Monday, March 16, 2009

Sunday: Tour of Zagreb, Soccer Game, Dinner

That next morning at 9:30am we embarked on a walk across Zagreb with a tour guide. The tour was very entertaining and informative. I will upload the pictures to the slide show rather than describing each one in the blog. The tour and all the beautiful places in Croatia can only be described as awesome. After the tour we ate lunch at a neat restaurant located on a slanted hill. Alison put a photo from this dinner on our other blog, which can be found at http://kelleycroatia2009.blogspot.com/.

After eating, a few of us ended up at a tourist store with many Croatian souvenirs. I purchased a hand-carved wooden fold-up chess set and a Croatian scarf. Joey also bought a scarf and Nathan picked up a wooden plate. These wooden objects Nathan and I decided on became problems later on in the day.

Upon paying for our items, the lady at the register informed us that there was a soccer game starting in about an hour between Zagreb and Dalmatia. We hopped on a tram and made our way to the giant stadium on the other side of town. After waiting in line and buying our tickets, we traveled up to the gates to enter the game. Apparently, it is only acceptable to wear shades of black/white/grey or the color of your soccer team in Croatia. Americans in bright clothing stand out very much. Stares are a common occurrence while we walk through the city. We learned something else about Croatian culture at the gate entrance as well. Nathan and I were refused entry because of my chess board and his plate. They told us to find a kiosk and ask if we could leave it with them until the game was over. On Sunday, nothing is open. Every place that we did find open contained absolutely no worker that spoke English. Nathan and I eventually decided to just take our 30 kuna (about 6 dollars) in losses and go back the hotel. The others said the game was pretty entertaining though. Ringo made a scene once again here when he "accidentally" smacked a large angry drunken Croatian soccer fan-haha. Handshakes were exchanged, but not before Croatian curses from the man and apologies from Ringo. Thankfully, all ended up well.

After we got back from the game, I took a nap--as I said in an earlier post, the jeg lag is winning the battle with me. In the evening, many of us went to a restaurant that the tour guide recommended. Once again, Nathan treated himself to an odd choice of wild boar, and the rest of us had fairly common meals (mine was ravioli). The wine in Croatia is very good. We all sang "Happy Birthday" to Alison, and she did her best to finish the small piece of cake they gave her. She said it tasted as if it were made with rum-haha. At least it was free! :) After we finally figured up how to split the 11,000 kuna check, we went home for the night.

It was a very eventful day that ended on a good note.


Next on the agenda: Meet in lobby at 8:45am for meetings with Zagreb Chamber of Economics and MAGMA.

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