We were all so so tired this morning but managed to drag ourselves out of bed to make it to the airport early. Dave and I were leaving for Zagreb but Mike and Nicole were leaving later to take a train there because the airline messed up. We hopped in a cab and made it to the airport. Hungary is such a mess, really, its just housing blocks and piles of trash. The cab driver dropped us off and we made it through security very quickly. Not a lot going on in this airport. Dave and I sat and did random stuff, I straightened my hair, and bought some snacks, and around 8:40 it was time to board the plane. We departed from the gate on this bus that would take us to the plane, which was a prop. I was mildly nervous, but not really. There were 8 people on the entire flight, including us!! It went smoothly of course and we were landing in Zagreb 50 minutes later. We got kick ass stamps and the smallest airport ever and continued to the outside area to catch a bus to the city center. There we met 2 Americans from Florida who were on their way to Split – we will be there on Friday. The bus driver was very nice and we paid the 30 kuna to take the bus to the city center. It was quick ride, and it was funny to note that there were a large number of ham billboards on the road.
From the bus station we followed the worst possible directions to the hostel. They basically expected you to teleport from the bus to the train station without any mention of how to do so. We figured out how to ride the tram and managed to find the train station. From there it was quite a walk so we headed out – of course the tram that we just got off of was the one that was going down the street on which we were walking. Damn. Finally we got to the square that we were looking for – which was amazing because none of the street signs matched. We would come to find out that the way that maps write streets and the way the streets are actually labeled are pretty different great. And they also have an incredible amount of accents above all of their letters too.
The hostel was just out of the ssdaiop[ (Dave just almost destroyed my laptop by pushing a beer onto it – he pushed those keys – all good though). So the hostel was in a good location just out of the main square of the city. The owner of the hostel is just crazy man, talks a mile a minute, and put us in this room for 8 people. We dropped our things and set out to explore a little and went to look for lunch. The hostel man recommended croatian bbq, which I didnt even know existed. We found the place, right in the square, and sat down to have a meal. We ordered the mixed meat plate and sides of mushrooms and french fries. It was so delicious – tons of meat, mostly beef stuff and some pork all in this delicious bread. We left satisfied for 91 kuna. After that we explored the main street and road the fenicular railway up the large hill for <$1. It’s really amazing how those things work. At the top of the hill we started down and walked past old buildings and churches. Once, we were even ambushed by a church as it was under a building, a sort of tunnel in the road. there were pews in there and everything. Back at the hostel Matt was waiting for us, as it was 3pm, just as planned. He was hungry so we went back to the Croatian bbq and he had what we had had. from there we decided to walk around more to show Matt Zagreb. Dave was getting tired so Matt and I walked around and went shopping for about an hour. Then I started to get tired. We headed back and I tried to get to sleep but I just couldn’t go to bed – I don’;t like wasting time in another country by sleeping the day away. I decided to set out to go get some hair stuff. I ended up getting a bag too and I came back to the hostel at 7pm, which was what time they were planning on waking up. I found Dave standing at the alley way entrance because he had been asleep when I went out and was worried about me for some reason. Not really sure. Anyways, after that Dave and I went to the train station to pick up Mike and Nicole. We walked there and made it there very quickly. their train was only 12 minutes late and we were so glad to see them. We took them back to the hostel via the 6 tram and they showered and got ready for dinner.
Dinner came from a recommendation from the guy and the hostel. It was a fish restaurant (Korcula) and looked like it was going to be good. The menu was a bit extreme and it was hard to figure out what we were going to get. Dave and I ended up splitting the risotto and the octopus, which was the special of the place. the waiter was a good guy and we all had a great time with beers all around. After dinner we wanted to hit up a bar or something like that, seeing how it was st. patricks day. The streets looked dead but after a little walking we found a lounge type place that was still open. we went in and found a nice place to sit in the back. We enjoyed ourselves with some shots and some drinks and left as they were closing at 1am. Goodnight from Zagreb, st patricks day 2009!!
