Croatia part 3 - Zagreb

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Some recovery time was required for our first day off the boat. After having breakfast with the Busabout group on the Saturday morning, we said our goodbyes and we ('the sisters' as we were often referred to) went to pick up our laundry. (There was this awesome little laundromat in Split that washes, dries and folds your clothes for really cheap!!)
Took a while before we could check in at our B&B - they had a couple of famous Croatian actors staying in our room and the owner didn't want to pressure them to leave on time. We waited in their pretty little garden and used the ever important wifi. Once finally inside, we treated ourselves to several hours of lying on our beds and watching cable tv. Georgia realised that some of her laundry was missing. She stormed back to the laundromat and was relieved to find her things waiting there - washed, dried and folded. Her dirty clothes bag had a hole in it and the items must've fallen out at some point. None of the items were expensive or irreplaceable, but losing 3 pairs of undies, 3 pairs of socks, a bra and a nightie...that's quite a lot to go without!!
Anyway, we freshened up and went back to a place on the Split waterfront, where we had both enjoyed really nice steak the weekend prior. We got word that some of our boat friends were heading out again but, exhausted, we resisted the temptation and had an early night. Stopped ignoring the alarm and dragged ourselves out of bed at 7am. Both of us were feeling tired and rather crappy from our colds. Yep, that's right - I got sick again...only a week after my last cold. So off we went, bound for the train station - we had an 8:20am train booked to take us up to Zagreb (Croatia's capital). We bought ourselves something that could constitute breakfast and found our seats. It was a torturous 6 hour journey in this little 2 or 3 carriage train that moved at only 30km/h (or so it seemed)!! At least we were able to catch up on some sleep. I spent the first 3 hours snoozing, probably to the annoyance of the other passengers. There's a good chance I was snoring...couldn't breath through my nose and kept waking up to find myself with mouth wide open, head flopping about the place. (Those seats are not designed for sleeping...left me with a very sore neck!!) On top of having a cold, Georgia was suffering with 'land sickness' - I had it the first day off the boat (Saturday) but was ok after that. Some Gingercalm, M&M's and a sleep helped to stop her feeling nauseous. The scenery was nice - got to see a lot of beautiful Croatian countryside!! Arrived in Zagreb and Georgia navigated us toward our hostel. There was some sort of marathon going on and we saw advertising for the Zagreb Film Festival - shame we didn't have more time to check stuff out. Lazed about in our room and planned the two spare days we have in Germany - decided on staying in Dresden between our visits to Munich and Berlin. I had a nanna nap while Georgia was outside on the phone.
Then we set off for a bit of a walk around town. It's a much bigger city than we were expecting - built up with old style buildings, but has a modern feel to it. Georgia found us a place for some traditional Croatian tucker. We both ordered a Slavonian Shepherd's Stew - it had beef, pork, veal and venison with gnocchi in a delicious and somewhat spicy tomato broth. (Slavonia / Slavonski is a city in the north east of Croatia). It was just what we both felt like, being sick with colds. I wiped my bowl so clean with bread that the waiter got confused and thought I hadn't eaten at all!! Then with desert, I ordered some black tea - it came with honey and fresh lemon on a little side plate. I was thrilled (again, having a cold) - wondered if that is how they normally drink / serve it, or if he had noticed I was sick and gave it to me... probably the former. Either way, just what I needed 😊 😊
Back at the hostel, we were finally given some towels (at 8pm in the evening...we checked in at 3pm). No tv in our room so we just hung around and enjoyed the free wifi. Both got a really good night's sleep and were feeling a bit better, come Monday morning. We managed not to wake each other during the night with our coughing fits. Breakfast was less than impressive (bread with spreads and a drink), but it was free so shouldn't complain too much.
Checked out of the hostel, left our bags in their storage room and headed out to enjoy a beautiful, sunny, 27 degree day in Zagreb.
We weren't too sure what sights we wanted to see, so we just walked around and stumbled across things.
There's a big fresh produce market that's famous in the area. We were able to buy some jarred Ajvar (yummy traditional Croatian capsicum spread, mentioned in a previous post) to take back to Oz.
The restaurant Georgia had picked out for lunch was closed on Mondays, but the owner was very helpful and recommended another place, which turned out to be really nice! Our friendly waiter gave us each (on the house) a shot of a drink called Medica (pronounced Medissa), as an aperitif. It is basically honey grappa - amazing, delicious!! We asked the waiter where we could buy some - he showed us the bottle and poured us another shot each (for free). So off we went to find the wine shop he had recommended and bought the smallest bottle we could get, again to take home. Planning to keep it for Christmas with the family 😊 😊
With full stomachs, we were feeling a bit lazy, so we decided to go see a movie. Found one cinema nearby but none of the films started until late. Thought we'd go on a mission to check out another cinema, only to get there and realise the building was no longer a cinema complex at all!! By this time we had been wandering for at least an hour and were over it - gave up on the movie idea. It was getting dark so we made our way back toward the hostel. Sat in the lounge area, watched tv and charged our phones. We popped next door for a light dinner - bit of confusion with our waiter when we were trying to confirm what salads they had (the two menus we got showed different options)...he seemed to struggle with the concept of salad for a meal and not just an appetiser. After convincing him we weren't interested in the porcini pasta (that we hadn't even asked about) we finally got our message across and our salads were lovely. Bit of desert and a cuppa - we figured the extra sugar would help give us the energy to carry our heavy backpacks. We paid our bill and waited a good 10 mins for the waiter to return our change, but he had turned his attention to serving another table. We had already, earlier, detected a degree of intellectual impairment from said waiter and decided to just leave it. So, back next door to grab our bags. Only a 15 min walk to the train station - thankfully not too hard being downhill and a cool evening. All the while trying to soak up our last moments in Croatia. It was by far the longest we spent in any one country - 11 nights (12 full days). We loved it!! Such a beautiful place!!
Pretty happy with our sleeper cabin on the train!! Had it all to ourselves, with luxury inclusions like a sink, bottled water, chocolate croissants and power points!! You might think we are easily pleased, but it's pretty good compared to some of the other ferry / train cabins we've endured!! Just as we were falling asleep, we were woken by border control officers checking passports. First a Croatian officer checked and stamped our passports. Then a Slovenian officer knocked on the door and did the same. Funnily enough, we were actually happy to get some extra stamps in our passports. So, surely that was it!?! Nope...a guy from the train company then came knocking, took both our passports, our ticket and our Eurail passes, stating we would get them back in the morning. We still had to cross the Austrian and German borders during the night, so we were hoping this would mean no more wake up calls!! (I.e. because he had our passports, he could show the officers on our behalf). Thankfully, that seemed to be the case - no more knocking on our door. Not a great night's sleep though...frequent shunting, stopping and starting kept waking us up. Anyway, we arrived in Munich safely and were off the train by 6:30am. Another day, another country!! Back on the Euro after nearly two weeks getting used to the Kuna. Time to start brushing up on the German language...Ich bin Ausländer und spreche nicht gut Deutsch!!

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