My Easter Story - Road trip 2012

Hello! I know it has been quite  while since I wrote on my blog, this is because my Easter was such a massive trip that I am still getting all the photos and things together! But I am going to try my best to record my feelings and the events that had occurred. 

During Easter me and a few of my friends decided to do a Road trip through Europe. In 10 days we would go to Ljubljana in Slovenia, Munich Germany, Berlin Germany, Prague from the Czech Republic, and lastly Vienna in Austria. It was a tight schedule we were on but we were determined to make it work! So Felix, Catherine, Hector, Andre and I stuffed ourselves into a small four door Volkswagen Polo. 

The first leg of the drive was only a few hours drive, sadly I do not have any idea on how to drive a stick shift so I was unable to drive during the trip. I actually enjoyed this because it game me more time to watch the breath taking countryside roll by. We arrived at our first destination, Ljubljana, it is the capital of Slovenia. It is such a wonderful little town, we arrived at our hostel and quickly left to explore the city. As we walked we could see the castle of Ljubljana from a bridge. It majestically sits on a hill side overlooking the entire city. It really is amazing the wild thoughts that spring up when traveling. Just the impressions from the architecture and people alone make you reconsider what the norm is. Of course this is to be expected but now I have a really bad urge to own a castle! At least a building that is not as vanilla. 

A dragon guarding a bridge
with the Castle in the background

We walked up a huge hill to see the castle which was largely boring. It was just a coffee shop inside and was a few brick walls. Yet what the castle did offer is a view of the surrounding area and that was worth the trek up the hill. You could see for mile and miles around and it was quite a nice view. You can just imagine the history of locations like this, you see the locations where guards could stick their bow and arrows through slits and attack from safe locations. It is amazing how these structures have taken on the test of time. While later exploring the city you can see how the people leave their marks all over. One of the things I saw that confused me to no end was all these locks on a bridge. I kept walking past the bridge and just looking at the locks wondering what are they doing there! I asked my friends and they looked at me like I had asked what color the sky was. Apparently it is common to take a lock with your loved one and write your names on it and lock it on a bridge. It represents that as long as the lock is there that you two will be in love. The romantic in me was delighted at this tradition and I noticed the locks in the different places we visited. After our stop here we left the next day to Munich Germany.

A Church we visited, I really enjoyed the honesty of the architecture  

A castle we saw on our way to Munich as we drove
through Austria

Munich was a lot of fun, I was able to get some real German food and fun and it reminded me of all the meals I have had growing up with my mother cooking similar food. The trip to Munich was amazing. I fell in love with Austria on the spot. We drove some of the most magnificent mountains I have ever known. It was simply breath taking the views that appeared after every tunnel or corner we took on our road trip. I felt a deep connection here with the land, I could feel it pulling my towards it, like I was being led to where I should have been all along. I could not help but want to stop the trip right there and stay as long as possible with these giants surrounding us. We arrived in Munich at a hostel called Jager. We walked in and it was a nice place, we got out keys to our room that held over 40 people and claimed our beds. After we went and took a small walk around the town.

It was a drizzly day but it did not dampen the mood we were all in. We were free from that small car and were glad to be walking. As we walked down a relativity modern city we were not so impressed. It looked like and dirty city that you can find in any country. That was until we got into the heart of the city, around one corner we stumbled into the single best example of Gothic architecture I would say ever existed. It was a massive structure with every sort of carving and detail that could be imagined on the facade of the building. It was one of the most impressive buildings on the trip. What tops it all off is it has a clock that at 12 every day small figurines come out and run around the face of the clock. We continues to explore the city after this building with every corner having something new in store for us. This might be getting a little deep early on in this long post but I now understand just how young our country, the USA, is. Here is a building that stood before electricity, before cars, before America was even found and stands next to a modern skyscraper while remaining timeless. Being on this trip was like walking through a place where time was not chronological. What I mean is that you can walk down a street and see land marks and things from almost the entire history of humans. It is mind boggling to think of the time in which these buildings were erected. 

Olympic Park

The next day we set out to Berlin but not before stopping at the Olympic park. The infamous place of the 1972 massacre. It is bizarre to walk in a place where I have seen on television history being made. Yet people were still swimming in the pool and using the gyms. It actually has a fair ground located on the premise. I also want to say that we rode on the space needle like thing and was treated to a wonderful view of Munich. It was a perfect way to see the city before we left. After we all again loaded into our tiny polo and away we went to the next leg of our trip, Berlin!

