It may be flattery, but when I pulled the car into the “garage” last night in Sarajevo, our hostess said I was an excellent driver, and that she had had guests struggle with smaller cars. When I pulled the car out of the garage this morning, the morning-shift hostess said I was an excellent driver. I’ll take it.

We met an interesting couple from the US at breakfast; they were both college professors. One taught folk tales and one taught American literature. We got along quite well and talked for much of breakfast. We like meeting other couples at B and Bs – they tend to be fun people with engaging stories.

We headed out of Sarajevo, aided by my sometimes-trusty GPS. This time it worked flawlessly. We still had some Bosnian currency left, so at the first pit stop, we bought a rather large Milka candy bar for later. As we got closer to the border, we started looking for a lunch break. I decided on a restaurant that was painted in funky purple and pink colors. Mer asked me why I chose that restaurant, and I said it was due to the large number of trucks in the driveway. Truckers know how to eat. So did we – we got enormous helpings of a Bosnian ground meat specialty, stuffed into a bread shell, all for about nine dollars total. That still left a little money, so yet another Milka was bought. I foresee some temperance required on the food front when we get home.

We got the car back to the Zagreb, Croatia airport without incident, and we grabbed the bus into the city. Then, we got onto a tram, and took a short walk back to the same hostel we were in about two weeks ago. That seemed a bit surreal to walk back into the same room – we have done an awful lot of things since that Sunday.

After we got settled, we headed up into the hill above the main old town square, near the colorfully-tiled church in the upper square. There, we visited the Museum of Broken Relationships, which is a small museum displaying mementos sent in by people whose relationship with another person had ended, and they gave the story of the item as well. The relationships were usually lovers, but a few were about parents or children who had died or broken off contact for some reason. The museum was tastefully done, with exhibits in Croatian and in English. It was thought-provoking and fairly sad. There was a lot of pain on display in there – some very short (one day) relationships and some long (twenty years or more), but almost all of them expressed anger or regret of some sort. I left the museum very, very glad that I have a happy and fulfilling relationship with someone I like as well as love.

We wandered past the colorfully-roofed church on our way to supper, when we heard music. We wandered over to investigate, just in time to see a bride and groom get into a car together. That was fun, but it was also pretty fun to see a large group of Croatians all dressed up – they were pretty classy, on the whole.

We made our way down to the main food area, which was very lively on this Friday night. We settled on a burger joint, where many cultures collided. We were on a busy street in Zagreb, at a burger joint, eating a burger with Italian-style toppings (olive oil and parmesan), listening to live Irish music from some street musicians, while talking to a young couple from Oregon. As one does.

After supper, we strolled in the lovely twilight air, heading over to the cathedral to see it in fine weather, since it was about to rain last time we were here. We walked down to the main square, where we stumbled across two young men playing violins very well. We ended our evening in our B and B’s courtyard, happily munching on a Milka while chatting about our trip. We leave Zagreb tomorrow, and I am starting to miss home. I find living out of a suitcase and moving every two days to be a bit wearing. But I know I will miss this part of the world. We have had a wonderful time and met lots of pretty great people. Well done, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, and a tiny sliver of Italy!