Croatia - November 2006

Zigzagging around Zagreb

The Guinness

Tolkien's House was atmospheric and did indeed serve draught Guinness though rather strangely not served from behind the bar itself but what looked like the mantelpiece.

A Guinness poster advertising Halloween night celebrations hung from the ceiling. Zoran, the owner, poured a good pint and with a little help from the younger barman I explained what I was doing and he did the necessary and picked out my next destination ‘out of the hat’. It was Warsaw, Poland.

Zoran pouring me my Guinness

Getting There and around

When I’d researched the cheap airline routes the nearest I thought I could get to Zagreb was Ljubljana with Easy Jet. I’d missed the fact that the comparatively new airline, Wiz Air, flew direct from Luton to Zagreb – but did I really want to fly with an airline that called itself Wiz Air?

At the station I bought a ticket to Zagreb and received more good news. The express train that was meant to leave twenty minutes earlier was late and now not expected to leave for another twenty minutes. I dashed to the nearby McDonalds to buy supper (sorry about that – twenty minutes wasn’t enough time to get the Slovenian dictionary out and decipher the difference between shellfish and tenderloin). As I strolled up onto the platform I heard a train pulling away, outdone by a train drive who had put his foot down and made up some of this lateness. The slow train was waiting on the adjacent platform so not to worry. This was a modern train with modern people – opening up their laptops and watching films and playing music.

I've noticed how European train stations have often have an old loco outside.  I like it.

As I changed trains at the Slovenian-Croatian boarder, snow flurries began to fall with crispness in the air. I had a compartment all to myself as first the police and then the guard came around to check my passport and then my ticket. This was supposedly a scenic journey but no views tonight.

In the morning I bought a Zagreb Card at the hostel for £8. This allowed me free travel on public transport and some other privileges such as a mug of coffee from the hostel warden



Team Makeup

Just like the previous trip, I failed to drum up any support for this trip.

Zagreb old town

Accommodation

I had booked three nights at the Ravnice Youth Hostel, (£9/night) a tram-ride out of the centre. The guidebook said get off at the tenth stop near the chocolate factory but either it was written by a non-attentive author or the tram route had a few extra stops. I hoped back on the next tram and stayed on till I could smell the melted cocoa.

I was assigned a bunk in a four bunk room. When I opened the door it looked like every bunk was already occupied but it turned out there was only one other occupant – he was just very untidy. I never met him actually, I was always asleep when he came in and up and away before he was awake.

No, this isn't the hostel!

Sightseeing highlights

I took a bus to the Mirogoj Cemetery. It turned out to be a great place to visit, for me anyway, maybe not for the elderly ladies grieving the loss of their loved ones. Instead of bringing flowers, relatives of the dead bring lanterns – 50p each at the supermarket I later found out. The graves of the famous had hundreds of lanterns surrounding them in all colours emitting a pleasant warmth on a cold autumnal day. I liked the buildings at the front with their green copper turrets, ivy-clad walls and arcades with cast iron lanterns.

Candles galore at Mirogoj Cemetery

My Zagreb Card also included free travel on the cable car up to the1000 meter peak of Mount Medvednica. The cable cars ran once an hour so I had a coffee in the café and looked at the display on the wall which included a section of the cable looking reassuringly thick. Each car took four people and skirted the tree tops on the twenty minute trip to the summit. My elderly Croatian co-travellers didn’t want a chestnut when offered but seemed fascinated by me – goodness knows what they were saying to each other. They asked if I was German and when I told them I was from Wales all they could say back was ‘Boyo’.

Snowy conditions on top of Mount Medvednica

Back in town I took the vernacular railway and zigzagged around the narrow labyrinth of streets seeing St Marks Church with its multi-coloured terracotta tiled roof with the coats of arms of Zagreb and Croatia designed in. I then arrived at the sixteen-century shrine of the Virgin Mary in a narrow covered ally way where a service was just beginning.

The colourful St Marks Church roof

Food

On my second day in Zagreb, I thought that finding a restaurant wouldn’t be that easy, not having seen that many around in my wanderings, but I happened upon one that looked suitably Croatian. I ordered a glass of Croatian wine and sought advice on some typical Croatian dishes. The soup of the day was ‘bacon rind’ and my main dish was beef stuffed with sausage accompanied by two types of dumplings covered in a heavy tomato sauce with yogurt trickled over it for the health conscience. I hadn’t eaten properly for two days and didn’t have to for another two after that meal.

Mirogoj Cemetery

Quirky moments

At the Mirogoj Cemetery there were some strange names to be seen. I was amused by Dr Dean Despot. I ask you, fancy going to see a Doctor called Dean.

I didn't think to bring a gun but just in case here was a sign saying I couldn't take it in this building.

I overslept the following morning, not waking till 9.30 but even then I was the first awake in our dorm of four. I rode the tram into town again and bought a pastry for breakfast and was kept very amused when eating it on a bench outside by a pigeon that had got a crust from a bread roll lodged around his neck. It was the animal equivalent of a human getting a Kentucky Fried Chicken basket stuck on their head.