Croatian Frustrations

Woke up super early from Budapest and made my way to the Metro which would take me to the train station. I found my train and sat in the First Class car. It was no ICE train, but still comfortable. There was only one older couple on the far end of the car who got off about half way into the trip. Besides for that I pretty much had the entire train car to myself. Very quiet.

View from Train

My Empty Train

When we got to the border I was trying to figure out what was going on. The train pulled into the station and waited for about 20-minutes. Then we slow traveled about 1/4 of a mile and then stopped for another 15-minutes. We pulled back into that same station and stopped again. This is when it got fun. On the train from the back car comes about six or so officers all dressed in different uniforms. They are all together and are all looking at me very seriously. The first two walk up closer and say, "Passport". I pull it out and hand it to them. The man and woman look at it for a while. The man then sticks it in this huge box that he was carrying over his shoulder and waits. He looks at my passport again, stamps it, hands it back to me and then walks on with the lady. I was in the process of putting away my passport when the next guy comes up with these two other officers. He was in all black and the two other officers were in all green with guns strapped to their sides. The man in black says, "Passport". I hand it to him. He flips through it for a moment, stamps it, hands it back to me and then walks away with the other two officers. The last guy walks up to me and says, "Customs Officer. Have you anything to declare?" and shake my head and say, "No". He questions, "Cigarettes or Alcohol?". I say, "No". He then looks at me very seriously and in a commanding voice says, "Open your bag Sir". I stand up, pull my bag from the overhead, and unzip it for him. He doesn't touch anything, only looks. He then nicely says, "Okay, Thank you" and continues on to the next train compartment. These guys don't mess around!

I arrived at the Zagreb train station in the afternoon and did my usual "train station errands" (ATM, get a map, find the tourist office, etc.) and then walked to the hostel. The hostel was only a handful of blocks away and I had to walk through a park to get there. I noticed that their was not one park bench that was empty. The sun was shining and the people were out walking and socializing on the grass. A very friendly and safe atmosphere. The other thing I noticed is there was a police officer on almost every corner. TONS of them! I found the hostel, checked in, set my stuff down, and then walked the town.

Zagreb Park

I really enjoyed walking around, but there is no really major attraction to Zagreb. It's very busy with people and I didn't seem to point-out any tourists. They all seemed local and they were out walking around and enjoying the weather. I found my way up this side street and kept walking up the hill. I saw a castle-type structure that seemed to be a pedestrian path. It looked like something was in it so I checked it out. When I walked through it was a covered pedestrian path to another street, but it was also a church. On the inside of this covered path were people sitting and praying. It felt like I shouldn't be walking through there, but other people were and they didn't think much of it. I would have loved to have taken a picture, but I didn't out of respect for those praying. I did step back out of view a snap one.

Not the best view

I continued down a parallel side street and this one was like one of these restaurant rows where all the restaurants are lined up side-to-side and move their dining furniture into the pedestrian path. The place was almost full of people sitting outside and enjoying coffee or beer. In the 3-blocks of this row I didn't see one plate of food. I walked around some more and then came back and had a coffee and just people watched. After, I walked around some more and pretty much covered the town.

Now, I was on the hunt for dinner. I was trying to find something cheap and good. I was being picky. The hard part was that every Croatian I talked to wasn't very helpful. I asked the guy at the hostel, "What is a good Croatian food you can recommend?" He had no idea. I experienced the same reaction from a store clerk who spoke very good English. She said, "I don't know of any.....maybe seafood." As I walked up and down the streets I didn't see anything appealing. I was at the point of heading to a grocer to buy dinner, but I couldn't even find one of those. I did find one place and said, "Well, I know it's not Croatian food (don't know what that is even), but I've been craving it, and it's seafood." It was a sushi restaurant. I continued to think, "Well, at least it will be cheap here in Croatia." I walked in and ate a couple rolls of sushi for about $6.00 each. It was ok, but very different. The guy making the sushi was nice to talk with while I was there. He brought up the protest that was going on in town that I saw earlier and joked, "You know what's going on in Egypt? Yep, this is worse!" He continued to say that is why all the police were all over the place. He said it was a protest against the government and not to worry because tomorrow they would all go home and rest and then come back the following day. He said that while I was in Zagreb that I needed to try Somersby Apple Cider. I would have liked to since we really don't have alcoholic cider in the US.....we'll it's not too popular. However, I was a little tired and not in the mood for drinking any alcohol. After dinner I headed to a coffee shop that was in a basement of some sort......it looked cool. I had a coffee and then went back to the hostel to do some routine stuff....nothing exciting.

