For those of you that don't know where Zagreb is, it is the capital city of Croatia. For those of you that don't know where Croatia is, it was once a part of the former Yugoslavia. For those of you who don't know where that is - seriously, it's better to just Google it. How did I come to know someone in Croatia? Honestly I don't really remember. For a while I was really into online pen-pals, so it might have been through a pen-pal site...I'm not sure. But, I had been talking to this guy for years online (as a friend...I was married to my first husband at this time), and we had some pretty deep conversations and some other conversations about Star Trek and dork stuff. Essentially we got along as friends because of a common geek-bond. After I got divorced I wanted to do something I hadn't been able to do while married. I guess to prove that I could get by all by myself. I was in my early 20s but I wasn't big on partying or bars or anything, so I decided to travel.
Why did I choose Croatia? The answer was simple. All I had to pay for was the round trip ticket. My Croatian friend said he had an extra room I could stay in, so I wouldn't have to worry about a hotel or anything. He would show me around Zagreb, so I wouldn't have to worry about being alone or lost in a strange city. At this point you are all probably thinking that this was an extremely bad idea. A single young female going to a foreign country to visit someone she only knew via the internet. You're right. It was a bad idea, but I saw it as an adventure and jumped at the opportunity. I wasn't really worried about the Croatian dude taking advantage of me because after all, I had been talking to him regularly for three years and I felt I knew him. To save you any worries at reading this story further - he behaved himself and was as uncomfortable around me as any geek-dude would be.
To say that I had ruled out a little international romance would be a lie. I had decided to meet him in person to determine if he might be boyfriend material at some point. He had sent me a picture, but it wasn't clear (that wasn't a warning sign for me? Boy was I naive). And, he had told me how tall he was...seven freaking feet. But you don't really realize how freakishly tall that is until you see someone in person. I remember my first thought when I was in the baggage claim area of the Zagreb airport and saw him waiting for me. I thought, "oh shit, can I possibly schedule a flight back right now without him noticing me?".
He wasn't just tall, he was freakishly tall. He was also a hunchback and ugly as sin. I ruled out the boyfriend idea then and there. There are no words to describe how ugly he was. A sound would be more appropriate - the sound of someone vomiting violently. Let me try to describe him anyway. He had thick glasses, but even behind those I could tell that his eyes were not level with one another and not the same size. He had a huge nose that looked like it had been broken at some point, but it probably hadn't been. He had a receding hairline, but attempted to make up for it by growing his hair really long in the back. This hair was also thinning and looked like the hair one might find on the crypt-keeper, if that helps you visualize it any better. He had a very long face and bad teeth, and you can't even say that he had a good complexion...because he didn't. Also, as I have mentioned already, he was a hunchback. I suppose you don't get to be seven feet tall without having to look down on people all the time, but again, this was something I hadn't thought out beforehand. He brought a friend with him who was actually cute - and by cute I mean normal looking. Why couldn't that be the guy I was coming to visit?
I know internet readers have short attention spans so I'll keep it short and post the narrative of the rest of my trip later.
To be continued.....
1 comment:
Haha! You certainly got a sense of adventure, ma'am! Ordinarily I'd say a shared interest in Star Trek was a sound basis for a relationship, but your friend sounds a better match for a Klingon babe.
Post a Comment