Sunday, 11 September 2011

Hitting the eastern small towns


Well, we headed out a bit early from Zagreb, knowing it was going to be a long driving day. Lily always takes us on the right route, but Mom and Dad question almost every turn we take. I don't know what to say...I hear, "We haven't gone this way before. She took us the wrong way!" This is usually followed by, "Oh, I think it was faster that way." Hmmm...  

Stopped at a lovely odmoriste (rest area)...not really that lovely. We were going to eat there, but then looked at the burger menu and the pub we were eating in and decided otherwise. Thought we'd push on to Pozega. However, they were repairing the overpass/exit there and it was closed. Had to continue on to the next exit. It was a little further. Because we were going this other way, we ended up going through some of the smaller towns Dad lived in before arriving in Pozega. You could tell he was so excited, but disappointed at the same time. They took down the school that he saw 5 years ago. Got to show Julie and Mel, but now it's gone. We saw where dad's Baka was buried. The tombstones were so beautiful, some with pictures of all the family members on them. It was up on a hill overlooking Novoselci.

  

We saw the well where Baka used to wash clothes. Then we continued down the street and drove right past Dido's house. Dad pulled over and was a little confused, so we went inside the yard and asked the man if it had been there. He said that they'd torn it down only 4 months ago. Awww man! 

We next hit Pozega and walked around town looking for breakfast food. Well, you could pretty much get Cevapcici anywhere. I could eat that for breakfast, but Mom was having nothing to do with that. Plus, a lot of their meat is mixed with pork. We found a grocery store and bought yogurt and then located a bakery across the square. Mmm, fresh burek. Now that was good! We ate down by the railway station and just sat outside. 

From Pozega, we were on our way to Osijek and Dalj. There was a lot of driving, a lot of windy roads.  In Osijek we walked around the town square and saw the house where my dad said the Jakovac's made their decision to leave Croatia. Lots of bullet holes everywhere. Saw the church where my dad was born, the danube river, and another Jakovac house. It was very cool to be there with him, especially knowing these were places he grew up. 





From Dalj we were on a 4 1/2 hr drive back toward Zagreb and then down to Plitvice Lakes. 

On the way we had to stop to eat dinner. Again, we pulled over at an odmoriste. It looked like a great place this time. Looked over the menu and I had eyed Salata od krumpira & salata od graha (potato salad & bean salad). They didn't have any. Then I chose tomato soup; they didn't have any. So my eye caught pasta with tuna. Not really a big tuna fan, but thought it might be okay. IT WAS THE WORST MEAL EVER!!! It was cold pasta mixed with tuna and what tasted like miracle whip--YUCK! I made myself eat about half of it and then called it quits. Dad tried it and almost gagged. Won't order that one again. Haha! Everything else has been amazing.

Sorry I haven't been blogging, but the internet reception hasn't been great and I wasn't able to add pics. I'm almost 2 days behind now. 

More to come...







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