14 November January 2017 Two Months with My Mom In the Balkans. Dear Friends,

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1 Dear Friends, Here is a letter about accepting challenges that the life put in front of us at the end of This is not one of those light and carefree letters, although we continued seeking for (little) reasons for joy every day during that time. As Philip likes to say, life does not give us what we want but what we need. I believe that this period has some important life lessons for us For months, I was looking forward to my planned trip to a conference in Bangkok (Thailand) this November. Since I have always wanted to visit Thailand, I discussed with Philip to take also 10 days of annual leave after the conference to travel around Thailand by myself that was supposed to be a present for my 40th birthday this year. I prepared four scientific articles for that conference, they were all accepted and in April this year I happily bough the airplane ticket to Thailand. We were so busy with a never-ending to-do list of academic and parental responsibilities this year. One of the things that kept me going was that trip to Thailand and 10 days of (much needed!) rest time for myself I did squeeze into my travel plan an academic visit to Chang Mail University in Thailand where one of my former doctoral students worked. I also arranged to celebrate my 40th birthday in Bangkok with my colleagues from Seoul (Korea) and Washington DC (USA). Everything was ready I just needed to show up In May this year, I realized that my Croatian passport was expiring a few weeks later. Searching on the internet, I realized that there is no Croatian Embassy/Consulate in New Zealand any more. I contacted Croatian Embassy in Canberra (Australia) to find out how to renew my Croatian passport. The response came back that embassy staff comes to New Zealand a few times per year. They were in Dunedin this year in January and will be in Auckland on 14 June so I could meet them there. Auckland is more than 1,500 km away from Dunedin Since I was not interested in doing such a long day trip, I asked when they would be in Dunedin again. No response Since I had a valid Canadian passport that I use for most of my travels, I decided to let my Croatian passport expire and to renew it when I travel to the Balkans next time. Then came October 2016 Philip left for his month-long trip around the world on 11 th October. It was a challenge for me to fulfil my academic and parenting duties in the upcoming weeks. I thought that was a challenge until A week after Philip left, my mom called from Croatia and told me that she was not very well. She had back pain and could not eat for a week already My mom is a 64-year-old woman who has been healthy all her life, lived a healthy life and for the last 3 years has been hiking all around the former Yugoslavia with the hiking group from a nearby city. A week before she got her back pain, she did a 6-hour hike to climb Mt Dinara in Croatia 1

2 (altitude: 1,830 meters). Her doctor gave her pills for her stomach, but that did not help. A week later she went to the Emergency department, stayed in the hospital and a few days later was diagnosed with a tumour on her pancreas. The next step was a surgery Around that time, Philip arrived to Slovenia as a part of his trip around the world. Together with my brother and his family, Philip visited my mom in the hospital in Vukovar a few days after she was diagnosed with a tumour. I was so happy that they managed to see each other. It was the end of October Then came the question: What now? My trip to the conference in Thailand was planned for mid-november. I cancelled my academic visit to Chang Mai University and decided to skip travelling through Thailand and instead go to Croatia to visit my mom. I arranged with Philip to extend my trip for another week since I was travelling all the way to Europe. That meant that my trip would be prolonged from there weeks to four weeks and that I would use up my entire annual leave for that travel. I contacted the travel agent and asked him to find a new airplane ticket for me to fly from Bangkok to Europe and come back from Europe to New Zealand All of a sudden, this change of plan meant that I had to prepare all my academic work for an unplanned absence from the university for the entire month. That also included setting up work for four summer research students who just started their projects. Craziness is the only word that can describe accomplishing such task in such a short time period During the first week of November, my colleague Pablo from Spain arrived with his family to work with me at the University of Otago for three months. That same week, my mom was transferred to a larger regional hospital where the team of surgeons felt confident to perform a surgery on mom. She was waiting for her surgery every day for several days. That week was a chaos of trying to adjust calling to time zones (New Zealand is 12 hours ahead of Croatia), twice a day (morning and evening) Skype calls with my mom and my brother, attempts to connect with Philip who was struggling with a cell phone and internet in Serbia those days, keep up with my work, children, homework, household chores and looking for a new airplane ticket only a few days before the trip to travel to the other side of the globe and all that as a single parent at home (without grandmas, grandpas, aunts or uncles in the area) Honestly, I have no idea how I survived all that It was good that I did not know at that time about the news and stressful circumstances that were about to happen the following week Philip arrived from Europe to Dunedin on Saturday (06 November). We had a week to be all together before I was going away. That weekend we managed to pull off a family bike ride and a lunch with Pablo and his family. We enjoyed those few moments of our usual family life. 2