The awesomest tour guide

Lady Victory above the Brandenburg Gates

Berlin was the longest place we stayed at during our trip. Now you can really get lost in Berlin and in more than one way. Lost in its size, lost in the people, lost in the history, there is a million ways to occupy your time. We arrived in Berlin late at night and decided to just get dinner then go out tomorrow. So when we woke the next morning we decided to go on a free tour of the city. This was probably one of the best choices of the trip. We had this wonderful Brit who was one of the most interesting and well read people I have met. He knew the date, time, and answer to every question. He really made Berlin come alive and gave insights into land marks that no guide book could ever give. If you ever find a tour for free by the Red T-shirt company TAKE IT! We started our guide at the  Brandenburg gates of Berlin where lady Victory sits upon. What is interesting is how she was not only stolen and traveled all over only to return here where she once started but she was not initially called lady Victory but renamed after the fall of Napoleon.  We then walked to a monument that I think is one of the most wonderful monuments I know of, the level of thought that went into this is simply genius. This monument is a large field of concrete pillars that are standing in regimental lines with some seeming to lean a little to far one way or another.

When we first saw the monument it was just a nifty place that was fun to make photos. There was almost no mark to say what the park represents. You can see children running and laughing through the giant columns. It is not until you hear some of the ideas and meaning of the monument does the entire scene sink it. It is a monument to the Jews that were killed in the Holocaust. We were sitting and being told that the designer built it so children would run through and that their voices would carry. This is because in his interviews with holocaust survivors he heard time and time again that it was the sound of the children that gave the people in the camp hope. It is one of the few things he said about his monument, he wants people to make their own conclusions about the monument. What is interesting is the ground is slightly hilly that the columns are standing up out of. This is characteristic of shallow graves and to me the monuments are that of head stones. What happens during a bright day also is that the stones have a good and bad side. It seemed to me to be a prefect representation of Berlin. It is large and massive, it has a good and a dark side. I sat for many hours drawing deep conclusions to what this monument means. I was really moved by it, even more so when you visit the museum located beneath the columns.

A child walking through the towering structures

Here beneath the tons of concrete stones lies the story of WWII. There are many different rooms each with a different way of telling the story of the horrible events that took place. Words do no justice to the effect of this museum so I will try my best to bring to tell some of the emotions that filled me as I walked through history. I was just reading the history of the holocaust looking at photos of mass graves and un-naturally skinny humans when I looked around at the other people around me. Here was people of every age and location in the world looking at the horrors of human potential and were all reacting in the same way. It makes you feel more connected to the human race. Here no words were needed, human beings feeling compassion for other humans. Women being moved to tears, men holding their tongues as they swallow past their growing lump in their throats, and all along the children look on, ignorant of the meaning yet they too could feel the solemn atmosphere.  On the back wall of the first rooms were large photos showing individuals and their stories of how they came to die. This room led to another room, where on the floor was excepts from letters and messages that made it out of the concentration camps.

The booth 

I could not help but to start to choke up at this point. I walked out of this room and sat down at a small booth and thought I would be delivered from the brutal truth I was facing. In this booth was a small phone that you picked up and could listen to actual survivor stories of people in the camps, what I thought would be stories of happiness soon turned to me weeping as I listened in horror. There were many options of different stories and I was only able to make it through a few before I could no longer listen. One story is thus, It was of a woman who was being accepted into the camp with her two children and her mother. The Nazi's were separating the old and young from the able bodied. One child was only 6 and was sent to the children's line, the next boy was 11 but being large for his age he could pass as 13 and join the able bodied who were being sent to work. The officer who was making the final choices asked the mother how old the boy was because he seemed large enough to work. The mother thinking that she was saving her child from harsh labor said he was 11 and the office said with a smile that he should go to the children's line, the mother then asked if the grandmother could go with them to take care of them. The officer smiled and sent the grandmother to the other line rather than work. One soldier said that it would only be a week and they would be reunited. Later the mother found out that the children and the old were all killed and that she sent her son and mother to die rather than work and survive as she did. All the other stories were of this same magnitude and I was brought to tears as I listened. Even the darkest thoughts I have ever had never amounted to a grain of salt in the mountain of evil that was the Holocaust. I left the museum with puffy eyes, the museum exiting into the middle of these large columns. It was one of my favorite and yet horrible experiences while in Berlin.

