to bed so late and getting up around noon didn't really provide me with a great deal of energy. I made my way to the library to print off hotel and flight confirmations, as I would be leaving Sunday for my last trip of my time here. Otherwise I spent the day napping and avoiding packing.

Eventually I made it to the grocery store and had dinner with Tess. At around 11pm I decided it was actually time to pack my bags. I am getting really good at this last minute packing thing. Previously packing light took so much work and thought, now I know what I need, what I don’t, how it fits, and where things should go. That said, I am excited about coming home and not having to pack anything for a while – even though I’ll be packing for camping just days after I get home. But you know what I mean.

Saturday night there was a party in our common room and it was a lot of people from my hallway, which meant that the party was also down my hall and in the kitchen beside me. The fact that this doesn’t even faze me anymore has me very impressed with myself. I usually don’t even need earplugs anymore to sleep through the sound. That wasn’t the case, but it didn’t really bother me at all. What did bother me was that I had drank 2 cups of coffee at the grocery store around 8pm which left me rather awake at 1:30am. My alarm was set for 5am in order to finish my packing and get to the train in time – this ended up being excessively early, but I’d rather that than missing my train, which I have done in the past.

It was kind of surreal though because there are some people that will be gone when I get back from this trip so I had to say a few goodbyes. Some people will just be traveling over the weekend that I am back and they don’t return until after I leave. This whole time I’ve had this feeling that once I departed on this last trip my time here was essentially over, which really, it is. I can’t believe how quickly this came up.

I don’t return to Groningen until late on the 23rd, then I have three days and I am leaving for Canada on the morning of the 27th. It is strange because so many people are still there until mid to late July. I will admit that it might be better to leave when there is still a lot going on and people are still there instead of progressively having to say goodbye to people and have the house feel empty.

Groningen Lately

June 7 - 9

Most of my days for the last week were spent working on homework, planning my trip to France, and otherwise trying to soak up everything I can before I am forced to board a plane home. Don’t get me wrong, there are many reasons to be excited about going home but it is difficult to want to leave this life. Especially because the longer I am here the more normal it seems. It is almost like when you get past the ups and downs of getting used to this new place it just becomes normal and everyday life which means it is easier to get to know people.

Anyways, I’ll talk more about that later. I had two assignments due on Friday that I spent my time working on. This included a group meeting or two, editing, writing, etc. Nothing too thrilling, but it did mean that once I handed them in on Friday I was done yet another semester of university.

Wednesday night saw myself and the three girls I hang out with most have a taco night. It was so lovely. We haven’t cooked together for quite some time because it seemed more cost effective to just eat smaller, worse meals, than cook good meals together. Money really causes problems. Anyways we sat down around 8 for tacos and I think we didn’t leave the table until about midnight. Fun.

Thursday night Tess and I had plans to go to the pancake boat because she couldn’t come the last time I went. Our dinner for two turned into dinner for seven. It was really nice to have a big group sitting around stuffing our faces with pancakes. It was lots of fun. This time I split a savory one and a sweet one. The savory one wasn’t too much to write home about. In my opinion it had too much going on and the flavours were all over the place. The sweet one, however, was delicious! It was the Swedish one – they have named some of them after countries to theme them – it had apples and raisins baked into the cinnamon pancake and was topped with cinnamon ice cream and whipped cream. So good. We were all bursting when we left.

I finished up my edits on my final individual assignment and debated going out to Jazz night, but exhaustion won out and I went to bed instead.

Friday June 10

I headed down to a café to meet my Friday group for a coffee because it would be the last time we would see each other and we thought it would be nice to have a proper hang out before class. It was nice to be able to get to know a few Dutch people as most (all) of the people I regularly hang out with are fellow internationals. That is fun too, getting to know more about Sweden, being harassed about not knowing Spanish, etc, but it really leaves me knowing little about actual Dutch life.

After coffee we went to class and low and behold it was a waste of time. I left part way through to hand it my assignment and be done with it. Felt good.

I came home and had a nap, at least I think I had a nap, I’m sure that I just didn’t do much of anything for a lot of the afternoon.

That evening three of us made a chicken curry before deciding that it would be a good night to go out. Then we heard about a ‘room crawl’ in the C-corridor. Conveniently we know people in the c-corridor so we were allowed to join in. Basically each room provides a different drink and then you move from room to room. If you are assuming that hilarity ensued, you would be right. It was a really fun night; everyone had a really great time (read: everyone was very inebriated). We never left the house; I made it to bed at 8am. Clearly this would cause problems for my sleep schedule and motivation to do anything on Saturday but it was well worth it.

