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Published: August 24th 2008
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Best transport rest stop:
Great beer and football on the big screen Thursday 22 May 2008 It was a restless night on the bus from Korcula to Zagreb. frequently through the night we would hear the bus driver's panicked call "passport check! passport check!" Each time we quickly pulled out our passports only to be passed by so that the police could check the id of the non-tourists. It wasn't until afterwards that we realised why. Thanks to yet another dodgy Lonely Planet map, we didn't even know that we'd passed through Bosnia along the highway! We had changed countries and didn't even know!
The driver also had stopped the bus late at night for a dinner, beer, coffee and football stop at a roadside eatery high on the cliffs overlooking the Adriatic coast. Michael joined the boys inside for Karlovacko and football while Barbara stretched her legs in the fresh non-smokey air outside.
Early morning we arrived at Zagreb bus station to find that, as we had suspected, it was going to be a little difficult getting to Prague. We knew we needed to get to Zagreb to get to anywhere outside Croatia. The international flights and buses are only regular during peak tourist season - for which we
were two weeks early. The next bus to Prague came on Saturday so that wouldn't get us there in time to meet Euston & Carolyn. So we caught the metro to the railway station and bought a train ticket to Prague which would leave that evening. In the interim we stored our luggage and explored Zagreb.
Outside the railway station was a small market with many stalls selling the product of the annual strawberry harvest. Due to this and the time of year there were bugs EVERYWHERE in the city. Barbara just happened to be wearing a bright green shirt too which attracted them all the more.
Faced with a huge boulevard, streets off in every direction and our early morning arrival we decided to follow Zen navigation - we just started walking in a random direction. We walked down some nice shopping streets and met with an elderly lady that randomly welcomed us to the city. We found the people all over Croatia to be so amazingly welcoming and kind like this.
We found the funicular which goes up the hill from the main city Donji Grad to the historic district of Gornji Grad. Once at
the top there were great views over the city. We also encountered a tour group admiring the view who were discussing the reason why the museums were closed. Apparently we would be spending our only day in Zagreb on a PUBLIC HOLIDAY! The strange bit about it though was that no one actually knew what the holiday was for. Some said it was 'something to do with religion' but that was all the info we could get out of anyone!
With all of the museums closed, the shops closed and the cathedrals full of worshipers of the mystery religious day we decided the only thing to do was to go to the only establishment open in Gornji Grad - the pub! Even though it was only 10am we had a good excuse to be in the pub, it was a special pub. It was Tolkien's Pub dedicated to all things 'Lord of the Rings'. Michael enjoyed a Tolkien House Brew while Barbara devoured a delicious hot chocolate (of the melted chocolate variety) topped with brandy whipped cream...mmmmm!
We then headed down to the Ban Jelačić Square in the main city Donji Grad. It was a buzz with people
setting up for the Croatian Annual Car Rally which would start that afternoon. We continued up to the hill once more to Kaptol district where we found the streets quietly atmospheric and another full cathedral. No one there knew what they were celebrating either! We found a cinema and decided to watch Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - with Croatian subtitles! It was a great movie and a great way to spend a public holiday. Its also about the cheapest cinema we have ever been to, only about $4AUD per person.
That afternoon we enjoyed lunch in a park in Kaptol and then wandered through the cafe district and made use of a very smokey internet cafe. We aired the smoke out of our clothes in the Ban Jelačić Square back in Donji Grad while we watched the start of the car rally.
Zagreb was a great place. Lots of life and energy. Fantastic art and sculptures dotted around the city in the most unexpected of places. The bugs were a bit much though.
We enjoyed dinner at the Hole in One pizza restaurant in Donji Grad where the food was great and the service friendly. Then
we headed back to the train station, collected our luggage and tried to find an officer to stamp our passports. As we needed to keep record of Michael's movements for Schengen reasons we were very eager to get his passport stamped at every entry and exit of the Schengen Zone. On the train someone finally stamped his passport - with the wrong date - GRUNT!
We were meant to catch 2 trains to get to Prague - the night train to Salzburg, Austria then at 4am change for a train to Prague, Czech Republic. It wasn't quite going to be that simple...
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