In front of the Opera house

We also saw some other sights in Berlin, such as the wonderful opera houses and music schools. As we walked we saw the Berlin wall, it was much smaller than I had imagined it being. It was only a few inches thick and not overly tall, but considering 149 miles of wall was starting to be built at 1am and they were done by 6am it makes sense. Talk about German efficacy! Later in the day after the tour me and Catherine and Andre walked for hours looking for the East Side Gallery, a section of that wall that has murals all over it. After finding our way we were rewarded with some really moving images that were on the wall. It was defiantly worth the walk. Some other places we visited was Check Point Charley, Where the USA and Russia had over 40 tanks aimed at one another. Luckily through a amazing example of diplomacy both sides removed their tanks and thus stopped a potentially nasty event from occurring! We also saw another holocaust museum, this one was interesting because there is a large field of gravel. This field as I later found out was all that remained of the Nazi buildings. They completely destroyed almost all the buildings the Nazi's built and put the remains in this field as a reminder to the world of Berlins and Germany's stance on the Nazi's. As we left Berlin I still had only scratched the surface of what Berlin had to offer, with the many AMAZING museums that I could not visit, wonderful people, and all the other experiences I was reminded of what the French say about Berlin, "Paris will always be Paris, but Berlin is always becoming Berlin" This is the spirit of Berlin, ever changing and never the same place twice. I look forward to my next encounter with this wonderful and dark city.

The rubble of Nazi buildings

Replication of Check Point Charley

After Berlin we were now on our return trip back to Croatia. We then found ourselves in Prague. I feel I was cheated from really getting to know Prague and this is why, Everyone else LOVES Prague. All the people I have met only talk about just how amazing this place is, so I went into Prague with super high expectations, only to be let down. Now I am not saying Prague is not a great place, just not as advertised. We stayed with some friends of our friend, Hector. We went to the castle that is there in Prague and as we approached a large crowd was gathered outside, we were arriving right when the guards were changing. It was awesome to watch, every motion was exact, precise, and on point. It was really amazing to see, I have only seen such discipline in the American color guard, it had never occurred that other countries also perform these routines.

The inside of the Church

 Inside the Castle walls they also had a massive Gothic style church with animals carved in stone hanging off every corner. You could look at any spot on the building and find where a craftsman's hand has worked. I really love these buildings that are testimates to human ability and achievement. Skyscrapers are impressive due to size, but these building are the definition of art, they demonstrate years of high level output by true masters of their craft. Inside the church was also work of equal merit. Some amazing works of wood carvings, metal craft, and more masonry were displayed like trophies throughout the church. I have many of these photos on my Flickr feed. You can find it at the bottom of this post. It has all the photos you have seen here and more also. Some that tell the story of my trip better than this post alone. After we examined the rest of the church we explored the rest of the castle. We saw the old walls that still have the small slits that a archer would fire his arrows at anyone trying to siege the castle. There was a room that was used for torture with some equipment that was used to "extract" information from enemies of the castle. One particular one was a metal fitting that surrounded the body and they would then proceed to dunk you into a water well.

One of my favorite statues
 in the Church

The castle had a wondrous view of Prague. You could see for miles in nearly every direction. It was really amazing how small everything looked from the walls of the castle. I could only imagine being a child looking into the city, full of wonder and awe at the unknown life that laid outside the city walls.  In different room through out the castle they had set up example of how the castle use to look, or the original use of rooms. They had some really  unique rooms. One being the armory, you were able to see all the weapons that were used through out the defense of the castle. One room was what seemed to be a laboratory filled with all types of experimenting equipment.
We left the castle and walked the city a little. One thing we did was walk across a famous bridge in Prague, it is said that if you touch one of the murals where a dog is, that you will one day return to Prague. Our entourage all took our turns in placing our hands on the dog and giving it a good rub. I know for me I sure hope I return! I would love to give Prague another chance to prove itself! One final not about Prague was we ate a HUGE amount of food! We ate ribs twice, it was amazing, I miss good ol' BBQ. I was so happy I was able to eat it here! But we soon left Prague after enjoying the night life, especially my friend Felix! and made our way on ward to Vienna.

