Finally the day was approaching. That awaited Friday, when we left Budapest to visit Hungary’s beautiful neighbor Croatia.

The trip was organized by ESN Obuda University and - like their events usually are - it was pretty amazing. We left at 6:00am and of course everybody was immediately falling asleep again in the bus that early in the morning. Around 12:00, when we crossed the border, we started to play some energizers, everybody clapped to “We will rock you”, followed by getting-to-know games. Students from all over the world, totally from 16 countries, were joining the trip, so it was really interesting and fun as well. Listening to music and dancing on the bus made the long journey as enjoyable as possible till we finally arrived in Zadar. After we checked in to our top notch hostel, we went straightly to the beach to chill, play some sports, smoke shisha, and swimming in the sea. It was great, this city is just awesome! After we had dinner a young, super friendly women showed us the city and told us about the interesting history of Zadar. After sightseeing we stopped by a bar and went to the pretty cool Ledana club later.

Saturday morning after breakfast we went to visit Plitvice. We arrived there at 11:00 and had time for whole day long to explore the magnificent national park. Plitvice Lakes National Park is a 295- sq.-km forest reserve in central Croatia. It's known for a chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Walkways and hiking trails wind around and across the water, and an electric boat links the 12 upper and 4 lower lakes. You seriously felt that you joined to that beautiful nature and you were part of it. It was so silent, clean and peaceful. We were walking, relaxing, and stunning totally amazed by the incredible beauty of this piece of earth. In some point hungry as possible, we made a great lunch break which forced us for the second part of the park. After walking for around 6 hours we had to leave this awesome park. It’s impossible to tell how amazing it was. When we arrived back to our hostel we had some rest and went to a really cool dinner place where we had a chance to try some traditional Croatian food - sooo delicious. Never forget the Ajvar if you’re ever eating in Croatia. Of course we didn’t finish our day here. We went to a nice bar and met the Erasmus students of Zadar, because ESN Zadar organized a party to us. It was so great to meet with them and you felt so much that the world is totally small: You go to a country like Croatia with your international friends and meet another bunch of people with again different nationalities, just in the city of Zadar. It was amazing! Sadly, at the end of the night, we had to say goodbye to that wonderful place. But the trip wasn’t finished yet.

On the way back home we stopped in the capital Zagreb and also here the local ESN group welcomed us very friendly and showed us the city. After discovering the lovely center we had an amazing last drink in a pub, before we had to leave Zagreb and Croatia. The trip was a great adventure that leaves us all with amazing memories! Thank you ESN Zadar, ESN Zagreb, and ESN Obuda University!

-Antonia Mittelbach /Erasmus student from Germany/