Today I woke up and took my time getting everything together. The trains are pretty limited around here so I could only get a 12:30pm train to Ljubljana (pronounced: Lube-Lee-On-Ah) which would arrive at about 3pm. Oh, so before I forget. I've decided to skip the rest of Eastern Europe (including Greece) and head towards Italy. It was a tough decision, but the trains are so limited around here and I could take the bus, but that costs money and I have already invested so much money into my rail pass that I'd like to take advantage of it. It's a shame, but I think it is a better decision on my part. I can always come back! Trust me, I went through tons of scenarios to make my way through, but the best it to head toward Italy next. This will let me take it a bit slower and I might even have time to see a few extra things I would have otherwise put off. Europe is huge and you can't see everything......even in one lifetime.

So, I did some walking around this morning and decided that I've had my fill of Croatia and Zagreb in particular. If I ever come back I'd like to see Plitvice National Park and the Eastern Coast (Split and Dubrovnik). However, I'm not a huge fan of my first impression of Croatia. The people are pretty rude here and not very friendly. They smoke and spit everywhere too! When people walk they do not look where they are going and just expect others to get out of their way. I have also barely seen people do anything by themselves. Everyone is in couples or groups. Oh, and PDA is normal deal here. Some stuff I've seen would be looked down upon in the US. Nothing overly gross, but just disrespectful. When trying to talk with people they are very unkind and like I said, rude. Even at the hostel the Croatians there were pretty unwelcoming. It's a cultural thing I suppose; a trust thing. Anyway, I walked around, found a bakery, bought a ham & cheese croissant, and found an empty park bench to sit an relax before my train arrived.

I got to the train station at 12pm to exchange some Kuna. They were of little help and wouldn't give me any Euros. I went to the lobby stand and bought a Kit-Kat that had a almond filling (Kind of like a Kit-Kat mixed with a Caramello-like filing)....very good! Well, I continued to wait for my train and it never came. I asked the lady at the ticket office and she said it was 20-minutes late.....she was rude in her reply about it. I confirmed the platform and waited another 20-minutes. The train never came. I went back to the office to see what was wrong. I spoke with another lady and she rudely said that my train had already left just moments before. I asked when the next one was and she said that it wouldn't be until 18:14 (6:14pm) and would arrive in Ljubljana around 20:39 (8:39pm). Well shit! By this point I was completely sick of Croatia. I know better than to generalize my experience of Croatia on one city, but I was pretty pissed. This meant that I wouldn't arrive in Ljubljana until dark which I ate doing and I would have to spend another day in Zagreb. I suppose my biggest complaint was that I waited all that time for the train and wasted the better part of day. I was in a pissy mood. Sadly, it got worse. I decided, "Okay, maybe I can go to the bus station and see if I can get the hell out of here". The bus station was about a mile away (and mind you I'm carrying my pack this entire time) and I walked the distance. I got there and found the ticket office. Only one bus a day and it leaves at 11am. So, I'm pretty much stuck! Another day in Zagreb was not my first choice. I walked the mile back toward the train station and thought about my next step. I decided to try and be optimistic and said, "Okay Matt, you have a free day to relax." Instead of walking around with my load I'd find a cafe with wifi and get some stuff done. Also, to battle getting into Ljubljana late and trying to find my hostel I would use my "Get Out of Jail Free Card" and hail a taxi.