Croatia According to Hipstamatic

Split - Plitvice - Zadar - Groningen, July 4 - 6

June 4, Split to Zadar

We got up in the morning with just enough time to shower, pack up our stuff, and check out. We stored our bags in the bag room and headed back into Diocletian Palace to have a look at Cathedral of St. Duje, which was founded and built around 305AD. Pretty much it is likely the oldest thing I’ve ever seen. Before we entered the Cathedral we decided to climb the bell tower right outside the Cathedral. The first little bit of the climb was like walking through a tiny little cave and was almost impossible to get up. Well not impossible, but it was only big enough for one person but you had people coming up and going down, and each step was almost 2 steps high. It was a narrow climb but that part didn’t last very long. The view from the top was really great and it was a perfect day for it, sunny and clear.

Being a Saturday we really noticed how many more people were in the city. It was packed with tour groups and people from a cruise ship that had not been there a day before. When we came down from the bell tower we went inside the Cathedral, but having little information about it made it difficult to appreciate its history.

We set off to the bus depot to figure out when we should be heading back to Zadar. We would be flying out of Zadar Monday morning and we booked a tour for Sunday. After the bus station we went to find an internet café to check up on a few things. Oddly we walked into a tourism office that advertised internet and when we asked the guy just gave us his desk computer then charged us about 2 euros for half an hour. We figured he just pocketed the money. Ha. So strange.

We wandered around the city some more, it was quite hot and sunny. Eventually we took refuge on the Riva boardwalk area on a shady bench under a palm tree. We proceeded to people watch until we were hungry enough to find food. Now our hunger was mostly motivated by the fact that we would be boarding a bus for about 4 hours and needed to eat before that. After much walking around – finding food there is much more difficult than you would think – we found a restaurant that served food – so many just serve drinks. At this point we didn’t have a lot of time before we would need to be heading for the bus. I devoured a place of spaghetti before rushing off to collect our bags and board the bus.

The bus was near full but the ride was nice. Eventually it thinned out and we were able to snag seats next to each other.

We arrived in Zadar and walked back to the same hostel we stayed at earlier in the week. It was really quite hot still.

We headed to the edge of the old town where there are these steps into the sea. As the tide comes in, in the evening there is a set of organs that play a low, somewhat eerie tune. It was really neat. As boats drove by the music becomes more varied and somewhat sporadic. This was a great way to spend the evening because it was accompanied by watching the sunset. We stuck around until just before the sun fully set and then headed back to find dinner.

After dinner we walked back to the same spot as the sea organ where they have this huge circle of solar powered changing lights. It is meant to represent the sun and then there are a series of other smaller lights to represent each planet. It was actually way cooler than it sounds. We spent a long time just sitting on the lights watching them dance and shift.

Eventually we walked back and headed to bed.

June 5, Plitvice Lakes

We were up rather early in order to catch our pick up for our tour to Plitvice Lakes. Initially we had intended to take a bus out to the lakes and wander around on our own. Sadly the trains only run in the afternoon and the lakes are about 2 hours away so our only other options were to rent a car or join a tour. The tour was, not surprisingly, cheaper, and they said they would include a free transfer to the airport whenever we needed which saved us some cash.

We were picked up in a minivan and bused out to the lakes. It was a lovely drive into the mountains of Croatia. The climb was quite substantial and at times reminded me of both going to the mountains at home and of Arizona. Sometimes I wonder if these things actually remind me of places or if I am searching for similarities. Either way, that’d be my best description. At times it is very desert like then more like rolling hills covered in trees.

Upon being dropped off we downed a coffee before following our tour guide down to the lakes. I would like to be able to describe the lakes and waterfalls and the colour of the water and how clear it was but I just couldn’t do it justice. What I can do is tell you that it has to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. Perhaps that is gushing but it was like no where I have ever been. It seemed so untouched and natural. There was no fishing, swimming, camping, etc.

When you first walk down to the water you are initially mystified at how blue it is then caught off guard when you look down into the water and realize you can see perfectly through to the bottom and see all sorts of details. The next most absurd thing is that there are schools and schools of fish swimming around, just near the docks, in the middle of the water; they are everywhere.

There are paths that run around the lakes that you are able to walk, they quite literally hover on top of the water as there is water flowing everywhere and none of it looks moldy or gross. You walk past waterfalls, beside trees fallen into the water, which are never removed. As far as the park, it is left exactly as it is found.

