Blogs from Central Croatia, Croatia, Europe - page 11

Yesterday we explored Ljubljana, the smallest capital city in Europe. It has no world famous buildings but is beautiful nonetheless. We took a little train up the big hill to Ljubljana Castle which I was convinced wouldn't carry us the whole way but it managed okay! The views from the top were worth it. It was strange for a castle though, the old bits were in ruins and the preserved bits had just been turned into restaurants. We wondered around for a while, although the temperature of 29° and the blazing Sun made us slower than usual. At the bottle of the hill, we got ice cream (the first of the entire trip, for which I think we deserve medals) and I posted some postcards to some lucky people. Then we walked back to the hostel ... read more

Heute bin ich schoen mit dem Bus von Split nach Zagreb gefahren. Abfahrt kurz nach 11:00. Ankunft etwa 17:00. Die Autobahn auf dem Weg hierher hat echt einen prima Eindruck gemacht. Die muss die EU dann hoffentlich schon mal nicht bezahlen. Mein Hotel in Zagreb ist ganz ordentlich und zwischen Bahnhof und dem Stadtzentrum. Dann wollte ich noch in die Sauna, aber das hat nicht geklappt, weil diese erst noch aufgeheizt werden muesste. Also habe ich nur die deutschen Nachrichten gekuckt - hoffentlich gibt es keine durch Blitzschlag getroffenen Baeume auf der Fahrt nach Muenchen am Sonntag - und habe im Hotelrestaurant das Zagreb-Tagesmenue gegessen (etwa 15 Euro). Mit kalter Vorspeisenplatte, Schweinefilet und Kaesekuchen. Dazu kroatischen Wein und im Anschluss daran zwei Cocktails. Ausserdem habe ich bei einem WM-Tippspiel meines Arbeitgebers meine Tipps fuer die Gruppenphase ... read more

We drove to Zagreb on Easter Sunday. Let me rephrase that. We spent the entirety of Easter Sunday driving to Zagreb. The bus ride was along the Dalmatian coast again, which was a win, and we even got to stop in Split for a brief break! It was a really good thing that we had loaded up on snacks because all of the things were closed. Everywhere. We got to Zagreb and night and found our couchsurfer's flat easily. His name is Julien and he's from France. He moved to Zagreb for a girl and fell in love with the city. He's a professional photographer who takes these amazing pictures and is super nice. Kathleen and I were exhausted from sitting on a bus all day (it's real, okay?), so we fell asleep pretty quickly. On ... read more

We had originally bought a return ticket to Zgareb , but it transpired that the return bus for the Sunday morning didn't exist. We purchased a single on another company, but were assured that a refund on the unused portion would be "no problem". The problems started as we approached the first toll booth entrance to get back on the motorway to Zgareb. The bus inexplicably did a U turn. The other passengers remained calm, as we headed off down a side road. After observing road signs, I figured out we were on a diversion .... a diversion that probably lasted 40 miles. It was later revealed in a newspaper that there had been a serious accident somewhere near the 6 km tunnel on Saturday, 30 odd vehicles involved, deaths etc and as a result the ... read more

Dobar dan! This blog contains the second part of my visit to Croatia. While I was in Split, we also visited Trogir, a small but beautiful city located less than half an hour west of Split which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Kamerlengo fort offers spectacular views over the city. It’s a beautiful town to visit as a short half-day trip from Split. After Split I continued towards the capital, Zagreb. My friends in Zagreb, Viktor and Melita who I also met in Rovinj in 2007, arranged a car for me. Viktor works at a rental car and many companies needed to relocate their cars from Dalmatia back to Zagreb. I had to go to Split airport to take one car to Zagreb airport which are about 370km away from each other. I ... read more