3 Then came an insane week (07-13 November 2016) 14 November January 2017 Monday On Monday, I went to the travel agency to by my reserved airplane ticket to Thailand and Europe. A travel agent was just about to purchase my ticket when he noticed that my Canadian passport was expiring in less than three months. I had no idea how big problem that was The travel agent checked on the spot the passport requirements for the countries that I was visiting on this trip. He informed me that I would not have problems entering Thailand and Serbia but I could not travel to Croatia Croatia had the requirement that all foreigners have to enter Croatia on a passport that was valid for at least 3 months I had to postpone purchasing this ticket until I found out from the Croatian Embassy in Canberra (Australia) if there was a possibility that I could enter Croatia on my Canadian passport valid less than 3 months and the expired Croatian passport I immediately sent an to the Croatian Embassy in Canberra with my inquiry I also checked how long it took to renew my Canadian passport in New Zealand. The answer was 4 weeks My mom was operated on Monday evening New Zealand time (Monday morning in Croatia). Neither my brother nor I could speak to her over the phone that day because she was recovering from general anaesthesia My brother Boris was in Slovenia so we did not have any details about her surgery except that there was no complications. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning I still did not receive a response from the Croatian Embassy in Canberra Wednesday On Wednesday morning around 5 am New Zealand time (Tuesday afternoon in Croatia) I spoke to mom and found out that her tumour was not removed during the surgery she was opened up and closed Apparently, the tumour had already spread on the surrounding blood vessels and other internal organs, which made the surgery too high of a risk I froze My mom was all alone in the hospital in Osijek (Croatia), my brother was in Slovenia, while I was on the other side of the globe. I wanted so much to be with my mom in that moment I arrived to the travel agency that morning at the start of their work hours. Although I still did not have an answer from the Croatian Embassy, I told the travel agent that I was purchasing a ticket. My flights were booked to Belgrade and my passport was not an issue for flying there. If the Croatian border police does not allow me to enter Croatia because of my passport, I was planning to travel to Belgrade and sort out my paperwork in the Croatian Embassy there. Therefore, I cancelled the airplane ticket, which was purchased in April and bought a new ticket to fly to Bangkok the following, Monday (14 November) and land in Belgrade on 21 November That afternoon I received an from the Croatian Embassy that I should bring along expired Croatian passport, explain the situation to the Croatian border police and that they should let me enter Croatia since my 3

