I was looking forward to being back in Zagreb and finally getting to see the school life and meeting my fellow exchange students. It was great to be on the road and seeing the country from a traveller’s point of view, but this is what I actually came here to do. The orientation week took place from the 24th to the 29th of September, so a total of six days. You can check out the official schedule for the week here.
24th, The first day started off with a guided tour around the city. As Zagreb had already become quite familiar for me, the tour itself was pretty boring, but it was nice to get to know the other students. I snapped a few pictures as well.
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After the tour was over I was hoping to get some coffee with the other students to get to know them a bit better. For some reason everyone from my group wanted to go straight back to their dorms, which was a bit weird to me. I later on learned that every other group had gone for some coffee afterwards, so I just happened to get into the wrong group Image may be NSFW.
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25th, The second day was a tour around Zagreb’s botanical garden, which I had already seen before as well.. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. But again, it was nice to hang out with the other students and it was actually pretty interesting to hear about the history of the garden and how it operates, especially with Zagreb’s crazy weathers. This time our group went for a cup of coffee afterwards and we got to know each other a bit better. They told me that there were some other Finnish exchange students in Zagreb as well, which was a pleasant surprise.
I took some pictures in the garden, but I realized I didn’t take any pictures of our group, so they might be a bit boring to watch Image may be NSFW.
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26th, The third day we visited The National and University Library. The library is huge in size and was actually pretty interesting to visit. It was surprisingly empty considering the size of it and all the resources that must’ve gone into building it. There were a lot of areas for study purposes and it would be great to study there, but it’s quite far away from everything, especially our apartment.
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Travel me - School me Image may be NSFW.
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After the tour around the library we went for some coffee again, which is something I love about the Croatian culture. However, I’m not a big fan of the way they make the coffee (what you get here when ordering a large coffee is basically a double espresso), but I’m sure I’ll find a way to cope. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. Again there was a mention about the other Finnish exchange students and I was really looking forward to meeting them. They also told me about our first Erasmus party in the Zagreb’s centrum tonight. I thought that it was good enough reason to get rid of my traveller’s beard and you can see the results in the picture. Image may be NSFW.
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The party started off from a smaller pub in the upper town and ended in a nightclub called Pepermint in the centrum. In the pub I finally met some of the infamous Finnish exchange students. They were two girls; Jenni from Rovaniemi and Meri from Helsinki. It was so nice to speak Finnish with them. It felt like it was forever ago since I last spoke it with someone. They also told me that there were even more Finnish students here in Zagreb: a guy called Henrik and another girl called Emma. So with me and Niklas included into that, there are total of seven Finnish students studying here in the University of Zagreb.
27th, The fourth day was an introduction lecture to Croatian culture. I didn’t go to this because I understood the same lecture would be held on the next day as well, but apparently it was a 2 part thing. They later told me that the 1st lecture wasn’t anything too important though.
I spent the day trying to get my internet to work in the school, which I finally did after a few hours. At least now I had an internet access from a quiet place instead of the cafés and bars in the city. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. Now if only I could get internet at home as well.
28th, The fifth day was the introduction lecture part 2. This one I attended and got to know pretty good information about all the things that you can do here in Zagreb. There’s quite a lot of culture packed into this small capital of theirs. Also the possibilities for winter sports are pretty decent as well.
They also told us about hiking on the mountain “behind” Zagreb. Apparently there are great routes there and some small restaurants where you can get soup etc. to regain your energy on your hike. I was really interested in doing that one day.
29th, The sixth day we went on a 1-day trip to Zadar. The busses for the trip left at 05.00 from in front of a student residence hall Cvjetno naselje. The student hall is exactly on the opposite side of the city from my house, and as a brave Finn, I decided to wake up around 3.45 and walk the whole way there. Luckily I made it in time, but for the last 10mins I had to run for it. Image may be NSFW.
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Before going to the city, we visited the Cerovac caves, which was a totally new experience for me. We have some caves in Finland as well, but nothing like this. Check out the pictures!
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At the caves I met Henrik, one of the Finnish exchange students studying here in Zagreb as well. We got along great and I spent the day in Zadar with him.
Zadar reminded me of Split in many ways. It was a modern city integrated into this old historic infrastructure, which is just amazing to me. The streets are made of beautiful white stone, the buildings have old sculptures and carvings on the walls and the overall feeling is like walking in some old Roman city. Another place that I will surely recommend to anyone visiting Croatia.
We returned back to Zagreb little after midnight and as a brave Finn again, I walked back home nearly the whole way. Luckily there was a night bus that allowed me to get few stops closer. It was a damn cold night, I was really really tired and I was only wearing my swimming trunks (I swam in the sea again in Zadar). Image may be NSFW.
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