The Prologue of the Summer Trip Memories

As I've promised, let's now start talking about my recent trip to Europe. But first, let me talk about something in particular that is of everyone's interest. And that will be the topic about NICI. Off all my trips to Europe, I always encountered NICI plushes, but that was Western Europe, where NICI is more popular.

Well, my trip this time paid visits to 'odd' countries for holiday, such as Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. As for NICI shops there, you can almost guess there's none of them. But these countries, except Bosnia, have imported NICI *according to NICI official site*. With a little hope, I've tried to find NICI plushes in every streets that I passed.

First encounter with NICI during the trip was in Slovenia. I was walking along Ljubljana street when I spotted some NICIs inside a bookstore. Sadly, it was closed due to a national holiday. :( And that's conclude my search for NICI in Slovenia.

The search continued in Croatia. I checked online that a company called Veljas is the one which imported NICI in Croatia. Sadly, I didn't manage to find any shops with NICIs inside nor any shops named Veljas. And I began to lose hope of finding NICI during my trip. But there's one surprise during my stay in Croatia. In Zagreb, just after lunch, I was crossing the street when I saw a NICI plush inside a parked car. It is a NICI Frog named Otto and the one I saw is the 20th Anniversary edition. Since I was in a hurry, I didn't manage to take a picture of it. :)

Okay, finally last place of hope, Serbia. Forget about Bosnia, the NICI official site already told me that no NICIs in Bosnia. And perhaps you can see why from my pics later on. Back to Serbia... I was just crossing the border between Bosnia and Serbia when the bus stopped at a petrol station. And guess what I found inside the shop...

I found a 25cm shirtless Goleo sold at a very cheap price of 720 Dinar (app. 7.2 Euro). Finally my first encounter with NICI. The trip continued to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. From the website, I knew there's a bookstore named Vulkan in Serbia that took NICI in. Fortunately, there is a big shopping centre named USCE near the hotel and it has bookstore Vulkan inside...

Vulkan Bookstore, USCE Shopping Centre 

NICIs inside Vulkan bookstore 

Polar bear keychain that I bought at 420 Dinar (app. 4.2 Euros)

I'm very happy with my NICI findings this time and didn't expect to find anymore NICIs on my flight home. But again, a pleasant surprise was waiting for me in Belgrade Airport..

The tax-free shop in Airport sells quite a lot of NICIs 

I bought these three little friends to complete my missing collection

of the Insect series, the Forest Friends series and the Toothies..

Talking about the price, the regular prices for NICI stuffs in Serbia are slightly higher than what's written in the tag. For example, a 15cm NICI plush would cost 9.95 Euro, but in Serbia it costs 1065 Dinar (around 10.65 Euro).

Yup, that's almost all from this post. But let me say one more thing. On my transit in Munich, I found another NICIs sold in Eurotrade shop. I didn't manage to take shot of the shop because the shopkeeper was watching. But, here's what I got from Munich...

And the highlight purchase from Munich is these 4 friends.. They look so cute with their big heads. :D

So, that's the end of the NICI hunting during this trip. Psst, for some of you who're still searching for Birthday Jolly, Munich Airport has two of them (no. 1818 and no. 2017). :)

Thank you for your patience in reading this long post.. :D The pictures from the trip will be up after this post. ;) Have a nice weekend everyone..