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Why hello hello Readers!
I’m now in…Taiwan! Crazy how fast time flies. I’m back at ULA in Taiwan to make a vegetarian cookbook of their recipes. I was here about 3 months back in March, but 6 days was too short to learn their Buddhist recipes. Did you know Chinese Buddhists don’t eat onion and garlic? I was so sceptical how food could even taste good as those were my cooking staples for the past 25 years, but low and behold, the food is PHENOMENAL! I can honestly say that I don’t even miss it. Cool thing too is that once I finish typing up their recipes, they’ll be on this website. Happy cooking friends! ^^
Back to the Adventure – Zagreb, Croatia:
Flixbus! The perfectly simple, easy and cheap way of getting around Europe as a traveller. While waiting for the bus to go from Slovenia to Croatia, I happen to be chat with this fine chap…Kenny! We were on similar adventures in life. We both quit our jobs back at home and decided to go on an extended period of travel. The 1h45m bus ride went by crazy fast with us yammering away. When we arrived in Zagreb, we were both craving Asian food really bad (sometimes it can be hard to find in Europe) so we decided to have find Thai food for lunch then adventure around together.
As a quick aside, contrary to popular belief, Dubrovnik is not the capital of Croatia…it’s Zagreb and let me tell you that this city is amazingly wholesome and vibrant. Perfect for those who enjoy beer culture, good eats and a calm, but fun atmosphere. They also have a few cool museums…I didn’t have the time to go, but I’m so curious about their Museum of Broken Relationships…you can donate your story and it might end up in the museum!
We ended up heading on an afternoon city tour and it was boiling outside! If you ever go to Zagreb in August, pack some good sunscreen and slather it on. Not to mention a large bottle of water.
The above pictures are from the tour and 100%, this is not to be missed. I’m not someone who does many touristy things while travelling now, but I think this was the best tour I’ve been on. It was free (by donation) and the perfect balance of educational, multisensory and fun without being too long and wordy.
(If you go to Zagreb, try to hit up the tour on your first day as it’ll give you the perfect overview of the main tourist attractions plus an excellent orientation.)
Bye Bye Kenny!
Unfortunately, my time with Kenny was short-lived (but don’t worry, his handsome face shall return!) as I was meeting up with a friend from London and he was only in Zagreb for a couple days.
Zagreb –> Stari Grad!
In the next couple days, I headed off to the coast of Croatia to Stari Grad. What can I say? Despite the beauty of Zagreb, I wished for a quieter town with more nature thus, David and I grabbed a Flixbus and headed to the seaside. Oh yes…can you also say…ferry!
Stari Grad:
(Hahaha! Looking back on my adventure now 8 months later, I was quite naive and didn’t realize I was pretty burned out from travelling for the past 2 months. Note to any travellers doing the long term haul, try to park yourself somewhere for a month and take a break from being a typical tourist otherwise you risk travel burn out.)
Stari Grad is a beautiful little seaside town just a 2h ferry ride from Split (the well-known seaside party city in Croatia). It’s actually on the same island of the well-known Hvar, but we’ll get there a bit later. What I find adorable about this town is that when the sea level is high, it actually floods the streets. David was 100% not impressed, but I loved the novelty of taking off my shoes and walking barefoot in the street.
Like all my travel adventure posts so far, I don’t think it would be complete without more foodie photos…
While Stari Grad was nice and calm for a couple days, we decided to get a little more touristy and take a bus from one side of the island over to the more famous city of Hvar. Much more vibrant, full of beaches, swimming spots and brilliant sunshine. It’s easy to see why tourists love Hvar.
Summary:
Well that brings Croatia to a wrap! It’s crazy to think Hvar, Stari Grad and Zagreb are all in Croatia given their vastly different atmospheres and environments. In the next part of the adventure, I will be headed off to the lesser known country of Bosnia and Herzegovinia and let me say that this was easily one of my favourite countries to boot. Just thinking about the atmosphere, hostel and folks I met there bring a smile to my face. That part shall be released on June 13th/24 so stay tuned ^^
~Tracy
World of Wandering Minds 