I was worried about today's blog post because up to 5 PM I really didn't have that much to say. But all changed suddenly... I think I died and I woke up in heaven!! Seriously, today I am in the cutest city in the whole world!!
I left Novi Sad in the morning, my bus was leaving at 12, which was slightly annoying because leaving so late was making me miss a good part of my day, but I can't really control the bus schedules... Today I was going to Osijek where I will be spending 3 days. A lady who is approximately 60 years old sat next to me and we didn't speak at first... Then I decided to tell her my usual opening line: "I don't speak Serbian very well but I would like to practice, can we discuss?" It worked again! We spoke for at least one hour. There's a few things I missed and there's a few things I said that she didn't understand but oh well... She was very nice and she spoke very slowly for me, and she didn't get annoyed with my lack of understanding. The bus ride lasted about 2 hours 45 minutes so I'm glad I used that opportunity to talk a little bit.
Eventually we reached the customs (Novi Sad, where I was coming from, is in Serbia and Osijek is in Croatia). A policeman came in the bus and asked to see all the passports. I thought "oh no he will see my Canadian passport and ask me a whole bunch of questions that I won't understand!" I was so happy that the lady next to me was now my friend I thought she was going to help me. But fortunately the policeman spoke very good English, and he did ask a whole bunch of questions but at least I understood them! Apparently I gave satisfying answers because I am now in Croatia!
I arrived in Osijek and realized that all the information about where my hostel is located was on the Internet, not transferred to my phone. So here I was, in a bus terminal in the middle of nowhere with no idea whatsoever where I was going, in a land where I barely speak the language. Good job Claudie....
It's a long story after that but I'll make it short. The lady at the information called a taxi for me and instructed the driver to drive me somewhere where they have WIFI. Once I got in the taxi, I managed to somehow ask the driver if he knew where "Biljski Krokodil" is (my hostel), and since he knew I said "please drive me there instead of the Internet place, this is where I want to go". All in Croatian. I'm not sure how I managed that but he drove me to my destination successfully!
What an adventure, this is definitely the last time I forget my hostel information on the web! By the time everything was all figured out, it was already 5 PM. In Osijek, I was not able to find a hostel downtown so I'm about 8 km away, but taxis here are very cheap. It costs me 40 Kuna from my hostel to downtown (approximately 6 Canadian Dollars). So I called a taxi again and at approximately 5:30 PM, I was back in downtown Osijek.
I was a little bit worried about how I would enjoy myself here because the last time I was in a smaller town than Belgrade (Novi Sad), I honestly didn't enjoy myself that much... But Osijek is absolutely amazing!!!
I asked the taxi driver to drop me in front of the Tourist Information, which, of course, is closed because of Easter (grrr). Fortunately the lady at the hostel found a map for me so at least I had something. So I kept walking a little bit past the tourist information and poof the most amazing church in the universe appeared in front of me:
Wow! I had seen pictures on the Internet but it's nothing compared to seeing it in real life. I don't understand people here, they walk by this amazing thing and they're not even looking... I took at least 10 different pictures of the church from different point of views and angles and I cant't wait to go admire it again tomorrow and take more pictures with a different light!
So that was a very good start for Osijek. Then I started walking to see the rest of the downtown area and seriously, almost every building here is worth taking a picture of.
Those are just a few examples of course because otherwise I would never finish this blog post :) So not only is downtown Osijek full of amazing architecture, it is also filled with huge parks. And not only is it filled with huge parks, it also has a very nice walk by the river Drava
All of this in walking distance from each other. There is seriously nothing missing here, it's paradise! They also have tennis courts, basketball courts, soccer fields, bridge over the Drava for pedestrian, everything! It is so beautiful and fun that it even made me forget about my cold!
Because it is Easter, many places were closed so I ended up having dinner in a Chinese restaurant haha. My first Croatian meal was not really typical but I finally ate warm vegetables and even better, RICE! I didn't realize how much I missed rice. Overall, even though my day started very late, I really enjoyed myself!
Tomorrow I will explore Osijek's fortress (seems like every city has one!) I'm also planning to meet a girl from couchsurfing.com, we'll see how this turns out!
