Back to Reality

...and it sucks :P Kyle and I arrived back on American soil on Sunday afternoon, after spending a much needed couple days in England with our favorite Brits- Lou, Alison, Matt, and Sam. We were stuck in Zagreb when our connecting flight from Dubrovnik was delayed for a couple of Frankfurt passengers...long story, but Croatia Airlines made a HUGE mistake, and they will be hearing about it. We wasted a day NOT spent in London, and didn't get into England until 4pm on Friday, when we were supposed to have gotten in at 9am.

On Saturday, the girls spent some GREAT quality time together, with a wedding dress shopping spree in Canterbury for Louise, and then afternoon tea at Eastwell Manor. The entire time, the boys had a great time going to a brew pub!

Sipping tea like proper ladies.

Afternoon tea at Eastwell Manor. Just beautiful.

And of course there's a roaring fireplace.

Sam had cooked Sunday roast for us that night, which is by far MY FAVORITE English meal. SOOOOO good. It's good to know professional chefs ;)

The next morning, we headed to Heathrow Airport. It felt weird to be leaving Europe after being there for so long. Kyle and I were able to get on the same flight to DC, where he would connect to Buffalo. The entire flight, Kyle finished Hunger Games...yay! It was a pretty decent flight...a long and tedious 8 hours, and absolutely nothing exciting to report.

We arrived at IAD, and to our dismay, they separated me (exit DC) and Kyle (transfer to another flight) immediately, and we didn't even have a proper goodbye because they were trying to shove us into our respective trams :( So that was a bit hectic and frustrating. Plus the fact that Kyle didn't have his phone (of course he didn't...if he didn't have it in London or Paris, why would he have it in DC, right?). Anyway, everything was sorted, Chantel picked me up from the airport, Kyle got on his flight, and we went back to our normal lives...

I started back up with work and school immediately, and it was really bizarre being home! Kyle went back to work on Tuesday bc his firm actually respects President's Day ;) You'd think that living and working in DC, everyone would be more observant of President's Day, right? I would even trade a day off for taking an obligatory tour around the National Mall or something. Anyway...my jet lag was so bad for the first few days that I would wake up at 4ish and not be able to go back to bed at ALL. It was awful. So I would wake up and continue reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. It's intriguing, but definitely not my favorite series thus far.

The next couple weeks are going to be spent catching up on school, work, and friends. We are off to Costa Rica in two weeks for Alyssa's wedding. Tough life :)

Zagreb / Dubrovnik / Montenegro / Bosnia

So....we jam-packed a lot into the last 2 days. Originally, we had thought to go to Greece and Turkey, but with the current political climate, we scrapped that idea and decided on Hungary and Croatia. And boy, was that a GREAT idea.

So we wrapped up our last day in Zagreb exploring the old city, which is fascinating itself:

Church

Museum of broken relationships...interesting

San Marcos Church

I get tired of Kyle taking pictures....

After our morning in Zagreb, we flew into Dubrovnik, which is the southern tip of Croatia, and is surrounded by the Adriatic Sea. Flying into Dubrovnik was breathtaking. Our landing was great, and immediately, we were greeted by an amazing view:

Air Croatia landing

We decided to stay at the Hotel Exelsior, an excellent and amazing 5 star hotel that has a perfect view of the Old City, and a superior sea view. The picture below is literally taken from our window:

Can't ask for a better view than this

A couple steps from our hotel...

San Domenic Street. The beauty of Dubrovnik in the winter is that there are very little tourists.

Main avenue in the old city.

Church, etc.

Night view from our hotel window

DAY 2

Sunrise view from our hotel window...Kyle got up at 6:40 for this

For our second day here, we decided to forgo exploring Dubrovnik, and instead, opted for a day trip to Montenegro, and to pass through Bosnia on the way back. It was the best decision we ever made. Montenegro is just a beautiful, beautiful place. Very pristine and untouched, and very little tourists. Our guide, from Florio Cars (http://www.dubrovnikcars.com/), offered probably the best service and tour guide-ness that we have ever experienced, and we've gone through a lot of guides in different countries and continents. It was the most superb experience we've ever had in terms of hospitality and knowledge.

