Last days in Zagreb

I feel bad about giving little prior warning for this but I actually flew home today! Currently sitting in Leeds train station waiting for a lift from my big sister. There's a few reasons for leaving early, mainly money and feeling bad about letting my flatmate sort out all the boring new house stuff by himself. But never fear, I shall keep blogging and I'm off again to the Canary Islands in August :)

I spent my last three days in Zagreb, which were mostly treated as recovery days from Hideout. I was pleasantly surprised by the city considering all the negativity I'd been fed about it from fellow travellers. It's true that it's not exactly the most beautiful of cities - but by no means was it the ugliest either! And despite reports of it being boring I actually found there was a lot to do it the way of site seeing and museums.

(Instagram @gracelund1)

Beautiful mosaic church roof, it must have taken bloody ages to put together.

(Instagram @ljcowgill)

One of my highlights was the Museum of Broken Relationships, which caught my attention mainly due to it's rather odd concept. It's a museum of items donated by people to help them let go of a past relationship. Each memento is accompanied by a story or anecdote written by its original owner either about the relationship or why they chose this particular keepsake, which ranged from wedding dresses to teddy bears to an axe (a particularly amusing story about a girl who destroyed her exes furniture when she left her for another woman) I found it to be a really moving place; I both laughed and was moved to tears and even left my own message behind in their anonymous 'confessions' book.  

My hostel 'Mali Mrak' was great. About 15 minutes out of town and extremely reasonable for Croatia (just 90 Kuna or £8.50 per night). I had to stay in a different hostel to the others because they'd booked way in advance but it worked out pretty well - I met some really cool/strange/interesting people - one guy who was literally my male double, crazy times! - and the staff were the absolute best.

Hostel rules, the last four are my favourite.

On my final night in the city before heading to catch my flight home from Dubrovnik, we decided to head out to see what Zagreb offered in terms of nightlife. Staying out til 4am in a club with the absolute worst DJ ever, drinking Long Island Iced Tea  and dancing like a loon seemed like a good idea at the time, but 11 hour bus journeys are NEVER fun, especially on a hangover. And missing your first bus because you had to ask your taxi driver to pull over so you could throw up in a busy street isn't much of a party either. I'm such a classy bird. However, it wasn't a bad night all in all!

Ste and Lauren soaking up traditional Croatian culture en route home.

All together, my trip was pretty incredible! Not only did I get to see some of the most beautiful and moving sites in Europe I also met some really amazing people, who I hope to see again in the future! Because for me, it really is the people you meet that make a trip. Thank goodness for Facebook eh?!