Today was a long travel day. It began with the 8.25am train from Split to Zagreb, the capital of Split. The lady had given us a table seat which mean we sat opposite each other, and when we got on there was practically no one else around. There was nothing to say whether a seat was reserved or not, so when people got on with reserved tickets they had to bump people out of their seats. Just before take off, 5 girls ended up sitting at our table and the one opposite, even though the train was empty, but thanks to the reserved seating business they weren’t able to spread out further. They were loud and really annoying. I wasn't happy. Oh well. 6 hours this train journey took and it was very, very windy (as in, not in a straight line). Dan and I chatted, and then did a bit of blogging once the path became less windy. We even climbed up into the clouds which was quite beautiful, and the moment it hit 12pm we ate our salads.
We arrived into Zagreb late at about 3pm and piled off the train after the 5 loud girls. In the station we found some huge lockers for very cheap, which made our exploration of Zagreb far more enjoyable! It was around about here that I discovered Dan, in my definition of the term, has not actually been to Zagreb. “Which way do we go, and what should we see?” I asked him. He didn’t know, which confused me, as I thought he had been here. “But haven’t you been here before?” I continued. By “been here”, he had stayed near the airport, and popped into the city - saw a single building opposite the train station and wander to the pharmacy just next to the station. That rendered him slightly useless for Zagreb recommendations!
Across the road from the station was quite a lovely square with a small market selling mostly flowers, off-the-back-of-a-truck clothing, and strawberries. There was a lovely building here with some pretty flowers which we spent some time taking photos of from every conceivable angle. We continued to follow our noses towards the centre, on the way passing what from a distance we thought was another market, but turned out to be a student fair, like an O Day kind of deal.
After being in this for a short way, we felt really old so decided to skirt it, and in doing so found the main square. Oddly enough, here was another market, but this one looked pretty local and seemed to be selling lots of nice things. Rounding the corner, we found another market - I think we found another 2, both of these were packing up for the day (or maybe hadn’t opened), except for one lady selling jewellery in the middle. We ended up passing her about 4 times in our journey around Zagreb.
We continued up the street, and saw a few bars that had reasonably cheap beverages. We did a bit of a loop, found the cathedral, took a photo of it, and then returned to one of the bars. Basically we had seen most of what there is to see in Zagreb, I reckon. There was a wine on the menu that was really cheap and large, so we ordered one each. When we tasted it, it was like it had been watered down. I actually googled it and we had, in fact, ordered watered down wine. Apparently it’s a thing! So we ordered a full strength red and a white, just to be on the safe side…
And that was our time in Zagreb. At 6.30pm we had another train to catch - this time to Ljubljana in Slovenia so we returned to the station. As we wouldn’t get into Ljubljana until about 9pm, we decided to have dinner on board. A quick stop around the supermarket at the station, where we bought a giant 1L bottle of beer and some local brand softies and a quick trip to the bakery for some baked goods, and we were set for dinner.
When the train arrived it had lots of different names on each of the carriages, which makes one think that the train would split up at various times. After Dan went and asked, I pushed my way onto the Ljubljana carriage and found an empty compartment. We don't like compartments but there was no choice. Dan and I purposely spread our stuff out so no one was tempted to join us!
We poured our beer into our sippy cups and scoffed our baked goods, feeling nice and full. Not too long after setting off we arrived at the border crossing. The Croatian side asked a few questions, gave us a stamp. So many bloody Croatian stamps! Why do the Croatians love stamping, but other countries don’t? Soon after the Slovenian border lady came past, and threw us quite a lot of questions (complicated, after our 1L of beer), but I think she might have just been doing it while she was scrolling through our passports. There’s so many stamps that I can imagine it’s pretty hard to figure out, and then all of our visas for the UK and Germany also make things confusing!
She finally left us alone (with no damn stamp) and we settled back again. I thought as we were riding along - I could do this forever. It was beautiful, and just sitting back watching the world go by is so peaceful. The scenery was lovely with the sun setting outside, and at about 9pm we arrived in Ljubljana.
The walk to our accommodation was a bit arduous. When we got to it, there was a sign on door saying Check in at Hostel o2 down the road. So we had to keep walking just as I was wanted to throw my luggage all on the floor. However, check in was easy enough, and then we had to go back to the apartment and up a few flights of stairs. Oh well! It’s just one night.
