 |
|
Preliminaries
Croatia
Slovenia
Austria (1)
Czech Republic
Austria (2)
Hungary
Romania
Bulgaria
Serbia
Bosnia
Croatia (2)
Closing
|
June 1 - Leave the United States (page 1)
June 2 - Arrive in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (page 1)
June 3 - Zagreb (page 3)
June 4 - Zagreb--Ljubljana--Postojna (page 5)
June 5 - Postojna--Bled--Salzburg, Austria (page 7)
June 6 - Salzburg (page 8)
June 7 - Salzburg--Prague, Czechoslovakia (page 10)
June 8 - Prague (page 12)
June 9 - Prague--Vienna, Austria (page 14)
June 10 - Vienna (page 16)
June 11 - Vienna--Budapest, Hungary (page 19)
June 12 - Budapest (page 20)
June 13 - Budapest--Cluj, Romania (page 21)
June 14 - Cluj--Brasov (page 22)
June 15 - Brasov--Bucharest (page 24)
June 16 - Bucharest (page 26)
June 17 - Bucharest--Sofia, Bulgaria (page 28)
June 18 - Sofia (page 30)
June 19 - Sofia--Belgrade, Yugoslavia (page 32)
June 20 - Belgrade--Sarajevo (page 34)
June 21 - Sarajevo--Dubrovnik (page 36)
June 22 - Dubrovnik (page 38)
June 23 - Dubrovnik (page 39)
June 24 - The flight home (page 39)
|
We arrived at JFK in plenty of time and were all
checked in two hours before our flight. My carry-on is unusually
heavy, since I'm carrying a fourteen-language European phrase book,
a fourteen-language European menu reader, a Yiddish phrase book, a
German-English/English-German dictionary, a Russian-
English/English-Russian dictionary, and copies of phrases from
travel guides. Those plus the various tour books makes quite a
load. I hope I don't discover that everyone speaks English.
Our flight left forty minutes late--not too bad. Our bags
almost got ticketed for Belgrade instead of Zagreb, but the ticket
agent realized his mistake and went chasing after them on the belt.
I just figured we had to clear customs in Belgrade. The plane was
only half full, but we had a full row, and my light and headphone
jack were broken. However, when I woke up at some point, everyone
else in the row had left and took their luggage with them, so I was
able to stretch out and get four hours of almost real sleep.
|
After breakfast we got to see our first scenery-
--snow-covered mountains from the airplane window. I think the
consensus was that they were the Alps.
On arriving at Belgrade, we discovered our flight to Zagreb had
been combined with two other flights, giving us a couple of hours to
kill in the transit lounge. We stopped into the restaurant, which
took dollars but overcharged us (10 dinars for bread and 44 dinars
for a cup of coffee--it's 22 dinars to the dollar). The guide books
warned us about this and when we're more awake and paying dinars
we'll be more specific ('ne kruh'--no bread; 'koliko?'--how much?).
When our flight arrived in Zagreb we had another surprise--no
one was there to meet us. We saw a bus labeled 'Globus' in the
window but that turned out to be a regular airport bus with a
newspaper named Globus! We tried calling Kompas but since it was
Sunday they were closed. All the hotel could suggest was a taxi,
and we ended up taking that for 800 dinars.
Another surprise awaited us at the hotel--they had no
reservations for us. But our vouchers were acceptable and we
checked in, somewhat dissatisfied with how things were going.
Driving in, Mark described Zagreb as reminding him of Denver--
on a flat plain but with tall mountains in the background. This is
accurate, and even the sorts of buildings we saw were not unlike
those we see between the airport and AT&T in Denver. (Our knowledge
of downtown Denver is limited, but I think I can say it does *not*
resemble downtown Zagreb!)
When we chose this tour, by the way, Binayak (one of the people
we went to Southeast Asia with) commented that we must not have
liked the independent travel thing. Not true, though for Eastern
Europe many people recommend a tour. But initially Mark's parents
were supposed to go with us and, even after they dropped out, we had
picked up Steve Goldsmith and Mary Sesesky as companions, and (with
the exception of Steve) none of them was up to the physical effort
of independent travel. (Mary has arthritis and has some difficulty
walking.) However, our Southeast Asian experience stood us in good
stead--when no one met us at the airport, we didn't hesitate to try
to figure out the local phone system and call someone. We didn't
feel as lost as we might have.
The money, incidentally, is fairly complicated here. There was
a 10,000-fold devaluation, but the old bills are still in
circulation, so you need to remember that a 20,000-dinar note is
worth ten cents, while a 50-dinar note is worth US$2.50. This would
be bad enough, but there are no commas in the numbers on the bills,
making quick calculations tough.
