Zagreb & Split - Croatia

ZAGREB

There is so much to tell about Croatia I had to split the stories into 2 posts: Zagreb and Split (Part I) and Dubrovnik (Part II). Croatia, another nation which was once part of Yugoslavia, is a very diverse country. There are not only geographical differences between an inland city like Zagreb from a coastal city like Dubrovnik but also differences in the character of its people. The vast history (which includes a bloody war not too long ago) of Croatia´s regions could also have me writting for days. Recall that the war between Croats and Serbs in this part of the world(Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina) for total independence, where over 100,000 people were killed and up to 3,000,000 people were displaced, ended only towards the end of 1,995. I arrived to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, after taking a 3 hour train from Ljubljana. On that day a cold front was hitting eastern Europe. It was snowing hard when I left Slovenia and it snowed all along the train ride. Everywhere I looked there was snow: on the foot of the hills, on the mountains, on the rooftops, on the sidewalks and on the streets. I arrived around noon. Since I was taking the overnight train to Split that same night, I left my luggage in the lockers at the train station.

Snowy road to Zagreb - Zagreb


Old Town in Zagreb, Cathedral in the back

Zagreb is a big commercial city which looks like many of the other western Europe cities I visited. The whole metropolitan area has close to 1.1 million inhabitants making it the most populated city in Croatia. Contrary to what I was expecting Zagreb seems to have quickly recuperated from the damaged caused not only by close to 4 years of an Independence war during the 90´s but also from the more than 40 years of a communist regime. Something that is for example more palpable in cities like Warsaw. I was also surprised by the fact that everywhere you go in Zagreb people speak English. I stopped at a random bakery to get a cup of coffee and a pastry and the lady at the counter was able to even suggest a Croatian pastry and tell me what it was made up: something that you sometimes have difficulties finding in a bakery in Miami.

Zagreb´s city center is rather small and can be explored in a couple of hours. The whole time that I was there it rained and it was freezing cold. I had to stop from time to time and look for refuge inside different shops to avoid catching a cold. I visited Zagreb´s cathedral, a neo-gothic cathedral with 2 very tall and distinctive towers which can be seen from anywhere in the city, the fresh produce market, the National Theater,and the University buildings. Right after the sun set the temperature dropped even more and it became too cold for my taste. I headed back to the train station to wait for my 11 o´clock at night departure. And let me tell you that the almost 3 hours I waited in the station were.....interesting to say the least. I always had my suspicions that train stations are a magnet for weird and strange people but on that night I confirmed it. The ticket office at the train station, the one that is manned by real people, stays open 24 hours in Zagreb (the first time I see this) so I sat on the chairs next to it to enjoy a sandwich for dinner and read a couple of chapters of my book. A few weird characters came to ask me some things but I sent them away politely and easily. Most of them were either homeless people or older and lonely people just looking for someone to talk to. I saw them repeating the same routine with other people at the station. The police was continuously making its rounds around the station and to be honest I always felt very safe. Then a younger women who seemed to be waiting for a train approached me and talked to me in another language. I assumed she was talking Croatian but from the signs she was making I figured she wanted to know if the seat next to mine was free. I nodded with my head and told her I did not speak any Croatian (in English). She sat down and asked if I spoke German. When I told her that yes, I spoke some German she broke down and started to cry. Once she stopped crying she was able to tell me that she was heading to Munich from Belgrade (Serbia) with her husband (he was trying to enter the European Union illegally) and they were caught on the train, they had been removed from the train, he was sent back to Belgrade and she missed her connection to Munich and had to wait now about 4 hours in Zagreb for the next train to Munich. She was somewhat scared to be at the train station with all the freaks and weirdos so I stayed with her until her train arrived to the station about 30 minutes before mine. During the time we waited together for our respective trains she told me about the discrimination she suffers to find a good job because of her origin and her beliefs. She wears a turban which covers her hair and she has been asked by several potential employers if she would stop wearing it to the potential workplace. After she tells them No, she does not get the job. After that eye opening conversation with the girl from Romania I took my train to Split. I was very lucky that the train was not full so I was able to get a compartment by myself. I said I was lucky because this train had no couchettes (the compartments with bunk beds for you to sleep). It only had seats and since I was by myself I was able to sleep across the 3 seats.

SPLIT

I arrived in the city of Split at around 8 o´clock in the morning. I was very tired from having slept uncomfortably on the train´s seat and headed straight to the hostel where I was staying and slept a couple of hours on the comfort of a bed. Split is the second largest city in Croatia. It lies on the Adriatic coast in the region known as Dalmatia. The Diocletian´s Palace, Split´s pride and joy, dates back to the year 300 AD and it was built as a retirement palace for the Roman Emperor Diocletian. It is located right in front of the water and it has a lot of well preserved ruins. Lots of other Roman ruins can be seen all over the Old Town. Even though it continued to rain all day long I walked all over the Old part of town, climbed up to the top of the Cathedral´s bell tower for the most amazing views of the city, visited the cathedral and walked along its wide and recently renovated boulevards close to the water. Since it was eastern Sunday most, if not all, of the shops were closed and the streets were also pretty empty. I could only imagine how these boulevards, together with its many restaurants and shops, get filled with tourists and locals (probably just tourists) on the sunny and rainless summer days.

Bell Tower

View of Split from top of Bell Tower

Old Town ' Walls from Diocletian Palace

I found the people in Split to be extremely nice and welcoming. Everyone was very friendly and helpful to me. In Split, as in the rest of Croatia´s Adriatic coast, most of the budget accommodations are in the form of private home accommodations. People transform a couple of rooms in their homes into rooms for rent. In some instances you have your own private bathroom, some other times you have to share it, and usually you have access to the kitchen so that you can buy food, keep it in the frig and cook it later on. The people at "The best" hostel where I stayed for example were super nice. They gave me all sorts of information and suggestion about things to do, places to visit and restaurants/cafeterias where to eat. They really do go out of their way to make your stay in their city as pleasant as possible. They told me for example that I could not leave Split without trying a "borek": a cheese or meat pastry, which I later found out is from Serbian origin, that is eaten all over Croatia. That is why early on Monday morning I had the chance to try one (a cheese one) before embarking on a 5 hour long bus ride to Dubrovnik.