23/6/22
Since we’d already done our city day, today was a hike day. We moved our stuff to a local hostel Main Square, since Chloe was leaving in the small hours and I was going to stay an extra night. Then we returned to our fave brunch spot for pancakes before getting various trams to the bottom of the hills, to then get a cable car to the top of the mountains. We found out as we bought our tickets that in the winter you can ski from Zagreb – mad ayyy?! The cable car was new and fancy and yet we saw about three other people using it!! The views over Zagreb were lovely. We were on the cable car quite some time and geared we would soon be hungry when we arrived at the top! Nevertheless, we cracked on with our walk!
We hoped to walk from the top down to a castle halfway down before continuing to the bottom. The path was not quite so established as it appeared on the map, and we shuffled/slid down many a loose gravel bank and climbed over various road barriers to stay on the so-called footpath. Eventually, and with a much needed fudge stop, we made it to the castle to find the ticket office closed but the gate wide open. We could see the castle for free – yay!!! We wandered in and walked past some people filming to the back to admire the view of the city. There were some large flat stones at various heights at regular intervals which we climbed on to get a better view. About five minutes later, a woman came to shout at us. Not only did she shout, but when we apologised and Chloe continued to apologise, she continued to shout. She said we had come in when it was clearly closed and we were climbing on things we shouldn’t be. And yet, there were no signs for either, which as she continued to shout at us, I couldn’t help but point out. We left and I briefly talked to a solo travel gal from Manchester who had also been thrown out by the angry lady! Ayeee! Never mind. We headed down and were pleased to find that the path down Wilfred m the castle had clearly been used before and was well established! We walked back down to meet the tram, stopping for lunch with a view on route, and then got baked goods on our walk from the tram home.
We chilled awhile at home before heading out for dinner. Our farewell dinner had come so fast!! We went to another glorious restaurant and I think I ate more gnocchi, since I can’t get enough of the stuff!! Then we headed to the park to watch a free open air classical concert. It started off pretty enough but dull with far to much Mozart, but the performance became infinitely better once Beethoven and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was played, better still when the Ukrainian soloist playing violin, played two songs she had specifically selected by Storyk, a famous 20th century Ukrainian composer. The emotion not to mention the less predictable nature of the piece was wonderful and surprisingly, the soloist (yes a violinist!!) gave me shivers! It was beautiful. After the second Storyk piece, the concert ended with energetic cheer and you could feel the emotion in the air. We returned to the hostel and chilled in the common room awhile with a guy from Leeds and his French mate. I said my goodbyes to Chloe and off to bed I went. Sadly, Chloe would be gone when I woke up!
24/6/22
I was meant to be getting an early bus today to Ljubljana, but I had decided to spend one further night on Zagreb since Paulo had recommended a small town to visit nearby and Chloe had said I wouldn’t need more than a day in Ljubljana.
I got up and had the hostels breakfast which wasn’t bad as it had good coffee, cereal with fruit and best of all, a toastie maker!!! I chatted to the Leeds guy awhile – he was only 19 which was mad since he both acted and looked older! He was moving today so we said bye and off he went. Then I got chatting to an older Irish guy, Chris. He’d been travelling a long while and had seen a lot.
After breakfast, I sadly had to pack since I had to move rooms for my extra night. Then I headed out, to get the tram to the bus station to then get the bus to Samobor, a place I had moreorless been told to go to merely to try it’s cake! It was enough of a reason for me – I had googled it afterwards and it looked cute, so off I went. I picked one of four ticket queues and of course mine was predictably the slowest. I ended up missing the first bus since one guy stood at the front for precisely seven minutes and then proceeded to leave the queue without any ticket, when everyone else took thirty seconds! Bizarre ayy?! Luckily, the next bus was in twenty minutes so it wasn’t major!
When I arrived in Samobor, I walked into the town centre and had a mooch about. I was pretty hungry so got a spinach burek from a bakery before going to a bar for a margarita. I was allowing myself a more chilled day today and I read my book in the bar awhile. Behind me, people poured out of a wedding and photographers were snapping pictures as the guests appeared. Afterwards, I headed on a short walk to a nearby castle (or remains of one!). On my way, I past another two wedding parties and some guest were even having photos up at the castle despite the slidey and stoney walk (which of course I did in my final nest new flip-flops with sweaty feet, making it quite tricky!). The castle wasn’t in bad nick and it was a nice place to sit awhile.
After walking down, I went to get the famous Samobor cake in the recommended cafe if choice. Just as I was tucking into my cake, (despite being landlocked), a whole cruise ship worth of people descended on the cafe shouting. They took all the free tables and then filled up any free seat. Reading my book was not quite the same after that, so I paid and moved on to have a nose in the church. I walked back along the river to the bus station and very annoyingly watched my bus leave early, only to later find out that the next one was not for an hour and a half. ARGHH! I eventually took a different bus, and suggested to three other ladies to do the same and then we all got a longer tram into the city centre. They were grateful to me for telling them. Two girls got on the tube with small cafes. One rested the cage on a seat and sawdust spluttered out of it – they had just bought new hamsters, and they were very cute! The ladies said bye as they left the tram and then the girls said bye toe as I got off and I felt we had got a lovely little tram community going on!!
It was late by this point so I headed straight out for food. I went to the same restaurant Chloe and I had been to the night before but this time ordered pizza. It was pretty good! Afterwards, I quickly back to the hostel and showered before heading out to the park for classical concert number two that week. I had high hopes for this one as it was meant to be music from musicals. Sadly, I hadn’t quite thought it through because of course, Croatia has its own musicals so I didn’t know a single song! The crowd did rather enjoy a few though and many people swayed and sang along which was nice to be a part of.
wanderingwelshie travels 