Croatia and Firenze

Pakistanis love Indians more than other Indians do. At least this was generally the case in Europe. Indians will overcharge, they know you are not in the habit of leaving tips, have no idea about European cuisine and are generally cheap customers. So, they welcome you with a frown at best. Pakistanis however, dish out discounts, hot & tasty biryani, warm smiles and their best Hindi possible. They tell you about the things to be wary of and the things to see. Probably, they try to make up for the hostilities shown by their chaps back in the sub-continent. I guess they do succeed to some extent. Sad, that they are not present in large numbers in Eastern Europe.

Zagreb was the most surprising city here. It is quiet, free of tourists, beautiful and full of cheap and tasty places to eat. There are no signs left of the war with Serbia that took place in early 90s. The place was friendly and safe. We went to Plitvice National Park region. Out tour driver looked like he might have fought when he was young. But if he was a soldier once, it looked like he has left that past long behind. He was nice, warm and friendly. He stopped en route to show us places and had an animated conversation with Rao and Amrendra, who were front seat passengers. Plitvice itself was amazingly beautiful. It looked like a terrain out of LOTR or The Hobbit. Rao actually thought that some of the scenes might have been shot here. 

We spent most of our time clicking pictures of every waterfall and lake. But they never seemed to end. The girls – Sherene and Shadin – got the best pictures among all of us, but I would attribute that to the fact that they are so naturally photogenic as opposed to the rest of us. I was as usual dazed, an experience similar to the one I had in Amsterdam. And as usual I was cracking PJs that I thought were genius, though I was yet to reach my pinnacle (or the deepest point in an endless abyss, whichever way you see it) – a feat I later achieved with my When-is Venice jokes. Overall the experience was legen – wait for it – dary.