My Top Ten Moments

This was quite difficult to compile, but here it is. I can't even decide on an order, so it's bullet points instead!

• Watching Germany win the World Cup at the Kulturbrauerei

Machine

• Hearing and seeing the Blue Danube at a dinner show in Vienna

• Experiencing the gorgeous Christmas markets in Strasbourg

• Playing the Mind Maze in Prague with Sia and Sarah

Happy defeat

• Exploring Plitvice National Park in Croatia

Just call me Kirsty Two-Pairs

• Spending my 21st birthday in Paris with my best friend

Possibly my favourite picture of us ever

• Going to the fashion show at Galeries Lafayette with Elinor

Yeah I don't have any pictures of the actual show, soz, have this beautiful tree

• making Stollen with Niamh and Joe

It turned out wonderfully

• Seeing a Lippizaner perform a Levade in Vienna

The Lippizaner's saddles

• Having a 3 course meal in an empty restaurant with a view of the Alps

Pie in the sky

Oh and going up the Eiffel Tower at night with my sister!

Up in the fog

Zany Zagreb

Onto today! This morning, we went down for breakfast to find out that the woman at the desk had no idea we had ordered one, and offered to go to the shop! We told her not to worry, and went to a cafe she recommended for breakfast. Stuffed on chocolate and strawberry pancakes, we walked to the Kaptol to catch the tourist bus, but the next one was at 12, so we went into the cathedral and explored more of the old town.

The main square

We also went to the Museum of Broken Relationships, which Sia had read about but had no idea it was in Zagreb! It was actually a really interesting concept; people donate items from a finished relationship along with their story to the museum, for closure and release. Some of it was quite funny, and others quite sad. What I liked the most is that it didn't just focus on romantic relationships, rather on friendship and family too. One of my favourite ones was a burger dog toy with the caption "His dog left more traces behind than he did."

I'm still chuckling

We went back to the bus stop to find there were no seats left, so walked through the market to buy souvenirs and then stumbled on a lovely art stall, but Sia had to pay for her poster inside. Then I decided to buy 4 rhino pictures (they were really cute okay, and I became an art expert in Potsdam, remember?). We were there for some time, as the adorable old man wrapped up our pictures and then took us to the office, where Sia had to work the pin machine for him!

We are both now proud owners of naive art.

Lunch was at the same chain that we'd been to for breakfast, before we walked back to the hostel to get our bags. We had to wait for like 15 minutes for the tram and were getting a bit worried about time, but we made it to the bus station fine. We thought we had to check in so went up to the counter with our tickets, but the man said to just go straight to the bus, so we did. However, it was never going to be easy because that's our life, and the driver told us to get off and wait to see if there were spaces available! As you can imagine, I was not a happy bunny and prepared for war, but luck was on our side and we managed to get seats... We're sitting apart but we are on the bus to Vienna and currently sitting at the border of Slovenia, waiting to be checked.

Lunch, but what am I doing with my hands?

It's been a brilliant few days, but I'm looking forward to a MacDonalds and crashing in Sia's room.
Next update when I'm on my way back to Berlin, can't believe how fast it's all gone!

Laters
Xxxx

Polarised in Plitvice

So the last couple of days have been quite something! We arrived in Zagreb on Sunday evening and went straight to our hostel, after successfully navigating the trams, dumped our stuff and headed out to a brewery for dinner. A litre of beer worked out to be about 3 euros which, when considering it's 10 at Oktoberfest, is pretty impressive. The food was also good and we went home with full tummies and excited for our Plitvice tour in the morning...

Tired but, beer!

Though when we got to the hostel, the man informed us that the trip wasn't happening because there weren't enough people going. Sia had booked that hostel specifically because it offered this tour, and she had even requested it when she booked, so we thought this was a bit off but we decided to get up early, skip breakfast and head straight to the bus station to see what we could get.

This actually worked out fine, and we got tickets for a return journey to the national park! We were quite proud of ourselves and were on our way at 8.15. We got off at Entrance 1, after being told that the bus would pick us up at 4.15 at Entrance 2.

We had to queue a while but we got in to the park, and the first thing we saw was the huge waterfall! We walked all around it, posed for pictures on rocks (obviously), climbed up into a cave, and followed the path around the incredible lakes, which were blue-green and crystal clear. It really was stunning scenery, but quite surreal!

Sia's photo: me and the big 'slap'

Is this real life or is this just fantasyyyyyy

We emerged onto the Great Lake (even though the last one had been pretty big) and stopped for lunch and souvenir shopping. We then decided to take the ferry across the lake to where we thought we could walk round to Entrance 2.

It wasn't until we'd walked up a hill bit and seen another little waterfall (that's the last photo above) that I realised we were going the wrong way so we walked back to the boat and walked up through a huge long queue and started walking again... but that was also the wrong way! I was now starting to panic, but Sia kept her head and rang the park reception. A really nice guy called Nicola (I don't know) told us to go back down to the smaller boat to where we could follow the signs to Parking 2 and get out. So we had to now walk back down the huge long queue... I was starting to panic again as I could hear people tutting and swearing and shouting 'Hey, they're pushing in!', I was doing my best to just keep walking and follow Sia, when a woman grabbed her! Sia shook her off, so then the woman grabbed hold of my arms instead. In any normal scenario, I would have reacted with anger, but this time I just broke into a panic attack and stood there with my hands over my face. I could hear that vile woman laughing.

We eventually got to the bottom of the queue where a really lovely man helped me up onto the deck, and the boat controller man got us onto the boat. On the other side, it was my turn to take the lead as Sia had begun to suffer from her poorly chest infection and was starting to lose her cool, so I marched onwards and I've never been so happy to see a bus stop (after about 100 stone steps and a bridge)... Nightmare.
But we made it back to Zagreb and were very happy to get back to the hostel. We ended up going to the same place for dinner because it was so good, cheap and we were very hungry. I can completely recommend Croatian pasta as I ate 2 nights in a row and loved it both times! It's called Trganci (I think).

Next post, our day in Zagreb
Xx

Let's Split

We only had a short time in Split, yet I think we've seen most of it! There isn't actually that much to see, unless we're really missing something. We've walked around the old town, inside Diocletian's palace, about 4 times and soaked up the very Roman atmosphere.

We got a bit lost finding our hostel though, but quite enjoyed walking through some very small, authentic streets until we came upon an old woman sitting on her step and ran away (it got a bit too authentic). On Saturday night, we had dinner in a little place on the harbour which was very nice (although I am still confused as to why Black Risotto means cuttlefish risotto, I didn't even know you could eat them and I am still not convinced) and we were there for a few hours catching up on each others' lives. It was also nice to share a room with someone I knew for a change.

The following morning, after having breakfast, we had one last walk around. I climbed the bell tower to see some views of the city from above which was quite satisfying but there was just too many people and I nearly fell over more than once.

Selfie at the top!

Then we walked through an indoor market where I did the necessary magnet purchasing, before we had lunch (a sandwich with no butter) and then went to the bus station. If Croatia wants to continue to be a tourist destination, they really need to expand their airport and bus stations, as they were about the size of a postage stamp and about as organised as rabbit's tea party. We did eventually get on the right bus and it is quite comfortable actually!

See you in Zagreb

xxx