Equipment that was in one of the rooms, it is actually a small still that could
do everything from making booze to purifying water

Ah, Vienna, I only knew you for a day and yet I know we are destined to be together! This place in in the wonderful country of Austria, which as you saw earlier has amazing mountains. Vienna is the city of Music and it is rightly named so. Every where you go there is an opportunity to go to a concert, show, or opera. I really wish I was able to attend one show. For students the price goes from 100 Euros to 8 Euros. Sadly I was only there for one day. Yet we saw so much of this city my feet get tired just thinking of all the buildings we saw.
On every corner they have some street performance or artist painting, but what is noticeably different is rather than mediocre players, these were people who seemed to be masters of their art. We walked by one woman who was singing opera and it was pitch perfect. Yet people walked by as though it was nothing special. What gets me so excited about Vienna besides the wonderful people is the buildings. Every building you pass has a building that is more grand and impressive behind it. If I was a god, this is where I would live, I felt like the entire city was Zeus's home. 
But if this is Zeus's home he lived at the palace.

The palace was massive, a city in its own right. Not only did it have a house that you could get lost in for weeks, but upon the top of the hill located behind the palace was a wonderful structure that overlooked the entire city.
 In one direction was the palaces zoo (it has its own zoo) which I heard was one of the better zoos. They had a hedge maze located on the grounds also, which was also massive. It was raining lightly as we walked over the grounds of the palace and after walking and seeing everything we could see without paying we decided to see the inside of the castle.

The inside was really also exquisite, it was full of history and the tour really opened my eyes to the history of Austria. I for one was unaware that Mary Antoinette was from Austria. I knew that she was queen of France but not that she was from here. Also the Kings brother was killed in Spain at the same time his son committed suicide. This is how the fall of the Royal family occurred. It was all very interesting. But what I enjoyed almost as much as walking through the halls was the fact they said not to take any photos inside the palace. Well I don't know why but I went with great determination to get as many photos as I can! I paid for entrance into this place and now you are saying I can't take photos! Poppycock! So my photo to the right was taken of one of the dining halls. It is too bad I had to shoot without looking through the camera lens. There were a great many photos that did not turn out as I had hoped! But either way the palace really makes you wonder how would it be to grow up in such a lavished and extravagant life. I for one think I would not enjoy it as much as I first thought. The thought of having to always be proper and not being able to relax and kick back would drive me crazy! But lastly we left the castle and walked around the city before we had to leave. I have many wonderful photos again but they are in the link below to my Flickr.

As we were walking around the city they had this huge monument to Communism soldiers. I was so confused and had to double take when I saw the structure. Sure enough it was a massive monument with depictions of Soviets Soldiers. I sat a long while reading that the monument is for all the fallen soldiers that helped free Austria from Fascism. It was an eye opener, here my whole life I have assumed the Communism was detested. Seeing a monument in the honor of communism really gave me mixed feelings of confusion and  a little anger. It was only after thinking for a long while and staring at the monument did I accept the monument as a good thing. This was for the men and women who helped free a people. The Communist Russians did help us win WWII and we cannot forget that despite how much we may not like it as Americans. I was happy that there was a monument to the people who died for a belief that freed people. With these thoughts fresh in my head we drove home to Zagreb. After 10 days on the road I came back to Zagreb with larger horizons of understanding, with a greater knowledge of culture, and with the realization how much I missed my Croatian family here. I am going to have a hard time leaving them when I go back home... But a wise woman once said you have to grow where you are planted. So I am going to make the most of every day I have left here, the same is true when I go home. I know that all the wonderful people I have met will always be in my heart helping me along my journey through life. If you made it to this point and read the story of my travels I congratulate you! It took almost 4 days of writing to get all this down on paper, that does not include selecting and editing photos! But luckily I have another trip I just returned from and I will have that up shortly also! Don't forget I have more photos here

More Photos -> http://www.flickr.com/photos/akbproductions/sets/72157629948688159/

The top of the main column of the monument

Budapest or Bust!

Hello everyone! I know it has been some time since my last post, but this one should not let you down. I went this weekend to Budapest, which is located in Hungary. I honestly knew nothing about Budapest before we set out on our journey. I just knew a rough location of where it was and that was about it. Well let me tell you, Budapest is a shinning emerald in the crown of European cities. The city is absolutely stunning, I had one of the most enjoyable days of my life wondering the city with friends. 