On our circle around the first lake it started to pour rain so we got drenched but it wasn’t even cold it was just hot humid rain.

We took a boat further down the lakes, ate lunch then carried on. The water in the lower lakes was an unreal shade of turquoise that was as clear as tap water. Basically we just went camera happy. Upon returning I found my pictures somewhat disappointing, but I think that is just because the real experience was so much better.

By the end of it all we felt we had been a little rushed by the tour group but there wasn’t really much we could have done about that. We were drenched in humid air and it was so very warm.

We boarded the bus and were told that we were headed for a surprise. The surprise was simply two bears in a fenced off grassy patch off the side of the road. There were also deer. I don’t really know how I felt about it.

The drive home was fine. When we arrived at the hostel we were pretty tired but didn’t want to just sit around inside so we headed down to the water to find a café to grab a beer. We spent the remainder of our last night out for dinner before grabbing an ice cream and heading back to the sea organ where we waded in the water at the steps until it started raining. At this time we went back to the hostel and attempted to pay for our last night’s stay but we only had euros left. We were sent back out into the streets to find a cash machine. By then it had stopped raining but the smooth stone streets were exceptionally slippery, naturally we figured our only option was to take our sandals off and walk barefoot. The looks we got were worth the laughs we got from the situation.

We made it back, packed up and went to bed.

June 6, Zadar to Groningen

We were picked up by the tour group to take us to the airport and caught our 9:30am flight back to Dusseldorf. From Dusseldorft Weeze we transferred to Nijmegen and caught the train home to Groningen. All went really smoothly, in fact our flight arrived early and we ended up getting back to Groningen a whole hour earlier than expected.

It was so surreal to be able to be in Croatia on a holiday. I think that if you ever go, or if I ever go back I would try to book a boat or do an island cruise tour – there were tons. Because the glory of Croatia is that every little island looks interesting, the water is amazing everywhere, and you could really just explore everywhere.

That evening two of the girls that I hang out with were hosting a Swedish party, as June 6 is a Swedish national day. Basically it included a great deal of yellow and blue, Abolut vodka, meatballs, and other Swedish things. I helped them decorate, cut up jell-o shots to make a Swedish flag, cooked Swedish pancakes, etc. It was lots of fun. The evening was really great and tons of people turned out. We had a bottle of blueberry pomegranate Absolut that we were made to do shots from; entertainment ensued. I made it to bed around 4am. To be honest I’m surprised I lasted so long because I was up so early that morning.

Split - Hvar - Trogir, June 1-3

Split, June 1

We very successfully had a lazy morning in our apartment. When we woke up thunder was rolling and the rain was pouring. It is always nice to drift in and out of sleep to the sound of rain and it offered an added bonus of feeling no guilt for not being more motivated to get out of the apartment.

We set into the rain shortly after getting up. The rain was reasonable because although it poured from time to time it was still warm enough that you didn't really need a jacket. We wandered around the Diocletain Palace - a UNESCO heritage site - which is a huge area that is the remains of the Roman palace. The really cool thing about it though is that it is so authentic. So many palaces like this are only filled with touristy shop after the same touristy shop. This one had so many great cafes, restaurants, shops, hotels, and even people living there. It was clear that there were actual people from Split there, maybe not a lot, but they were there. It kind of reminded me of the Gothic quarter of Barcelona with windy little streets. I love these old towns that have no cars, all made for walking. It is noted as likely being the best preserved Roman palace in the world.

So we wandered and then decided to walk up Marjan, which is a hill situated on the west of Split. It was still raining at this point but it was a quick walk with a good view. It is quite a large park for joggers and other such activities. It also has a zoo. I believe you can walk all the way to the top but my back was having none of it so we headed into the town again to find some coffee out of the rain.

We decided that due to the rain it would be a good day to wander in and out of all the little shops. It was a really nice way to spend our afternoon. After tiring of that we bought a huge bag of cherries headed back to our apartment. As much as we would have liked to sit at the beach, even though the rain had subsided, it wasn't really a nice sunny and warm day. Instead we hung out reading for a while. Both of us finished our books.

After spending some time relaxing we went looking for a book store. I can't very well be traveling without something to read. I found and purchased a book then we went to an internet cafe for about an hour. After we sat in a cafe for some time over a cup of tea. It was a nice cafe inside the palace, a great place to people watch.

We went looking for cheap food and ended up at the same restaurant we ate lunch at the previous day. Mostly I just wanted my veggie risotto again and because it was cheap. The food in Croatia is really great because it has strong Italian influences because they were under Italian rule quite some time. This is great for me because Italian food might just be the best in the world. I am absolutely in love with tomato mozzarella salads.

