What did we love about Zagreb? Our accommodation for one. We had booked an apartment on Airbnb, not actually knowing anything about the area it was in and this hadn’t always worked out for us in the past. This time however, we were super lucky. It might not have been in the hustle and bustle of the city which meant we had to walk quite far to get anywhere, but inside we felt like we were living in luxury.
With a huge, fancy TV in one corner, a massive kitchen with Nespresso coffee maker and pods on hand and a kitchen filled with other awesome appliances; we were spoilt for choice on what to cook. Not only that, but the bed had these amazing lights underneath and a rain shower in the bathroom to top it all off.
It actually felt more like staying in a fancy 5 star hotel than someone’s apartment. This didn’t happen to us very often on our trip, but when it did, we were so grateful. I think in my Airbnb review afterwards I even called it the Best Apartment Ever.
The apartment also had something that would become very important to us as we continued on our journey and the temperatures outside just rose and rose – an aircon. We would have never survived Europe in summer without a aircons wherever we could find them!
We woke up on our first full day in Zagreb to a sky full of clouds and decided last minute that today would be the day that we took a bus trip out to Plitvice Lakes National Park. I had been worried about when we would have the time to do it, so it just made sense to do it on an overcast day when it wouldn’t be so hot. Doing it last minute though, found us rushing around and trying to get ready in a hurry. Not only that, but we wanted to take an Uber, so we wouldn’t have to wait for trams or run etc. and this was the day that the Uber driver kept going up the wrong streets and the time kept changing between 2 minutes and 15 minutes until he got to us and stressed us out enormously. Eventually though, he got there and we got to the bus station with 15 minutes to spare. The only problem was, Luch really needed to pee. Since we had been on a few buses by this point already, I told him to just go on the bus. As it turned out though, this bus didn’t have a toilet and Luch couldn’t find one at the seriously busy station.
We finally managed to find someone who spoke some English and they duly explained that the bus would be stopping in 50 minutes, so he would only have to hold it until then. Not the best solution in the world, but luckily he could make it. Admittedly, he was the first person to run off the bus as those doors opened and I’m sure he would have knocked people out of the way to be the first one in the bathroom, but the relief is immense. There is nothing quite like the fear of not being able to find a bathroom when you really need one. Add in the fact that you don’t know the area and don’t speak the language and you have multiple problems on your hands.
When we arrived at Plitvice Lake National Park, we realised that we had done everything last minute, so I hadn’t booked tickets online like I normally would have. When we saw the queues at the gate, we saw that the queue for buying tickets was actually shorter than those with online tickets. It was also moving pretty fast. Luckily for us. We all had to wait around until the specific time on your ticket which is when they would open the gate for a certain amount of tourists, so we were happy to get in with the first rush of people.
And boy were there a lot of people. By about an hour into our walking around, Luch and I had already renamed the park Plitvice People Park because that is exactly what it felt like. I had been so excited to see the many lakes and waterfalls that the park had to offer, but felt slightly overwhelmed trying to walk on these wooden walkways and pass people while trying all the time not to fall into the water.
The absolute worst was the inconsiderate people who would stop to take photos in the middle of the pathway, so no one could get past them and they would just take their sweet time about it. It was so crazy busy, that I would literally just take photos while I was walking without stopping, and they still came out just fine. Luch and I did always like to watch the people that were clearly trying to get the perfect shot for Instagram and would flick their hair back and forth for every second photo.
When I listen to the recording I made on the day, all I could talk about were the queues. It was the day of queues and waiting. Waiting in the queue outside the park to get in, waiting in the queue outside the bathroom and then again waiting in the queue to get on the boat that would take us around the biggest lake and at the end the train (which was actually a bus, but they called it a train) to get back to exit the park.
There were not enough buses for all the people that wanted to get to the exit of the park and we knew we were running out of time and the bus back to Zagreb was coming soon, so we just had to push on and stand for the entire 15 minute journey back to the park exit. It was one of the worst experiences, with us all crammed in the aisle, trying to hold on with one hand while holding our jackets and bag with the other hand, while this bus went down these seriously steep and bumpy roads and try not to fall down. By the end of the trip, my arm was actually stiff from holding on so tightly.
When we got back, we had to walk down the side of a busy highway to get to our bus. Good thing that Luch decided to ask someone which side to stand on, as we started out on the wrong side. We still doubted ourselves for a few minutes before it finally arrived. I could have wept tears of pure gratitude when it did arrive though. After walking all day and being almost engulfed by all the tourists around us, I was so happy to just sit down and put my feet up.
The next day, we got up incredibly early because our train was only leaving at 3:30 pm, so we wanted to get in a whole day of sightseeing around Zagreb. We really wanted to go to the Mushroom museum which has over 1500 different kinds of mushrooms, so that was the first place we walked to. We were very sad to discover that it was in fact closed for renovations. Instead, we decided to walk through a market, walk through the Upper Town with all it’s restaurants and wanted to take the funicular, but ended up walking it instead.
We were so happy to find the Gric tunnel though. It was purely by accident that we found it, but it was so cool inside being underground, that we found ourselves walking through it multiple times that day just to cool off. It also had public toilets which was a lifesaver for a tourist like me. We also found ourselves in an Art Park which had apparently been an abandoned park before some artists got together and decided to turn it into an outdoor art gallery with spray painted artwork on every surface they could find.
We managed to get photos and videos of all the main attractions around time and made it back to the train station with plenty of time to spare before our train arrived. We were actually so happy to see that the train arrived early, because we assumed that would mean that we would at the very least leave on time. Oh no, that was not the case. We left a good hour after we were supposed to and somehow kept getting more and more delayed as we continued on our journey. What was supposed to be a 6 hour journey turned very slowly into a 9 hour journey instead.
One thing I can say about Croatia and Italy in general is, at least they are consistent in their lateness. You know for a fact that nothing is going to run on time, so just be prepared for a delay every time you have to go somewhere. Even the Uber and Taxi drivers never arrive on time.
If I have learnt one thing on our two month journey around Europe, it most assuredly is patience. 🙂