4 trip was for humanitarian reasons my mom s illness Oh, I finally relaxed but only for less than 24 hours Thursday It was my second last day in my office before leaving for the trip with tons of tasks that had to be finished. While I was in a meeting with one of my students, my phone rang. The travel agent told me that he got bad news for me: I could not travel to Thailand with my Canadian passport since Thailand now requires that all foreign citizens have passports valid for at least 6 months at the time of entry According to the travel agent, this was a new requirement that he did not know about when we checked that information a few days earlier I started to laugh in disbelief there was nothing else I could do. My student who knew bits and pieces about my upcoming overseas travel just looked at me and commented: I can t believe how well you handle bad news. In life there are things we cannot change, I responded. In the moment, my two other students knocked on the door and walked into my office with serious facial expressions. I looked at them, smiled and instead of Hello, I said, If you have any bad news, I kindly ask you to turn around and leave my office because I simply cannot handle any more bad news in this moment. They looked at me very surprised and said We just wanted to ask if you like this size of the lab logo on our lab t-shirts. I started laughing. Oh, it s great! What do you think?, I asked a student that was in a meeting with me A few minutes later, I picked up the phone. First, I phoned the Thailand Embassy in Auckland. I was inquiring if there was any possibility that I could actually enter Thailand using my Canadian passport just for 6 days to attend a planned international conference. No change. Then I phoned the travel agent to find out if there was a way for me to travel to Thailand if I manage to get my Croatian passport renewed in time. The travel agent told me that I need a visa for Thailand if I travelled with the Croatian passport. I was considering flying to Canberra (Australia) on Sunday and submitting my passport renewal application to the Croatian Embassy on Monday. If they managed to give me a renewed Croatian passport in 24 hours, then I could get the visa for Thailand on Thai Embassy in Canberra on Tuesday and the same evening catch a flight from Sydney to Bangkok and still arrive to the conference that was starting on Wednesday. I was still hope that there was a way for me attend the planned conference in Bangkok and present four scientific papers there. So I phone again the Thai Embassy in Auckland and asked how long would I wait for visa if I am travelling on my Croatian passport. Minimum three business days was the answer. By that time, my conference in Bangkok would have finished. I had no other options left but to accept the fact that I would not attend the planned conference in Bangkok the following week A few minutes later, I phoned the travel agent and asked him to change my current ticket that instead of Bangkok I fly directly to Europe (Belgrade) next Monday However, that was not the end of the story of booking the ticket for this trip Shortly after finishing that phone conversation, I went to a symposium held at our university where an hour later I gave a speech about my research, chaired two sessions on the symposium that afternoon and attended the symposium dinner in the evening. 4

5 After hearing about my situation that day, some of my colleagues suggest that I ask the conference organizers to either give my talks over Skype or videotape them and send them the videos That evening I contacted the conference organizers in Bangkok. They could not accommodate presentations over Skype but were happy with the idea that some of my colleagues present my talks and posters instead of me it I managed to get that arranged by Monday. That was one of my main tasks the next day. Friday First thing in the morning, I started to organize who could present my talks and posters in Bangkok and how to send my posters there. In 24 hours I arranged with my international colleagues for my posters to be printed in Seoul (Korea), brought to Bangkok from there and displayed on the assigned poster boards and one of my talks and both of my posters to be presented by my colleague from Washington DC (USA). I spent the next three days finding a person who could do my second talk On Friday midday, the travel agent informed that it was quite a bit more expensive to fly to Belgrade next (in three days), but that it would be minimal different in price if I would fly out one day earlier on Sunday (in two days). A quick phone call to Philip, his confirmation that he was ok if I leave the day earlier (Philip s response was: Just go! ) and my third airplane ticket for this trip was booked. I barely saw Philip and kids that week. And when I was at home, I was getting ready for the trip Departing a day earlier did not make a big difference to them on the contrary, it meant one less stressed out person at home (this is my interpretation ). Although the drama with booking the airplane ticket was over, that was not the end of dramas associated with this trip. That afternoon I contacted the travel insurance to give them new dates and destinations for my trip. After several s and phone call that afternoon, I found out from a travel insurance staff member that the passport requirement of minimum 6 months before expiry date was nothing new for Thailand such requirement has been in place for a long time When I forwarded that information to the travel agent, I was dealing with, he phoned me and informed that it was not true since someone from his office travelled to Thailand a few months earlier on a passport that was expiring in less than three months In other words, the travel agent was not aware of this requirement and hence did not even think about warning me in April to renew my Canadian passport when I was purchasing the ticket for this trip. It was quite a complex set of circumstances with my trip to Thailand was a business trip and our university requires that all airplane tickets for academic travels are purchased through one of the two travel agents in Dunedin and they have my passport details in their system. There was no point in blaming anyone. I have certainly learned the lesson that the passports actually expire for international travels 3 to 6 months before their written expiry date A tough lesson indeed 5

