June 3rd, Bus Vienna to Zagreb

6/3       Monday

Up and Out! We get up early to get the tram to the metro, to our Eurolines bus for Zagreb. It’s no Student Agency, but it’s pretty comfy. We have a grey day, but the countryside still looks really appealing. There are small farms, plantings of corn and wheat growing on the steep hills around the small towns. We travel through woods into Slovenia, then come to a customs stop at the border. We all get off the bus and have our passports checked, and we get a stamp for exiting Slovenia, of the EU. We get back on the bs and travel about a block, then get off the bus again for the customs guard for Croatia, who gives us a stamp for entry into Croatia, non-EU. A city never shows it’s best side at the bus station, so it all looks a bit raggedy and grey, especially in the drizzly rain, so we always withhold our judgment until we really see a place. Marco, our landlord, comes to pick us up. He’s very nice, 40’s maybe, very modern and educated. He gives us the general layout of the city as he drives us to our apartment. We’re just outside the main city, in a neighborhood that’s mostly residential with some office buildings around us. The new National Library is a block away, that’s our view from the balcony. Our place is just right, a small, very chic little one-bedroom apartment, all very new and uncluttered. We take a walk around a few blocks, where we find dozens of coffee cafes, where every sits out on the sidewalk with coffees or drinks, but not food. There are several little doner or pizza take-outs, and a few more upscale restaurants. There are lots of college age people on one street; we hear bits of English floating through the air. For tonight, we stop at the little grocery across the street from our place and work our way through the labels to get some yogurt, juice and cereal for breakfasts, and some pasta and sauce for dinner. The young shop girl is pretty patience as we poke around the very small shop trying to figure out what we’re getting. We manage to find mostly what we need, although we do end up with buttermilk again.

 1 Video included

 Bus Vienna to Zagreb