Day 3

Our trip was long and exhausting, as expected, but amazingly smooth--a six-hour drive from our small town in upstate New York to Boston and then flights to Munich and onto Zagreb.  Here are Alison and Caroline, with suitcases, at Logan airport in Boston:

Since we arrived in Croatia, people have been incredibly helpful to us.  When we got to the airport in Zagreb, we were met by a representative from the U.S. Embassy, and then an embassy driver drove us the two hours to Rijeka.  Both our landlord and the director of the International Relations Office at the university were waiting for us at our apartment building when we arrived.

Our apartment is lovely.  It’s a 3 bedroom, furnished apartment, and when standing on our 5th floor balcony, we look out on the Adriatic Sea!  An Italian architect constructed this apartment building in 1939.  The outside is somewhat dilapidated while the inside of our apartment is newly renovated and gorgeous.  This apartment was vacant for maybe 15 years, and then our landlord, Vanja, completely redid it about a year ago.  We're only the second set of tenants; the first was another Fulbrighter and his family.  Here are a few views from our balcony: 

Vanja has done so much for us.  As soon as we arrived, he showed us a few small places to buy food nearby.  Yesterday he took us by car to a large mall outside of the city, so that we could do a big grocery shopping trip.  Today a second representative from the International Relations Office at the university (also very helpful) and our landlord took us to register with the police, to set up a bank account, to a café (great pastries and prices!), and to walk around Korzo, the city's main promenade.


Drivers here are much faster and more aggressive (and erratic) than those in the U.S.  So far, we have to required Caroline to hold an adult's hand and Alison to stay right by an adult when crossing the street.  (Both J.D. and I have been surprised at the extent to which cars seem to appear out of nowhere!)  At home we allow both girls to cross our (small) street by themselves without any adult present.


We took some family Croatian lessons back at home (thank you, Marko!!!), but now I wish I'd been studying A LOT more!  Of course, navigating everything would be a lot easier right now if we could speak more Croatian.  We're trying to learn quickly!


Dovidenja! (Goodbye!)
Laura