We departed Novi Sad reluctantly with a slow breakfast and our feet dragging all the way to the car. Sonja and Nebojša met us at the hotel and led us out of the city. We stopped for petrol and topped up with Serbian chocolate to sustain us. I still had quite a lot of dinar to spend and regretted not buying myself a t-shirt yesterday. We bought a bottle of Serbian wine and a car sticker for our guitar case but there is only so much you can buy in a garage. We had the idea of buying a sticker for the guitar case in each country and plaster it with evidence of our travels back in England but it took some pondering of what I could spend my money on to bring the idea back to mind. I have no idea how we will get hold of stickers from the countries we've already visited but that is the intention. After final hugs with our friends we left Novi Sad behind. We had our map of Serbia to show us the rest of the way to the border but the main road reappeared on our sat nav as we left Novi Sad. Our conversation was full of our experience in Novi Sad and the high of our experiences there balanced out our sadness at leaving. We both felt at home in Serbia and Kit told me he felt at peace for the whole time in Novi Sad in the same way he feels when we are in Germany.
Our route out of Serbia followed the Danube through farmland and we crossed both the river and border at Bačka Palanka. The border crossing was tiny and checking of our documents took little more than 10 minutes. There was a short interview with passport control and a cursory glance at the contents of our boot, which is slowly filling with stray bottles of beer, surplus chocolate and other trinkets from different countries: evidence of ordinary, crazy people crossing Europe as opposed to those who might cross borders for unsavoury reasons. Whatever the case, the border guard's face showed mild horror at the thought of checking further and we drove into Croatia. As we did the sat nav began to function fully again. We drove into Croatia via Ilock, perched on a hill over the Danube but as we did the heaven's opened and we had very little opportunity to apppreciate the beauty of the countryside for the next four hours. Our route hugged the Danube as far as Vukovar and I briefly recalled the travel advice I'd read telling us not to drive in the area. Apparently, there are still mines around from the war but I looked around at the quiet town we passed through, the commercial traffic alongside us and dismissed the rubbish from my thoughts. Anyway, it was too late to turn back now.We arrived in Zagreb to lovely sunshine and were met by blues and protest singer Ivan Škrabe and his partner Marina Pintarić who had agreed to show us round. Unfortunately we arrived to our worst hotel experience of the holiday so far. Our room was small and pokey and we found ourselves having to step over our cases to move around the room. I'd booked a parking space in advance which was confirmed by email but the hotel had only one space and that already had a car parked in it. The hotel receptionist told us the car belong to a long stay guest and took precedence over us. She told us to park across the pavement behind the parking space but the Mondeo was too big and its backend stuck out dangerously into the road as well as completely blocking the pavement. She then told us to park on the street next to a parking metre and said we didn't have to pay because there were never any traffic wardens on the street. 'Anyway,' she said, 'What's the worst that can happen?' Her flippancy and lack of care was extremely annoying but as I had no Kuna and it was too late in the day to find another hotel, I had no choice. Marina put a ticket on the car as one of the neighbours told her we wouldn't get a fine if we'd paid at least something.
We took a tram into the city centre and arrived in the central Jelačić square, a big wide open space dominated by the statue of Josip Jelačić, who was a Croatian political figure of the 19th century. Among other things he was responsible for the abolition of serfdom in Croatia. During communist times he was labelled as an Austrian collaborator and the statue was removed but now it is back in its original place but with its provocative sword no longer pointing in the direction of Hungary. Immediately the city made an impression on me,. The square has large imposing buildings on two sides behind which the land rises slowly.
After changing the last of our Serbian money into Croatian Kuna we headed into the old town behind the square and led by Ivan and Marina we spent a lovely couple of hours wandering around this lovely part of the city. We first walked past the cathedral and then into the old town.
We walked through ther normally bustling market area
which was already clearing away and took a look at the pretty Svetog Marka church where Ivan said visiting dignitaries to Croatia are brought for receptions.
Maybe it was partly the very pleasant company of our guides but Kit and I enjoyed our tour of Zagreb and the city felt welcoming. There was a lovely relaxed feel to its backstreets and as dusk fell they were bathed in a gentle light from old fashioned street lamps. People walked around in calm, placid conversation with the occasional jogger or skater dodging between them. 
We eventually arrived at the magical bench of Antun Gustav Matoš situated on a quiet promenade above the city. Matoš was a Croatian poet who is held in high esteem and his statue, which sits in a relaxed cross-legged pose on a bench, looks over the city through some trees. It was the obvious place for Kit and I to play a song and the magic of the spot teased our best performance of the trip out of us. I think the opportunity to play for our two beautiful guides also contributed to the moment. We were impossibly lucky and blessed to be introduced to two such people. They were a pair with a palpable spirituality and natural verve for life about them. Gradually twilight turned to dusk and dusk turned to night. 
We began to discuss food and Kit and I realised we hadn't eaten all day and were ravenously hungry. I think it is to Zagreb's credit that it made us forget about our stomachs. We were taken to a Turkish/Greek style bistro were we had a large tray of grilled meats, kebabs and a suitably small salad garnish. The meal, which was great value for money, was presented to Kit and me as if enormous in size but we polished it off easily. We made our way back to Jelačić square and caught the tram back to our hotel. We said our goodbyes to Ivan and Marina on the tram and I was slightly saddened that we had so little time in their company. I sincerely hope we meet again and I get the chance to maybe play a few tunes with Ivan.
Back at the hotel Kit went to open the door to our room and produced the key from our Serbian hotel. Despite the enormous leather key fob he hadn't noticed it in his pocket all day. After a short laugh we hit the sack and were quickly asleep. I was mildly bothered by the prospect of waking to a parking ticket on my car but not enough to be kept awake.
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