Welcome to week 2 of my study abroad diary!
1.22.24-1.27.24
This is part 1 of my trip to Croatia and Slovenia
NOTE: Something is wrong and I cannot upload pics right now but I will be adding them later!! Hopefully my wonderful story telling will interest you instead:)
I’m a bit behind on these as these events occurred a couple of weeks ago, so I’ll be addressing those events as well as some little things that have happened over the past few days.
To begin, we started off Monday with Karaoke. I went to this karaoke bar for an IntU event with our large group of friends, and my buddies were there too. We sang ABBA (of course) as well as some Carrie Underwood, Olivia Rodrigo, and some other popular American artists. Patrick and I of course had to sing Country Roads Take Me Home by John Denver, which luckily plenty of the Europeans knew so it was being SCREAMT in that bar. ‘Twas a great night and we had so much fun, and despite being quite performance-shy I sang multiple songs in front of everyone.
My classes at this point have been very interesting, and I’m learning a lot regarding international business theory especially in a new perspective, which is quite refreshing. In case you are unaware, in Sweden, or at least in Gothenburg, you only take one class at a time. The semester is split into 4 periods so you can either take a class per period and have four classes throughout the semester, or you can take a longer class that lasts multiple periods. I’m doing the latter and taking one class during periods 1 and 2, which is International Business, and then another class during periods 3 and 4, which is Strategy and Marketing in a Global Context. This allows students to focus on one class at a time and not have to worry about material from other classes at the same time. I think it’s a fantastic way to promote material retention long-term and reduce stress. One thing I found odd is that your classes won’t always be on the same days, times, or locations every week and it’s common to have other professors come and teach a lecture or two.
The rest of the week was more or less uneventful leading up to Thursday, we of course went to Yaki-Da again on Wednesday night as is tradition. But then Thursday I went to class and then came back home and packed for my trip to Croatia!! I went with four other girls: Alex, Lydia, Devon, and Frida. We also decided to add a location, which was Ljubljana, Slovenia. Thursday night we boarded our plane through RyanAir (which is an experience to say the least). Our flight got delayed and no one bothered to tell us which is fine I guess considering it was literally a $30 roundtrip flight.
We made it to Zagreb, Croatia and spent the night in this cute little hostel that had like all these retro pics and decorations. Me, Devon and Alex stayed in the same dorm while Lydia and Frida stayed in another one together. We woke up at the crack of dawn to get ready to get on a bus that would take us to Rijeka. FlixBus is what we used during this trip and it’s a great way to travel cheaply, I highly recommend if you’re going a fairly short distance, the longer distances aren’t as worth it as you can likely find a flight for about the same price that wouldn’t take as much time.
ANYWAY, we got on the bus and it was about a 3 hour ride to Rijeka (which is a coastal city in Croatia) and we immediately went to the place we were staying to see if it was ready, and luckily it was so we dropped our bags off and then went and got some lunch at this cute restaurant nearby. We all also changed into lighter clothes because it was SO much warmer than Sweden so everyone looked at us like we were crazy because they were still wearing their like winter puffer jackets and whatnot. At the restaurant we decided to try their ‘seasonal’ cocktails, and we wanted to try this cherry vanilla one but they told us that they just ran out of the ingredients so instead a bunch of us got this rum punch, which I don’t know what I was expecting but I did NOT anticipate it being a hot drink. It was okay, not my favorite just because it was lowkey burning my tongue, but the flavor was great. Then, we decided to walk around a bit and just see what was around us and we found this cute lil souvenir shop and the owner was so sweet and was giving us recommendations as to what he thought suit us best. I ended up getting a red evil eye bracelet (which I highly recommend you researching it as the significance in the Mediterranean and Middle East is very spiritual) and the owner gave me a discount on it because he could tell it was calling to me which like so cute and sweet of him to do.
The architecture in Rijeka was so pretty and not really anything I’d seen before so we just went and looked at all these buildings and then we headed to the beach (because we were like oh yeah the weather is beautiful lets just go jump in the ocean). When we got there the water was so blue and clear it just filled some place in my soul that I didn’t know I needed filled. The beach was so rocky but we got in the water and it was FREEZINGGGG. Oh my god it was so cold but I was there with my friends and I was just so happy.
Afterward we all went back and got some wine and just bonded for a couple of hours before we went back out to get some dinner at a traditional Croatian place. Most of us got this sausage dish that’s super popular in the Balkan region called ćevapčići, and Alex actually got this giant meat patty that was filled with ham and cheese. And oh gods the food was so filling, but the owner was so sweet to us as we were the only ones there and he didn’t have the best English but he did his best and gave us all recommendations. Afterward, we were all so full we went back and hung out for a bit more before going to bed.
The next day came and we got up fairly early (9am) because we had to leave our place, but we left our bags and stuff at the front desk which they were very nice and accommodating. We went to this super cute retro cafe with all these old movie posters and records and tons of books along the walls as decor. We found out that Rijeka actually was having their Karneval, and that day was the children’s day for it. So we went and watched all these cute lil kids dance and show off their costumes and everyone was so cheerful and kind. After a couple of hours of watching the parade, Frida left to go back to Zagreb as she wasn’t continuing with us to Slovenia. We all wished her goodbye and then went onto this long pier called Mono Longo which was maybe like a mile out into the sea. We walked to the very end and there were rocks along the sides so we got off the pathway and hopped onto a rock and sat down and opened up a bottle of wine and just soaked in the sun. The ocean was so beautiful and the sun was just gleaming on it and I felt so at peace, it was everything I needed after being in gloomy, snowy Sweden for a couple weeks. Which, don’t get me wrong, is beautiful in it’s own way, but as we know nothing is quite so wonderful and peaceful as the sun shining on you on a beach.
An hour or so went by and then we had to venture back to the city center to catch our bus to Ljubljana, Slovenia. Unfortunately that’s all I’ll give you for now as this is already painfully long so I do hope you have read thus far, also I have so many great pictures but for some reason they are not able to upload (I hope to remedy this and reupload this post once I figure out that hiccup). Stay tuned for part 2 as I visit a vampire’s castle oooooooo
Razzle and Dazzle xx
-mor