Zagreb

---

Leaving Split for Zagreb we got to do something we hadn't done for over a week - catch a train! After a lot of recent travel on buses, it was good to be back on the trains with the freedom to stretch our legs.

The train from Split to Zagreb was only a short two carriage train, but it looked like a modern high speed train rather than the older looking trains we saw in Bosnia and Serbia, and best of all it had air conditioning that worked! Also, rather than have a dining car like the luxurious German and Austrian trains, the conductor came around and offered us sandwiches which were included in the price of our seat reservation.

The train trip was relatively long and Kerrie decided to invent a new game with the Ipod. Because we were not in a compartment and we did not have the whole carriage to ourselves, other people would be able to hear her if she started to sing. So instead, Kerrie decided to make Ross guess the songs she was listening to by doing charades. This made things a lot harder for Ross to guess!

When we arrived in Zagreb, again we had not booked accommodation, but we went to the tourist office at the train station and organised a place from there which was right around the corner from the train station so very convenient - and not too expensive either. Zagreb also had a much larger station than the small one at Split or the run down looking ones we saw at Sarajevo and Mostar. There were plenty of people there and several small food outlets within the station area.

The other thing that Zagreb had that we hadn't seen for a little while was trams, and lots of them, all coloured blue. There was a mix of low floor trams, trams similar to the ones in Belgrade and high floor ones with rounded fronts similar to what we had seen in a number of other cities. One thing that was a bit funny about the Zagreb trams though was that they only had ticket validators at a small number of doors which meant if you got in at the wrong door and the tram was crowded, it was very hard to validate your ticket. Luckily we didn't get caught! Also the tram tracks in Zagreb were predominantly located in the kerbside traffic lane which removed the need for safety zones.

We picked up a walking tour brochure at the apartment we were staying at and walked around the city stopping to read the brochure at all the main buildings in the city. Unfortunately like some of the cities we went to early in our trip, a number of the buildings were hidden behind scaffolding. When we came to one of the large cathedrals there were a lot of dark coloured prestige cars around and a lot of police (it was a bit like Prague again). Then all of a sudden people appeared out of one of the buildings, got in one of the cars and then most of the cars and police left the area. Ross asked one of the remaining police what was going on and it turned out that it was the Croatian Prime Minister who had just left the building!

One small problem we had in Zagreb that we had also experienced in some of the other cities we had been to was that when we were looking around for a place to eat at night and we saw lots of places around with chairs and tables out the front, but many served drinks only and it was quite hard to find places which served food.

Zagreb also has a funicular railway to the upper town area that was built a very long time ago, however it is so short that we decided to walk instead.

---