The last 2 weeks have been very eventful. As I mentioned in my last post, I made a weekend trip to Budapest with my fellow intern, Brittany, and other friends. The city took my breath away. The city was full of beautiful monuments and castle-like structures, and everything was extremely cheap. The highlights included visiting the thermal pool and going to the ruin bars with one of my Hungarian friends who just graduated from Duke. The following weekend, Brittany and I rented a car and traveled to the Northern Coast of Croatia. I was pretty nervous because I had never really driven a manual transmission, but somehow managed to make it there and back without destroying the car (although it probably doesn’t have a transmission anymore). The first night we stayed in the beautiful village of Pazin, and left the following morning for a remote waterfall nearby. The view was absolutely stunning, and we had the whole place to ourselves for more than an hour. We swam, jumped off the waterfalls, explored the caves, and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch on the rocks next to the water. I made a short YouTube video of the trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On2gamlXK8k) From the waterfall we travelled to the coast town of Pula. At the heart of the city there is an Ancient Roman Coliseum that was built in the 1st century. This coliseum was a lot more enjoyable than the one in Rome. Although it wasn’t as big, it only cost 4$ to get in, wasn’t crowded, and you had access to just about the entire site. After touring the coliseum, we made the short drive to another city called Rovinj. This coastal town has a heavy Italian influence, and most of the street signs were in both Croatian and Italian. This was perhaps my favorite city I have visited so far. We enjoyed wine and cheese on a bench that overlooked the waterfront, and then ate at a nearby restaurant for dinner. The next day we walked around the city a bit longer, and then made the drive back to Zagreb. Last Saturday I went on a solo hike to a fortress on top of a mountain in Zagreb. The trails were fun and the view at the top was stunning. As far as work goes, my main focus for the last week and a half was prepping for the embassy’s annual Fourth of July party. This is the biggest event of the year, so there was a lot of work to be done. Some of my tasks included designing the invitation, building signs from scratch, and passing out party gifts. The event went off without a hitch, and the night ended with some massive fireworks. Yesterday was one of my most interesting days as the U.S Secretary of Defense James Mattis paid a visit to Zagreb. One of my co-workers and I were stationed at his hotel and prepped the conference room where he had some meetings. In other news: Croatia kicked England’s butt to advance to its first World Cup Final. The games here have been absolutely wild. After each game people shoot off flares, roman candles, fireworks, and basically anything else that lights up and makes loud noises. I am leaving today for a trip to Zadar which is on the Adriatic coast. I will make sure to be back in Zagreb before the World Cup final starts at 5pm.
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