From Croatia to the biggest hideout in Europe - Slovenia

An early start for me. Strolled down the Lower Zagreb in the direction of the train station, trying to grab some breakfast along the way, only to find out that Croatians don't tend to have breakfast outside! A quick detour to the train station and managed to get a 1pm train to Ljubljana for 90.20 KN. On my way back to Trg Jelacica Square, bought some bread from a local pastry shop and a coffee at the trusty Mcdonalds when I feel that I am in a risk-adverse mode for my caffeine fix.

Headed straight for the Dolac vegetable market in Upper Zagreb and was not disappointed by the hustle and bustle of a local market. Scores of stalls hawking their freshest produce, from apples to cauliflower to reddish. It was an explosion of colors with a infuse of bargaining everywhere, and goods exchanging hands. Very interesting to see that all the stalls were still using traditional weighing scales. I bought couple of pears and bananas before continuing my journey.

Think I am getting stale with the Old towns and cathedrals as I did not spend much time after before whisking back to the hostel, took my bag and headed towards the train station. Exchanged remaining 100 KN back to Euros (with a terrible rate) before probing a few locals if the train on platform 1 was to Ljubljana.

Got 2 other stamps at the border crossing in Dobova - Yay! I will really recommend anyone to take the train from Zagreb to the Slovenian capital - it twist and turn with the river and along with it, magnificent views of snow capped mountains and deep ravines across tiny pots of villages. Some of them are quite nice although I won't day that they are magical, but definitely a good change from the cityscape that I have been getting used to.

Hostel Celica is quite famous in Ljubljana (so much so that there is road signs directing drivers to the hostel!) as it was converted from a prison building and the rooms in the first level are constructed in such a way that they retain the prison cell feel - with the steel bar gates still intact. I booked the cheaper option of a 5 bed dorm which is on the 2nd level and has its own ensuite toilet/bathroom, although it feels quite claustrophobic as 3 single beds and 1 double deck bed was squeezed into it with a sloping roof on one end. 3 other German guys were my dorm mates and they seem happy to be just drinking around all day. Paid €15 for a night which included breakfast but I felt some of its other services could definitely been better, i.e. Wifi or internet is only free for 30 min, after which it is chargeable, the lady-in-charge at the reception refused to give me the keys to the room until I gave €10 as deposit even though I assured to pass her the amount later when I come back from tonight as I have run out of Euros. Ended up I had to walk out to the main road, withdraw more cash and come back again for the deposit!

As usual, headed to the Old Town, pass the dragon bridge where it was rumored that Jason and the Argonauts were rowing up the river trying to escape from enemies before he met and killed a dragon at that very spot! There were quite a lot of cafes lined at along the banks of the river and cafes seem to be part of the local culture. The town is quite small and the highlight has to be the climb up the castle which overlook the entire city, right across to the not-too-distant snow capped mountains. Bumped into Nicholle along the way, a Malaysian who is also working in London (we met at the reception in the hostel) and strolled around her Italian dorm buddy who has been staying in the city for 1 week, which meant he literally knew the place by the back of his head. Even chanced upon a Slovenian wedding that was taking pictures in and around the castle.

It turned out that we got along very well as she was also the same dialect group as I and was chatting about the food that we miss from home. She even related a past travel experience which turned out to be one of the one of the stories with the most wonderful ending that I have ever heard; long story short - she was in Bratislava, accidentally left her bag with money, cards, passport and everything important in the tram just before she was leaving for Wien, met a guy who offered to host her for the night, and happened to have a sister who has a policeman boyfriend, did his internal connections thing and voila, got her handbag back the next day with everything intact while the brother was showing her around in the city! Frankly I find it hard to believe but goes to show that there are really nice people in this world! :)

We went to a Slovenian restaurant, Sokol for dinner and almost ordered their specialty dish - Deep fried bull testicles with tartar sauce, but both of us chickened out in the end and ordered some other more subtle Slovenian dish. The restaurant is quite famous as they have waiters dressed in the traditional Slovenian costumes coming around to take your orders and serve the food. Nicholle's Italian mate did not join us as he wanted to have a romantic dinner with her, which she got me as an excuse to avoid! We headed back to the hostel to rest for an early morning bus ride to Bled the next morning.

