Croatia

Zagreb 

Zagreb's population is only around 1.5 million so it is not a huge city but it is a very beautiful city as it has so much history from religion and ownership battles.  

Tesla

Nikolai Tesla is the most famous guy who is commemorated around the city with statues, streets and bars named after him. He invented electricity which has to be of life's greatest inventions I'd say. There is a debate as to whether he is Serbian or Croatian but Croatia is definitely proud of him. Tesla the bar is pretty swanky and worth a visit. 

One thing to note are that Croatians are pretty hot! There are a mix of looks but when walking around you can see people make an effort. 

Turbo folk is what the locals are into and most standard nights are this type of music. Guys will be macho and girls very dressed up. The Croatians like to look like they have money even if they don't my local friend tells me. 

It is very Catholic so it is quite traditional in a lot of ways. 

The going out street is called: xxx. You get a lot of restaurants here and you can have a beer as people parade up and down what looks like a bit of a catwalk! 

You need to go to the Museum of Broken Relationships as it is such a cool concept, they display stories of relationships and momentos from each story. The exhibition has travelled the world but is based on Zagreb. There is also a cool view of the city and you can see the St Mark's church with it's cool titled roof. 

Highlights: 

Cafe Velvet is nice and once you've had a nice coffee and fancy cake if you walk up towards the wooded area you will see how the other side live and the presidents house is up there. There is a nice walk that takes you to the posh side of the city.

Masters

This is an awesome underground techno club where Croatian techno DJs play. It's a cool hang out. 

The architecture

My friend is super smart so gave me the history and type of architecture of most types of building. 

Other stuff....

Visit Split and Hvar, go on a speed boat and snorkle in the gorgeous sea 

Dimensions Festival in Pula. 

Mandalay

Moon lit Ayeyarwady

This city is awesome. We arrived by boat from Bagan along the River Ayeyarwady (irrawady) where we set off before sunrise meaning we were traveling by moonlight.

Sun rise over the river Ayeyarwady

The journey is around 6 hours but very calm. You don't get fed that well though so I would take extra food.

We seemed to meet travellers over 60 most of the times but I think this will change with time.

We experienced sunrise which is always special but a bit more so on a boat along the calm River Ayeyarwady in Myanmar.

I left my hoodie on the boat and when I went back for it the next day they still had it which is comforting when away from home. The locals seem friendly and out to help.

Highlights:

Meeting 'Joe' our friendly local driver. He had named himself Joe after American tourists found it hard to pronounce his name. Joe is a dad to 6 kids!

He was such a great driver, he took us to the important places, told us history and local stories about fat and thin hotel owning sisters from China, transvestites, The British and all sorts of other funny things.

This city was such a mix of nationalities and religions and had a really buzzing vibe. This might have been our favourite place. This used to be the capital city so explains why there is so much going on. It's isn't huge though so not over whelming.

You could sit in an outdoor street food place and get fresh chapatis and daal for 20p. The prices are still pretty low and local don't seem to want to add tourist tax too much yet but it may change in the coming years.  We felt very happy here and should have spent longer. We were only here 1-2 days and could have seen more if we'd had time.  You can catch Joe at the cafe where lonely plant tells you to go. The streets are on a grid systems so you can find him between 25th and 82nd street.

Joe of Mandalay

            

Joe took us all over to see all the different crafts including stone Buddha making. It's supposed to the biggest Buddha making area in the country. There was also a lot of weaving and we also went to visit a fully functioning monastery. 

Sabina chilling with 'Joe'

Legohead Bhudda 

Advertising is minimal so far in Myanmar, which was probably more refreshing than you know, but Dove does appear everywhere which made me laugh as I had just left a huge Dove advertising project before the trip. The brand had followed me!

Dove on banners but not digital

Nice designs in the Monastery 

These comedians were imprisioned for mocking the government, just shows how censored and tightly run the country was