Why I Love Croatia: Introduction

This past weekend was my program's five day break. Most people go to Italy. Some cross the Channel. The few that miss the memo explaining Spain is for the 4-day and Italy is for the 5-day go to Barcelona. And then there's me. (I've been told that if I were I river I'd be the Nile, because I flow in the opposite direction of everyone else...)

Planning for these five days with my bros Danbot and K-Fed started with this question: where is the strangest place we could possibly, feasibly go? Our answer? Croatia. Sounds good. Stay in the capital city, see some sights, maybe set out on a day trip to see waterfalls in a national park, the like. But after awhile that started to sound a little too normal. More days in the park? All the days in the park? Camping in the park? Camping in the unmarked and unprotected woodlands alongside the park, BearGryllsing it in the wilderness for three days? Bingo. Interlaken was going to be an Epcot village compared to this.

Our preparations included a lot of logistical work to get us from Metz to Zadar and eventually to the Plitvice Lakes National Park region, a lot of list making, a lot of supply shopping, and a lot of hair cutting. The boys wanted some fresh cuts before going extended periods of time without showering, so I stepped up to the challenge and turned a dorm room into a de facto barber shop. The cuts might not have been perfect [read: the cuts were borderline awful]. The hair was shorter, though, which is really what it all comes down to, right? Right? It's nerve-wracking to cut the hair of people that you're going to be trusting to keep you alive in the Croatian wilderness.

Once hair was cut, bags were packed, and hammocks and Twix were bought, we were ready to begin our trek. What happened from there? oh. so. much. In an attempt to tell the full story of this adventure, I've enlisted the help of my Broatians to take the blagosphere by storm and deliver my first ever blog series and guest bloggers - at the same time. Woah, dang. And so begins "Why I Love Croatia: Three Essays by Three BAs".