Old Croatian ladies are scary

So I headed south today to try and find the Croatian Heritage Centre. I am meeting the staff and other students there tomorrow night and wanted to work out where it was in advance.

I knew it was behind the train station somewhere but when I ran past the station this morning (hurrah, I know now where the station is!) I could not for the life of me see any way around it. Not without running across the tracks and this did not appeal. I asked my aunt (who is, incidentally, an absolute ray of sunshine) and she told me there was an underpass maybe 100 metres from the station. She told me then that it might be 100 metres, or more or less, but she doesn't really work in distances and did not actually know how far it was. I told her I don't work in distances either, so it wouldn't help even if she knew how many metres from the station it was. She told me to go through this underpass and after that would be a bus station, then Trg Stjepana Radica. The square with the Heritage Centre in it.

I found the underpass fairly easily, and it wasn't how I expected. I thought it might be dingy and covered in graffiti, but no. Bright sparkly lights, reminiscent of fairies, and posh shops. Including a Kras shop - yummy Croatian choccies. :-)

Anyway, I got to the other side and passed through the bus station and just could not see where this square might be. I spotted an old lady with shopping bags, so I stopped her. "Oprostite Gospoda." I thought this would be polite enough. I told her which square I was looking for. She told me to go back the way I had come and go through the underpass and it would be on my right. I knew this was not correct and told her it was on this side of the underpass. She looked at me as if I was five years old and told me to go straight on. She told me she could not walk as fast as me so I should go on ahead. I went ahead. I stopped to check my map and this fierce voice shouted from behind me "Ravno i desno!" Straight on and right. I was far too scared of her ferocity to stop walking so I walked as quickly as I could and then turned left before the underpass and hid from her until she'd passed, then I went back to where I'd found her.

I decided to walk a little further and suddenly, in front of me, was what I had been looking for all along. I'd just stopped too soon. I'd lost faith in myself. That scary woman had been standing in the square when I'd asked her where it was. Hm. Shan't be asking old ladies for directions anymore, that's for sure.

Adventure over so, having found my prize, I headed home, buying dark chocolate and hazelnuts on the way. Yummy.