For now, I am going to bed and hopefully tomorrow my cold will be all gone, wish me luck!
I left Novi Sad in the morning, my bus was leaving at 12, which was slightly annoying because leaving so late was making me miss a good part of my day, but I can't really control the bus schedules... Today I was going to Osijek where I will be spending 3 days. A lady who is approximately 60 years old sat next to me and we didn't speak at first... Then I decided to tell her my usual opening line: "I don't speak Serbian very well but I would like to practice, can we discuss?" It worked again! We spoke for at least one hour. There's a few things I missed and there's a few things I said that she didn't understand but oh well... She was very nice and she spoke very slowly for me, and she didn't get annoyed with my lack of understanding. The bus ride lasted about 2 hours 45 minutes so I'm glad I used that opportunity to talk a little bit.
Eventually we reached the customs (Novi Sad, where I was coming from, is in Serbia and Osijek is in Croatia). A policeman came in the bus and asked to see all the passports. I thought "oh no he will see my Canadian passport and ask me a whole bunch of questions that I won't understand!" I was so happy that the lady next to me was now my friend I thought she was going to help me. But fortunately the policeman spoke very good English, and he did ask a whole bunch of questions but at least I understood them! Apparently I gave satisfying answers because I am now in Croatia!
I arrived in Osijek and realized that all the information about where my hostel is located was on the Internet, not transferred to my phone. So here I was, in a bus terminal in the middle of nowhere with no idea whatsoever where I was going, in a land where I barely speak the language. Good job Claudie....
It's a long story after that but I'll make it short. The lady at the information called a taxi for me and instructed the driver to drive me somewhere where they have WIFI. Once I got in the taxi, I managed to somehow ask the driver if he knew where "Biljski Krokodil" is (my hostel), and since he knew I said "please drive me there instead of the Internet place, this is where I want to go". All in Croatian. I'm not sure how I managed that but he drove me to my destination successfully!
What an adventure, this is definitely the last time I forget my hostel information on the web! By the time everything was all figured out, it was already 5 PM. In Osijek, I was not able to find a hostel downtown so I'm about 8 km away, but taxis here are very cheap. It costs me 40 Kuna from my hostel to downtown (approximately 6 Canadian Dollars). So I called a taxi again and at approximately 5:30 PM, I was back in downtown Osijek.
I was a little bit worried about how I would enjoy myself here because the last time I was in a smaller town than Belgrade (Novi Sad), I honestly didn't enjoy myself that much... But Osijek is absolutely amazing!!!
I asked the taxi driver to drop me in front of the Tourist Information, which, of course, is closed because of Easter (grrr). Fortunately the lady at the hostel found a map for me so at least I had something. So I kept walking a little bit past the tourist information and poof the most amazing church in the universe appeared in front of me:
Wow! I had seen pictures on the Internet but it's nothing compared to seeing it in real life. I don't understand people here, they walk by this amazing thing and they're not even looking... I took at least 10 different pictures of the church from different point of views and angles and I cant't wait to go admire it again tomorrow and take more pictures with a different light!
So that was a very good start for Osijek. Then I started walking to see the rest of the downtown area and seriously, almost every building here is worth taking a picture of.
Those are just a few examples of course because otherwise I would never finish this blog post :) So not only is downtown Osijek full of amazing architecture, it is also filled with huge parks. And not only is it filled with huge parks, it also has a very nice walk by the river Drava
All of this in walking distance from each other. There is seriously nothing missing here, it's paradise! They also have tennis courts, basketball courts, soccer fields, bridge over the Drava for pedestrian, everything! It is so beautiful and fun that it even made me forget about my cold!
Because it is Easter, many places were closed so I ended up having dinner in a Chinese restaurant haha. My first Croatian meal was not really typical but I finally ate warm vegetables and even better, RICE! I didn't realize how much I missed rice. Overall, even though my day started very late, I really enjoyed myself!
Tomorrow I will explore Osijek's fortress (seems like every city has one!) I'm also planning to meet a girl from couchsurfing.com, we'll see how this turns out!
For now, I am going to bed and hopefully tomorrow my cold will be all gone, wish me luck!
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