In front of the Capitol Building, I thinks it is prettier from
the water though.

We took a tourist bus for around 6-7 hours to get there. It was a pretty relaxed ride, the country side was really beautiful. Farms that seemed to be draped of the rolling hills. It was a really wonderful time just watching as rows of vines and other crops blurred past the window. Once we arrived in Budapest we were treated to a small tour from inside the bus. The city has on of the most interesting histories and again the buildings are nothing short of monuments. An interesting fact is that it was once a law that 20% of the cost of building a building here had to be in the cost of the decor. So the bigger the building the more elaborate and intricate was the facade. I really loved it, also they had a Starbucks, now I do not care to much for Starbucks, but I like my American sized cup of coffee, so I was ecstatic that I could get some coffee!  

An old beggar that was
 ignored by everyone around her. 

So after being in the city for a quick tour via bus we all dropped off our things at the hotel and walked around the city for a short time. After most of us went on a tour of the city via the river. Let me suggest if you are visiting Budapest to go on a tour from the water as the sun is setting. Most of the pictures in this blog are from that tour. They had champagne for all the riders and everyone was so jovial. I was like a kid in a candy store, I took over 500 pictures on that hour. You cannot help but to fall in love with beauty of this place. I have not been to Paris yet but I give Budapest for a city of love. What a place to have as the setting of a love story. After our boat ride we all split up and went out into the city. It was St. Patricks day but I really did not want to spend my only night here at a bar. So me and two others went out to find dinner. We had a guide book of the city and found a back ally that had a small Hungarian restaurant. The food was simply fantastic! We shared a bottle of local wine between the three of us. It was such wonderful company and conversation. We ended up talking until the place closed. Once we left we were feeling good from the wine and wanted to climb up the mountain that overlooks the city. It was quite a hike to make, especially on a full stomach of food but once we finally reached top we forgot all about how tired we were and looked over the city. It was again stunning, you had a 360 panoramic view of the city. It was such a humbling thing, to see the massive beauty before us and just how expansive the city was. After standing in awe for a small time we went down the mountain again and decided to take in a bath at the natural hot springs that we heard so much about. Luckily you can rent everything including a bathing suit and the baths are open till four in the morning. So we ended our fantastic day soaking in natural sulfur hot springs. 

 The next day we visited some of the land marks of Budapest. Notably the Hero's circle is amazing. It was built to honor the cities 1000th birthday. The statues are massive and they are all of men who have played a important role in the history of Budapest. After we went walking around the town again from land mark to land mark. It was so much to take in. But I am running out of ways to describe just how beautiful it was. After taking in some more of the city we climbed back on the bus and headed home. We did make a stop for lunch at a small village that was located near a lake. It was fun to watch the fishermen just lazily catch fish. It would be nice to come back once the water warms up and to spend some time here in Budapest.

Other than that I have been visiting some local museums in Croatia. I have been slowly cooking more and more, if you have any good recipes be sure to send them my way! I hope every one is safe and hope to see all my friends back home soon!  God Bless

This is the Capitol building from the water side.

Another week and even more fun!

How is everyone doing? I know an update! I promise to try and squeeze in just the good stuff! It is hard to write everyday! I run out of ways to say how happy I am to be here! It got me thinking, if I had won student government president I would be back in the states and never traveled abroad. I would graduate next year and have started working a 9-5 until I decided to go pursue a masters. I really am very happy how things turned out. It is nice to be here and be able to gain new perspectives on life and really suck the marrow of life. I have spent many nights thinking about all the little choices that brought me to where I am now. From failed relationships to burning my self out from doing to much, everything just seemed to lead me here. 

But enough about my contemplative babble, more about the events that lead me to these thoughts. I started my week off at my favorite place, with my Croatian family. Now Kristina is one hell of a cook, I know I haven't said to much about her cooking (which she tells me) but really what can you say? I feel that it really is not fair of me to show you all the incredible food I have been getting spoiled with! But do not worry, I am going to anyway! She cooked a really good soup to start with, it is really hard not to fill up on soup before you eat the main part of the meal because the soup is so tasty! Luckily I did because Kristina made one mean lasagna! You can almost smell the cheese bubbling up in the photo! I am so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful and caring family! I know I would be dieing for my mothers cooking if it was not for them! So I only miss my moms cooking less! But after having lunch with Kristina I left her apartment and saw this stop sign. I know it is cliche idea but it still made me chuckle, I actually did do a little hammer time dance, but I made sure no one was looking. 

