The First Full Day

So today was my first day in my new place, it was AWESOME! I am very excited to be here! It started by me eating some of the food that i bought the day before. I have yet to figure out where I can find a square meal here. All these cafes and none of them serve food, I know there is a student cafeteria  but I haven't figured out how to use it yet... But that is fine! I just have to try and meet someone who can help me!

So early this morning Serta was at my place with a microwave! At least I can cook some food now! At least boil water if I have to. This is good considering my old college diet was heavily reliant on Mac&Cheese and ramen. So we set it my room and then we are off to the bank to open a bank account! We stop for coffee on the way to warm up. It is a 20min walk so it wasn't far but we wanted coffee anyways. Almost all the places were full! We had to go to a back ally shop just to find an open seat! It was nice getting to know Serta. He really is an interesting guy! He has traveled all around while he was growing up because of hockey. Hockey is his passion and he is also a coach of a team here! It was fun communicating because we both would get excited to say something and realize we had to fond another way to say it because of the language barrier. It was really fun! After our coffee we went away to the bank!

We get to the bank called Zagrebacka, this is where I will be opening an account for myself. Just in case anyone feels like giving me a donation or something:) just kidding! But it was a very nice bank. After taking my course last semester on queues or how businesses deal with lines at their businesses I was super impressed with their system. It was a computer that gave you one of six reasons why you are there and then gave you a number accordingly. This makes it so people get served faster and with more specialized help. I know not that fun to read about but it was fun to know the math behind all the system from my classes! But opening an account was a NIGHTMARE! All the forms were in Croatian for opening a bank account for a foreigner... Talk about stupid!It took a good hour to fill 3 pages worth of information! Then i wanted to cash two of my traveler checks... They never seen or heard of them... It took another hour just to get that taken care of! At first they thought it was a treasury note and it wasn't until halfway through did they realize what it was. But it was an experience, good thing most places take credit cards! But after we we walked back to the dorms and Serta went back home and I took a small break before meeting up with the other new students down town.

Side street that led to old Zagreb

I didn't know how to use the tram yet so I walked. It was an hour walk but I always heard that the best way to learn a place is to walk it. So I walked downtown to where we were planning on meeting. The city was all modern until about halfway through my walk which it then broke open into winding streets and antique buildings. From my tour with Zvanko I know these buildings are the theaters and capitol buildings. There were statues everywhere and I felt like Alice in wonderland. The more I looked around at the grandeur, the smaller and smaller I felt. Not that I felt small in the sense that the city was huge, but more realizing just how old these buildings were and just how amazing it is they are still used today. It was a good feeling.

I arrived a bit early and just walked around the area poking my head down the different alleys that were full of storefronts! People were walking everywhere it was really fun to get to people watch for a little while. But then I met up with everyone. I met JB from France, Micheal from Germany, Marcos from Mexico, Ana who was from Croatia and also Catherine was from Canada. Ana was going to show us around Zagreb on a small tour!

While we walked to our destination I spoke some German with Michael and everyone in the group looked at me in a quasi-awe. Apparently they did not expect the American to speak two languages, let alone start speaking Spanish with Marcos the next second (granted my Spanish is lacking). Then we made our first stop! We stopped at the center of the capitol, which now hangs the EU. This building with the coat of arms on the roof is St. Marko (St. Mark) church. It lies between the Parliament and the Prime Minister buildings. You can find this building on most post cards and is a very notable land mark.

Sadly we did not go in the church but I will come back with my good camera and explore!  It was really wonderful building and we quickly moved on to a view over seeing the whole city. It was stunning to say the least! You could see how the old parts of the city gave way to the surrounding area. You also could see the massive cathedral that Zagreb has. It is awe inspiring, I cannot wait to document just how wonderful the church is and how spectacular this is. From here you can see it is undergoing repair but you can still see that the towers pierce the sky and act as a point of reference for where ever you are in Zagreb. We then went to actually go visit the cathedral and went inside. I felt like Geppetto being swallowed by a whale as I walked in the doors. The church has dwarfed anything I have ever seen. It truly is one of the single most impressive things I have ever seen. Every inch of the church has a history or a story and is decorated with ornate and detailed art work. The craftsman ship of this church is just awe inspiring. If you haven't gotten the point yet, this church is impressive. As we walked around I started talking about the different facts I read about the church, which again impressed my European companions not only do I speak multiple languages I know my history. I chuckled when they keep making jokes about how I break every stereotype of Americans. As we walked up to the alter they have the belongings to Cardinal Aloysius Stepina. He is not a saint but the pope made it official that he is a martyr and beatified. When the Pope visits Croatia he makes sure to visit this church. It has a history that goes on forever and has been rebuilt a few times. I will go into much greater detail when I come back and take photos of the church. I might even make a book of this church. Or I could do a series from all the things I have seen here. 

After the church we all were feeling the cold in out bones and stopped for at a cafe for some beers and tea and conversation. We all got to know one another and share our different stories of how we were brought to this country. It was only short lived for an hour then we all parted to ways until later when we would meet up to go to a local bar and again get to know one another. We broke up and I went started walking back to my place. 

This time I did not feel like walking the whole way and bravely jumped on what I hoped was the right tram. Before the tram came I got a call from Kristina, apparently my mother wrote Oprah and told her about our story. My mother helping during the war and her sons (myself) return to the country years later. She then received a call earlier asking for more details of the story. So what a way to start my night! I had something to celebrate this night! I jumped on the tram and tried to figure out when I should get off when I realized I must have gone way to far. Sure enough I ended up lost. I had to walk into a corner store and point at a map asking where I was, I missed my stop by only two! Not bad for a first time so I quickly walked back to my dorm and rested for a little before I went out for the night!

The 

At 8:30 I again braved the tram but this time I got it just right! I met everyone at the station and then we all again headed off to a small bar. We choose this place because the happy hour was 3 hours, form 9pm and 12pm. The beer was only 8 kuna! That's a $1.20 for half a liter, the shots were $2! So we all started drinking beer and were strangers at the beginning of the night. Then someone suggested we try a shot of rakija (rock-e-ah) a Croatian liquor. Then we started to make jokes with on another and relax. Needless to say we started being liquidly liberated and it was a surreal scene. I was drinking tequila with real Mexicans, while talking to guys from France. We had a mini United Nations at the end of the night. We had about 30 people that were all form this program by the end of the night at the bar. French, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal, Canada, and of course America! We all were friends tonight, it was awesome. At the end of the night we went to go to a dance club and our group was split up and it ended up being me and two guys from France. We were lost and did not know where we were, that was until one realized we were by their place and the offered me to stay the night, which considering my luck earlier with the tram and the weather getting colder I agreed. So the first full day in Croatia and I was ending it in a different place than I started. This is going to be one adventure and another chapter in my life that I can already tell I will look back fondly on. (Btw the next day I made it back to my place on the tram without incident!)

At the end of the night, walking back to a friends to pend the night! Beer in hand :)