Day 1 – Tuesday 2nd of July (annoyingly 2 days after Croatia joined the EU so no stamp on passport!)
The flight out of Newcastle was at 6:15am so had an early start to get to the airport on time (4am) but thanks to an upgrade was let into the BA Business Lounge, a little early to take advantage of the free booze but the coffee was very welcome and bumped into Robson Green (on his way to Wimbledon apparently). First flight was a bit of a blur due to still being half asleep – the second one was a bit more of a raucous affair thanks to half a plane load of boozed up young London boys and girls on their way to a music festival – I think they’d already had a skinfull at the airport but they kept drinking on the journey and got loader and louder much to the irritation of the rest of the passengers and crew.
In one of those perfect bits of timing both of the loos at the back of the plane packed up leading to a large queue of party goers forming along the isle – made more amusing when we were held up for landing by the Croatian airforce doing some sort of exercise on the main runway. The festivelers continued to cause mayhem at the airport and did the reputation of brits abroad no good at all when one of them fell over and bashed his head on the baggage carousel – luckily for him he was so drunk he didn’t seem to feel a thing!
The journey from Zagreb to Reijka was pretty uncomfortable but we made it in 3 hours and I got the feeling back in my legs after about 30 minutes. Hotel was very nice but accidentally completed challenge number 1 again when the deputy manager decided to let herself into my room just I was I was getting out of the shower – much embarrassment all round!
Wednesday 3rd
The meeting/review lasted from 8 till 6 and I was last up to give a presentation so had the full time to fuss over my slides. My presentation went well though and was given the provisional thumbs up by the Commission representatives. Was hoping to have a little time off in the evening to see the town but we were whisked straight off to go for diner – as it turned out this was on a boat – the food was a little basic but the chef spent much of the time out on deck playing an accordion with the captain singing an accompaniment from the bridge – the drinks provided were, well……. Lets just say they had a lot of flavour!
We had some wonderful views as we cruised down the coast and were let off for 30 minutes while something (not sure what) was being done to the boat used this opportunity to pop into a local bar and find something a little more palatable. The cruise back to the hotel took a while so it was 1am when we made back – a little tipsy.
our chef/musician
Professor Rich Dawson "enjoying" the local wine
Thursday 4th
Was woken up by the maid letting herself into my room – this happened to others at the meeting also. It was off to more meetings until 3:30 but we got the afternoon to have a bit of a look at our surroundings – the town was very nice and felt a bit Italian (understandable given how close we were to the border) it was very hot and many people weren’t wearing very much – there’s a time and a place for speedos – its in Olympic swimming competitions – not major shopping streets!!
a bit later on - when everyone had put theur clothes back on
The organisers had invited those that were flying back the following day for another meal out this time in a restaurant overlooking the town – with instructions to meet in a nearby castle. Had a lovely meal and got to know some of the EU people a bit better. Lots of national stereotypes came out and were being made fun of – this included me and Rich being criticised for trying to change the funding rules but my personal favourite was when the greek representative phoned up the French organiser (Theirry) to say he was at the entrance but he couldn’t pay for his taxi as he didn’t have any of the local currency, at which point Thierry asked a chap called Ernst to go to the entrance and pay for the cab – then picked the phone up and said “don’t worry, I’m sending the Germans to bail you out”
view from the terrace in the first bar
Friday 5th
Another early start and a near sense of humour failure in Zagreb airport (nice staff but bit of a shambles). The journey home took about 10 hours and was knackered when I got home. To be fair I didn’t see a lot of Croatia but I got a bit of a taste of it and it was my first trip to the region – wouldn’t be the sort of place I’d go on holiday (not really a coast/sunbathing sort of person) but enjoyed having a few days there.