6 Saturday Final preparations, finished packing, party with friends and I was ready to fly out next morning. I am sure many other things happened that day but obviously none of them was dramatic enough for me to remember them in addition to the other events those days Sunday (13 November 2016) Philip, Adriana and Oliver went with me to the airport. When I scanned my Canadian passport for checking in, I got the following message: Your passport is not valid for your destination. I just looked at Philip in disbelief Air New Zealand staff in Dunedin could not help me. They told me I had to travel to Christchurch on my flight and then check with the staff of Quantas and Emirates airlines if I could get the boarding passes for my flights with that passport So I flew off to Christchurch I arrived to Christchurch around 11 am. Shortly afterwards I found out that Quantas and Emirates staff will arrive around 3 pm that day since my flight was not until 7 pm that evening. Four more hours of waiting In the meantime, I was working on the presentation slide for my first talk at a conference in Bangkok. Writing a script for the entire talk for someone who did not participate in a particular research study was few hours of work until the Quantas and Emirates agents arrived to their work When my turn for checking in came, I told a young flight attendant at the checking desk that I would be a complicated case. Before I even managed to describe the second reason for the complexity of my situation, she decided that my case was too complicated for her and she called a senior flight attendant to help her out. It turned out that they could not give me boarding passes to Belgrade with my current passport if I do not have a proof that I would leave Serbia before my Canadian passport expires. When I explained to them that I was actually travelling to Croatia and showed them a letter from the Croatian Embassy in Canberra that I would be allowed to enter Croatia, they need the actual proof that I was travelling to Croatia airplane ticket, train ticket or bus ticket. I did not have such a proof since I arranged for a friend of mine to pick me up from the airport and drive me to Novi Sad. The following day my dad would come and drive me from Novi Sad to Vukovar. However, that was not a proof I thought to purchase a train ticket in that moment and show it as a proof. Just then, the senior flight 6

7 attendant asked, Which city do you fly from to return to New Zealand? From Belgrade in four weeks, I responded. Then the flight attendant said, That is your proof that you are leaving Serbia before your Canadian passport expires. In that case, we can give you boarding passes. Thanks goodness When I finally boarded the flight to Sydney that evening I could hardly believe that I was actually travelling to Europe My mom did not know anything about my dramas with passports in the last week. A few hours later when I called my mom from Sydney, she greeted me with a happy voice: You are travelling again! Oh, yes, but I almost did not leave this time During the 14.5-hour flight from Sydney to Dubai, I was working on my second presentation for Bangkok and its script. The time flew by Monday Two hours at Dubai airport Given the reason and rush to leave on this trip to the Balkans, I informed only a few close friends from Serbia and Croatia that I was coming. I did not want to talk much about this trip. However, with the modern technologies that are a part of our everyday life (Facebook, Messenger, s and Skype) that was a bit more difficult to pull off in my case. So I landed in Dubai While I was flying from Sydney to Dubai, there was a strong earthquake on the South Island of New Zealand about 400 km from our city and, of course, I did not know anything about it. When I connected to the internet on my cell phone, I had dozens of messages on Facebook, Messenger, Skype, personal and professional s asking if we were safe after this latest earthquake in New Zealand I posted a message on 7