Hvar, June 2

We were up early to catch the 8:30 ferry from Split to Hvar island. The ferry took about 2 hours and takes you to Stari Grad then you catch a bus to Hvar town. This is supposedly one of the most visited islands/towns on the Adriatic and upon arriving there it was obvious why. It was beautiful.

You can rent boats, or catch a ride on a boat to a variety of different beaches/islands in the area. The great thing is that if you walk around or rented a scooter/bike you could really never see anyone all day. We weren't feeling quite so motivated so after walking through the town a little bit we grabbed a huge bottle of juice and some snacks at the grocery store and headed for the water.

We found a wonderful rock face area to sit on, rented a couple of beach chairs, and proceeded to bake in the sun. It was lovely because we were quite close to the town but with the way we were facing you'd never know it. It was quite wavy and although there was a ladder to get into the water we didn't end up swimming there. It wasn't well protected and there were a lot of boats, there were also a lot of sea urchins. And just the thought of stepping on one of those was enough for me to get out of the water.

Eventually, when I could feel myself sufficiently burning we decided to try a new location (I was wearing sunscreen all day, fyi!) We walked around the waters edge for quite a while until we found another quiet looking rock face that had a nice concrete dock with a solid ladder and we went swimming! It was amazing. The water was so clear. It would be so fun to so snorkeling there. To be in water that blue and clear was a treat. It was also so salty!

Eventually we got out and dried off in the sun while reading our books. A lovely day.

It must have been near 5 that we decided to walk back to the town cite. We made our way back, checked the bus times and sat in a cafe for coffee before wandering through a few of their market stands. We debated walking up to the castle but we just didn't have it in us.

We caught the bus back to Stari Grad in time to catch the last ferry back to Split. We arrived in Split around 10pm. Not surprisingly, I was quite burnt, mostly the front of my legs. Oh did it burn! I am blaming my sunscreen because I actually put it on quite a few times and I still sizzled and Tess made out fine.

Back at our apartment we watched a movie and went to bed.

Trogir, June 3

Friday morning saw us catching another boat. This time it was a boat bus to Trogir, about an hour by boat from Split. It was a really lovely ride. We were told you could take a bus or a boat but the boat boasted much nicer scenery. It was a relaxing start to our day.

Trogir has an entire area, situated on an island, that is protected as a UNESCO heritage site. It was founded in the 3rd century by Greek colonists and then developed into a major part in the Roman period. It was a really lovely place to walk around all day. The old area, where we stayed, has narrow little walk ways, high stone walls, and is filled with really nice shops and restaurants.

Naturally we started our day by finding a tourist map and a cafe for coffee. From then on we basically walked around, ducked into shops, stopped for lunch - more delicious risotto, this time chicken and mushroom, and tomato mozzarella salad - sat in the sun, sat in the shade, purchased lavender, which grows in the fields, and other nice touristy gifts. We had ice cream, walked around some more, etc. It was a really lovely day because Trogir was so small that it was easy to feel like I got to know it and I really enjoyed the shops.

We caught the boat back to Split, picked up some groceries for the next mornings breakfast and went back to the apartment with the intention to go out for a drink later that evening.

We ended up watching a third movie that night and around 10pm when we were thinking about going out again it started to pour rain. Instead we finished the movie and had an early night. Not really that bad.

My Bookshelf

While in Croatia last week I finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I had seen this book many times before, knew that it had won many awards but prior to this trip I've been very hesitant to buy books unless I've been explicitly told by someone I know it is good, and even then I was skeptical. I think this was because I didn't read them very fast and I hated the idea of spending money on something I didn't enjoy. Now that I'm reading a ton it is easier to pick up books on more of a whim.

Anyways, in terms of popular books, this one has been popular for quite some time so I wouldn't be surprised if a number of you had read this. It is a really really great book. I loved it. It is a simple story of a boy with asperger syndrom attempting to solve the murder of his next door neighbour's dog. It is written from his perspective. It is a very easy, quick, and interesting read and one that left me smiling. Always great to have books leave you with warm and fuzzies at the end. If you haven't read it I highly recommend it.

Because I hadn't taken another book with me I popped into a bookstore in Split and picked up Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. I'm only about a third of the way through but I'm really enjoying it. It is a lot different than the last few books I've read which have been written from the perspective of children. Although the main character in this is only 15 years old the writing is so much more poetic and elegantly descriptive. I fully expect to get through it on my trip to France coming up.