Before crashing out hard, we did a bit of research of what we actually wanted to see in Ljubljana on the morrow - the map was very helpful as it had little explanations of things to do so we chose the ones we liked the sound of, consulted our “bible” for a few other suggestions and then it was time to sleep.
Til next time,
xx
We arrived into Zagreb late at about 3pm and piled off the train after the 5 loud girls. In the station we found some huge lockers for very cheap, which made our exploration of Zagreb far more enjoyable! It was around about here that I discovered Dan, in my definition of the term, has not actually been to Zagreb. “Which way do we go, and what should we see?” I asked him. He didn’t know, which confused me, as I thought he had been here. “But haven’t you been here before?” I continued. By “been here”, he had stayed near the airport, and popped into the city - saw a single building opposite the train station and wander to the pharmacy just next to the station. That rendered him slightly useless for Zagreb recommendations!
Across the road from the station was quite a lovely square with a small market selling mostly flowers, off-the-back-of-a-truck clothing, and strawberries. There was a lovely building here with some pretty flowers which we spent some time taking photos of from every conceivable angle. We continued to follow our noses towards the centre, on the way passing what from a distance we thought was another market, but turned out to be a student fair, like an O Day kind of deal.
After being in this for a short way, we felt really old so decided to skirt it, and in doing so found the main square. Oddly enough, here was another market, but this one looked pretty local and seemed to be selling lots of nice things. Rounding the corner, we found another market - I think we found another 2, both of these were packing up for the day (or maybe hadn’t opened), except for one lady selling jewellery in the middle. We ended up passing her about 4 times in our journey around Zagreb.
We continued up the street, and saw a few bars that had reasonably cheap beverages. We did a bit of a loop, found the cathedral, took a photo of it, and then returned to one of the bars. Basically we had seen most of what there is to see in Zagreb, I reckon. There was a wine on the menu that was really cheap and large, so we ordered one each. When we tasted it, it was like it had been watered down. I actually googled it and we had, in fact, ordered watered down wine. Apparently it’s a thing! So we ordered a full strength red and a white, just to be on the safe side…
And that was our time in Zagreb. At 6.30pm we had another train to catch - this time to Ljubljana in Slovenia so we returned to the station. As we wouldn’t get into Ljubljana until about 9pm, we decided to have dinner on board. A quick stop around the supermarket at the station, where we bought a giant 1L bottle of beer and some local brand softies and a quick trip to the bakery for some baked goods, and we were set for dinner.
When the train arrived it had lots of different names on each of the carriages, which makes one think that the train would split up at various times. After Dan went and asked, I pushed my way onto the Ljubljana carriage and found an empty compartment. We don't like compartments but there was no choice. Dan and I purposely spread our stuff out so no one was tempted to join us!
We poured our beer into our sippy cups and scoffed our baked goods, feeling nice and full. Not too long after setting off we arrived at the border crossing. The Croatian side asked a few questions, gave us a stamp. So many bloody Croatian stamps! Why do the Croatians love stamping, but other countries don’t? Soon after the Slovenian border lady came past, and threw us quite a lot of questions (complicated, after our 1L of beer), but I think she might have just been doing it while she was scrolling through our passports. There’s so many stamps that I can imagine it’s pretty hard to figure out, and then all of our visas for the UK and Germany also make things confusing!
She finally left us alone (with no damn stamp) and we settled back again. I thought as we were riding along - I could do this forever. It was beautiful, and just sitting back watching the world go by is so peaceful. The scenery was lovely with the sun setting outside, and at about 9pm we arrived in Ljubljana.
The walk to our accommodation was a bit arduous. When we got to it, there was a sign on door saying Check in at Hostel o2 down the road. So we had to keep walking just as I was wanted to throw my luggage all on the floor. However, check in was easy enough, and then we had to go back to the apartment and up a few flights of stairs. Oh well! It’s just one night.
Before crashing out hard, we did a bit of research of what we actually wanted to see in Ljubljana on the morrow - the map was very helpful as it had little explanations of things to do so we chose the ones we liked the sound of, consulted our “bible” for a few other suggestions and then it was time to sleep.
Til next time,
xx
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