Days 57 and 58

(Dan’s comments are italicized)

• Train to Zagrb

I try very hard not to complain as I realize how fortunate we are to be doing this fantastic trip. So, no complaints here…just a report.

The distance between Split and Zagreb is 210 km. The train was supposed to leave at 8:15 am but was half an hour late. The train was comfortable and it was much better than walking, but not much faster 😂 It was a bit like driving a car 210 km in first gear, but a bit more tedious. We went through some beautiful countryside, but were watching a storm approaching the whole way.

We were hoping to arrive in Zagreb before the storm, have already eaten, and been safely ensconced in our air bnb room. But it was not to be; the storm hit at around 3:30 (remember that it was only a 210 km journey)…

It was a brutal storm! We were worried we’d get soaked when we finally arrived in Zagreb 😂; chance would be a fine thing! At 4:00 we were only about 5 km from the station but the train had stopped on a bridge. We knew something was wrong when the men (including the train driver) started drinking. But everyone seemed to be laughing and having a jolly good time. They accept delays in full stride here. We could not join in because all the fun was in Croatian. However, we were invited to look out of the train driver’s window…

No wonder the driver had started drinking 😂. We couldn’t get out because we were on a highway bridge. But, by 4:45, at least the storm was over!

We, of course, were still stuck on the bridge.

At 6:10, we had MOVEMENT! It was backward, but it was movement! They somehow or other got us to Zagreb at around 6:45! 🎉

Walking around the next morning, we realized how bad yesterday’s storm had been…tree limbs were strewn around and broken glass and other things were everywhere. People were out early trying to fix everything.

As we walked, we got the feeling that Zagreb was in transition; there were beautiful buildings…

…yet many seemed to be hiding huge building projects going on

Often the building project couldn’t be hidden…

…or you could see stuff outside of buildings closed to the public and covered in scaffolding (in this instance, a cathedral)…

And even when things looked pretty, a closer inspection uncovered some problems.

We felt like, even though Croatia has been free from communism for decades, the country was in the middle of a war…part stuck in the dark and part trying to emerge into the light. It was weird and charming in a slightly off-kilter and semi-disturbing way.

Graffiti is everywhere in this city, but it can be very beautiful and meaningful.

The disparity of the city was so interesting…and then we found out why Zagreb is one huge building site. Three years ago, they were rocked by two earthquakes of 6.1 and 6.4 within six months and trying to fix things is a long and arduous process.

Things were starting to make more sense! So many buildings were closed to the public…

…at least the door was open to this one (though bars stopped you going in).

And another door was open beneath some scaffolding, and behind some plastic so I snuck in to see what was happening…repair work!

Although there were some obviously important things around the city, there were few explanations.

We know this is an old city gate.

On our way back to our room, we walked past a ‘yard’ that we can only assume is part of the archaeological museum (which is currently closed for repair). These 2,000 year old artifacts are in the open…

…though they have personalized little roofs over them as protection from the noontime sun or rain that falls at a 90°angle 😆

This was a good way to end our time in Zagreb; so much beauty and history but not quite explained or displayed effectively yet.

My takeaway from Zagreb is that it is a beautiful and wonderful city, but right now it is broken. Stores on Google maps were non-existent, trolley destinations suddenly change without notice, most monuments and attractions are closed indefinitely, big streets are oddly empty of traffic, but full of graffiti, broken window glass, and dislodged stucco.

A museum attendant said that she thought it would be about three more years before things returned to normal. I would love to revisit then.

Tomorrow, we try to get out of here…we found out today that there’s a problem with the railway line so no trains can leave the country. We have to take a bus to Slovenia to get the train 😲🤫 😆🤞