Arrival in Croatia

We had another early morning pick up by the taxi this morning which thankfully arrived right on the dot. Heidi was again excited to be going on another plane - it doesn’t seem to grow old for her! Thankfully it is only a relatively short flight to Croatia - Zagreb.

We arrived at the airport with a couple of hours to spare which we thought would mean we had a good amount of time to have a decent breakfast as we were all hungry by now (it took about an hour to get to the airport due to traffic. However it took ages to check in, go through security and customs. At a couple of points the computers broke down so they had to move us to another one. At customs I ended up sitting on the floor cos it was taking so long and I’d been standing for ages by that point!

Mike had bought some breakfast for us while they were waiting which was very thoughtful of him so we had some hot croissants to munch on. The others did some last minute shopping to try and get rid of some of their Russian currency - any excuse 😜

We were flying with a different airline - a little bit classier than the last so we were actually sitting together and we even got served food! It was only a relatively short flight so not too uncomfortable.

We had to wait ages for our luggage at the other end and we thought it had been lost as everyone else seemed to have their bags and there were only a couple going round. We went to file a claim and Kyria and I thought we’d just take another look and they’d finally put our bags on! We had ordered a taxi and he wasn’t waiting there - Mike rang him and let him know we had come out.

Eli had about 2000 rubles left over (the lady at the previous apartment had held 5000 as a bond so we didn’t get it back until the day we left) and he tried to exchange them at the airport for Croatian Kuna but they wouldn’t take it! Hopefully he can exchange it when we get home cos it amounts to about $40.

The taxi man was very chatty and spoke English well - I don’t think we’ll have much trouble communicating here! Mike had booked a nice apartment in the centre of town. Everything was so green and warm - it almost felt like a balm to the eyes after the cold and wintry landscapes of Russia.

Heidi fell asleep for about 15 mins on the way to the apartment and of course, she wasn’t going to go back down for a sleep after that! So we settled in to the apartment which is really nice - I should have taken photos before we made it all untidy with our luggage. Then we headed out to stroll around and explore the city. It was so warm outside - it was so nice to be in just a skirt and t-shirt again! We started off with an ice cream from the ice cream shop over the road recommended by our taxi driver!

There was a sort of Mediterranean feel to the city. Pretty flowers were everywhere and we found a lovely park to sit and rest our legs for a few minutes. We popped into a Cathedral and were lucky enough to hear a choir of young people rehearsing for something. They sang beautifully, of course the acoustics helped!

Heidi was petted and smiled at and given lollies to by random people. I can’t say she was appreciative of people invading her space though - she would shout ‘No!’ at them or push their hands away - embarrassing child. It’s nice how they love kids though. You don’t really get that back home.

We found markets and souvenir shops, cafes and bakeries, tried a bit of this and that. We had a quick dinner and then Kyria and I had a wander round the streets while the boys took Heidi back to bed. We met them back home and then they headed out to watch a soccer game at one of the eatery joints.Read more