Zagreb

I left Ljubljana on Wednesday at 2:45PM and got to Zagreb about 5:15PM, including a stop at the Croatian border.  That border stop was the first time since I got onto the Eurostar train in London that anybody asked to see my passport.   Unlike Slovenia, Croatia has its own currency, so I had to get some Croatian Kunas.

After taking care of that I headed over to my host Milos's place, which is right behind the train station.  The apartment is in one of two big Communist era apartment towers that aren't all that pretty from the outside, but are very conveniently located for the city center.

The view from my room - overlooking the train tracks.

The building where I stayed - at the top floor on the right.

The other (identical) apartment block.

I had not noticed that the place didn't have WiFi when I booked it.  It does have internet, though it is wired (not wireless).  So after arriving and unpacking the first thing I had to do was to go out and find one of those USB to Ethernet adapter things that they make for Apple laptops, since modern Apple laptops do not come with Ethernet ports.  I was able to find one with no problem.  I should bought one before I left the US.

When I got back from my shopping trip, Milos had gone.  I pretty much had the place to myself the whole time I was there.

The next day I started exploring the city.  There's a big main square called Ban Jelačić Square which is right at the center of the city, and just north of there, up a set of steps from Ban Jelačić Square, is a big market area called the Dolac Market.  In Dolac Market there is a square where the fruit and vegetable vendors are.  There is a building next to that square where they sell seafood.  And, underneath all that, in a sort of basement, are the meat and cheese vendors.  It was fun to walk around there but I didn't buy anything.

In front of the train station (that's the big building).

Walking up towards the city center from the station.

A museum (I think) in the part that runs north of the station.

In the city center.  Croatia joined the EU last summer.

Ban Jelačić Square

Ban Jelačić Square

Dolac market

The seafood part of the market

In the very churchy area around the cathedral

Detail on a building in the churchy area.

The cathedral

Next to the cathedral

Dolac market again

Some prunes in the market

Peppers in the market

At the entrance to the market

In the meat part of the market

In the park

After exploring the market, I walked up to the Zagreb Cathedral and explored the area around there.  It was like a Catholic theme park around there, with every other book store selling religious books, and priests, monks, and nuns everywhere.  I had been noticing, and not just in that area, that Croatia is very Catholic.

I bought a train ticket to Split, and a seat reservation on a 6:30AM train the next day, before going back to the apartment.  Before turning in for the night Milos came by the apartment, and we went out and had a beer.  Another thing I noticed about Croatia in that bar is that Croatians like to smoke, a lot.  I think that smoking is illegal in places over a certain size, but Milos told me that they have just given up enforcing that law.

More from Ljubljana

Here are some more pictures from Ljubljana that I took before I left there on Wednesday January 15.

Taking down Christmas decorations.

Interesting building.

My compartment on the Ljubljana - Zagreb train that I had to myself, most of the way.

Cologne to Ljubljana

Yesterday was a long day.  I got up a little after 5:00 AM in Cologne, walked to the station, and boarded a 6:19AM train to Frankfurt.  In Frankfurt I had time for a quick breakfast before getting another train to Ljubljana with many stops - including Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Munich, Salzburg, and a bunch of little mountain towns in Austria.  I finally made it to Ljubljana on time at just after 6:30PM.

I started reading Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, which intermittently had me convulsed with laughter.  I'm kind of glad that people could not see what I was reading that was so funny.  I sat in the same seat for almost 10 hours on that train and there were a lot of comings and goings around me.  A blonde, very thin girl who looked like she might have been anorexic got on in Munich and sat across the aisle from me.  I discreetly observed her eating four avocados, one right after the other, an apple, and something that looked like a fennel bulb over a period of about two hours.  She got off at some little town in the mountains in Austria.

The mountains in Austria were impressive.  As we kept going through Austria, we must have been going higher and higher because I saw more and more frost, frozen ponds, and eventually snow.  My the time the train got to the Slovenian border the snow was all gone.

In Austria, starting to get close to the mountains.  It was a challenge taking these pictures through a dirty window.

A castle in Austria.

One of the little stations in Austria where we did not stop.  It seemed like we stopped at most of them.

When I arrived at the station in Ljubljana I immediately checked for a WiFi network.  There was one and I saw that to get a user name and password, I would have had to go to the information desk.  I chose to just head for the place I booked on Airbnb without checking email first.  I should have checked email because although I found the address with no problem, I could not find the a bell on the apartment building with my host's name.  There is a big hotel right next door so I connected to their WiFi network, but it also needed a code.  I tried in vain to make up a couple of codes (guessing likely room numbers and hoping that those would double as a code) but it didn't work.  So I walked back to the station, got a user name and password, and got my email.  That's when I saw the email telling me which bell to press on the apartment building.  So I made my way back and got in.

After having a glass of wine with my host and his friends, we went down the street to a Bosnian restaurant called Sarajevo 84.  I was pretty hungry by then.  I had something called ćevapčići which is sausage inside a bread like thing.  It was pretty good.  I washed it down with a Bosnian beer.  Then I came back to the apartment and did laundry.  I am learning to do laundry whenever I get a chance.

And, when I asked about the WiFi network for the apartment, I discovered that they do not have their own WiFi.  They are stealing it from the hotel next door, whose network I was trying to get onto.  So now I have a code for the hotel's WiFi network that I was trying to guess yesterday!

Today it is rainy in Ljubljana.  But I have been walking around the city having a look.

Looking out from my room.

The front of the church that I can see the back of from my room.

Reminds me of DC.

A remnant of Yugoslavia.

A bakery for dogs.

I think this is a communist era sign.  They made some great signs back then.

I also went to the train station again, to buy a ticket and a seat reservation to Zagreb for tomorrow.