Day 7

Hello,

Thank god, I'm in my hostel now. Today was tiring. Not at first.. but I forgot to drink and eat enough. Today I've had a bottle of coke and a pizza slice, and that's it, nothing more. Why?? you may ask.. well first of all the train had an hour delay and there was no service on board. Secondly I just forgot it... and now I'm bearing the results.

Anyways, the train journey was once again in an Italian train, and lasted 3.5 hours instead of the usual 2 hours. This morning I waited at the station for an hour and nothing came... and another hour and nothing came... and finally, the 3,45 meter long train strumbled into the station and sounded as if it had just expelled its last breath. I found an empty coupe and sat down, when 2 minutes later 4 Italians entered and started turning the coupe into 3 beds and closed all the curtains.. Then, they asked me if maybe I'd want to sit in the coupe next to this one. At first I thought what the ***, I was here first, had a nice window seat, you go to the next cabin! I was amazed. Then I thought that these people were not going to move and I'd rather not be with them for 3 hours. I didn't lose my temper and silently sat down in the coupe next to this one trying not to curse all Italians. I mean, that was rude. wasn't it?

Well the journey continued and I was nearly refused access into Croatia. The police woman just kept saying 'you have not 18 where parents' until finally, after 15 minutes, she trusted me and actually stamped my passport. (I am so proud) The weird thing is that 10 minutes before, another policeman had come in to check my passport and he only said 'have a nice journey'.

When I got to Zagreb the first thing that suprised me was the graffiti. Well, not graffiti, but more just.. well.. indescribable things applied by permanent marker or anything that will leave something on anything. It's everywhere, on the walls, on the trains, on the busses, on the trams, on the roads, on the dogs... except on the cars. All the cars look brand spanking new. So that's where all the money here goes.. into automotive transportation. Well not so much the transportation... more the automotive part. Anyways, it's everywhere and it's what makes the part of the city I've seen so far really ugly.

I went to a kiosk to buy a tram ticket, and I asked the lady if she spoke English. This seems like a normal question, I'm in an international train station. But her first reaction was WHAT ENGLISH and then she strumbled to a corner of her kiosk. I just said TRAM TICKET and without saying a word she handed me the ticket and my change.

The hostel is fine, a bit messy but nice anyhow. I asked if I could do my laundry here, and heard that for 40 Kn (4 euro's) the people here would do it all for me, and it seemed like there was no other way, so I agreed. At least I'll have clean clothes tomorrow. I'm going into the city now to grab a huge bite and have a huge drink, I could eat a horse and drink the niagra falls.

Byron