The Adventures of Josip & Melanie

We made our way by the ever reliable bus service to Josips grandparent’s house in Karlovac. When we got there we were still a little disappointed to see that there was no snow but it definitely was chilly. As usual our adventure in Karlovac always starts off with some food and hugs from family.

The next few days were spent helping baka prepare all the cakes and food for the upcoming Christmas celebrations. Jos spent most of his time collecting and gathering wood for the fire to keep us all warm. I was really enjoying our time here as it was a great change from the fast pace of London. I could not believe it was almost Xmas time once again it always comes around so fast. And this time instead of enjoying a BBQ in the sun we would be snuggled inside eating sarma and turkey.

The night before Christmas day is where all the grand children and their parents come over and get their presents from Baka and Dida. It is actually quite cute to watch Dida hides the present while the kids hold candles and search for their gifts in the hay. We then enjoyed a nice meal of fish and french salad which included a weird tradition of dipping a whole clove of raw garlic into honey and eating it. It actually tasted good and is meant to make you strong but I think it just gave us really bad breath. After that we were going to go to midnight mass but both felt unwell probably from all the cakes we scoffed combined with the whole garlic thing.

When we woke up on Christmas day there was still no snow. Dam I thought it would be like the movies you know the magical moment when you wake up to beautiful sight of snow falling but instead I just woke up with bad garlic breath. Well I was so happy to hear from both our families. I missed them all so much and was jealous that I would be missing out on sun and watching cute Charlotte open her gifts for her first Christmas. But I was still lucky that I was not in London and was here with some family.

We spent the day with Josips Uncle Steve’s, girlfriend’s family. We ate a feast of turkey, soup, french salad and all sorts of treats. But I still missed the bbq and all the nibbles. We also drank some wine to make us warm but instead I just spilt it all over my clothes and was left wearing Branimiras t-shirt and Steve’s baggy tracksuit pants. We had a great day but also got to use the internet, sad I know but I love my net. I booked some flights to Spain and France in May and June at cheap prices that was our Christmas present.

P.S. Wooohooo it finally snowed the day after Christmas!