Zagreb
The rain had started while we were waiting on our train from Ljubljana, and it wasnt going to stop just because we had arrived in Zagreb, we hadnt booked accomodation as the other places weve been to either had reps at the stations or a tourist info place that would help you out, so we pulled the rucksacks on our backs ad wandered down to the tourist information office that was marked on the map in the lonely planet guide, but it was shut. Turns out everything shuts at lunchtime on a Saturday in Zagreb, so we were a bit peeved and soggy and it wasnt a great start to our visit to the Croatian capital, especially after the toilet attendant in the train station had grunted at both of us to welcome us to the city. So we had a look in the guide book and it recommended a hotel that was about four streets away, we were wet and miserable but we decided to walk it (didnt really have many other options). We headed off and the street it was on was about a mile long and kind of like a bigger version of Kirkcaldy high street, the fecking hotel/hostel place was at the very end of it and we got there exhausted, only to be told by the less than friendly receptionist that it was full. Pants.
We stood about for a bit outside the place while we waited on a particulalry heavy rain storm to pass over and then went back along the street searching for various places on the way, all of them were full or didnt exist where the guidebook said they should. Those big rucksacks are heavy at the best of times and combining them with rain and very long walks isnt a recipe for happy Mark and Linseys. We eventually saw an internet cafe and went in to see if we could find accomodation on the lonely planet website which has been pretty handy so far on this trip. If we couldnt get anywhere we decided we would just jump on a night train to the next destination (Budapest) instead. There wasnt much available online, but a Canadian guy who worked in Zagreb who was in the cafe overheard us and recommended a hotel which was about 40 metres from the station, we went and managed to get a room there, and we were very very very relieved.
We dropped our stuff of in the room and had a rest for ten minutes, got the giggles and checked out some of the local tv, which was mainly about farms.
Right, so we tried to put our first impressions of Zagreb behind us, mainly because they were caused by our failing to book a place in advance and we headed out in to the town to have a look around and get some food. It was still lashing down though, and after the 4 weeks of perfect sunny weather we had already enjoyed, it was hard to appreciate the place much. We walked down past a massive square with impressive gardens and fountains and then into town where we decided to use the guidebook to find a restaurant. It actually existed and we headed in straight away cos we were starved and knackered and in need of good feeding. We went through to the main restaurant bit and there was some sort of Croatian function going on next door which involved lots of people dancing to the birdy song and Zorba the Greek`s theme. We could see them a bit through one of the windows and it looked like they were having a great time... meanwhile we were browsing the menu, taking care not to order anything that might contain horse. They like their horsemeat in Croatia, there was foal on offer and full grown Mr.Ed steak if you fancied it, but I wasnt feeling that adventurous. We had some food, it was beef I think, and then wandered back through the centre of town which was surprisingly dead for a Saturday night, albeit a rainy one. We decided to go back to the hotel.
Anyway, next day we got up, and went to the local supermarket, which reminded me of Presto`s in Glenrothes c.1985. The whole place seemed a good 20 years behind the rest of the world actually, save a couple of internet cafes. The trams that are the main public transportation are ancient rickety old things too.
We took our food back to the room and made up some sandwhiches with weird cheese and random sausage things, then Linsey fell asleep and I read for a couple of hours. It was still raining and raining and raining, and we were feeling soaked to the bone.
There wasnt much we could do, so we went to the internet cafe and checked emails etc, then went for some food in another cafe place, downstairs in a caverny little room, where we avoided horses again.
We bought a bottle of vodka, some coke, and then went back to the hotel where we got considerably drunk and watched Goodfellas in English with Croatian subtitles.
Next morning we woke up and complained about sore heads for a while, checked out of the hotel and then (because our mobile phones werent working properly) we went to the local post office which has a telephone room where the Zagreb folks go to make their phone calls. We were phoning ahead to get accomodation in Budapest, and it was a bizarre place. Just a room full of telephone booths with all of the local telephone call makers there. So we got a booth and tried to make a call to one of the places in the book from the manky old telephone in the corner. It didnt work, no matter what combination of area and country codes we used, and so Linsey went to ask for help, and it turned out we had to use the international phone call booth. Of course! The international phone call booth. number 20 if I recall. The phone booth with the magic international call abilities. It didnt fecking work either. I like my technology and so it was all getting a bit much for me not being able to make a phone call, so we left it (after Linsey calmed me down) and headed off to sort out our train journey onwards.
Think its safe to say that Zagreb isnt high on our favourite places list, but then it was rainy all the time we were there, the tourist information place closed for the weekend at 12pm on Saturday, the toilet attendant was grumpy and they decided to send a mailbomb to the uk embassy while we were staying there, so it doesnt really deserve the two thumbs up on the Linsey and Mark enyoyometer. Nice. Budapest was pretty amazing though and Linsey made us new friends on the journey there, read about that soon, only on magneticsandals!
Cheers,
Mark.
PS Big congratulations to Claire and Phil who got married in Cyprus since I last wrote. CONGRATULATIONS!
posted by Enid Blyton @ 8:36 PM
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