Zdravo Zagreb!

I always wanted to visit Croatia since I've watched a season of Amazing Race (about 10 years ago) where one of their pit stops was in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Initially, my friends and I planned on going to Dubrovnik from Budapest but since it's going to be a very long trip and we wanted to maximize our weekend so we ended up going to Zagreb.

Zagreb is the country's capital, and is the largest city of Croatia. And the city is very rich in culture and history. If going by car you'll get to Zagreb from Budapest for about six hours. Unfortunately, we don't have a car, so we took the other option which is the FlixBus. It took us almost 10 hours as there was no direct trips to Zagreb on Fridays. We had to change buses in Maribor, Slovenia and had to wait for three hours. Flixbus is very comfortable and on time, as always. We only had delays because of two border controls: Slovenian border and another one when you've reached the Croatian border. It's not an issue if you are an EU citizen, but if you're not you have to endure the long waiting queues and double that for both borders.

The bus station in Maribor, Slovenia

We reached Zagreb at around 9 in the morning. It was very gloomy and cold, very different from the sunny Croatia that our workmates have been raving about a week before. I wasn't prepared for the rain and winds because I was stupid enough not to check the weather before we left Hungary. 

There are lots to see in Zagreb but we only had 24 hours to explore the city. We only managed to go to the top touristy sites of the city.

Gornji Grad–Medveščak

Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Gornji Grad–Medveščak

Gornji Grad–Medveščak

St. Mark's Church

St. Catherine of Alexandria Church

Gornji Grad–Medveščak

Gornji Grad–Medveščak

As Good as Reality TV

The MT3 (Manila Team 3) at Plaza San Marco, Venice, Italy

The past two months I’ve yet another opportunity to travel to Europe. This time with six more people. This isn’t Big Brother, but it might have been for all we know. We were a bunch of new hires for a startup company that were sent to Europe for a two-month training. We were basically strangers, we’ve only met each other twice at the embassy: when we applied, and the time we got our Schengen visas.

We were whisked to Europe (yes, whisked, because my first day with the company was the day of my flight), in Budapest to be exact and stayed together in the same apartment complex. It was like we were forced to live with each other and discover our own differences and similarities in the span of two months. The differences between us and Big Brother? We can go out of the house whenever we like, and there were no cameras that we know of (except for our phones, that we often use to take pictures and group chats on Facebook).

At Buda Castle grounds in Budapest, Hungary

Living with strangers is challenging and interesting at the same time. We don’t know each other’s behaviors and at first, it felt like walking on eggshells as we were still trying to figure out one another. But there are also people in the group that we immediately clicked with, like we knew each other forever.

Zurich Central Station in Switzerland.

We had trainings, demos and exams during weekdays but we got to travel around Europe during weekends. It’s not much time but we managed to make it work, albeit with tiny sacrifices.

There were times that we got on each other’s nerves, especially during our weekend escapades when we were only running on two to three hours of sleep on a bus (with just a square foot legroom) and a cup of coffee.

While waiting for our bus to Milan in Verona, Italy.

But the good times surpass all the not-so-good. Seeing lots of interesting and magnificent places is just a bonus. One thing that sure stuck with me is the experience of living in a foreign land with complete strangers and eventually building a bond that I am sure will stand the test of time. And when we’re old and gray, we can say to each other “We’ll always have Europe”, to refer to the whole two-month experience that would plant smiles to our faces that other people would never understand about us.

If I would be asked if I want to do everything all over again, I would say yes in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t change a thing even including our hunger-induced spats (and heartbreaks?), as those not-so-good stuff made this experience a lot better.