Welcome to Croatia (day 1--Zagreb)

Oh Croatia. As i blog, the Beatles 'In my Life' randomly shuffles on. Though the message is about people and not places it is difficult to forget that first line: 'there are places i remember all my life though some have changed'. I rarely get cheesily nostalgic (well, maybe not), but i'm pretty certain i'll never be able to forget this Adriatic nation.

Perhaps mostly because I entered the dark season of my summer 2009 travels (life?); a week (that turned into months) marred by self-doubt, sadness and panic attacks. Not because of the place but omnipresent nonetheless. I think I saw much of the country in a haze, and still i found it enchanting. so that definitely says something.

A week after arriving home from Turkey, Jen and I ventured back out on the travelly path on our first 'proper' backpackers' adventure together. We toured roughly seven different cities/parts of the country in a little over a week, starting in Zagreb (due to a cheap flight or two) and winding our way down to Plitvice National Park, over to Zadar, coaching over to the island of Pag, 5am ferrying over to the island of Rab, puke ferrying over to Rijeka and then bussing to Venice via Slovenia (passport stamp, woo!), Trieste and final destination: canal-city Venezia.

Day One: The nation's capital, Zagreb
We had no intention of staying in Zagreb for longer than a few hours, but one of the joys of travelling on the cheap without pre-booking accomodation is that you must be flexible. After missing the only coach down to Plitvice we booked ourselves into a cavernous hostel at the edge of the city and made for pizza, cheap wine and a bit of a wander.

It was the first and only time we stayed in a hostel over the course of the country, and the experience was quiet, clean and cheap. definite benefits. see below for other highlights, which i couldn't possibly begin to name.



our first view of a city found whilst carrying a tote bag stuffed too full with the thoughts of the rainy london we'd just left


the sky matches the car!


my first flag sighting


central square close to the cathedral covered in lots of scaffolding




america needs more of these


gathering twilight

I think my favourite part of zagreb was sitting in an outdoor restaurant right next to a water fountain that turned into a let's wash our produce from the local market, bathe our dogs and start a large water fight all in one. People gathered. and talked. it felt so very budapest meets prague meets we're cooler because the sea is only a couple hundred kilometers away. and who could blame them?