isuse bože.

this past weekend us croatian exchange students went to salzburg, austria to the inbound conference for us and all the austrian exchangers. 

so wednesday night danielle and i made the 45 minute long trip from my side of the city to emmas place in new zagreb. we got there and ate some mouth watering croatian pancakes stuffed with way to much chocolate and whipped cream, did last minute checks to make sure we had everything, then it was off to bed to savor the few hours of sleep that was ahead of us. 

5:30am my alarm goes off, and as i roll over, completely annoyed that i am awake, i remember why on earth i am up at such an god forsaken hour and i smile. finally the day has come, its time to take the weekend trip up to salzburg and to have the time of my life.  

so we get up, half sleeping still and get ready to go to the train station to catch our 6:50am train. we all arrive on time, and after saying goodbyes we board our train and settle into our adorable compartments that make every single one of us secretly excited because it feels just as though we are about to head off to hogwarts. 

except we werent.

so anyways, there we are, sitting here on this train, way to tired to even make conversation at this point and then, luckily for me, someone figured out the our seats slide down. and when you do so to two seats across from eachother it connects and makes a beautiful bed just perfect to sleep on. so yeah. you know me, right away i was like, oh yes, this can so work, and next thing you know i am asleep. 

10:00 rolls around and by this time the sun is streaming through the windows hitting my face through the red scarf i had placed over my head. that mixed with the fact the other exchangers were now up and being very loud right outside my compartment made me wake up and i gave up all hope of even even another five minutes of blissful sleep. so i sat up. 

the rest of the seven hour train ride was perfect. it consisted of making the entire compartment a gigantic bed, blasting music, taking pictures, watching the beautiful mountains go past, and just bonding with the kids who have become my closest friends being here in croatia.

we got to salzburg, took a taxi to the hostel, and went to our rooms to chill out and have some free time for the afternoon. us croatians got there a day early, since the actual conference didnt start until friday evening and we were the only exchange students there. so i ended up showering and straightening my hair, then just hanging out the whole afternoon. then around 6 we all met downstairs to go for dinner. the 12 of us walked a few blocks to this italian restaurant called “pasta and vino.” but when we got there they were all booked and had no table for us. im not sure how the rest of this happened but they ended up setting up a big table for us in the kitchen of the restaurant! so there we were, our own private table right in the middle of all the action. it was pretty cool. and the food, oh god the food. so good. so as we were eating our delicious dinner, i glance over and this beautiful guy walks back in the kitchen. the entire meal we kept making eye contact, so finally when we had finished and were about to leave, me being overly confident and outgoing, went up to him and asked if he wanted to go for coffee with us tonight. he gave me his name and number, but i didnt end up calling him. 

that night the other exchangers and i went out and had a really good night. haha anyways.

saturday, we wake up around 9:30, get ready and eat some breakfast, then it was off to h&m to shop for the morning, of course. ;] and as always, my h&m addiction forced me to buy things. it really is a problem. thankfully we dont have one in croatia, huh? after our shopping excursion we headed back to the hostel to meet up with our chaperone, Gordana, to go for lunch. back at the hostel we ended up meeting this austrailian boy, dom, who is backpacking alone across europe, and ended up inviting him to come out to lunch with us. we went to a typical austrian restaurant which im not going to lie, i didnt like it at all. yeah. but anyways, after lunch we had more free time. the other exchangers from austria started to show up, so we spent the entire afternoon chilling in our rooms, meeting so many other kids, and god it was exhausting. i think i decided i much prefer small groups of people my age. when you get almost a hundred 16-18 year old teens in one place together, it gets a bit crazy. it made me realize how lucky we are to have such a great group of us in zagreb. yes it did. then we had dinner around 7 i think it was, and dinner was some delicious winner schnitzel and potatoes. after dinner, some of us croatians, a few south african girls, and dom walked into the center of salzburg to the christmas fair thing. we walked around, ate some great food then went out for the rest of the night. we all become good friends with dom, and even convinced him to change his path across europe, and come see us in zagreb for a few days so he can come to our christmas party! it should be pretty fun, for sure.

we all stayed up way to late, and got barely any sleep.

saturday we were to be up and ready to go by oh, 8:30am, if i remember correctly. something crazy an early like that none the less. we got all bundled up and walked a very long way to an overlook of the city, which i will admit was beautiful, then seriously climbed a mountain to the famous castle overlooking the city. and when i say we climbed a mountain, i literally mean we hiked up a steep, tall incline that made me want to die. then, yes then, we did not even get to go inside the castle. yeah, ha? we stood around in a little touristy market thing selling super overpriced souvenirs in the freezing cold for over an hour. it was so cold, everytime i opened my bottle of water, a layer of ice formed on top. yeah, damn. after that we walked back down the mountain, or slid down, depending how you look at it. walked back across town, and ate lunch at the hostel. we then had some more free time, which we took advantage of and took nice quiet naps in our room before we had to get up, walk back to the base of the mountain, and thankfully not up it again, to a restaurant where we were all eating, giving christmas presentations and saying goodbye to the kids who have been here a year and are leaving in january, since they come from mainly australia and the seasons are switched. it was nice, pretty boring, and i didnt understand much, being as i barely speak a wood of german. 

after dinner we were set free. and really, i wont bore you all with details of saturday night. we can just pretend we went back to the hostel and went to bed, thats the safest thing to do. [;

sunday we woke up, cleared out our rooms, and walked into the centre to attend church before we all left salzburg. except, for some reason we walked there and didnt end up going to church. so they set us free. me and two other exchangers decided to just go for some coffee at a little italian cafe. as we were sitting there drinking, guess who walks in? none other than the beautiful boy from the italian restaurant on thursday night. turns out he works there! what a coincidence. 

we walked back to the hostel, said our goodbyes, got a taxi to the train station and got on the train to go back to zagreb.

theres a great story that happened next, however im sick if typing, im sure your sick of reading, so we’ll just save it for another post, shall we? 

yes.

okay, enough now. that was salzburg, every little detail.. almost.