Later in the week I went to go meet a friend for coffee, but while waiting I went to the cathedral. I like to go there when I have free time, one because it really is one of the most awe inspiring things you can see, and two I find comfort in my religion. But while sitting in the pews passing some time away, a surplus of nuns and priest starting filling the pews, followed by regular citizens. I was assuming a regular mass was going to be held until a the mass started and a man in a red little had started to give the mass. That little red hat means he was a cardinal. I was enjoyed about half the mass before I stepped out to meet my friend. Another point of interest was how long the line was to the confessionals. I wonder if I went to confess in English does it matter? If the priest does not speak English. I will look into that later. But I had a wonderful time meeting my friend. My friend is American and it is nice to be able to relate some of the experiences with someone who is in the same boat. 

Later in the week I tagged along with a class that was going to a museum of arts and crafts. It was really cool. The museum was filled with Croatian artist's work. The have a collection from baroque to post modernism, it is a very expansive collection. We had a tour guide and it made all the difference, she pointed out how to tell the difference between the different time periods and what made each period unique. I uploaded some of my favorite pieces here. One is a clock that sits on the floor, it is of a hot air balloon, and it was made to commemorate the first hot air balloon ride, but it has angles all around it because that is the only way a hot air balloon gets off the ground. Even though we now know the science I would still like to imagine a group of angels lifting the hot air balloon.

Another of my favorite pieces was a glass chandelier, completely made by hand. I do not even fancy the style to much, but rather I really like to imagine the person who spent so much time, making all the delicate pieces and attaching them to the chandelier one by one. You can tell by just how elaborate the piece is that the artist really took pride in this piece. I think that is a problem today, it is hard for people to appreciate the process. We take for granted how everything is, cars, fancy advertisements, we are constantly being bombarded with images that we are only worried with the final product. We don't care if a machine made an intricate cabinet or if it took a year by a master carpenter. I think this is sad, more people should wonder, wonder why things the way they are, wonder who made the things around them, I think the world should wonder a little more that it has been. It lets you appreciate things even if they are not your favorite.

That is why I also added this picture of a clock, it is incredible to me to think that people made these clocks by hand also. That people have an exact ratio that must be followed to get all the clocks to have the same movements. I really liked this clock because you can look inside and see all the moving parts. It again demystifies how clocks work. instead of just looking at the hands of the clock and getting the time, it shows you all the work that is taking place to tell you the time.

After visiting the museum I had a pretty relaxed week. I did find  another chuckle at the end of my road. It is the Mc Kebab, talk about blatantly stealing an idea! The sign is a altered version of the Mc Donalds sign. I was chuckling the rest of the walk home after seeing it.  I am going to eat there on my way to school, I will let you all know if it has any good food, but really i'm sure it does because I really love kebabs!

Then it came to the end of the week so we of course partied. We found a really nice bar that had a cheap happy hour. So right before it ended we bought a whole bunch of beers, this was after drinking for a while already. It was a really fun night, and yes I do remember it. I posted this video because my mom is scared I might get a drinking problem. So this photo is just to freak her out. Love you Mom! Then we went out the next night also. We went to a dance club, we had to work off the beer from the night before. So we danced all night and well into the morning, we stayed out till 9 in the morning. It was one long long night, but it was really fun because we ended up at a little shack down by the river here. It was literally a boat that was just sitting in the flood plain that was turned into a club. It was clearly a place that was off the map. Luckily we have friends here that know all the more obscure places. It makes going out way more fun!

Then there was yesterday, where Kristina made a wonderful lunch, and having gotten home at 9 am I slept through my alarm and missed lunch by an hour. I felt completely horrible about missing her lunch! Luckily she still had me over and it was as tasty as every. I don't think I am going to stay out that late again. It messed up my entire sleep schedule. But the food was really good. Then later Zvanko and Nada came to visit. While they were here we decided to skype with my parents back home. It was fun, we all were passing the computer around and talking with them. And just like I started my week with my family here, I ended another wonderful week in Croatia with my family here. Man am I lucky how things turned out! Next time things do not work out the way I want them too, I will think twice before considering it bad luck!

Skyping with my parents and Zvanko!