8 Facebook saying that Philip and children are good and safe in New Zealand far away from the epicentre of this earthquake while I was at the airport in Dubai At least I tried to keep this trip under the radar for a while In addition to many replies to messages and s from dear people, I also managed to get quite a bit of work done at Dubai airport. After contacting five colleagues from around the world, my former PhD student Natharin arranged for one of her colleagues from the University of Chiang Mai in Thailand to give my second conference talk in Bangkok on my behalf. And that was arranged in the last moment With many s and tons of goodwill, all of my four scientific papers were presented at the conference in Bangkok in the following days - although I was not there. A huge thankyou to Sue, Jennifer, Natharin and Araya for your amazing help to make that happen! Flight from Dubai for Beograd One hour into this 6-hour flight, I realized for the first time that I could buy internet to use during the flight. I did not hesitate for a moment. There were so communications waiting to be done In the next 5 hours, I sent a pile of s, coordinated my students and their projects, got in touch with the Canadian Consulate in Zagreb (Croatia) and obtained required information for renewing my passport When I landed in Belgrade (Serbia) 40+ hours since departure from Dunedin, I was ready for renewing both passports and exhausted Belgrade Airport (Serbia) I had only one more potentially stressful situation that day ahead of me: entrance into Serbia hoping that I would not have any problems with the boarder police at the airport with my Canadian passport. When it was my turn for passport control, the police officer who was fully immersed in a conversation on his cell phone, scanned my passport without looking at it, gave the passport back to me and waved with his hand for me to go. Before going, I asked him if I needed to register my stay since I am leaving Serbia tomorrow. Still talking on his phone he waived his hand like saying, You don t need that and then showed me again to go. It seems that I arrived to Serbia My friend Dejan was waiting for me at the airport and drove me to Novi Sad. When we left the airport, he asked me how I was doing and what was new with us in New Zealand. I finished my answer an hour later as we were entering Novi Sad the content was pretty much the stuff you read in this letter so far. 8

9 Novi Sad (Serbia): One of the places on the globe where I feel at home... I spent a wonderful afternoon with Dejan and his wife Ljubica and briefly saw their children Anja, Luka and Relja. It was another great welcome to this part of the world. Thank you very much, Dejan and Ljubica! Late that afternoon Dejan drove me to the house of my parents in Bocke and I met with my friend Daniela there. As much as I wanted to talk to Daniela that evening, I lasted barely two hours before falling asleep around 6 pm The next morning was a beautifully warm autumn day. Daniela and I went for a pleasant walk (and even better talk ) on the way to the top of the hill in Bocke like many times in previous years 9

10 14 November January 2017 A few more autumn scenes and views from Bocke 10

11 Trip to Vukovar (Croatia) My father Vladimir arrived later that morning to drive me to Vukovar. Ahead of me was another potentially the last problematic border crossing with my Canadian passport valid less than three months. I prepared a letter from the Croatian Embassy in Canberra and my expired Croatian passport in a case I needed to show them at the border. Just as we were approaching the boarder, I realized that the letter from the Croatian Embassy was written in English and that was a good chance that the border police will not be able to read it. So I decided to give them only my Canadian passport and keep the other documents handy in a case they asked for them. Good day, border crossing stamp and Here you are and goodbye and I crossed into Croatia. I was finally able to relax That is how things function on the Balkans. Flight attendants in New Zealand looked more closely at my travel documents than boarder policy in this part of the world Vukovar (Croatia) So I arrived to the town where I was born one of several visits 25 years after moving away Two hours later, I submitted an application for renewal of my Croatian passport. The next day I also sent the application for renewal of my Canadian passport. So I had two citizenships but no valid passport in my hands fortunately, only temporarily 11

12 Here are a few more photos from my home town: the city centre with the remains of the Hotel Dunav (Hotel Danube) and the old water tower, the historic arches of Vukovar, the view of the city from the walk to my high school in Vukovar, the castle of the knight Eltz, our building in the neighbourhood of Olajnica where I grew up and my high school (which was destroyed during the war in 1991 and has been rebuilt recently). So many childhood memories 12

