Last week, I was so
excited to have my friend Becca come visit! Becca is a current EMU student who
is studying this year in Germany. We had several classes together and share a
lot of the same friends, even though we became very close at EMU. But still,
when I knew that she would be in Europe, I convinced her that she should come
on over to Croatia… and she did! She flew into Zagreb and then took a bus here
to Osijek. We spent a day wandering around Osijek before taking a bus up to
Pecs, Hungary.
In
Pecs, and then in Budapest, we stayed with couch surfers! For those who do not
know, Couchsurfing is an online community in which people who love to travel
and learn about new places and cultures join. Then you can do three different
things: HOST – if you have a couch or an extra bed, you can let travelers come
stay with you; SURF – instead of staying in a hotel or hostel, you can stay
with local people on their couches; or just meet-up. As I mentioned in an
earlier post, I have been meeting with local couch surfers here in Osijek.
For this
trip, I had read through different profiles of couch surfers, then sent out
requests for us to stay with local hosts. It was a great experience! We did not
have a lot of time in Pecs, but our host served us breakfast and then gave us a
city tour. I really enjoyed seeing the city from a local perspective and being
able to ask all sorts of questions about Hungarian life. I also loved our host
in Budapest! He was our age and lived in a great part of the city and I really
enjoyed the conversations we had and the places we saw with him.
After just a
short time in Budapest, we took an eight hour train ride to Belgrade. Although
it was long, we were in a really nice train car and I got to have a good
conversation with a Serbian. (Having good conversations with strangers and
getting to know new places and cultures through them is one of my favorite
parts of traveling!) In Belgrade, we took a walking tour, explored an old
fortress, ate local food, and enjoyed relaxing in cafes. I immediately fell in
love the city and am already planning my next visit so I can explore more. On
Wednesday afternoon, we caught a bus back to Osijek (only 3.5 hours) and then
Becca caught an early bus back to Zagreb the next morning to fly back to
Germany.
We had a really
good time and it was nice to show someone my part of the world. Plus, I was
really excited to go to Serbia for the first time. You see, Serbia is the 23rd
country I have been in and I am 23 years old! I think this is pretty cool! I
thought it would be fun to share with you all the countries I have traveled to,
along with the year in which I first visited.
1) Canada - 1999 2)
Mexico – 2006 3)
Bahamas – 2009 4)
Nicaragua – 2009
5) Belgium – 2011 6)
France – 2011 7)
Germany – 2011 8)
The Netherlands – 2011
9)
Italy - 2011 10)
Switzerland – 2011 11)
Liechtenstein – 2011 12) Austria – 2011
13)
Luxembourg – 2011 14)
Ireland – 2011 15)
Northern Ireland – 2011
16)
Turkey – 2012 17)
Iraq – 2012 18)
Slovenia – 2013 19) Croatia – 2013
20)
Bosnia and Herzegovina – 2013 21)
Slovakia – 2014 22) Hungary – 2014
23)
Serbia - 2014
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