A very busy couple days moving north in Croatia. We had a couple more hours in Split to walk around so we locked our bags up at the train station and wandered around town. There was a lot of beautiful old architecture in Split, but for the most part it seemed the town has been redesigned towards tourism. As it's still the off season, pretty much everything was closed, especially since it was Sunday. After picking up a bit of fruit, meat, cheese, and bread from the market for dinner (the meats and cheese have been really delicious here.. a good easy dinner when everything is closed!) we went back to the train station to wait for our night train. We spoke to a woman from Finland while we waited who has been travelling a lot since the 70s and gave us some great tips (and future destinations!) The train was fairly uneventful-- 9:15pm to 6:30am, a few card games, snacks, and sleep, and we were in Zagreb.
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| Historical area of Split |
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| Good morning, Zagreb! |
Night transportation is always a little disorienting because it usually involves so little sleep and arriving in a totally new city (sometimes country) very early in morning. We easily found our hostel in Zagreb and made a bit of breakfast to shake the post-night-train daze (eggs and coffee help). We spent the day getting the essentials done (laundry, buy more toothpaste: check!) and exploring the old city. Narrow roads big enough enough for the highly developed (and apparently free?) tram routes and bike lanes, stunning historical buildings, and really very beautiful graffiti that has been scattered throughout Croatia, all made for a wonderful afternoon and evening spent walking. We stopped by the farmers market and picked up some great looking vegetables and sausage, as well as some handmade pasta for dinner. We spent the evening cooking and relaxing with other travelers staying at the hostel.
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| A little too early for these in the market but still pretty delicious |
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| Graffiti in Zagreb |
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| Zagreb |
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| Probably the most interesting of the many many museums |
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| Cathedral with an amazing roof that looked like it was made from legos |
The next day we packed up and caught an afternoon bus heading to Varaždin, a small town about 80 km north of Zagreb where we met a family friend, Vlado. We spent a couple hours walking around Varaždin and then headed further north to Vlado's hometown of Mursko Središće, where he and his wonderful family so kindly offered to put us up for the night.
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| Varazdin |
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| Varazdin Castle |
After an incredibly delicious meal of sausage stuffed cabbage and mashed potatoes, we met a friend of the family named Christina from Slovenia. The house sits literally maybe 20 meters from the Slovenian border, so Vlado thought it would be fun for us to be able to cross over into Slovenia just for a couple hours and see a bit of the town of Lendava. With Christina as our guide we headed over the border. It was a fun walk around town, watching the sunset over Slovenia from a high hill. The town was filled with family owned vineyards so it was very peaceful and quiet. We walked around the castle in the center of Lendava, as well as a small chapel on a high hill. We also passed the world's oldest umbrella factory that has now become a museum (!).
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| Town center building-- apparently the two different sides represent the Slovenian and Hungarian populations in Lendava |
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| Umbrella museum |
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| View of the town |
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| Chapel on the hill, Lendava |
After heading back to Croatia, we spent the rest of the evening sitting in Vlado's kitchen enjoying the wonderful company. Tomorrow, Budapest!
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