Checkout was early for us, but really early for the Taylor clan. Their flight back home via Frankfurt left at 6am so we said our goodbyes last night. It’s hard to imagine/remember how tough that day would be like for them, with a 6 hour layover in Frankfurt and two little ones in tow. Yikes.
We left the oasis at 10 with Papa and Blair and decided to revisit Cavtat for the third straight day. We walked around then had an early lunch before heading off to the airport.
The World Cup final between Croatia and France was going to be at 8pm but they had moved the game up to 5pm to accommodate some of the Asian market. That now meant that we would be hard pressed to see the game as our flight was scheduled to land in Vienna at 430.
We ended up getting in to Vienna on a late, somewhat exasperating flight (waiting on a bus on the tarmac before boarding for 20 minutes as just one example) at around 530, just in time to hear that Croatia was already down 1-0. As we rolled out to the taxi stand, there was a roar from the airport restaurants as Croatia tied it up.
In the taxi, they went down 2-1 on a penalty kick. We checked in then practically ran to find a place to watch the game that had a bit of a crowd. We ended up at an Austrian chain pub called Centimetre, watching the game with a 50/50 split crowd (Robin and I were clearly rooting for Croatia as we were sporting our jerseys....lol). It didn’t take too long for France to put the game out of hand as we enjoyed some Austrian beer and an appetizer. Too bad - it would have been nuts in Croatia had they won. I think we will have a piece of our heart attached to that team in future World Cups!
As we were settling up our tab, a man strode up to me and mumbled something in Parisian French and stuck out his hand... so I shook it as he said “felicitations!”. I even managed a curt, though respectful “merci”. Too funny.
Croatia was an amazing leg of the trip. The food was mostly good, sometimes great, the beer was pretty damn good, the sites and sounds were incredible but what really made the place a great Country to travel in was the people. The Croatians we met and intersected with reminded me of George, my aluminum guy - salt of the earth, hard working, direct but honest, over the top helpful and possessing a great sense of humour. As Beth often says, “there’s a lot of countries to see in the world” but I have no doubt I will make some excuse to go back there some day.
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