Day Three – 2.17.2009
We woke up and ate breakfast with our Australian roommate and then left to walk around the city one more time and take pictures. We found the open air market, which sells mostly fresh produce and clothing. An old lady with a sparse veggie stand approached us and asked where we were from and Andrew got a picture with her. (see picture) We also bought a bag of the best dried apples I have ever had, which lasted for the next week or so. Got to maintain your health.
We ate Döner for lunch, but there was definitely something weird about the restaurant; to begin with there were tinted sliding doors that were closed and extremely hard to open. There was also only a tiny kitchen space and no sitting place, but lots of space behind the kitchen and a back room. We had already talked about the idea that the restaurant was a front for some other less-than-legal business, when a man walked in and handed over some money for two packages wrapped in white paper and then left very quickly.
At the train station, we saw a big guy with a shaved head with “Skin Head” emb
roidered in large letters on his jacket. Our train was delayed, and we ended up running into our Egyptian roommate again, who was with a friend from Zagreb, our next stop. She was complaining that Slovenia was “the worst country in the world” and “what a stupid country”. On the train, she explained about all the tensions that exist between Slovenia and Croatia, largely having to with EU membership and wealth disparities. She and the border police who was checking passports on the train later shared a joke about Slovenia, which are apparently quite popular in Croatia. Many of the jokes have to do with the small size of Slovenia, for instance: “If you open an umbrella in Ljubljana, you poke the eye of a person in Zagreb” and “If a tourist lies with their feet in the water off the coast, their head reaches into Italy.” I’ll let you be the judge of the actual comedic value of these jokes.
Another interesting thing to note is that, although she spoke excellent English, seemed to have some money and was well-educated, she had never been to the US because it is too hard to get a travel visa. We encountered numerous people throughout the trip who said the same thing. It’s a shame that these English-speaking citizens of other countries cannot feasibly visit the US and learn what it is like.
We arrived in Zagreb, but only had 3 hrs until our night train to Sarajevo, Bosnia. We wanted to leave the station to get something to eat, so we decided to put our packs into a locker. After depositing the coins the locker didn’t open and an old man stopped by to see if he could help. He spoke absolutely no English, so all communication was done with hand motions. He explained to the man in charge of the lockers what happened, but the man said there was nothing that can be done. Eventually we stored our packs in the guy's office and headed out into the blizzard for a few dozen meters to the underground shopping mall to get dinner. In the mall, we saw the same old man who had helped us with our lockers walking around aimlessly (this chance encounter is important to the rest of the narrative because this old man plays a key role in our travels…stay tuned!). We bought some beer and a whole cooked chicken and brought it all back to the station to eat it. Two security guards informed us that we could not drink beer in the station (although there were no signs to indicate that). A little later, the same guards walked by smoking cigarettes in front of a sign that clearly indicated smoking was not allowed. This was a theme throughout the Balkans…I have never seen so many smokers in my life! I have traveled in Europe before, but western and central Europe just don’t compare at all. It seems to be a significant part of the culture, with a pack costing less than $1.25 and smoking allowed almost everywhere.
We finally boarded our night train and eventually fell asleep.
Observations about Zagreb:
· Some people speak English, but not nearly as many as in Slovenia
· Making out in public seemed to be a major activity
· Did not seem to be any other backpackers in the train station and we seemed to be something of a spectacle
· In the station, we sat next to a member of the Croatian Olympic bobsled team
Day Three – 2.17.2009
We woke up and ate breakfast with our Australian roommate and then left to walk around the city one more time and take pictures. We found the open air market, which sells mostly fresh produce and clothing. An old lady with a sparse veggie stand approached us and asked where we were from and Andrew got a picture with her. (see picture) We also bought a bag of the best dried apples I have ever had, which lasted for the next week or so. Got to maintain your health.
We ate Döner for lunch, but there was definitely something weird about the restaurant; to begin with there were tinted sliding doors that were closed and extremely hard to open. There was also only a tiny kitchen space and no sitting place, but lots of space behind the kitchen and a back room. We had already talked about the idea that the restaurant was a front for some other less-than-legal business, when a man walked in and handed over some money for two packages wrapped in white paper and then left very quickly.
At the train station, we saw a big guy with a shaved head with “Skin Head” emb
roidered in large letters on his jacket. Our train was delayed, and we ended up running into our Egyptian roommate again, who was with a friend from Zagreb, our next stop. She was complaining that Slovenia was “the worst country in the world” and “what a stupid country”. On the train, she explained about all the tensions that exist between Slovenia and Croatia, largely having to with EU membership and wealth disparities. She and the border police who was checking passports on the train later shared a joke about Slovenia, which are apparently quite popular in Croatia. Many of the jokes have to do with the small size of Slovenia, for instance: “If you open an umbrella in Ljubljana, you poke the eye of a person in Zagreb” and “If a tourist lies with their feet in the water off the coast, their head reaches into Italy.” I’ll let you be the judge of the actual comedic value of these jokes.
Another interesting thing to note is that, although she spoke excellent English, seemed to have some money and was well-educated, she had never been to the US because it is too hard to get a travel visa. We encountered numerous people throughout the trip who said the same thing. It’s a shame that these English-speaking citizens of other countries cannot feasibly visit the US and learn what it is like.
We arrived in Zagreb, but only had 3 hrs until our night train to Sarajevo, Bosnia. We wanted to leave the station to get something to eat, so we decided to put our packs into a locker. After depositing the coins the locker didn’t open and an old man stopped by to see if he could help. He spoke absolutely no English, so all communication was done with hand motions. He explained to the man in charge of the lockers what happened, but the man said there was nothing that can be done. Eventually we stored our packs in the guy's office and headed out into the blizzard for a few dozen meters to the underground shopping mall to get dinner. In the mall, we saw the same old man who had helped us with our lockers walking around aimlessly (this chance encounter is important to the rest of the narrative because this old man plays a key role in our travels…stay tuned!). We bought some beer and a whole cooked chicken and brought it all back to the station to eat it. Two security guards informed us that we could not drink beer in the station (although there were no signs to indicate that). A little later, the same guards walked by smoking cigarettes in front of a sign that clearly indicated smoking was not allowed. This was a theme throughout the Balkans…I have never seen so many smokers in my life! I have traveled in Europe before, but western and central Europe just don’t compare at all. It seems to be a significant part of the culture, with a pack costing less than $1.25 and smoking allowed almost everywhere.
We finally boarded our night train and eventually fell asleep.
Observations about Zagreb:
· Some people speak English, but not nearly as many as in Slovenia
· Making out in public seemed to be a major activity
· Did not seem to be any other backpackers in the train station and we seemed to be something of a spectacle
· In the station, we sat next to a member of the Croatian Olympic bobsled team
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