Right now I'm sitting at a computer (obviously) in Dani's family's apartment in Rijeka, Croatia. And I'm finally getting around to adding a new post. I know, its been a really long time! Things have been kind of weird ever since Rome and I haven't felt much like blogging, but I think I'm back now! If I've been sending you postcards, the last ones I sent were from Rome, I haven't sent any new ones from Croatia yet. I'm hoping to get on that today or tomorrow, we'll see.

Anywho, we are in Croatia now and have been for about 3 weeks. I absolutely love it here. When we were in Germany I was sure it would be my favourite place, until we got to Italy and I fell in love with all things Italian. But now that we are in Croatia which has the best of both places, and I am sure this is the most beautiful place I've ever been. Its a beauty that seems so pure and untouched. I know I can't even begin to describe what its like here, so I won't even try. I encourage you to look up pictures- but no, even pictures could not do justice to its beauty. Its depressing knowing that even as I take snapshots when I look at them a year from now it won't hold the same charm as the reality. You would actually have to be here to appreciate how wonderful Croatia is to the fullest extent. So to all my readers: plan a trip to Croatia in your near future. You will thank me for it!

We spent a few days up in some little mountain village that I can't remember the name of and probably couldn't spell or pronounce even if I could remember it. Its about an hour east of Rijeka, I think. We stayed with Danijela's friend Milan and his family. She lived with them for a little bit when she was younger, and has kept in touch with Milan ever since. His family lives in a house with an unusual floorplan where his parents keep sheep on the side of being a doctor and a nurse. The entire village he lives in in tiny, quaint, and picturesque. There is only like one tiny convenient store, and one cafe. The first night we went out to the cafe with Milan and his girlfriend and I wasn't surprised when it turned out that they knew everyone else there, and when Dani ran into one of her cousins! The entire mountain scenery is absolutely breathtaking beyond words. And it is ever so much cooler up there than it is down here by the coast. For the first time since we arrived in Germany I slept all the way through the night without waking up once in a sweat! It was glorious!

The reason we stayed with Milan is because we had been invited to go with him and a group of other people to see Iron Maiden in concert. I know- not exactly the thing I would have expected to do while we are here! We went with a group of about 10 other people. The concert was in Split, a city about 200 km away from the village. It took us about 6 hours to get there though because we stopped about every 45 mins on the way and because we took the scenic, windy mountain roads instead of the boring highway. It loved the drive, I got to see a bit more of Croatia. We would drive through valleys with a scattering of little houses nestled in amongst feilds below us, and the ruins of some medieval castle up on a hill. One time I looked out the window and down into a valley at the perfect time to see a shepherd herding his sheep home at the end of the night. Most of it didn't even look real, it looked like something you would see out of a storybook of old fairy tales. I sat in the middle of backseat all the way there in between two guys who were both taking history and geography in school. Lucky for me, they both spoke English very well and were eager and willing to fill me in on as much Croatian history as I would listen to. I was glad- I didn't know anything before this!

The town of Split itself was amazing. The Adriatic Sea on one side, mountains on the other, lots of old architecture, a boardwalk. We stayed at a campsite right on the beach. By the time we got there it was getting dark, so the first two tents were put up hastily and without incedent. The last tent however, took all 10 of us 2 hours and someone's car strategically parked to give us light from his headlights to figure out! And of course, nobody had thought to bring a flasthlight. I just thought it was funny, and couldn't stop from giggling under my breath the whole 2 hours! That night a few of us went swimming after all the tents were finally put up. I didn't go, I forgot my suit, so just sat on the beach and listened to the other talk, joining in when the conversations switched from Croatian to English. Mostly though I just enjoyed staring out at the black expanse of ocean and across to the lights on one of the islands in the distance. It was so peaceful.

The concert itself was... interesting. We spent a few hours in Split walking around and stopping at various cafes for refreshment before the concert started. We ate some Croatian food, I learned how to say a few things in Croatia, and we stroked the lucky toe of one of Split's famous statues of some saint or other. The streets were filled with Iron Maiden fans. They were easy to distinguish because ALL of them wore black at the very least, but most had band t-shirts, and most of them had long hair. Some of them had prettier hair than I do!! I guess the long hair must have something to do with the whole heavy metal image thing, but I really don't understand how long hair can be seen as 'tough' at all! Someone should tell all these hard-core fans that their hair is too pretty for their image. It was sooo crowded, and the closer to the stage we got the more tightly packed the people were. Our group started out close, but moved back a ways to have more room for all the jumping and head-banging that would ensue. The band finally came on and the crowds erupteds in screaming, and jumping! Iron Maiden was really good, they were funny, put on a great concert, and are amazing at what they do! Most of the songs started to sound the same to me about half through, but I still can't deny that these guys have amazing talent. They are really good at what they do! Even though its not really the type of music I would usually just pop into my CD player (unless I was really really angry) I still had a lot of fun and Iron Maiden is still a really good band.

Of all the 3 live musical performances we have seen- Rihanna in Milan, Aida in Verona, and Iron Maiden in Split- Iron Maiden was by far the most impressive. Rihanna was the funnest, simply because it took us by complete surprise and we couldn't beleive our good luck. Aida is my personal favourite, just because I am a fan of opera and I still think its the coolest thing ever that we got to see it in an old Roman arena. But Iron Maiden took me by complete surprise because of the sheer size of it, and by how good they were. I don't know what I was expecting, I don't know anything about that kind of music, but I left impressed. The concert was great. They put on an amazing show. Like the t-shirts said, "I survived Iron Maiden and I will live to dream about it!" Ditto to that!

PS: I have every intention of writing another post in the next few days about what we have been up to in Rijeka. I just didn't think anyone would want to sit through that much of my rambling. So until next time...