Days 30 and 31

Croatia/Slovenia 2010

Days 30 and 31

Last Days

Each of our last two days started out early in the morning. On Friday we drove Jan and Dan from Rovinj to the airport in Zagreb to catch a mid-morning flight to Budapest, Hungary. It was sad to go our separate ways, since we travel very well together and enjoy each other’s company.

We then drove to Samabor north of Zagreb to check into our hotel. Rick Steves recommended this hotel and town as opposed to Zagreb if you need accommodations near the airport.

The town is quaint, and the hotel (second building from the left) is old but excellent.They even served us a deluxe breakfast that is included in the room price of 60 euros (about $75.00)! The breakfast was worth at least 20 euros. The room was equally deluxe for Europe - spacious and decorated with a chandelier and other furnishings as well as a large TV (for World Cup soccer).

We used the remainder of the day to travel to Slovenia and look for the house in which Grandma Klarich was born in 1896. We had directions from Map Quest, but it turned out to be a very challenging effort. First, the roads were not well marked from Croatia.Second, we had a poor map. Lastly, when we got in the immediate area of where she supposedly was born, the map quest information proved incorrect, and the locals said the address was in another village.

We did get to see part of the rugged and beautiful countryside, and we were in Slovenia on the day they played world cup soccer and tied the U.S. 2-2. Not bad for a little country of only 2 million people! It was also our 40^th wedding anniversary, and we did celebrate that special moment.

Our last day on our month-long journey started in Croatia and then flying to Amsterdam. We then flew to Detroit and finally on to Las Vegas. The return home took 21 hours, and unlike previous trips to this part of the world, we managed to sleep on airplanes. The days leading up to this departure were all special. The phrase “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (and climb stairs)” seems to capture most of our time.

One last thing, on several occasions we would see people walking their dogs. The last dogs we owned were pugs, and we saw several in Italy and in Croatia. In Italy, they are called Carlina, and in Croatia they are called Mops. We think Carlina means ‘little dear one’ and Mops means chubby mop (according to Roberto).

We hope you’ve enjoyed our blog. We didn't intend to do this, but we think it worked out. We were lucky to meet great people along the way including Ian who made it possible to have a blogsite. To those who sent comments by email or on the blogsite, thanks for letting us know your thoughts. B&S