That Christmas Feeling

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Half ten felt like a fantastic sleep in until we checked the guidebook and found out that the museum we wanted to visit shut at two. We asked a guy working at the hostel how to get there and he didn't really know so we stood and waited at a bus stop for awhile until we figured we wouldn't have enough time there.

Our plans had evolved mainly around the museum so we didn't really know what to do. We began by walking up to the centre and it felt a lot more lively than yesterday. There was a stage errected with a few bands playing which we think was to promote the prevention of aids.

We noticed a crowd of people around a kiosk in the middle of the street, we went over to have a look and saw it was a collection of the cutest puppies and kittens from an animal shelter. (How novel) They were putting up all the Christmas decorations which was causing havoc as the pedestrian streets were littered with heavy maintainance vehicles kicking out smelly fumes. It sounds horrid but it actually made me feel a bit Christmassy.

We walked out of the centre of the city and stumbled across the old army headquarters which NATO bombed in 1999. It was a very scary sight, worse in a way than seeing the frontlines in Bosnia. The headquarters stretch over both sides of a main road and not a single part of it had been left intact. The scary part was that it was located in the middle of a built up area and yet none of the surrounding buildings suffered other than a few shrapnel scars.

We found out times/prices for the continuation of our journey to Zagreb. It turns out that the train is cheaper and at Significantly better times than the bus so we will be traveling by train for the first time in ages.

We returned to the hostel and enjoyed the remainder of our wine and Cadburys whilst checking the internet. Another guest had arrived and he was a smoker so the hostel stank of smoke which really wasn't pleasant. I really thought that after four monthes in some horrifically smokey places I wouldn't mind it much, but I still hate it and we are both looking forward to our smoke free England very much.

My cold has become worse and so I was fairly content with laying on the bed and not bothering with food. Rob and his insatiable appetite however had other plans and he managed to persuade me that we should try and find a vegetarian restaurant that I had no faith we could find. It was approximately 1.5km away so we were prepared for a bit of a walk but it was off our maps so I really thought it would be difficult. We got to the point where we had walked far enough to get off the map, and Rob was under the illusion that it was just a left turn off the road we were on. Normally I trust his judgment and we continue walking far enough until we find whatever we are looking for, however this evening we didn't have the time and I didn't have the energy. We stopped a guy and asked for directions and his first instruction was to catch a bus. We decided to admit defeat and attempt to find something else.

After a lot of looking around and almost going to an expensive Chinese we settled for a Pizza Hut purely because it was cheap and quick. We finished eating and hightailed it to the cinema to see "Michael Clayton" which we had bought tickets for earlier in the day. We were thankful for our forward planning because they gave people stand alone seats for the steps because they were that busy. The film was ok but unoriginal however it was much preferred to sitting in our claustrophobic hostel doing very little.

Back at the hostel we were displeased to find that the man who was Smoking earlier was still smoking so the whole hostel smelt like an ashtray. I really wanted to get to bed in the hope that I could sleep away my cold, so we decided to pretty much go straight to bed.

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Comments

[grandma]

new kid on the block
Hello i have enjoyed reading all your blogs and following your journies in my atlas. I shall think of you on Christmas day but look foreward to seeing you over the hoilday. Love to you both Grandma xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx