4.9.2012
Today I had my first contact with my school, but it was mostly paperwork related. My tutor Marina gave me a short tour, but it was mainly just an overall look of the school facilities. I’m sure they will take us around the school more during the orientation week and when the school actually starts.
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Me eating ice-cream @school
I also had my first Croatian school lunch, which was a small pizza and some ice-cream for dessert. There are at least two school restaurants in my faculty, and the one we went to now serves fast food type solutions like hamburgers, pizza and fries. For dessert you can get different kinds of cakes, ice-cream and even milkshakes i think? The price of the pizza and ice-cream was around 1eur, but I can’t remember exactly because my tutor kindly paid it for me. (Thanks again!) Image may be NSFW.
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The student discount here for food is just amazing!
The other restaurant is more your typical school cafeteria where there’s (hopefully) some salads and healthier main courses. I was actually hoping to visit this one, but unfortunately it was still closed.
I got the feeling from some of the staff that they weren’t too happy with me coming here so early, which probably is true, because I’m causing an unnecessary bump in their schedule. Great way to make a first impression, right? Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. So, for all of you future Finnish exchange students coming to Croatia:
- Don’t come earlier than you should. If you do; MAKE SURE you have an apartment ready, because you’ll be needing it to get your Temporary Stay Permit done.
- Reserve the school accommodation when applying here, you can’t reserve it afterwards. Do it ESPECIALLY if you’re staying only for 1 semester. I can’t even begin to describe how hard it is to get an apartment here if you’re only staying here for 6 months.
5.9.2012
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Random piece of art
Today was my first day exploring the city on my own. I did take care of some more paperwork in the morning, but continued from there to see what Zagreb is all about. It was just the kind of travelling I’ve been dreaming about; sun is shining, there’s something new behind every corner and just enough food in my backpack to last for the day.
I don’t think I looked at my watch once today.
During my tour around the city I also stopped by Maksimir Park. It’s huge in size and it also has a zoo in it. I didn’t go see the zoo today, but I will definitely go at some point. My inner child is screaming to see the animals. Image may be NSFW.
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I met with my tutor later on as well. We went to the police station to ask about how to proceed with my Temporary Stay Permit, as I still don’t have the apartment. Again, the lady didn’t seem too happy, but gave me another week to look for the apartment. However, I didn’t let it bring me down, since I had had such a great day so far.
After the police station, we went around the city seeing all the major sights in Zagreb. My tutor did an excellent job as a tour guide, so thank you for that Marina! Image may be NSFW.
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Back at the hostel I needed to reserve my bed for few more nights again, because we had no luck with the apartment hunt. Hopefully something will start happening soon about that, I’m really aching to go see the coast and do more adventures like I did today. Bunch of new people are staying here in hostel again, which is actually great fun, because I get to meet new people on daily basis. And the people that come here are young travelers who can guide me to all of the best spots in Croatia.
6.9.2012
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Zagreb main square
Today didn’t start off too well. My tutor is busy and I pretty much have my hands tied because of my lack in Croatian language skills. I decided to go to Maksimir Park again, it has become somewhat one of my favorite places here. I had lunch in the park and wandered around for a few hours. Then headed to centrum again to explore more new places. I went to see a botanic garden which is located in the lower part of town. I figured it’s free, so why not? However, it turned out to be quite boring. The best part of the garden was few turtles that came to say hello to me when I walked on a bridge that went over their pond. I took some photos again along the way.
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I met these two awesome German guys last night, Fabi and Nicol. They’re just stopping here in my hostel for few nights before they continue their roadtrip to Budapest and god knows where else. They invited me to join them to see the city and I got my first look into the Croatian nightlife. We had great fun and met some awesome people in the night.
Tonight was also my first experience with Zagreb’s public transportation as my tutor had mostly been driving me around and rest of the time I had been walking everywhere. Big thumbs up to Zagreb for their transportation system, Jyväskylä could learn a lot from these guys.
7.9.2012
I woke up so tired today! We stayed up quite late with the German guys last night. I had to be at my school’s international office at 9.30 for an orientation meeting and straight after that I needed to pick up my student INDEKS, which is like an student record here in Croatia. I took a quick shower, brushed my teeth and headed over to the tram stop trying to power through the lack of sleep. As I mentioned earlier that there was one person in our school that didn’t seem to like it too much that I’m here so early; well this time she was really nice and helpful. Maybe she just had a really busy day earlier. Anyways, I made it to both meetings in time and the morning goes well after all.
Moving around in the city has started to feel really easy and effortless. The trams come by so often that you don’t really need to be aware of the schedules. Just go to a stop and usually one comes by within 10mins.
We did some more apartment hunting today with no luck. Same reason as before; nobody wants a tenant for 6 months.
8.9.2012
My tutor went away for the weekend so I also had the weekend off from the apartment hunting. I met my first Finnish travelers in the youth hostel. They told me that Finnish travelers are a rare breed and that I was also the first Finn they met on the road. I also met up with another group of German guys last night. We played some Uno in the hostel’s veranda and got to know each other a bit. Today I’m going to the city with them to just look around and pass the time. The guys’ names are Matthias, Lucas, Chris, Manu and Martin (spelling may vary a bit Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. ). The weather was flawless and I was feeling great.
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Museum of Broken Relationships
We went around pretty much the same sights that I had seen before, but then we stopped by at The Museum of Broken Hearts. It’s a museum where people can send items that are left from their broken relationships. When you send an item there, you include a little story to explain the item. There are a couple of examples in the pictures. I strongly recommend to check this museum out if you ever come to Zagreb. Some of the stories were really funny, some shocking and some just plain tragic.
After the museum we wandered around a bit and stopped by for some ice-cream. The ice-cream that I had was probably the best I’ve ever had. I don’t know if it was the heat or what, but it was so rich and it had real berries mixed in it! Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. We also had some drinks in the Tolkien’s house (bar) and all of the drinks were named after characters or places from his books. I myself had a “Gandalf the Grey” for example and I think some of the guys had something like “The Red Mordor”.
In the evening we played some more Uno with the guys and some German dice game called Mazxcchsel?!(:D) where you have to spot another player’s bluff. It was great fun.
9.9.2012
I saw my online friend’s Frank and Ana (Ley and Arweena) today. They’re people who I got to know online before coming to Zagreb. I asked for advice from them in all sorts of issues related to Croatia and about living here. We met in the Maksimir Park, which was a good choice because they had their kids with them so they could play in the park while we talked. They were really nice people and I hope to meet them again soon. Shame that I didn’t take any pictures.
I worked on my blog for hours today, well it was more with the pictures. I didn’t know how should I present them here in my blog, but the current way will have to do.
The evening I spent with the German guys again. We had some beers, played some games and compared the differences in the Finnish and German culture. I have a new-found respect for people who study German and become fluent at it. I find the pronunciation to be extremely difficult.
Life here in the Youth hostel has been great, but I can’t wait to move on!