Weekend trip up north

After soaking in rain for a week in Zagreb, we decided to head a few hours north to Varaždin, near the Hungarian and Slovenian borders, for the weekend.  The bus was a little slow because it takes the back roads and makes several stops in little villages, but was modern and comfortable.  The route passes through beautiful, densely wooded countryside, dotted with tiny villages.  After passing over several lines of low hills, the bus decended into the flat countryside of the borderlands, a patchwork of forest and small farms.  

Varaždin is a beautiful, quiet Baroque town- quite a change from a week in Zagreb. This was a good day. We went out to put some candles on the grandparent's graves. The cemetery is actually a pretty pleasant place, more like a formal garden with high hedges separating the rows of graves. In the afternoon we went to some friends house to see the new baby. It was nice to get to talk with some other Croatians, I hadn't met many people who spoke English yet. By the end of the day I knew a lot more about Croatian politics, how people viewed the U.S., and different perspectives on the war and Croatian history.

I could already tell that 2 days in Varaždin wasn't going to be enough...