Link to all photos in Zagreb and Slovenia.

A hot sulphuric bath

Got up and Mayumi was already all set to leave for another remote Hungarian town before she got an email to meet her friend in Budapest. Jeez, I thought I was making last minute plans, she was even more last minute than I thought! :)

As there isn't much else for me to see in town, I decided to head out to Harkány which is famous for the thermal baths since the 18th century for a nice dip in the chilly but sunny morning. Walked to the nearby bus station and paid 450 Ft for a 45min ride south close to a tiny little town/village off the borders of Croatia. Accidentally walked into the spa resort through the back gates (which was opened!) without paying and ended up been escorted by the pool guards to the official entrance to pay. Apparently the waters here have the most sulphuric content in Hungary and famed to be medically good for people.

After paying 1900 Ft which I found later that I was quoted double the price since I was only using the public bath area, I soaked myself into the comfortable 33 degrees water that smells horribly bad. Reminds me of the last and only time when we enjoyed outdoor thermal pool at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, only that this is not as good, and there is no special mud to apply on your face or body. As you might have guessed, I was basically surrounded by seniors and I think I was the youngest person in the pool until a little boy came along with his dad. A fitness instructor of some sort came along after and with the help of some very relaxing music, began to get the whole pool into some chilled exercises and stretching, which was very well received by the crowd.

By 12.30pm, I was back in Pecs bus station walking back to the hostel to pick up my bag. Stopped by a kebab place Oazis on way to the train station and had one of the best kebab wrap ever (2nd only to those that I had in Istanbul), and only costs 550 Ft - highly recommended! Bought a train ticket to Zagreb for 5180 Ft from a lady at the counter who took so much pride in her work that she was meticulously using a ruler to cancel out sections on the ticket above her extremely neat headwriting. Got onto a train full of students going back/somewhere for the weekend. Passed by large swaths of greenery as well as snow covered fields as the weather struggled to decide what it wanted to be. Stopped by a village called Gyekenyes, which was effectively the border between Hungary and Croatia. Waited for my connecting train for an hour and half before boarding the final train to Zagreb. Had my first passport stamps by the border guards as they inspected the train with the huge guns and dogs! I guess the "rotten eggs" smell from my thermal bath played a part to turn the dog away immediately!

Arrived into Zagreb half an hour later than original due to the long checks at the borders and spent another 30 min before getting to Hobo Bear Hostel which was in the intersection of the Upper and Lower Zagreb, about 800m away from the main Trg Jelacica Square. A bunch of backpackers from down under taking advantage of the 10 KN (€1 = 7.5 KN) local beer during Friday happy hours. Paid my outstanding for the 1 night stay and dropped my backpack off in the room before shooting out for a quick walk around town.

Surprisingly, it was rather quiet on a night leading up to the weekend. Unlike some of the cities that I came across, this was tame compared, which also means that there wasn't much option for dinner as well. Since it is expected to be a short stay in the capital, I did not want to draw too much kunas and ended up in a Italian place behind the hostel with a massively huge Funghi pizza, which did the job of overloading my hungry stomach, and not much else. No night shots tonight as the weather turned really chilly and felt like -5 degrees under the snow fall and lashing winds.

Pics from Croatia trip

Visited Croatia over the Easter weekend, in specific the Dalmatia coast. Arrived at Split airport and rented a simple B&B along the small Postrana town. Rented a car and drove all the way down to Dubrovnik, Makarska, Ston, Trogir and even took a ferry to the island of Brac for a day trip. The driving was pretty fun as the roads were extremely narrow and along the edge, and that makes you have to be 101% concentrated at any point in time. Interesting bit was that we actually have to cross through Bosnia on the journey to Dubrovnik.

Food was kinda boring after the 2nd day as it was constantly pasta, pizza or seafood. Although some of them are quite nice except for the last dinner we had in the Diocletian Palace ruins. Ordered a fish stew and after 1 hour, the plate came out to be more of a steam fish rather than anything close to a stew.

Enjoy the pics