Day 12 - Zagreb, Croatia to Ljubljana, Slovenia - 3273

We woke after a poor night's sleep in our pokey, stuffy room, probably the worst of the holiday and couldn't wait to get underway. Zagreb was one of our favourite places on the journey but unfortunately the same couldn't be said for the hotel. Checking out was a more pleasant task than our arrival and the two desk clerks were polite and friendly. Kit had gone to the car first and I met him on my way out. He was, of course, waving a parking ticket which he furiously presented to the hotel staff. He doesn't get annoyed very often so watching him was a novelty of sorts. The staff didn't raise any protest and we got the distinct impression they dealt with this sort of thing all the time.

Our first task before departing was buying a Croatian breakfast of Burek, which is a famous pastry generally filled with cheese, meat or apple. We were told that Burek is Croatia's national breakfast dish so it was the obvious choice. We bought far too much of the delicious looking pastries and some were freshly baked and still warm. We didn't have our dictionary with us and had no idea what we had bought. Unfortunately, all the Burek were filled with sheep's cheese and Kit wasn't at all impressed. We ate in the car on our way and departed Zagreb in the rain which persisted for most of the journey.



The sat nav was set to avoid toll roads and we crossed the border from Croatia to Slovenia in a little village within sight of an enormous and very busy motorway border crossing. Leaving Croatia and entering Slovenia felt like entering Western Europe again. The blonde-haired and blue-eyed Slovenian border guard looked Germanic and spoke with an Italian twang to his accent. He was so obviously not a Slav and as the day unfolded it became obvious we were back in the west. The Slovenian countryside was mountainous and strikingly beautiful but the Sat Nav kept sneaking us on and off the motorways in between toll points. Initially this was quite entertaining but after a couple of hours of slow progress we decided to buy a vignette so we could complete the journey to Ljubljana in a more straight-forward and speedy fashion. We stopped in a motorway service station to buy the vignette, which cost seven euros, our usual chocolate supply and a car sticker for our guitar case.

We arrived at our hotel to find it was a sports centre with numerous lithe people entering and leaving dressed in an array of garish licra clothing. Kit and I laughed because it was so obviously not our kind of place. There was a gym on the second floor with glass panels for walls so you could see people hard at work on their abs or whatever such people work on while ignoring their brains. We struggled to understand why the place was also a hotel but the poor dears obviously needed a lie down after all that work. The desk clerk who was of the sporty sort took us in with a distasteful, disapproving look on her face and clearly decided to treat us with disdain. She was rude, too quick with her information and gone before we could ask a question. We couldn't be bothered responding and got on with finding our room but Slovenia wasn't endearing itself to us.

Having arrived earlier than we had planned we decided to have a sleep and lo and behold we woke to a sunny afternoon. We took a bus into the city which has a reputation for being one of Europe's prettiest but by the time we arrived the clouds had gathered again and our walk took place in grey, dull light under threatening skies. Maybe it was the weather or maybe we missed our Slavic soul brothers and sisters but Ljubljana didn't exactly get under our skin. The town centre is compact and a pleasant enough walk but we were once again outsiders looking in. The city was also strangely quiet and devoid of population.



We decided to do the obvious tourist activity and took a short funicular railway costing 3 Euros up to the castle which overlooks the city. The view of the city with the alps dressed in threatening cloud was really quite something and at this point we began to warm to Ljubljana although the weather began to turn decidedly cool. We didn't fancy a walk round the castle museum or a look round the souvenir shop so decided to head back down to the city to hunt for a hot drink and a record shop. We sat inside a bar and had excellent coffee and Earl Grey tea served by a much-tattooed and pierced barman. I asked him to recommend a few Slovene bands but judging from the names he gave me the recommendations were of the death metal variety. He told us there was a record shop nearby but also that he thought it would be closed and we realised the day had almost gone. We strolled round to the record shop without much hope of Slovene purchases but found a fabulous, traditional store with only a small death metal section. The shop assistant was most helpful and let us listen to a large pile of CDs most of which were rubbish but I settled on 2 brilliant purchases; the alternative guitar rock of Ana Pupedan and the modern folk of Brina.

As darkness fell there was only the task of eating left. Ljubljana has a host of restaurants and we intended to take a good look at a few before deciding which one to eat in but we tired of that plan and chose the second one we looked at. It was a good choice. Kit had a cream of garlic soup to start and I had a mushroom soup served inside a loaf of bread.



I had stuffed squid served with potato and spinach for my main course and Kit had veal steaks au gratin. I don't think either dish was particularly authentic from an ethnic point of view so feeling slightly guilty about not having chosen authentic local food for our meal we ask the waiter to recommend some local puddings. Kit had stuffed pancakes with a chocolate sauce and I had a traditional Slovene layer cake. The first mouthful of my dish was delicious but it was very rich and progressive bites got harder to enjoy.


After taking the bus back to our hotel we watched the athletes hard at work in their gym for a good minute or so. There has to be something desperate about wanting to exercise in full view of the outside world. Despite the sight being far from pretty we had a nightmare-free sleep. We decided to save our song for Ljubljana until tomorrow morning. Maybe the weather will be kinder.