Saturday, June 18, 2016

Croatia Vacation

At the end of May, I set out on a week-long vacation which did much to restore my calm and sanity. My first two months in Bamako had been busy and far more exhausting and stressful than I was expecting, somehow. Looking back, I think I didn't give enough credence to the fact that not only is relocating stressful; relocating to a place like Mali, starting a new job, figuring out a new organization (embassy life), and developing a whole new support structure is also all very stressful. Put it all together and what happened for me was a whole lot of stress without much prep in terms of how to handle it all. One person here warned me that one needs to practice "extreme self-care" here to maintain equilibrium.

Luckily, a while ago I decided to take some leave, and a friend of mine from A-100 invited me to join a trip to Croatia she'd been helping organize with others from our class. J, as we'll call her, told me that all the arrangements were already made, and all I needed to do was buy tickets (which she researched for me!) and tag along. My management was on board with me taking some time off and so off I went.

My flight out of Bamako left on a Thursday night. Well, technically Friday morning - 12:45am. I flew to Istanbul, spent a long layover finding different places to sleep and eat in the airport, and then it was
on to Zagreb. I caught a cab from the airport to the first AirBnB, where J met me with hugs and lots of energy. We went out for a delicious dinner at a traditional Bosnian restaurant called Sofra, gorged on meat-stuffed zucchini, veal, and meat pie. And wine, of course! That night, P arrived, and we all started catching up on each other's lives and stories of the daily grind.

The next day, J, P and I were off to explore Zagreb. The first thing we came across was a parade, which seemed neat until we realized it was a pro-life rally. Where one finds fetus signs, however, there are usually counter-rallies, and we found some great crowds of Croatian young folks giving speeches and rallying calls around the rights of women. Eventually, we met up with a colleague who lives in Croatia, who led us to a fun sidewalk cafe for lunch. There, we met W and his family, as well as E, all just arrived in town.

This set the tone for the entire trip: reunions, discussions about work (mostly consular stories, since everyone but me is doing their consular tour right now), admiration of the surroundings, and just general catching up.

Below are some pictures from the vacation. All in all, I highly recommend Croatia as a vacation destination. It's beautiful, easy, relatively cheap, tasty... what else does one need? Oh, right - Game of Thrones settings!



The Zagreb group
Carved doors in Zagreb
Pretty windows in Zagreb
In front of the national theater
West of Zagreb
Julia & the Ruins

Eavan ponders the countryside
Gorgeous views
Breakfast in Slunj

Pathways

Sheep & Sheepherder

The Sarajevo group
Sarajevo locks

Ruined Olympic stadium walls in Sarajevo

Bizarre bathroom in the coolest bar

Views!

Enjoying the views

Sunset over Dubrovnik

Our swimming hole on a day trip from Dubrovnik

View from the walls of Dubrovnik 
Pretty roof tiles in Dubrovnik

View from Dubrovnik walls

Dubrovnik group

Dubrovnik

180th Reunion!

Our ridiculous pool at the 18th century villa AirB&B