I made my way to the main square and walked around some more. I found a cafe that had free wifi and camped myself for a while. I updated some blogs, loaded some photos, and tried to fix my busted memory card from Bath. I think I can recover the photos, but maybe not the ones from Bath. Sucks! All the other photos I already had loaded and backed-up so they are of no use. Plus, the other crappy thing is that I don't think I can ever use my 16 GB memory card again. Those things are $$$$ and if my next card breaks I am shit out of luck! We'll see!

As I was sitting there two girls came up to me and gave me a Somersby Apple Cider. They were there doing a promotion and were giving them out to everyone there. Sweet! It was good. It was like a Green Apple Jones's Soda, but not as sweet and with alcohol. Not bad!

Somersby Apple Cider

I made my way to the train station and waited......my train was 20-minutes late. Again! When the train was about to arrive I turned to a girl who was standing on the platform and confirmed that this was the platform for Ljubljana. She said, "Ljubljana? That's is where I am going". Sweet! The train arrived shortly after and we boarded. I walked up and down the isles and may of the seats were taken so I ended up sitting across from the girl I spoke to on the platform moments before. We were silent for the first 15-minutes or so. I finally asked, "Excuse me, do you mind if I ask if you are from Ljubljana?" She was from Croatia, but was living in Slovenia. I asked if she knew of any good places to go or foods to eat, but she didn't really know. She said her boyfriend would know when we arrived. Sweet! We talked the entire rest of the way. The funny part is were we were talking about Croatian names. She started describing her name, "In Croatia, most female names end with an A, but my name doesn't. So, I'm generally classified as a male. For instance, my headmaster put me in a boys dorm in school. He saw the name and it was checked female so he assumed it was a mistake. May Croatians see my name and they are almost offended. Some Brits I have talked to said it's a normal name and not odd, but they make looks so I can tell they are just being nice." I said, "Ok, you've built it up. What IS your name?" Sadly, she wouldn't tell me. It's ok, I didn't force her. She said her parents made it up.

She really wanted to know what I DID NOT like about Croatia. I was a little hesitant giving my impressions, but I started small and got her reactions. She pretty much understood all my experiences and was able to talk them through with me. It was nice. I also mentioned how people in Zagreb were stuck in the 80's: The music, the fashion, the hair, the glasses, etc. She said, "It's coming back!" I also said, "I've been very lucky to meet so many great people on my trip both locals and hostelers. It's been very enjoyable because I love meeting people. I will admit, Croatia was a little tough." She then gave me a nice compliment and indicated that it was not a reflection on the people, but on me. She said, "The fact that you can do this journey by your self and meet so many people from so many different backgrounds and meld with them shows to me that you are a very easy person to get along with and a very open-minded person." That really struck me because it was a very nice compliment. I never thought of it in that way. I've always thought of myself as easy-going, but more in way that.......Well, I'm like Rex from Toy Story, I don't like confrontations. A professor of mine (and my Graduate Advisor) who suddenly passed away while I was in college used to have this thing he would say to me, "Like the T-shirt says Matt: Life is Good!" I've always remembered that because it was his way of saying, "Take it easy and things will all workout".

When we got to the boarder the officer looked at my passport and (for whatever reason) decided to call my passport number in on the radio. He did the same thing with this girl I was sitting with. My guess is that when he asked me, "Where are you headed?" I had a little trouble pronouncing the name of the city. When he walked off this girl said, "they think they're so important, I hate that I have to sit here every time I cross the boarder." When the train arrived in Ljubljana I was able to meet this girl's boyfriend. Sadly, he wasn't too helpful but they both were able to recommend a street that had some good nightlife. When I said goodbye to them her boyfriend said, "What was your name?" and I said, "Oh, I'm sorry, it's Matt" He said, "Nice to meet you Matt" and then said his name. The girl turns to me and says, "Good luck, it was nice meeting you Matt my name is Daporkandbill".

I did my "train station errands" and grabbed a taxi to the hostel. The hostel is on the top floor of a hotel and it's not too bad. There is only one other guy in the room with me who is from Bosnia, but his English is not too good. He is very nice and is not too messy so he's a good roomie.

Tonight I'll go to bed early and explore Ljubljana tomorrow.

Adijo!

Ljubljana