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Hey guys,
After the slight delay due to the rail strike, we finally managed to scramble our way into Croatia, as promised. Our train was only a little late, which was nice, but at about 2:00 am the train man poked us awake and, in broken English, managed to convey that it would be in our best interests to get off right then (we had no idea where we were -- turned out to be the capital of Slovenia). Anyway, we fell out of the train and ended up wandering into an all night Kebap place where we hung out with a nice Hungarian guy who made us doner kebap that rivaled anything we had in Turkey. After that, we basically just killed time sitting in a small, dark room full of Slovenians in a semi-conscious stupor until 6:30... weirdest stopover ever.
Anyhoo, we did make it to Croatia in one peice. Our first stop was the capital, Zagreb, which contains more parks and gardens than I've ever seen in my life, and also the most grafitti. We luckily met a Swedish/Croatian girl who was nice enough to help us ask locals for directions to our hidden hostel (who woulda thunk? we actually managed to find a place where people don't speak english!) and -- get this -- the hostel was literally less than one minute from the biggest chocolate factory in Croatia. The air smelled like melty, creamy, sweet delicous chocolate at night, which was a little strange as we were right smack in the middle of a concrete forest of soviet-style apartment buildings (UVic peeps: it looked like a huge Landsdowne!) and just across the road from the zoo.
Aside from recovering from the trip, we did some wandering around the town, sitting in parks, went to the zoo, went out to a movie, sampled the local cuisine and basically just chilled out and felt like we were on vacation. The Zagreb zoo was a little bizarre in that little if any effort was made to keep the people away from the animals, and the animals away from the people. The chimpanzees held out their hands through the bars of their cages while children tossed them the ends of their ice creams; it was cute, but really kind of upsetting. The bigger animals clearly didn't have enough room in their enclosures (we saw sea lions flinging themselves against the edges of their tank, almost into the crowd of people), and it seemed like quite a few animals were getting human food. So that whole experience was a little strange, and slightly depressing. Cute monkeys, though, and lovely flowers.
That night we decided to treat ourselves to a show, since inexpensive English language theatres abound in Croatia. We made the mistake of seeing some wretched Nicole Kidman/Sean Penn movie (name escapes me... the whole thing was pretty forgettable) but it had the lady beside us in tears... I guess Croatian subtitles are particularly heart-wrenching.
Alright, so here we get to the important thing, food. So far, the food we've had here has been the best we've had so far this trip, and at half the cost. We thought we'd have a bit of a repass from our out-and-out binge-fest of late, but alas, it appears 'twas not to be. The seafood is just-out-of-the-water fresh, the risoto is delish, and damnit, the gelato here is even more beautiful than in Italy. What's a girl to do?
Anyway, we're now in Split after a particularly nice bus ride yesterday. Croatian buses = candy and muffin free-for-all. We stepped off the bus and were accosted by a group of rabid old ladies who grabbed our arms and flung maps into our faces, practically begging us to follow them to their homes where we could stay cheaply (hostels and hotels are few and far between here because most were destroyed in the war). We ended up following a really nice, quiet guy who actually listened when we told the touts to back off, so we're staying in a studio apartment in his parents' house at the moment, which is just outside the city's palace walls. When modern Split was first being built, all the homes and shops ended up incorporating the existing walls from the Palace into their structure, so the architecture is pretty interesting here. There are also a couple of beaches, but it's raining today (grr). There also are lots of cellars to explore under the city, so we'll likely do that today. When we decide to move on, we'll probably go to one or two of the islands on the Dalmatian Coast, then head to Dubrovnik, where we have been warned that prices rival those in London... (?!!)
Alright, that's it for me. Hope summer's being good to everybody!
--Liz
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anonymous
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Hey Ladies
I can't believe how many places you guys have gone to in the time you've been gone! Eastern Europe must be fantastic, despite my bias against the place after POLI 361, taught by a horrible prof. So glad to hear everything's going so well for you two. KB - Kristina B