They Say it's your Birthday...We're Gonna Have a Good Time!

Saturday was Tomislav's Birthday! Unfortunately, I've been sick as a dog the past few days and it's been really awful but it was still wonderful to be with Tomislav on his birthday.  I wish I could have celebrated it a bit more but we'll just have to celebrate it some more later. He's the absolute greatest, happy birthday babe :)

 Our great friend Ivana (see below, in the middle!) made this AWESOME cake for Tomislav! It was soooooooo nice of her and was so beautiful! It even had a (more enhanced ;)) version of me popping out of the cake! Thank you Ivana!

 Sarah, Ivana, and red-nosed me :)

 

 The cake :) Complete with clovers and everything!

 My St. Patrick's Day baby cutting his cake :)

I think they like it!

 

Onto other birthday news, I am so excited to say welcome baby Filip to the world!!!! I am so proud and excited because Tomislav's wonderful cousin, Dubravka and her husband Nikola welcomed their beautiful baby boy this morning. The whole family is doing great and I couldn't be happier for the new addition to the family. I like to consider myself Teta Nikki already :)

So for Tomislav and baby Filip, this one is for you!

Happy Birthday Dominika!

Wish I could be there to celebrate with you today!

Instead, I'm thinking of you and am teaching my students how to write/spell/say your name ♥

Thank you to my awesome parents for giving life to my best fwiend in the whole world!

Hope you and your hubby have a wonderful day!

Celebrate as much as we did this past New Year's Eve!

I love you sissy!

The OTHER Big Holiday in February

Do you know what it is? In Croatia, it's, surprisingly, very widely celebrated! It's Bob Marley's Birthday! February 6th, 1945 was the day this reggae poet was born. During this snowed in weekend, I read his biography by Calvin Craig Miller. Not only was Marley a singer/songwriter, musician, husband, father, and political activist, he was also a supremely religious being. He is credited for helping to spread the Rastafari movement to a worldwide audience.

“Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.” -Bob Marley

Marley’s music was heavily influenced by the social issues of his homeland, Jamaica, and he is considered to have given voice to the specific political and cultural nexus of his country.

I found his biography very interesting, especially reading about his views on his children and many girlfriends he had (although he was married). I love reggae music and there's nothing better to me then relaxing to some of Marley's tunes. It's amazing to listen behind the music and see how heavily influenced he was in enforcing peace among the Jamaican people. I love the way he described when he first recorded music (with his good friends Bunny and Peter, who made up the original Wailers) and it was played through the loudspeakers of a car driving around, or from a shop's windows. His music literally stopped gang violence because a sense of peace and calm came over the people in the streets when they heard his melodies.

I absolutely loved seeing and being reminded of how big it was back in the 1970's to have great album artwork for the large vinyl records. I love the clever cover art for the Wailers' first major label release for "Catch a Fire" (which had hits like "Stir it Up," "Rock it Baby," and "Stop that Train" on it)

The first 20,000 copies of the original 1973 vinyl release, designed by graphical artists Rod Dyer and Bob Weiner, were encased in a sleeve depicting a Zippo lighter. The sleeve functioned like a real Zippo lighter case, opening at a side hinge to reveal the record within.

So, Happy Birthday to Mr. Nesta Robert Marley! Thanks to him and the Wailers for so much great music and positive inspiration around the world. Leaving me with this great motto (which I definitely have been applying to our wedding planning):

"Don't worry about a thing,

'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."

Happy Birthday Pistol Pete!

Wishing my amazingly funny, wonderful, energetic Dad the best birthday ever!

How to Romance a Girl on her Birthday

in Zagreb...of course!

Step 1: Get her a thoughtful present. It doesn't need to cost a lot, it tends to be even more thoughtful if you make it yourself. (for example, I've made Tomislav a scrapbook filled with our e-mails, pictures, and sentimental souvenirs, or he's made me a photobook) In this case, T got me tickets for Dinamo Zagreb vs. Ajax and Dinamo vs. Lyon...Champions League!! Yes!!!

Step 2: Take her to the Botanical Garden. If you're from Zagreb, you probably went there as a kid and haven't thought twice about it since then, but trust me, it's so beautiful and peaceful there, it's the perfect place to go for a stroll. It's also a good opportunity to have a funny impromptu photo shoot with your love. 

Step 3: If her birthday is this week, you're in luck because it's "Restoran Tjedan" aka Restaurant Week in Zagreb! There are soooooo many options, and I'm extremely grateful that my romantic fiance chose Žlica & Vilica for us to go to. The name means Spoon & Fork, which I thought was adorable when I heard it. It's located close enough to center city that you feel like you're in the heart of it all, but not directly there, so you can still find parking. It's very close to the Zagreb Mosque (which is no longer a Mosque, but actually a museum now), which is a really cute area to take a stroll through. Let me just tell you, Žlica & Vilica are NOT MESSING AROUND with their restaurant week menu. It is OFF THE CHARTS! There is such a variety of options for each course, and I'm so glad Tomi and I chose the ones we did. If you have the opportunity to visit this restaurant, you have to try the chickpea salad and the duck breast, no question about it! The duck was cooked so perfectly, and had the most delicious reduced balsamic sauce ever. We literally sopped up the sauce with bread just so we could have some more of it. The grilled salmon was excellent, and Tomi surprised me at the end of the meal:

Oh yeah, and the best part of it all? 3 course meal for 100 kunas. It doesn't get better than that! Hopefully restaurant week will allow more Croats to enjoy eating out more and they'll become the foodie city that they are meant to be!

Step 4: Finally, to top the night off, ending the night on the other side of the city at Hotel Antonovic's Vertigo Bar is the thing to do. This bar is certainly like no other than I have ever been to. It's located on the top floor of the hotel and the first thing you'll notice is the amazing 360 degree view, since the walls aren't actually walls but windows everywhere. The next thing you'll notice, is that you can actually feel the earth spinning...well, maybe not the earth, but the bar is spinning! Vertigo Bar rotates so that in the time it takes you to finish one cocktail, you'll see the all of the possible views of the city. Prekrasno!