Croatia Day 8: Trogir and Departure Day

Vanjaka B&B

Our plane did not leave until early afternoon, so we had plenty of time (ok, maybe not plenty, as there is always more to see – but sufficient) to explore Trogir. We started with the breakfast served by our host, which was one of my favorite breakfasts of the trip, perhaps tied with the farm omelet. This was a very European style breakfast – a basket of breads with butter and jams, a small meat and cheese plate, an unsweetened, tart, liquid yogurt (I think it was an Icelandic style), fruit, and coffee with milk. Ben also opted for the eggs, but I was very content with the other fixings.

After breakfast, we went to explore the city, enjoying more views and architecture, briefly watching a kids’ soccer match, and peeking inside the fort – my quote there was “no way am I doing anymore fucking stairs.” 

Look, another old church

View of Trogir from afar

Amazing door in the walls of Trogir

The fort that I was not going to climb up

Fort details

Another amazing view, in the distance from Trogir

 We got our last gelato, bought a few more souvenirs, and headed to the airport. We had to rearrange our bags before we left, which was a hassle in the parking lot, but was made so much easier by packing cubes, which are my new favorite packing implement. I also was super glad to have a luggage scale with me, because it let me know one of our bags was a bit over the weight limit, so we shifted things around before getting to the airport. We stopped for gas, then arrived at the rental car return – which was much quicker and smoother than the pick-up. This time, the staff was even friendly. When I kept trying to fix the trunk insert that attached to the hatchback but which had come unmoored, the rental car agent suggested that I might be “OCD.” Ben and I got a real laugh out of that, not what we expected from him. He must be a fan of US TV shows to pick up on that vocabulary.

The Split airport is tiny, a fact made much more clear during our wait for our departure. It is smaller event than Bradley, even though it serves a city twice the size of Hartford. Also, weirdly, the airlines don’t have their own check in desks – just airport employees who check everyone in regardless of airline. There is only one terminal with like 5 gates, and it was completely packed. We spent a bit of time in the duty free shop, using up the last of our Croatian currency. We also grabbed beer to share as a last toast to our vacation – at least until I discovered the free beer on the flight to Boston.

The flight to Zurich was uneventful. This time, we had a much longer layover, so we meandered our way to our gate. This time, we were prepared and took out all of our electronic devices, so we got through the bag check without issue. I, however, completely forgot to take off my fitbit, which I think is what resulted in my getting a very intimate pat down from a nice Swiss lady, who did not even buy me dinner after. No pillow talk, nothing.

Since we had time to kill, we first shopped, spending our last Euros and then some, then we walked. We paced the terminal, which was quite large, stopping once at a gourmet candy counter to get me marzipan, which is enough reason alone to go to Europe. We don’t quite do it as well here. Actually, the view from the airport of the alps, as well as the very well-done tourism campaign put on by Zurich, really made me want to return to Switzerland. I think it’s definitely worth checking out, especially as part of a longer tour of the continent, which I do hope to do with the kids when they are older.

The trip back to Boston was fairly uneventful, though while waiting to board I had to threated a lady who kept bumping into me on purpose. The line to board was not a queue – it was a mass of people all converging on the gate. Rather than go to the back of this giant amoeba of people, I merged. The woman who I merged in front of apparently did not like it, and she kept bumping me. I finally turned to Ben and said something along the lines of “if the lady behind me hits me again, I am either going to slap her or report her to police for assault. I haven’t decided which yet.” It did not happen again.

On the plane, we were once again in my carefully selected seats on the bulkhead with tons of legroom. This time, it was a two-seater, so no issues of sharing my space – only problem was that it was near the bathroom, and for some unknown reason, people kept leaving the door open. Which is just gross. Even in the best of times, no airplane bathroom smells good – the chemicals alone are nasty.

I managed to not sleep all the way to Boston. I watched an awful movie, a parody of westerns with a great cast that I cannot recall the name of. Nor do I really want to.

In Boston, immigrations and customs are a PITA. By far longer and more involved that any of the four countries that I had just visited. And I have a US passport! All travelers now have their pictures taken and scan their passports themselves. They also complete the customs information electronically and get a printout of their answers (the card is apparently obsolete, which was annoying because I stopped along the way to complete it, losing ground to the crowds in the process. For non-US citizens, the process looked even more involved, though the lines were separate. While slow and time consuming, we did not hit any snags. We grabbed our bags, and a shuttle to the parking lot arrived just as we were walking out.

All in all, it was an amazing trip. The good thing about missing our kids was that it made leaving the vacation much less painful than it normally would be. Although there are so many places in the world that I want to see that I have not yet seen, I really want to go back to Croatia soon! I also think that the kids would enjoy many aspects of it – gelato everywhere, for a start! And real castles. I don’t know if or when it will happen, but I am keeping my fingers crossed!