13 Meeting My Dear Mother That afternoon my dad drove me to the hospital in Osijek where I met with my dear mother. I was so happy to see her and give her a big hug It was a wonderful hour spent with my amazing mom I brought her stuffed animals - a sheep and a kiwi from New Zealand to remind her every day of Adriana and Oliver. My mom was so happy to get the stuffed animals as presents for the first time in her life at 64 years of age. The next day I travelled to Osijek by bus and spent several hours with my mom in the hospital. During the day, I got out of the hospital for a while and went for a walk along the river Drava. With exhaustion and jet lag, I was done by late afternoon/early evening (between 5 pm and 7 pm) those days for almost two weeks. It was by far the most challenging jet lag I had experienced so far 13

14 My 40 th Birthday The next day was my 40 th birthday. Thank you all for many wonderful messages, s, phone calls and best birthday wishes! It was an unforgettable birthday: in my home town in Vukovar (Croatia) with waking up in the apartment and room in which I grew up, with my mom and dad, with "chocolino" and grapes from Bocke (my parents place in Novi Sad, Serbia), with two citizenships and no valid passport in my hands, with my lovely husband and children on the other side of the globe, with many dear people around the globe sending happy birthday messages while I was supposed to be in Bangkok (Thailand) attending a scientific conference and celebrating my birthday with friends from Seoul and Washington DC. Even though we have only one body, luckily our heart and mind can take us to multiple places simultaneously. Thank you all! It was a wonderful birthday and the best present was my mom getting out of the hospital that day 14

15 25 th Anniversary of the Liberation/Fall of Vukovar 14 November January 2017 The day after my birthday Croatia was celebrating 25 years of the liberation of the city of Vukovar ( liberation or fall depending who was talking about it. In the city centre, there were posters with photos of Vukovar from the war days in 1991 and now in For me, those photos were bringing many memories and emotions of my suddenly finished childhood. In that moment, all that seemed like a very distant past and another reminder that we never know what life is bringing our way... 15

16 A few more scenes from (not so distant) the past and the present 14 November January 2017 I hope that one day people will realize the actual price of the wars (without living through one of them): the wars are not ending with the last grenade or the last bullet but rather decades later if they ever finish. And who on earth needs that? 16

17 14 November January 2017 With My Mom in Vukovar (Croatia) I spent the following days living with my mom in her apartment in the neighbourhood of Borovo. We spent the time together, slowly started getting out for short walks, prepared food I was so happy that I was able to be with my mom when she need help the most. It is amazing how much she has done for my brother and me in the last 40 years 17

18 14 November January 2017 Dear people also visited us. My friends Natasa from Vrsac (Serbia) and Valika and Sasha from Backi Monostor (Serbia) came to visit us one weeks. We had lots of fun all together! My mom was so happy to see a group of young people cooking lunch in her apartment and bringing her food samples to try while she was just resting on her bed. 18

19 That weekend, my friend Natasa and I wondered around Vukovar and I was showing her different part of my home town. Here are a few scenes 19

20 A week later my brother Boris arrived from Slovenia. Those were wonderful four days spent with my mom and my brother visiting places of my childhood years and remembering many wonderful memories from our past. We met with my dad too. Mom, Boris and I went together on a trip to Vucedol and a nearby Dalj Mountain where we cycled with our parents in our childhood. We visited villages of Aljmas and Erdut. While I was running on the road on Dalj Mountain that afternoon, two police officers in car passing by slowed down to ask me if I was ok and if I needed help! 20

21 14 November January 2017 Boris and I went for a walk in the Adica park, visited Dobra Voda, walked through Vukovar and to Olajnica and wondered along the Vuka river visiting places where we played as children. What an amazing experience in a great company! 21

22 We also went to the theatre - with my mom, brother and mom's friend Djurdja - to educate ourselves with a comedy "A method for marriage". It was one of the best theatre shows I had ever seen 70 minutes of laughter with tears During those weeks I met mom s friends and colleagues. We also attended an evening exercise sessions in a nearby school where mom worked and got together with the members of the hiking club from Vinkovci with whom mom was hiking for the previous 3 years. It was so nice to meet those lovely people I heard so much about them from mom s stories 22

