Day 52: 13th July, 2012 – Zagreb, Croatia

Zagreb Youth Hostel accommodation was good and comfortable.  I came down to the reception in the morning and waited for Mohammed (Secretary General of Morocco YHA) at 9.00 a.m., the time we fixed earlier.  He also came down in time and we walked out of the Hostel and after short walk sat on chairs kept on the pavement outside a restaurant.  I had tea and patties and Mohammed also had similar breakfast.  There was a bank nearby and I exchanged some Euros to Croatian money.  A young girl from Drazen’s Office met us at 10.30 a.m. and she was our guide for next few hours.    She was a pleasant girl with Syrian Father and Croatian Mother, a good combination of Muslim and Christian parents.   Now we walked with her to the main square where we had come yesterday evening with the whole group.  It was a bit of climbing to reach the cathedral overlooking a Sava river.  We crossed the layered vegetable and flower market.  Our guide was explaining many things mostly historical background to each of the area which we crossed.  Couple of hours walk was enough to see the central part of the old down.  All three of us were tired.  We decided to have a cup of coffee and hence went to an empty but historical café overlooking a road.  Our guide gave an inside to the Croatian culture mix with her Father’s Syrian Muslim culture.  This girl had to go to the Office after taking us around.  We thanked her profusely and then started walking of our own.  Mohammed did not speak a word of English.  He was speaking French only.  We spent next 4-5 hours went one talking in English and other in French.  Fortunately we could understand the sense of each other.  We walked to the Central Bus Station and found out buses for our destinations.  I had to go Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Mohammed had to go to Vienna, Austria.  We bought tickets for our destinations and also found out the platforms from where buses would go tomorrow.  Bus Stand was good and well organized with facilities of restaurant and sitting area.  Platforms were on ground floor only.  Before coming to Bus Stand, we also walked to the Railway Station and found out train timing for going to Vienna.  But train journey was expensive and not many trains were available.  We return to the Hostel again walking back from the Bus Stand which was couple of kms away and were tired.  We went to our rooms for rest and again met on 7.00 p.m. going for dinner.  Mohammed has exhausted his exchange so I offered him dinner of pizza and coffee.  Yes, according to original plan, Drazen might come with his group to the Hostel and we would all go for dinner but Drazen phoned at 9.00 p.m. regretting their coming as his group members were tired by travelling and wanted to take rest.  Anyhow we both English and French speaking persons enjoyed our walk and food together.  I invited Mohammed to come to India and told that I would also go to Morocco one day.  I did not know if he understood me or not.  It was fine to spend a day in Zagreb.