Stipe and Zagreb

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Journey and Arrival

A quiet journey across the Serbian border and into Croatia, where a shopkeeper joins my cabin and we have a chat and a game of chess. Soon afterwards, a huge guy headed for Munich arrived and killed the conversation, so the remainder of the journey into Zagreb was pretty tedious. Out of the train and shortly later met Stipe in the station. Zagreb instantly struck me as a much more pretty city and I looked forward to it being better than Beograd. After grabbing some food and beer, and a tram down to Stipe's, we were ready to head into town.

Sadly Stipe had work the next day (it was a Tuesday after all) but we still had time for a couple of drinks in the city centre. The first place we went to was a great, lively student bar in the old town, featuring tracks that were exact clones of traditional Irish music with Croatian lyrics. A couple of Ojuskos got drunk as we discussed trips past and future, and growing up (or managing not to). Then on to a great, lively, alternative basement bar across the road and down the street, where we met some entertaining Americans and listened to some great music. Even the tram home was lively, chatting to a lively Bosnian on the way home. Definitely a better city!

3rd October

Up surprisingly early and into central Zagreb. After a shop breakfast from beside the cathedral (surprisingly the jogurts here are solid), headed up the side of the hill to the rather impressive Museum of Naive Art, definitely an interesting gallery. Sent some postcards, and did some walking around the periphery of the town to get an idea of the atmosphere and real life Zagreb. Managed to hit an internet cafe and confirm my job, but didn't get a chance to buy a jumper. So I met Stipe shortly afterwards who did help me buy one, and we took a tour of some other things, including a superb little rock cafe. A quick journey back for a nap and a bag pack and then back into another student bar in town, and I'm almost feeling like a resident already. We head out then to an American themed bar again, which I thought was going to be a bit of a shame (you can get American music anywhere) but not quite so, as it turned out.

We started chatting to some locals, and the conversation was getting interesting. Sadly, Stipe was exhausted and headed home early, while myself, Dino and Martina headed for the park with some beers. Had some fantastic conversation with a man full of surprises, including the sudden revelation of stolen beer, some great talk of 'masturbating into the womb' and openly urinating in the middle of the park but by half 4, even I was cold, drunk and exhausted and it was time to go home, which proved remarkably easy, showing just how near town Stipe actually lives!

4th October

Only about 4 hours later I'm up again to get the train, still nicely drunk but a little cold. Sadly, Stipe had gone to work, but he's got his tin whistle so I left a quick note and made tracks, leaving the key behind, heading for Ljubljana

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