829. Zagreb Part 1 | First Days in Croatia!

Finally here is my first post of Zagreb! This is the 34th country I've visited I believe. Now we've been here about a week. I've always wanted to visit Croatia but to be honest I always picture the Dalmatian Coast when I think of the country, and have always wanted to visit Dubrovnik. For our month in the country, our base will be Zagreb. It was the only city we were able to fly direct into and for a longer-term stay, I think it is most convenient. At first I didn't have any expectations of Zagreb and was wondering if we should've stayed along the coast instead..but now I really like it here. We will be doing small trips to different areas starting with Rovinj tomorrow! I first discovered Rovinj on Instagram and am excited to be able to go. I hope we'll also be able to visit places in Slovenia (Ljubljana and Piran) as well as we are literally on the border, but I'm not sure what the entry requirements will be at this time.

Zagreb reminds me slightly of Prague (where I've visited) and what I imagine Poland to be like (which I've never visited). It looks like Eastern Europe but not to an extreme. There are some communist style buildings and a lot of graffiti around the city. It feels very safe here and the streets are very clean. We've also been getting nice sunny weather every day. It's a very quiet and laid-back city. Kind of feels like being in the outskirts of a larger city (or a large "small town") but in fact we are in the country's capital. I think if you're taking a regular vacation here, 1 or 2 days is enough to explore the city as it's fairly small. There are a LOT of random and quirky museums (for example the Museum of Broken Relationships and a mushroom museum too lol). Overall I am enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would.

We've been spending our days just walking around the city and sitting at cafes to read. A nice change from Bangkok where we were confined for a month. Thailand is still very bad with rising COVID cases. I'm glad we got out in time but it makes me sad to think of the country struggling to deal with it.

I think my favourite area of the city so far is here around the large park



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828. Koh Samui Part 8 | Island Life

If you follow me on social media, you'll know that we are now in Croatia! We arrived in Zagreb several days ago. I guess we got out of Thailand just in time as the covid cases there continue to rise these days. I will talk more about Croatia in my next post (when I get around to uploading those photos from my camera). Zagreb is a very quiet and laid back city. I am enjoying it so far.

For now, I still have a lot of Thailand posts left. I don't know how I managed daily travel posts in the past lol. Here are some random photos taken around Koh Samui. It was really nice to be there without many tourists around. I think if I return in the future, when tourists are all back in full force, I wouldn't enjoy it as much. I would like to go back eventually though.

We decided to walk up this hill one day. There were some pretty steep parts and it was very exhausting to go up (combined with the heat). Suddenly there was a huge storm and we got caught in the middle of nowhere with no cover. I got completely drenched. About 20 minutes later, the sun came back out. I think these photos were taken right before the downpour and I was thinking what a nice day it was lol.

Handing out dog treats

This dog always came to visit and sit with us at a restaurant we went to almost every day (called My Friend in Bophut). He belongs to one of the nearby houses and is an outdoor dog. He would always be so happy to see us and run up when he saw us going to the restaurant. Sadly he's full of fleas though. He constantly scratches himself. We decided to get him some medication for it which we tried our best to feed once a week but I'm not sure if it did anything..

Interesting cloud

The airport! It is all open-air

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827. Koh Samui Part 7 | Wild Cottages Luxury & Natural

Unfortunately the COVID situation here in Thailand is not getting any better. It's getting worse and worse by the day and I think there is a risk of us being banned entry to many other countries soon. Also we are currently in Bangkok, probably the worst city in the country to be in at the moment because of the semi-lockdown. Now all domestic flights in and out of Bangkok have been suspended for 2 weeks. It would have been nice to be in Koh Samui at this time. So now we are making plans to leave the country soon. Hopefully before it's too late. I don't know where we will go yet but likely somewhere in Europe again..

I wish Asia wasn't like this now. I would have really liked to visit some other nearby countries as well, especially Hong Kong again but I'm sure they will remain closed for a long time. Now we will have been in Thailand for approximately 4 months. At least we got to see a lot of the country (Bangkok, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai, Pai, Chiang Rai, Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, etc.) If we were not "stuck" in Thailand and just travelling freely, I think we would have just visited Bangkok and Koh Samui and left. Now I'm glad we got to experience the other parts as well.

I'm so behind on my posts because I haven't had the time to update my blog these days. I've been really busy with work and I can't be as productive when just working from our place (instead of in a coffee shop which isn't possible now as they are all closed). I don't think it is possible for me to post all my Thailand posts before leaving here. I am maybe 14 posts behind lol.

So here was our place in Koh Samui where we stayed the last days on the island. We had booked a month elsewhere but then due to lack of flights into Chiang Mai, we had to book an extra 5 nights here which I'm so glad we did. I really loved it! I would've gladly stayed much longer. It's called Wild Cottages and located on a hill overlooking Lamai Beach. I think they have 7 cottages in total, all with an outdoor terrace and small pool. It was such a relaxing stay. Also their service is amazing!

Welcome fruit platter

Breakfast! They prepared it fresh in our kitchen.

Our kitchen! I was surprised we had one - I wasn't expecting it, especially not a fully equipped one.

You can tell when a hotel truly cares about every last small detail when even their tupperware boxes match the interior decor

A HUGE dragonfly trying to enter the room/at the pool one night

Of course one of my favourite parts about staying there was the dogs! These two live on the property and roam around the area. They were very scared of us at first but then slowly I won over their trust with lots of dog treats.



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