Zagreb, Croatia

The Zagreb train station is nice but the TI lady did not know what we were talking about when we asked about a soccer game so we headed on to the bus station. Rick described it as a few long blocks away so we decided to walk. Never listen to me when I decide to walk. It wasn’t that long but we could just have taken the trolley and not had to drag our bags the whole way. It was not the prettiest walk either, all the walls were lined with grafitti art. At any rate we made it there, stowed our bags In a room with a man that gave us a ticket and charged us by the hour.
Since we arrived in Zagreb early things were just getting set up, like the flower market and an arts and crafts market. It was also very chilly here and looked close to raining. We decided to stop in a café for hot tea and coffee. After warming up we spotted a bakery called Pan Pek across the square. I got a great cherry strudel and curt got a pizza pocket. We bought some cookies at the market but it wasn’t fully set up yet so we decided to do Rick Steves walk around town.
This started at the funicular on Ilica street. In 55 seconds and 8 kuna later you are wisked to the top on Zagreb to the old town of gradec. We saw the lanterns that are still lit by someone every night and the church with the tiled roof.
We checked out the home of Ivan Mistrovec (the sculptor) and passed thru the stone bridge which is now a chapel. Its wild because it looks like a regular street but inside the bridge people are praying and lighting candles. We went across the blood bridge and inside the cathedral. The cathedral had a wall filled with script that almost because the alphabet of croatia but never caught on.

Finally the market was open and ended up getting a small souvenir plate that was handmade on the island of Brac. It is beautifully painted with a white design. We also saw a group of Croatian men and women holding hands and dancing at the square.
Once again we were freezing so wanted tea – ended up at an argentinian café where we both had apricot tea and some cookies we got at the market. Wanting to eat lunch before getting on the bus at 1500 we started searching. Since it was cold I was interested in a place with indoor seating. We wound up at a pub called Medivedgrad Pivnica. I had cavapcicima which is a sandwich with minced meat and what I think was the ajvar (ketchup with a kick)….and of course pommes. Curt had goulash with homemade noodes and we both cleaned our plates.
We found the tram again and headed to the train station to regain our bags and find our platform. We bought bus tickets but had to pay 14 kuna for our bags to go underneath the bus!!! Whatever – atleast we found it. We passed by a lot of houses where you could see shrapnel marks from the war. The ride was 2 hours and 15 minutes. We were shoved off the bus into the rain at the bus stop right outside the park. We shuffled off to the Bellevue hotel but didn’t get there before being soaked.
After our night train ride we needed a nap before dinner. We didn’t get to explore because it was very cold and rainy and we were hoping for better the next day…..
Dinner was at a self-serve restaurant, think cafeteria. Spaghetti Bolognese was chosed by both of us with some fries and bread. It was….cafeteria food.