croatia

In a new hostel tonight, in Ljubljana. This hoatel is amazing- great showers, free breakfasts, lockable drawers under the beds and nice furniture.

Anyway, back to Croatia. We arrived in Zagreb about 8am and weren't quite sure what to expect. We stepped out of the station amazed at the architecture and the parks everywhere. We didn't kniow what to expect, we hadn't even looked at a guide book, didn't know a word of the language or even know the exchange rate. So our first task once we got off the train was to determine a rough exchange rate. We tried the bottle of coke test, but couldn't work out whether coke was cheaper here or not. So we found the exchange rate by looking at prices in euros and in the local currency, kuna. 1 dollar is 4 kuna and 1 euro is 7 kuna. Things are a bit cheaper in Croatia, we had dinner for about AU$7.

We trudged to the youth hostel we had booked, about 15 nminutes away, but it seemed a lot longer because our bags were bloody heavy! After dumping our bags we set off and explored the city. It's not a very big city, and there are heaps of old buildings and beautiful churches etc. The streets aren't very straight, so it was great fun wandering around and ending up in completely different areas of the city. A lot of street sellers there sell things (meat, fruit, cheese etc) wrapped in pastry, which we tried- they are delicious.We went to the 'famous' Orient Express bar and cafe, which was not quite what we thought it would be. It had the atmosphere of the train, but for some reason was full of pictures of Croatian tennis players... still not sure why.

Although we expected to be unable to chat to people in English, we forgot how hard it is when you don't speak the language. In shops we were reduced to pointing and holding up fingers to show how many of the item we wanted, choosing food was a bit of a lucky dip (which was fun in itself) and we got lost very easily. But that was all part of the fun being somewhere so foreign.

We wandered round, sat in the park for a while and had a look at a great archealogical museum which has findings from the Roman Empire. After that we went back to the hostel for a bit of a snooze and decided to set off for these markets we had heard about after that. Unfortunately, we couldn't find them, and when we made it to the tourist office, we found out they were closed, so decied to set off to the cemetery. After a long walk we got hopelessly lost and wandered around for an hour or so in the suburbs of Zagreb trying to find the cemetery. We never found it, it was so hot we decided to head back, but we got to see a great bit of the Croatian lifestyle, looking at the suburbs of Zagreb! There is a lot of graffiti around and there was an impression of a lack of wealth. Perhaps not poverty as such, but it was clear that people were not as well off as Germany, where we had just come from.

We came back to the hostel and decided to have a Croatian dinner, so we went to a restaurant and pointed at randon items on the menu. We ended up with calamari and chips! We also got a great salad, with beans and potato and onions.

We both decided we'd head back to the hostel for an early night, after little sleep the night before. However, we met three guys travelling together who were heading to Split (on the coast) on the night train (the Croatian coastline and islands are apparently gorgeous and most tourists go there). They were going for a drink before they left so we decided to join them and went to this beautiful bar. It's in this gorgeous park, with outside seating and was so nice on a hot night. The guys were from South Africa, England and Germany and we had a drink with them as they left to catch the train. It was a nice night.

This morning we decided to go to the archaeological park we heard about in the museum. This didn't end up happening, but we had just as much fun trying to find it! We walked to where we thought the bus left from, then got sent elsewhere, then back to where we started, chatting with varying levels of success to the locals as we went. Sitting on the cool steps at the train station, we decided to ask one more person before we gave up. We asked the next person who came and he was so excited that we spoke English he missed his train and spent an hour and a half chatting to us, teaching us Croatian and learning English (his was actually really good, so there wasn't much we could teach him). He told us he was born in 'that other place. but we don't talk about that' (Serbia) but was Croatian. It was interesting to hear from him about something I knew little about, but he said that Croatian and Serbian men get along better now than they used to. So in the end we didn't make it to the park, but said goodbye to him and jumped on the train to Ljubljana.

We didn't have our own carriage this time, but shared it with an elderly Bosnian, who spoke german to us. We had a great conversation, with Kat translating the whole time. It's a 14 hour journey by train from Bosnia to Croatia, but he worked in Germany and his (recently deceased) wife live in Bosnia and so he did the journey several times a year.

We arrive in Ljubljana at about 4 this afternoon and were immediately surprised at the wealth of the place compared to Zagreb. Where Zagreb had old buildings, they were often a bit dirty or had graffiti on them. The buildings here are sparkling, well maintained and the streets are wide and clean. The hostel is great and not far from town.

After a shower we teamed up with another Aussie girl and went for a wander round the city. The lifestyle here (in the summer) seems great- lots of outdoor cafes (Bear-all of them seem to have new decks). We found a square where what seemed to be a police orchestra was playing, crowded with outdoor tables. We walked up to the castle for a great view over the city and caught the funicular railway down the hill again. By this time we were hungry, so we stoppped for dinner at an outdoor pizzeria overlooking the river. There were heaps of Slovenians out enjoying the weather so it was a great night.

Must head off to bed soon. Tomorrow we have decided to catch the train to see some caves in the country. Then I am flying to Amsterdam tomorrow night, and meeting up with Ros and Boz in Den Bosch for their hockey tour to Holland, to which I have been invited! Will update when I can.

Anneke

PS: Dad, little sign of war in Zagreb. There was a museum about Croatian history, but I didn't make it there.