Charlie Chaplin.

Croatia. Zagreb. 

The day began with another rough start, me missing one of the only 2 trains to Croatia at 8am. That was awesome. I would've braved the cold and trekked into town, except we're forgetting the no clothes situation, and it was so terribly cold, and I just wouldn't have coped. Luckily the lovely Slovenians at the hotel took pity on me and fed me scraps from the kitchen (breakfast leftovers) like I was a stray cat. The women said I could sit in the lobby, and so I basically just sort of used the wireless and tried to stay warm. The next 6 or so hours passed relatively quickly, even though it was not the roaring start to Eastern Europe I had hoped for. I had a 2 hour Skype call with a really good friend from home, and not that I was feeling particularly down, but he helped me feel better nonetheless.  Formal shoutout to him on the blog actually, you're a magnificent human being and I thoroughly enjoyed our chat. Anywho. It turns out I was actually staying at like a spa resort hotel type thing, with thermal pools and hot stone massages left right and center. My Skype companion got quite a tour of the lobby. 

"This is Slovenia"*whizzes camera around the room.

It took a lot to not 'when in Slovenia, do as the Slovenians do', aka, engage in notorious self-pampering.

Anywho, when I finally got on a blooming train, I was hassled by big Slovenian policeman at border control, and they asked me all these questions in broken English and I didn't actually understand what they meant, so I stumbled and changed my answers and it looked like I was lying. Finally in Croatia, things just went from slightly bothersome to a totally sucky, I was left to run around the train station to a billion different offices to try and get my luggage - but it hadn't been found. Sadface. No, more like UTTERLY DEFEATED face. The Croatian man literally laughed in my face when I told him how I had lost it, and said 'Yes well if you're stupid enough to let that happen, you can't expect to get it back. People like you do this all the time.'

People like me?

PEOPLE LIKE ME?!

I was watching The Help for crying out loud.I didn't realize WATCHING A MOVIE ON AN 8 HOUR JOURNEY WAS A CRIME. He should invest in some movie-watching actually. He might lighten up a little. 

Okay, so it was dark, I was still cold, and now thoroughly disappointed. I was informed that because I had passed through three countries I'd have to contact the Slovenian and Austrian and German railway systems to try and see which country had picked it (if at all) up. There's no international Lost and Found, so I knew that that was going to be fun. 

I exited and followed the directions to the hostel that I had been told. 

MISTAKE. 

I'm going to cut a very long story short. A very very very very very long story short. 

I got lost, I asked for help, people didn't seem to understand or comprehend, people told me the wrong way (this ALWAYS happens to people like me), I ended up walking around Croatia, cold, hungry, and in need of a bathroom. I was very very lost. 

Seems that lately I'm making quite a habit of wandering around Slavic cities in the dark. 

I finally  found signs to a tourist info booth. I finally got there, after about 20 minutes, to discover it was closed. I was then approached by an alcoholic on a bike who quite persistently encouraged me to hop on so he could cycle me somewhere. I politely refused and sunk to the gutter. 

No, no thank you. I just want to go home.

(Home being the hostel...things were grim, but it's not like I wanted to go home.)

Yet still no breakdown, kids. The street lights started to go a little fuzzy in my vision at one point, but I blinked back any leaky waterworks before they so much as dripped from my heavy eyelids. I just remember feeling utterly defeated. I had a rest and then set off again, asking people, doing my navigation and following the directions from the internet. I couldn't help thinking 'thank goodness I'm not carrying my big pack around with me'. If that's not a a silver lining then I don't know what is. 

When I finally got to the hostel, it was a moment for rejoicing. Turns out, that the INSTRUCTIONS ON THEIR WEBSITE HAVEN'T BEEN UPDATED IN I DON'T KNOW - THE LAST TWO YEARS.

YEAH, I WAS SUPPOSED TO TURN LEFT AT ZARA, BUT ZARA CLOSED DOWN AND A NEW STORE WAS REOPENED ABOUT 6 BLOCKS UP THE STREET. 