While Steve and Mary took a rest break, Mark and I took a walk
around the hotel area, eventually finding our way to Ilica, the main
street. The architecture is very European, though I can't define
what I mean by that. There weren't a lot of cars on the streets,
for a number of reasons. First of all, like every other European
city of any size, Zagreb has a mass transit system (in this case,
electric trams). Second, there are a fair number of streets blocked
off as pedestrian malls, making car travel even more complicated
than the preponderance of one-way streets normally would. And last,
it was Sunday.
One different aspect of the architecture is that there are a
fair number of businesses in courtyards down 'alleys' from the main
street. These 'alleys' are probably better described as driveways,
but built for horses, not cars. We scouted the restaurant situation
a bit and discovered that most of the restaurants were closed on
Sunday. We returned to the hotel, passing the wonderfully baroque
(well, Neo-Baroque) Croatian National Theatre and the Mimara Museum
on the way. The museum is right across the street from our hotel
(the Intercontinental) and we plan to go there on Monday. We got
Steve and Mary and went out looking for a place to have dinner.
There were a lot of bars and pizza places, but we wanted something
better than pizza. Eventually we found the Kornat. Steve and Mark
went down to look at the menu (the restaurant was in the basement)
and reported it acceptable. So we stashed Mary's wheelchair behind
a counter in the lobby and went down.
Ordering was an adventure. One waiter spoke English (some) and
the menu was in German and Italian, With the aid of the menu reader
and the German-English dictionary, we were able to get through the
menu (plus Italian is a lot like Spanish, which I do know). Trying
to find out how much everything cost (not everything was on the
menu) was another trial. And the only water available was mineral
water, not Mark's water of choice. (He prefers large quantities of
plain water.) We ended up ordering red mullet and squid, grilled,
with a side dish of spinach and potatoes. The fish was very good,
especially the squid, and helped improve our spirits somewhat. The
bill at 1500 dinars (about US$65) seemed high by our usual standards
but not for upscale restaurants--which are all that seem to be open
in Zagreb on Sunday, or at least we saw no mid-range sorts of
places.
After eating I used the restroom in the restaurant. There was
an attendant, but all I had to tip her was a one-dinar coin (about
five cents). She found this insufficient and was (apparently)
asking for more, but all I could do was shrug and say it was all I
had. We paid our bill (on Mastercard--the one advantage of eating
in the more expensive restaurants is that it doesn't deplete your
cash) and went upstairs. We retrieved Mary's wheelchair, at which
point the restroom attendant came up the stairs and wanted a tip for
checking the wheelchair! Since she hadn't even touched it, and
since there was no one watching it while we were eating, this seemed
unreasonable. Now, tourists are often at a disadvantage but, in
this case, pretending non-comprehension proved the best defense.
We returned to the hotel by way of the Croatian National
Theatre again and checked the schedule. Unfortunately, Monday night
was a play (in Croatian, of course). Tuesday they were putting on
Verdi's NABUCCO (an opera), but we would be gone by then. It's a
pity, as tickets were 60 to 120 dinars (US$3-6). Of course, they
were only that expensive for operas and ballets--plays cost 30 to 60
dinars (US$1.50-3). A movie costs 53 dinars (at least at the one
theater we checked).
About 9 PM Mark and I went out to see night life in Zagreb.
Night life seems to consist of walking, drinking in sidewalk cafes,
and hanging around Trg Republike, the main square. So we walked
around, just observing (and somewhat jet-lagged), for about an hour
before returning for some much-needed sleep.
As we walked around, we saw Croatian flags everywhere--on
buildings, in store windows, hanging from the rear view mirrors of
cars. There were also posters apparently announcing the vote for
independence, but my Croatian wasn't up to being able to read them
to be sure.
|
| I woke up at 5:30 AM but Mark slept until I woke
him at 8:40 AM--amazing, as he usually wakes up very early. The
weather was beautiful--here's hoping it lasts! The four of us went
out looking for breakfast and eventually settled on a self-service
'Turist Expres Restaurant.' We had a very un-USA (un-American has
the wrong connotation) breakfast: I had liver goulash and elbow
macaroni and Mark had sausage and beans in a soup. (Mark hadn't
realized the goulash he took was liver so he got stuck with the
sausage I chose--he hates liver. |
|
| Copyright © - "Evelyn C. Leeper" |
|
 |
| Other travelogues by the same author: |
|
|
|
