The start of an adventure of a life time …
11:00 pm Pakistan time on Saturday, September 11, 2010.
Check in at Karachi airport: excess baggage, the guy at the counter says pay Rs 18,000 and I’m like are you mad … 
… then the porter dude takes me to the side and says madame how much money do you have, ‘aap kahein tu in se baat karloon’ .. i’m like ok … hand him Rs 3000 … he gets our baggage checked in and i hand over Rs 300 to him … he grins and says madame koi masla tu nahin, bas hamara maqsad hai logon ka kam asani se hojaye …
but apparently the check in guy got last laughs, he gave us seats right in front of the emergency exit … so yeah the seats didn’t recline and it was terrible sleeping with straight seats for the next six hours … but what impressed me was that the flight left the airport on the dot at 3:05 am as scheduled, unlike pia or even emirates for that matter. so 9:00 am PST am at the Istanbul Ataturk Havalimani completely tired, and sleepy … cut out the next 6 hours waiting for my connecting flight … and finally after an hour delay due to some awesome rain .. we finally got on our way to Zagreb … so its 1:00 PM Turkey time or 3:00 pm PST now.
during the delay in departure and the thunder and lightning before rain, met Cynthia from California .. who was shit scared of thunder cause they dont have rain in California … but had fun hangin out with her, and teasing her about the rain … and how the plane wouldn’t fly till it stopped …. and man she got worked up, it was so funny …
then we had a nurse sitting next to us in the plane … us being me and Noora, my classmate with me … she was from Croatia, but lived in Palestine with her husband whom she met at university .. .. and she says to us, “I am Croatian but let me tell you, I wouldn’t recommend you to go there …. you must take care of yourself, boys will be boys you know … ” .. at which I said to Noora, you know my mom almost said the same thing in not such an explicit way ,.. 
so at the Zagreb airport at the entry we run into Cynthia again and then shes like she wants to grab a camera and chase us around for four months cause we look like we’re going to be doing some funny shit … then she asked us to get a picture taken with her …. the immigration counter was so slow, we were the last to get our clearance and by the time we were done, everyone had left and only our luggage was travelling on the carousel … so grabbed the luggage and realized our suitcases were wet due to the rain in Turkey …
finally got everything and headed off out side .. got the shuttle bus to take us to the central bus terminal … now keeping it simple, I asked Noora to lets take a taxi, but Noora wanting to be economical and take the tram … so after asking around several people, getting lost of maps that dint make sense, run in with a drunk Croatian man who insisted on helping the ladies but couldn’t make sense of the maps himself … go figure .. .. i finally told Noora, am in no mood of spending more time here, lets get a cab and leave … so we get a cab, show him the address cause I can’t pronounce it … and finally home …
So welcomed by our landlord, Miroslav Ozmec and his wife Zuhra Ozmec and their son Miroslav Ozmec (who has the same name as his father ) …. and they were so excited they gave us a tour of the apartment, got our paper work started and even took the advance rent … so its about 6:00 pm Croatian time or 9:30 pm Pakistan time when we are finally done … and completely ready to drop …. ..
but took another two hours to unpack and settle in and finally go to sleep … now its like 11:30 pm Pakistan time (8:30 pm Croatia) and my bed time, and I been up for exactly 41 hours on account of Eid and Travelling .. so slept like theres no tomorrow … except woke up at 12:00 am when our third apartment mate Aurore came back home and then exactly at 5:00 am Croatia ( which is 8:00 am PST – so the dog inside me doesn’t let me sleep beyond then as usual) .. took me another hour to get back to sleep … and was up again at 7:00 cause had to leave with my landlord Miro and his son Miro to go to the police station ,…
The ozmec’s are extremely helpful in terms of getting things done, helping us with paper work and translation and things … and of course Miro Ozmec Senior lent us his cellphone, used his disability card (Croatians are big on letting disabled people ahead in line for official work), helped us buy electronic equipment and wouldn’t let us pick stuff cause we are girls while Miro Ozmec Junior spent time asking about Pakistan, population and ease of alcohol and cigarette use.
Zagreb is an “ulta” city completely .. at least for me .. from everything like driving on the other side of the street to the left hand drive cars, to the light switches that turn on when up and off when pressed down … to the fact that there are more women than men in this town and all officials in police station, insurance office and bank were women … with like two exceptions …. and most of the men. dunno if they were Croats or tourists just hanging out at caffe bars that open from 8:00 am in the morning …
but the tourist scene is awesome, school is like 5 minute walk from home … and the apartment is on a hill … the weather is good, almost like Nathiagali … I love the place and the weather … went grocery shopping today and made myself tomato sandwiches, which were like first food after my eid dinner at home almost two days ago … so good experience … and figuring out the classes scene now 
