Salzburg, Slovenia, and Zagreb

I am finally in Geneva! I didn't have much internet access before now so I haven't posted about all the wonderful places I've been but now is better than not at all, I suppose.

I flew into Frankfurt, Germany with my parents on August 26. We rented a car and stopped in Wurtzburg (which was really cute. It would be a good place to study abroad) on our way to Salzburg, Austria. Salzburg seemed a little like Boston to me, sizewise that is. I didn't feel overwhelmed or unsafe. The population is only 150,000 but it still seemed quite large. I guess it's only the fourth largest city in Austria. Anyway, the river area and the old town just below the castle are so picturesque. Walking around there is like being inside a postcard. We spent two days drinking beer, walking through the castle, wandering the shopping streets in the old town, and making fun of Mozart Balls (which are EVERYWHERE. Salzburg will do anything to capitalize on Mozart and this small chocolate Mozart Balls seem to be very successful. I was going to buy some for Remy but the hotel gave us two for free and when I tried mine I was less than impressed and knew Remy would be as well, so I didn't).

After Salzburg we drove to Slovenia. My mom and I had to beg my dad to take a small detour to see Lake Bled. It was a perfect sunny day and the lake was absolutely perfect. We ate famous Slovenian desserts (that my mom read about, of course) while sitting by the lake. To the right was a church and the castle just above it and to the left you could see the little island with an old church on it. I wanted desperately to get a boat out to the island but my dad said we had to meet their friends in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. So we drove on. Ljubljana looked very communist and ugly from the outskirts and much of downtown but when we hit Preseren Square I understood why people had told me I should go there. When I post pictures you'll understand as well. It isn't the fairy tale city people call it but it is quite lovely. The river area with all the different bridges was full of young people eating and hanging out. We trekked up to the castle (I know, castles everywhere!)which was actually kind of disappointing. They've covered up most of it with ugle plain walls and porches so you can't see much of the original castle at all. It cost 2 Euros to walk to the top and when my mom didn't have enough so jokingly asked if she could pay in American dollars. There were two younger guys manning the desk and one laughed and said, "no no! your currency is not worth much here. And even less if McCain gets elected. See, I am up to date." I laughed but my mom and her friends just said, "you're talking to the wrong crowd here." The view from the top was interesting. On one side you could see the beautiful river area with all the bridges and Jože Plečnik designed buildings (ok, he did the bridges too). Then on the other side you see the sprawl of the city where most of the residents live and work. It still looks very plain and communist.

My dad then convinced everyone that we should drive to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, for dinner. We were staying on the island of Cres, Croatia, for the night but my father somehow thought it would be faster to drive east for dinner before driving west towards the Istrian Penninsula. Zagreb was even more communist looking than Slovenia but as we wandered around the city looking for somewhere to eat that was still open, we saw some old buildings that I'm sure had some historical significance. While it took us awhile to find a place to eat, we did get to see the night light of Zagreb and let me tell you, it was hopping. Finally I led the group to a creepy alley where we found a sex shop AND an amazing restaurant. I had white wine, a mixed salad, pasta in truffle sauce (no cheese), and really amazing spinach with potatoes. Everything was great except for when I found a tiny worm wiggling around in a tomato on top of my pasta. When told the waiter gave us the much heard of "Croatian shrug." At least the experience gave me that.

After dinner we drove to the ferry that would take us to the island of Cres, where my parents' friends have a condo they said we could use. We left Zagreb at about 10:30 pm and reached the ferry at 2:00 am. The ferry is supposed to leave every half hour but, surprise surprise, the next one didn't leave until 4:30 am. I had been sleeping in the back of the car but hearing we had another 2 and a half hours of waiting/sleeping was still brutal. I had to pee really badly and there was nowhere to go so after checking out some potential spots (I really wanted to pee between the parked cars ala Sarah Nealon at Andy/Justine's first party) I settled for the little downhill sidewalk to the little beach that all the guys were peeing off of. While in the act I realized that of course my little stream of pees was quickly heading down the sidewalk onto the beach, leaving a big obvious trail. Why hadn't I just peed on the beach, I kept wondering. As I was trying to fall asleep in the front seat afterwards I was worried someone (who? I have no idea who else would be there waiting for the 4:30 ferry 2 1/2 hours early) would come along and see my shame. No one did as far as I know but the next thing I was awake for was boarding the ferry. The ride to Cres took about half an hour and then all the cars on the ferry had to race up the one road on that side of the island. There was no shoulder, it was right on cliff's edge into the water, there were goats everywhere, the road was one lane wide (for traffic going both ways), and my dad drives like a mad man. So yeah, it was not fun. We finally got to the condo at 5:30 am and crashed hard.