SO WHEN IT SAID 'FOLLOW THE STREET UP TO ZARA AND TURN LEFT AT THE NEXT STREET' ONE COULD UNDERSTAND HOW THAT COULD BECOME PROBLEMATIC. 

I had to laugh at the memory of when me and my travel companions stepped off the plane in Berlin 2 years ago, and spent a good amount of time looking for a street that didn't exist. At the hands of my dear friend who had looked up the instructions. The biggest waste of time. But it makes actually finding the hostel feel like Christmas has come early.

It was late, so I showered and pulled my clothes on again before realizing that, oh yes, I was in a room full of snorers. So I made some homemade earplugs and slept with my pillow over my face.

Let me just say, despite all the caps and the last few days of drama, things are ok. I mean, I'm still in Croatia, and I still have the most important things with me (passport, laptop, ect), I mean, if I didn't get those back, I wouldn't have been allowed to cross the Slovenian border, and then I'd be in a pickle. True, a lot of the stuff in my pack was irreplaceable, but I'm still hopeful I'll get it back. I've been calling and emailing like a mad woman, filling in online forms and stuff, so hopefully it'll show up. Although it seems as if all three borders are determined it is someone else's responsibility. I also have a fantastic support system throughout Germany and Austria, so I have many helpful friends and family that are also working on it for me, pulling strings, making calls, and visiting trains stations. Formal thank you for that! I appreciate all the work they're doing, and it's really comforting to know that I have people in the neighboring countries who have always got my back, financially and emotionally, and would always be there to help if I got into tricky sitch (which, let's be honest, is bound to happen again).

I planned my days in Croatia and set off early, although I was cold. My thoughts were 'keep moving and you'll be fine in a sweatshirt'. One does one's best. I explored the city, over my four days. Thoroughly enjoying Eastern Europe. A hidden treasure, Zagreb is. Everything is super cheap, the people are nice and do their best to understand me. I feel like such a foreign twat, unable to speak and say things properly. I usually try to get by without speaking to people too much, and when I do, I enagage in a series of miming, charades and pointing. It usually works out ok. I've been eating a lot of local Croatian pastries, and I sort of just go in, point to something that looks decent, and go for it. Sometimes it's sweet, sometimes it's savory, and a lot of the time I don't even know what it is, but that's part of the fun. It's sort of like a lucky lunch  - you never know what you're going to get. Yesterday I had this thing with veggies and (I think) meat. Not too sure. The cuisine is tasty, lots of sausages and pastries. I mostly eat street food, and cook at the hostel. There are a lot of roasted chestnuts and things going around this time of year too, so I'm known to wander the cobblestone streets of Zagreb nibbling on roasted nuts.

But the miming is sometimes difficult. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I don't understand the Slavic languages. I don't know how they work, I can't distinguish any words (like French or Italian, you could sort of guess a lot, or it's similar to English) and I sure as hell can't pronounce anything. For example, these are real subway stops I wanted to get to;

učiteljska akademija and sveucilisnana knjižnica

You try miming that. Seriously. Hell, you even try saying that. I often leave a miming performance with a trail of laughter behind me, but you know, what are you to do. I just sort of plod along, ignorantly blissful at where I am. Being surrounded my a culture that you are so lost in, is (ok, sometimes a nuisance) but also refreshingly cleansing. It's nice to sort of be 'lost' in a place, if you will, just left to your own private thoughts for the days. 

Croatia will always be a place remembered as tranquil. I spent a bit of time up at the famous Mirogoj cemetery, reading quietly or sitting at cafes on the hills. Spent quite a bit of time in cafe's here, just because of the warmth factor and the hot drinks are a dollar a pop. It’s peaceful. I recommend it.

Marigoj

A Zagreb famous treasure; Museum of Broken Relationships. World Renowned. And it was magical. A place of unexpected nooks and crannies, Zagreb is. Always surprising.