23 Vinkovci (Croatia) One day in November, I went to a nearby city of Vinkovci to pick up my new Croatian passport. It was a beautiful autumn day and an excellent opportunity to stroll along the Bosut River and enjoy the autumn scenery of this city 23

24 Ljubljana (Slovenia) At the start of December (two weeks after my mom got out of the hospital), my mom mentioned that my brother Boris suggested that we visit them in Ljubljana after Christmas. In three weeks? I thought, Why not now? It was Friday morning. I started to ask my about the schedule for trains to Ljubljana and brought up an idea that we could maybe travel to Ljubljana that day A few hours later, we spoke to Boky about that idea, by noon we decided to go today, by 2 pm we drove to Vinkovci and by 3 pm, we were already on the train to Ljubljana. I had a good laugh when I (again) realized that we needed only 6 hours for this international travel from Vinkovci (Croatia) to Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia). In my world, any travel of less than 20 hours is not considered long! Mom enjoyed being on the trip while I was looking forward to a change, to leaving Vukovar for a while and meeting again Boky, his wife Sanja, my nephew Sergej and my nice Katarina (Nina). So that evening we arrived to Ljubljana 24

25 We had a great weekend in Ljubljana with a few walks in the city centre and the area. The wintertime also arrived that weekend 25

26 Boris, Sanja and I went for an evening walk in the city centre of Ljubljana and enjoyed the Festive Season s scenes in this city 26

27 And many more wonderful moments spent with Boky s family: Christmas tree decoration, get-together with my cousin Sasa and his wife Mojca and Katarina s wonderful present for my 40 th birthday this year 27

28 Rijeka (Croatia) 14 November January 2017 When we were already in Ljubljana, I thought we could also travel to Rijeka only 2.5 hours by train. Mom was very excited about the idea of visiting my aunt Darinka for two days while I was not complaining at all about travelling to the Adriatic Sea and a possibility to visit dear people in that city. So we travelled to Rijeka The day before our arrival to Rijeka, I arranged a few get-togethers with my dear friends in that city some of whom did not know that I was in the region. A few hours after arrival to my aunt Darinka s place, I went to meet with my friends and returned to my aunt s place the next day in the evening. It was so wonderful to visit again my former property owner grandma Dragica, her grandson Daniel and his family (wife Lara and children Adrian and Sofia) and my basketball friends Natasa, Mare and Jadranka 28

29 Here are a few more scenes from that beautiful coastal city My mom enjoyed her stay in Rijeka and wanted to extend our stay for another day with the sun and winter temperatures of +14 C I did not complain at all. 29

30 14 November January 2017 That last day in Rijeka, I wanted to walk alone along the 10-km long boardwalk Lungo Mare on Opatija Riviera. My aunt Darinka drove us to the village of Lovran (the furthest point of Lungo Mare boardwalk from Rijeka). My aunt and my mom enjoyed the warm winter sun in Lovran while I went on my walk along Lungo Mare. Those were wonderful few hours spend next to the sea with familiar scenery. I enjoyed that walk very much That was our three-day stay on the Adriatic Coast. Thank you all for all those new wonderful get-togethers! 30

31 Zagreb (Croatia) On our way back to Vukovar, we had to change trains in Zagreb so we went for an hour-long walk in the city centre. In contrast to the weather on the Adriatic Coast, it was a real winter in Zagreb. The city centre was decorated with Christmas lights and full of stands selling Christmas decorations, food, toys and tons of other things. This whole setup and decoration of the city centre for Christmas and New Year s Holidays is a new thing in Croatia that started a few years ago and it is called advent. So my and I managed to visit the Advent in Zagreb this year Travelling by train was fantastic warm, not crowded and with wonderful winter scenery on the other side of the windows. After 6 days of travelling, both my mom and I were happy to return to mom s nice and warm apartment in Vukovar 31