What are you reading lately? Have you read The Curious Incident? What did you think?

Dusseldorf to Zadar to Split; May 29 - 31

Apologies, sincere apologies for the very real delay. I know how frustrating that is when you keep checking and waiting for a blog to update and it hasn't been. The thing is I was gone for over a week and then when I got back on Monday I was really really busy. Sometimes when I get busy I find that blogging is a great treat in my day to break up the monotonous tasks of school work etc. However because I have so much to catch you up on it made me slightly overwhelmed so it was easier to just avoid it.

So as you are likely aware I was in Croatia last week. I took a train to Dusseldorf, Germany Sunday afternoon as we had found a cheap flight from there. I arrived around 7pm, checked into our hotel for the night and while waiting for Tess to arrive from Prague watched X-Men in German, really exciting stuff. Tess ended up arriving quite late so by the time I picked her up from the station and we made our way back to the hotel it was quite late. Unfortunately, the airport that Ryan Air flies out of is only near Dusseldorf and involved us catching a 3:30am bus for an hour in order to get to the airport early enough. Most everything went according to plan except that Tess forgot her Dutch residents card so we had a little trouble leaving as they said it was likely she would not get back into Europe because she'd been there too long. We explained things and the guy let us go. It was good that I had my card on me.

We arrived in Zadar around 9:30am Monday May 30, caught a cab to the old town, proceeded to get lost for a while before eventually finding our hostel. We dropped our stuff off and headed into the city. Mostly we were exhausted and walking zombies. We walked around most of the city, saw the Roman Forum, a number of very old very cool churches, checked out the beautiful water, planned the rest of our week, booked a tour to plitvice lake as it turned out the buses weren't running out there while we were there. Then we walked to the train station to see about getting a train to Split the next day, but all we found was a dilapidated, graffiti covered building with no one at the desk for the train station. We had read "no one takes the trains" but we didn't believe them. Instead we made plans to take the bus the next morning.

From there we walked to the water, to the beach. I'm hesitant to really call any of the beaches that we saw beaches because they were either pebbles, rocks, or stone faces, none really made me think beach. Either way, we walked to the water, dipped our feet in and sat enjoying the sun. After some time we walked back to the hostel and I had a nap while Tess showered. After we went out to dinner to this great Italian restaurant where we had awesome lasagna and half a bottle of wine and salad (for about $12). It was a really nice night. The kind where you don't need a sweater or anything. Being pretty tired from a long day traveling on little sleep and an early morning ahead we went back to the hostel for an early bedtime.

I think I should mention here that it was beautiful and hot. The old town area is very small, but it feels like it is actually inhabited by regular Croatians, which you don't always get in the tourist areas.

Tuesday May 31

We woke up rather early and headed to the bus station and boarded a coach bus to Split. We thought that the trip would take 2 hours, which is closer to what it would take if you drove straight there, but with the numerous stops and the coastal roads that it took it was closer to 4 hours. This was ok though because the scenery was great and so was the company.

When you step off the bus in Split with backpacks the locals swarm you offering you cheap accommodation. We had already booked a little apartment just behind the palace, meaning it was minutes away from everything. It was so nice to have our own place to stay in where we didn't have to worry about leaving our stuff out or being stolen and it cost no more than your average hostel. Perfecto.

We were still quite tired and although we attempted to walk around a little all we really accomplished was finding some very delicious risotto and then the information centre. At that point we figured our only real option was to spend the rest of the day at the beach, which was also only a short walk away from our apartment and the main palace. With books in hand and no towels we headed to lay in the sun. It was pretty late in the day by the time that we made it to the beach but that didn't make it any less hot. It was so nice to be able to lay in the sun. A lot of their beach was just cement boardwalk that had railings. We hopped in the water when the sun was a little lower in the sky and it seemed quite chilly at first but was actually quite lovely. It was so clear and blue and very very salty.

We hung about for a while before heading back to the apartment to shower. Being in the holiday mindset we took it easy and ended up watching a movie that was in the apartment before heading out for a late dinner. I think that we are so used to doing everything late because at our student house everything happens on a suspended time frame where afternoon is morning and 10pm is a regular dinner time - we blame for the huge numbers of Spanish people. Anyways, as such we had a little difficulty finding somewhere to eat but eventually had a nice dinner on the main riva boardwalk.

After dinner we split a nutella crepe and walked around the city before heading to bed. We resolved to set no alarms and have a relaxing morning. We would not regret this decision.