Town of Kotor in Montenegro


It took us for-f'ing-ever to hike up this high. Thought we were going to die since everything was in ruins.
High point

Town of Budva

Adriatic Sea. Love.

Welcome to Bosnia.

Our amazing ride for the day, and a superior view of Sunset, with Dubrovnik behind/below us.

Best meal we've ever had...local Croatian food!

Sretan Valentinovo!!

That's Happy Valentine's Day in Croatian! Kyle and I perhaps gave ourselves the best present ever by arranging a trip to Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. We first heard of the lakes when our good friend Jesslyn randomly texted me one day with this stunningly beautiful image. I took one look at it, and totally rearranged our entire trip that I had been planning, so that the lakes could be fitted into the schedule. I decided to go with a tour guide, as it is virtually impossible to get to Plitvice Lakes without renting a car, and there was no way in hell Kyle or I were going to rent a car to get there and back. I found a great site, www.zagrebtours.com, and voila, our guide Mirko met us promptly at 8:30am in our hotel lobby, as cheerful as can be at such an early and cold hour.

The drive to Plitvice Lakes from Zagreb is about an hour and half, and apparently the day before we got here to Zagreb, it had been snowing/storming like crazy. When we first got to Zagreb yesterday, everything was insanely covered in snow and slushy. Zagreb was dumped with literally a foot of snow. Today, no snow at all and not a cloud in the sky. It was beautiful, and for the first time, it felt like it was above 32 degrees, which is GREAT.

All along the ride, we got to learn ALL about Croatia's history from Mirko. He is extremely well-versed in politics, travels, and history. We learned all about the war in the 1990s that destroyed part of Croatia, and we saw the site where the fighting had taken place with the Serbs:

Serbian fighter jet downed by the Croatians

Mirko took us to a site where a lot of the weapons/modes of transport used were displayed outside. It's unreal how many bullet holes were in that small little town, EVERYWHERE. You can definitely tell the fighting was intense. From that point, Bosnia was only 20 kilometers away...

We made our way to Plitvice Lakes a little pensive. The park is part of the UNESCO Heritage Sites, and rightfully so. It is GORGEOUS. Because of the intense snowstorms and extreme cold temperatures, the entire place had frozen over, including the waterfalls, and a pretty and delicate layer of snow covered everything. Our tour guide had only seen this once, but not in this pristine condition, and we heard another tour guide saying that we were about 200 in a couple million people who would ever see the lakes like this. It was that rare. Kyle and I hiked, with Mirko, for a good damn SIX miles. And let me tell you something- boots from Banana Republic are NOT meant for hiking. I didn't realize we would be going down treacherous trails, ON SNOW, THROUGH SNOW, with no railings. Some parts, we were literally wading through a foot of snow, and some other areas were so narrow that you had to go waist-deep into the snow. In the end, however, it was all very well worth it. Plitvice Lakes has got to be one of the most stunning places I've ever been to, and combined with the fact that it had frozen over...well, it definitely proved to be an afternoon where I believe you can see God's influence on nature as it is meant to be (not to get all preachy or anything). I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (they aren't even photoshopped, btw...) :

Plitvice Lakes in the Winter Pictures:

Frozen lake, ALL OVER

Note: I am NOT made for hiking...

Stunning.

Me trudging along with Mirko

In front of this completely frozen waterfall.

Massive and frozen.

Deer tracks :)

Feel so small in this place :)

Over and out. We came back here and PASSED OUT. About to go to bed soon...will explore Zagreb a little tomorrow, even though there's not really much, except for a bunch of museums and churches...headed to Dubrovnik tomorrow :)

~Kristen