Skip to main content

Interrail 2016: ZAGREB

What a wet and dreary 24 hours in Zagreb. We arrived before noon, giving us most of the day to see Croatia's capital city. However, as the train from Ljubljana progressed, it became more and more apparent that we wouldn't be seeing the sunny, humid weather that Croatia is known for in Zagreb. Instead, heavy downfalls of rain plummeted across the city, meaning the streets were practically empty of people except for hardcore tourists making the most of their visit. 




Another issue arose when I learnt that my bank was denying me from getting money out. I had little euros left and needed to pay for our first hostel in Croatia. Panicking, we went to the hostel anyway and thankfully found out that we could pay for our night's accommodation in euros. Thank you, Hostel Chic!

After hanging our sodden clothes on the end of our beds, we set out into the centre dressed in every waterproof covering possible. Before long, we caved from the rain for a bit and headed into the first cafe we could find.
It turned out to be a 'health' cafe.
Whilst many of my friends enjoyed the vegetable soup we had, full of the delights of broccoli and other greens, I must confess that green vegetable soup is clearly not my thing. In terms of Interrail hunger, however, I of course finished the lot.

Because of the rain, it was after the cafe that our group split up into the rain-bravers (including me) and the museum-goers. My friend and I strolled around a vast amount of Zagreb, getting a feel for the city and popping into some of its many cathedrals. Despite the dreadful weather, it was abundantly clear that Zagreb is a beautiful city, with colourful houses and grand mansions and gardens. We managed to see a great deal of the city in the three hours of walking we did, showing it to be a small place. 
We then met up with our friends at the Museum of Broken Relationships, where they had been hiding for the rain. On reporting back on their experience, they all agreed that the museum greatly surpassed their expectations. The museum presents an artefact from a relationship and underneath presents the story behind it, with stories ranging from the happiest possible outcomes to some dark and harrowing relationships. We treated ourselves to a hot chocolate while discussing what we'd seen.

After a number of attempts at phoning the bank, I managed to find out that I have an automatic limit on how much I can get out abroad, which, whilst very, very irritating, at least sorted out my worries. Instead, I would be getting my Croatian Kuna out in batches over a couple of days. Yay.

For dinner, we were the most adventurous we have been so far and opted for baking potatoes. A (probably too) long experience but the results were definitely more satisfactory than my vegetable soup. We played a number of rounds of cards and headed off to bed early, as the next morning we were to be getting the train at 7:35am. The joy.

Writing this from the train now, I can confirm that we made the train and I managed to have a shower, get dressed and packed in record-breaking time (I slept through my alarm). 

Next stop: Split and Hvar- the final places!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

12 Problems Only People with Glasses Will Understand

17th May 2008. The day my dreads became reality: I got my first pair of glasses. I'd seen it coming for a few months prior to it, but there was still a part of me clutching on to the idea that perhaps my eyesight was just blurry because of the side effects of some peculiar, undiagnosed illness I'd had. Yeah, I was pretty desperate. However, just because the optician tells you to start wearing glasses, that doesn't mean you to have to, right? ...Wrong, but that's what I did anyway, up until late 2012, when it got to the stage where I felt like my grades were being affected by my near-sightedness.  Don't get me wrong- I don't have anything against glasses-wearers; in fact, I genuinely do believe glasses can look sublime. It's just the hassle of wearing them that frustrates me to this very day. If you forget your glasses, you're completely, and utterly, stuck. Every activity you attempt to complete at work that day becomes 19842 times more d...

Accomplishments.

Summer is well and truly over. In fact, it had ended over a month ago, but only in the past week have I fully accepted that the weeks of going out in just a t-shirt and shorts are finished for the year. To say that my summer was an adventure would be an understatement. Interrailing across Europe, flying out of the continent for the first time and getting a place at university... These past three months have been simply unbelievable. As I closed that Mathematics exam paper for the last time on 24th June 2016, I had little idea that my summer would be the whirlwind that it was. One week on, and I had flown to the Netherlands for the beginning of eighteen days of walking 30,000 steps a day, train journeys and simply incredible sights. Four weeks on, and I had flown to New York City for, undoubtedly, my greatest holiday. Five weeks on, and I had flown inter-continent to the Sun State of Florida. Seven weeks on, and I had received my A-Level results, which I was fortunately absolute...

Interrail 2016: LAKE BLED

Our longest journey by far turned out to be well worth the pain. Although it was nine hours long and we waited for the wrong bus in Bled for over an hour, we had a Harry Potter compartment and we arrived at our destination- Lake Bled, Slovenia. What a place. We lobbed our bags into the lockers at our hostel and immediately went on the hunt for a restaurant to eat at (nine hours of travelling can certainly work up an appetite). Pizzeria Rustica served us enormous pizzas and also some pizza-burgers, which are basically burgers with pizza dough for bread. According to my friends, pizza-burgers are something that should be brought to our hometown.  As it was relatively late by the time we had finished, we only had time to walk to the lake itself before getting to bed. On arrival, we had been asked by the hostel whether we were there more for the night life or nature. Considering the fact that we were deprived of at least 20 hours sleep, we went for nature, rejecting ...