Zagreb and My Birthday

My last night in Dubrovnik, I said goodbye to my hosting family and watched the soccer game with the dad until he was completely passed out on the couch. I didn't think it was appropriate to snap a picture of it, but it was pretty funny.

The next morning I had to get up pretty early to start my travels out of Dubrovnik. I had to take the 7:20 bus to the station, the 8:00 bus to Split, and then the 3:06 train to Zagreb. By the end of all that, I just wanted to get in bed. Walking through Dubrovnik at night was just as cool as the first time, and when I saw the outdoor bar and giant television, I knew that the next night's game was going to be crazy (Croatia vs. Germany).

I had some initial troule finding my hostel, but I eventually did find it after ten minutes of intense cursing and gritting of my teeth. After grabbing some pizza I hit the sack around one.

I was pretty tired the next morning from travelling still, so even though I did walk around Zagreb's serene gardens and squares, I spent the majority of the day in a bookstore browsing around. Sometimes it's nice just to relax and not feel pressured to do anything. There's a few things about Zagreb that I really, really like.

1) In the main area, there are no cars - only trams. This means that there is little to no noise in the center, besides the clangs of bustling cafes and hums of moving trams. It makes it seem a lot more pedestrian friendly.

2) Everywhere you look, cafe tables line the streets and people are constantly sitting at them socializing over wine, coffee, tea or beer. It's a very social city, and I'm not sure how its inhabitants can afford such liberal drinking habits, but it's cool nonetheless. It has a better cafe atmosphere than in Paris.

3) The city is green. The main drag is split by botanical gardens, and trees hang over the streets in many places. At night, the gardens light up and it looks spectacular.

Besides these three reasons, the buildings are old and elegant, and the city is kept very clean.

My second night there was the huge game against Germany. I had to move hostels after my first night because they were so booked, so I didn't have anyone to go to the game with. It was alright though because once I got to the square, it was packed with people watching the opening minutes of the game. When Croatia scored it's second goal, the place went nuts. People lit up flares and were throwing them, beer bottles were flying overhead, and the Croatian anthem was being sung by everyone there (except me, who just sounded off random vowels and guessed the tune - no one noticed). After we won it got even crazier, and a band played till late in the night. I'll get a video up here in a little bit.

I'd like to take the time now to apologize to Stefan. Under any other circumstances, I would be rooting for Germany. I am sad to report that I will be in Vienna when Germany plays Austria in Vienna, and I will be cheering for Austria. Please know that it's only because I plan to leave Austria alive, and waving the German flag in the heart of Vienna will surely guarantee and ass kicking of enormous proportions.

I consider that night to be my birthday celebration, because yesterday was a bit of a dud. I woke up real early (and feeling it pretty bad from the night before) to get on an eight hour train ride to Budapest. I met an older couple from Australia (who gave me some lettuce and olives when I said I was starving) who insisted that we go out to dinner for my Birthday. We split ways once we got into the city, and met back up a few hours later.

We ended up going to "Don Pepe", which is basically the Chi-Chi's of Europe. Even though they are massive tourists (complaining loudly about the smoke in the restuarant, nose buried in a map, walking out into moving traffic, talking unbelievably loud, walking in strange places just to use a bathroom) they are fun people, and I enjoyed the light-hearted company after a day of traveling. They took me out for a birthday drink after, and after that I came back to the hostel and went to bed.

The hostel I am staying in now is really nuts. It's basically someone's apartment (again), but it's less someones home and more someone's hostel. A young couple run it, and right now I basically have the kitchen, computer, lounge, TV, and bedroom all to myself. It's nice to sit back and relax in silence for once. Silence is hard to come by when traveling like this.

Today I'll be exploring Budapest and taking loads of pictures, I'll report back and have them up soon. Thanks for all the birthday wishes, all. It's nice to know I'm being thought about all the way back home.