July 30th: Zagreb
Arrived around 9:30pm, raining of course…absolute shit weather the past week. No map of course, but I did manage to write down directions and have those hand. Had to pay .50 eurocent to use the bathroom at the train station, of course this made me miss my tram so waited in the drizzle for another 12 minutes. Rode the train illegally 4 stops, found the hostel easy enough. Got settled in, met my roomates from Wales and we headed to the local brewery down the street for plates full of mixed grill and liters of beer. We were all a bit tired, so went back to the hostel and had a chill out. They had a nice lounge downstairs with flat screen and loads of DVDs and big couches. There were a bunch of drunk brits hanging around playing a drinking game. The Welsh kids and me drank and hung out watching euro track and field and betting on which runner would win, etc. Not a crazy night, a bit of a recovery, but fun and chill none less.
July 31st:
Slept until noon, then got up and wondered downtown by myself, saw the sights, did my usual walking tour while taking pictures of graffiti and building, etc. Found a crazy big market with veggies and fish and everything you could imagine. Did that for a few hours, then headed home for a nap. Met up with the Welsh boys who had started drinking at 2pm. We kept it going in the lounge until about midnight, then the girl that works at the hostel got off work and took us out for a bit of a pub crawl. About 10 of us ended up going down to the center of town. Found a few pubs with basement clubs…all small and casual. We ended up at the main bar in the park and talked to Croatian girls for the rest of the night. A bit alternative but they all speak good english with more of an american accent than any people I have met. They kicked us out at like 4am but we got to take our beers in plastic cups. Talked to some locals in the street. About half the group had left by this point so the rest of us grabbed some pastries and hit the bus home around 5am.
Aug 1st:
Slept until noon, checkout was 11am so talked to the man downstairs and he was cool with me sleeping for another hour. After that I was up for going to the lake, but didn’t want to bother by myself so I had another big chill with the Welsh in the lounge. This one guy never wore pants, he just walked around in his whitey tighties with a Tshirt all day. Watched a few movies, ate some pasta, etc. There was this Danish girl who went out with out the night before…she came downstairs and sat down on the floor then cramped up and fainted. She was Ok after a bit, but just stayed on the floor at the bottom of the stairs and refused to get up onto the couch. She said it happens from time to time. She finally got up and laid on the couch the rest of the afternoon. One of the Welsh guys had hooked up with her behind (rather up against) the big cathedral the night before so they kept joking with her about being pregnant and that’s why she was having morning sickness. Best part was that I got to hang out all day for free at the hostel, then took the night train at 11pm.
Zagreb gets like 3/5 in my book. Fun place, but appareantly all the young people head to the beach this time of year (which I am heading to right now). Glad I stopped for a few days. Best thing about Zagreb…I guess the Welsh guys. The definitely made things fun. They were heading to Budapest or else I would have gone with them. My first night train, 8-9 hours. 3 Croats in my cabin. I talked to them at first and they were heading to the coast as well, but to work. I asked what they were doing and they said "Its better that we do not tell you." Which either means they are bringing drugs or they are some sort of sex workers. I wondered what was in their bag. I figured a night train meant you sleep. My croat cabin mates talked for hours, 1 guy was standing up in the cabin for like an hour doing nothing. When the train stopped they opened the cabin and stood in the hallway with their heads out the window chatting. I lost trust in them so just put on the headphones and wrapped my backpack strap around my leg so when I fell asleep they couldn't steal it. I woke up in the morning and there was just 2 of us left. I got off the train, it was 7 in the morning and I was on the coast of Croatia with absolutely perfect weather...finally. 