Adventures in Europe: Zagreb, Croatia

With my Mt Triglav climb canceled, I decided I would still leave Lake Bled yesterday and come to Zagreb for 24 hours.  

I left Bled on the bus at 10:00. I was quite amazed to only pay 1.7 euros for the one hour trip to Ljubljana! There were two of us on board when we left and one more picked up at the only other stop, the Ljubljana airport. We were dropped at the train station just after 11:00. 

That left me with just over three hours in Ljubljana before my train to Zagreb, so I stowed my backpack and started walking to the old town.

The streets and the cafes were full of Sunday crowds and it was a great atmosphere. I managed to time a coffee stop perfectly such that I got to listen to a half hour of music from a band that had set up shop along the promenade across the little river.

I am going to spend two nights in Ljubljana after Zagreb so I did not feel compelled to see everything. Instead, I just continued my relaxing stroll, through the streets of the old town before heading back to the train station.

The train left on time at 14:45, and from Ljubljana to the Croatian border, I think it was some of the nicest scenery I have ever been able to enjoy from a train. The tree leaves are changing colour, providing lovely texture to the hills, and the little Catholic churches dotted around (including often on the very top of the hills) really add something to the landscape. Photos do not adequately capture what it was like to pass through this region kilometre after kilometre, but I did take a couple.

I often found myself standing up to look out the open window of my compartment! I had my six person compartment to myself, incidentally.

I have made a conscious effort on this trip to try to do more of my travel overland. Really I have always enjoyed traveling overland when possible, but I do find that it is usually time or logistically or price prohibitive. Anyway, in Europe it is much easier, and I am not in as much of a rush on this trip as I sometimes am. So, I have really been able to enjoy the train travel, and I am proud of myself now that over the last 10 days I have traveled from Zurich to Zagreb all overland. (Incidentally, I assume those are the world's largest cities beginning with the letter "Z"? Not even close, I just Googled it; China alone has seven bigger. Alright, well I think I am safe then to say that they are the world's only economic capitals beginning with "Z.").  

Further to train travel, I have learned that it makes an enormous difference who you buy your train tickets from. I have the handy app from OBB (Austria's railline) so I bought my Ljubljana-Zagreb return ticket on it for 50 euros. I learned via a poster in the luggage storage room that if I had bought the ticket from Slovenian Railways at the station I would have only paid 9 euro oneway! It was too late for Ljubljana-Zagreb, but I was able to cancel the return piece for a full refund and buy the ticket at the Zagreb station. 

We reached the Dobova station near the border around 16:45. 

Slovenian and Croatian border guards came on board and checked passports (at this point this is a Schengen area border, although Croatia is likely to be the next country to join Schengen [as well as the Eurozone]). Passport checks were all over quite quickly, but then we sat and sat and sat and eventually the conductor came through to let us know that we would have to wait for a new engine from Zagreb. She said it would be another half an hour, so some of us got off the train. Our ETA in Zagreb was 17:15 and it was already 17:30!

Anyway I had only been on the platform a few minutes and then clearly a new engine was here and coupling and the conductor was waving us back aboard. We arrived at Zagreb station finally at 18:45.

No big deal, really, but I was disappointed to have lost pretty much the last hour and a half of daylight. I walked to my hotel about a kilometre north of the train station and checked in, and then enjoyed dinner at an outdoor patio.

My hotel is a fairly new one in an old building. I took this picture in the daylight today.

My room was 50 euro with a private bathroom and breakfast, so seemed pretty good value. The staff are friendly, but last night the man who checked me in encouraged me to sign up for an 8 euro, two hour walking tour. This actually struck me as a good idea given that I just have a few hours in Zagreb, but I told him I would decide in the morning. It was raining all night and in the morning so the 10:00 walking tour was canceled, but the woman this morning told me about a "rain or shine" free walking tour I could join at 11:00. This made me a little miffed at buddy and his 8 euro tour. But, anyway, by 11:00 the rain had stopped, so I was able to join this "Free Spirit" tour just down from my hotel in the main square.

That's the guide with the orange umbrella.

The tour was time well spent, and I learned a lot about Zagreb. For some reason, even coming off the train at sunset last night, Zagreb struck me as beautiful city, and it really is. Evidently there is something I like about southeastern Europe, because I feel similarly about Sofia and Bucharest.

One of the things I learned is that sadly Zagreb was hit by two relatively destructive earthquakes last year that seriously damaged many of the old structures, including the cathedral. 

In fact, the crosses on top of the towers are replacements for this golden cross and another 15 metres or so of tower. This one was removed by crane because it was threatening to fall.

The other one did fall, and came through the roof of the Archbishop's residence next door! It, too, is being reinforced and repaired.

From the cathedral we walked to Zagreb's famous daily market. The vegetable sellers are in the square below another church.

The butchers are below the square and the fishmongers are in an adjacent building, which I walked into after it was already closing for the day.

All of this is Kaptol, one of two of Zagreb's original medieval villages. From here we walked down the hill into what used to be the "no-man's land" in between the villages, and where a small river used to flow. It is now a pedestrian street lined with cafes and bars. The river has been diverted.

From this valley, we passed through the stone gate into the other of the two original villages, now known as the old town or upper town. The gate houses a chapel, which is actually quite interesting.

Grateful devotees have put up tiles all around with various messages. Hvala means "thank you" in Croatian, I am told.

After the gate/chapel, we headed up to what I was most excited to see: St. Mark's church. 

How cool is that roof!?

The Croatian parliament building is next door.

As we descended from the upper town, this was our view of the lower town.

After the tour, I opted to eat cevapcici at a restaurant the guide recommended. I failed to photograph the food, but did take a picture of this excellent dark beer!

I walked around a little more after lunch, and took a few more pictures, including of the gorgeous theatre.

I am catching the train back to Ljubljana early this evening, but I certainly enjoyed my 24 hours in Zagreb!