An interesting couple of days. We left our Budapest apartment in bright sunshine late yesterday morning (Saturday). At 1.20pm we took off for Zagreb by train in our first class, 6 seat,non-airconditioned compartment (no buffet car available for our six and a half hour journey). After a couple of hours we were all shunted off the train and had to drag our luggage across a few train tracks and onto very old local buses to take us on a hot, crammed, 30-minute drive to another station where we boarded another train and resumed our stylish journey. Then shunted into a siding while first Hungarian, then Croation, immigration officers checked our passports which seemed to take forever and a customs officer, completely devoid of passion or even interest, asked us whether we had anything to declare.(we felt like saying “Yes, your trains are crap”. We had to remind ourselves that a little over a decade ago this country was at war with itself). Then continued on to Zagreb, arriving 40 minutes late, to be met by Ksandro, the manager of our Zagreb apartment. A delightful man with perfect English, he had us here in no time at all, gave us lots of written information about Zagreb – including a five-day weather forecast! – as well as some tips for getting around and left us to our own devices.
We dumped our bags and took off into the night, exploring our neighbourhood and watching as each of the mini-markets we came to closed their doors just as we approached. So a couple of slices of pizza and salad from a café-bar then into bed. It was a worthwhile exercise if only to see how Zagrebians (is that what we call them?) spend their Saturday nights – teenagers and young adults groping each other or simply sitting chatting as we walked through the local park; people of all ages sitting drinking (beer or coffee) and talking in the many street bars around the square. All in all, a picture of people just enjoying their evening. There may be a dark side to Zagreb, but we certainly didn’t see it in our wanderings.
Our apartment is delightful. It is on the sixth floor of a building literally one minute walk from the main town square and is modern, tastefully furnished and decorated, with a good size loungeroom, bedroom (with wide comfortable bed) and eating area. Unfortunately the bathroom, off the bedroom, is about the size of a broom closet. It only has the space for a small shower that you have to enter, turn and close the screen doors behind you, and a small pedestal wash basin (your butt is back in the bedroom once you step out of the shower). Then there is the kitchen – about one metre wide , with cupboards either side, and about 1.5 metres long. In that space there is an under-bench fridge and separate freezer, a two-burner gas cook-top, a dishwasher, a washing machine; but it is well-equipped in terms of cooking equipment.
It has been cold, 13C, and raining lightly today. We explored the local Dolac food market and bought fresh food for our next couple of meals. The produce is very fresh and very cheap, and all weighed on old-fashioned balance scales. Then went for a walk up to the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (worth another look tomorrow when there isn’t s service running), then a stroll down a lovely mall flanked by outside eating areas and bars and continued past some lovely parks. Then back to our apartment for a late-afternoon rest, pan-fried trout and salad for dinner (washed down with a local white), then into bed.
Tomorrow – pray for fine, warmer weather and traipse around the rest of this beautiful, relaxed city.
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