The train to Croatia started badly. First we had to wait an extra hour to get on the train, and then, after about ten minutes of moving the train stopped for a long time. Someone had thrown themselves in front of the train ahead of us, committing suicide. It took a little over two hours to start moving again. I borrowed Chad’s book, the Alchemist, and read the whole thing while we waited. The book is about a guy that gives up everything to live his dream of travel ( and search for treasure). It was a great book and perfectly applicable to my life. It was one of those times when something comes into your life at exactly the right time. When we finally got to the Croatian border we had to unexpectedly get off the train and transfer to buses because of track work. It was not the direct route we had planned. We ended up getting into Zagreb late and couldn’t see any of the city.
When we did get out the next day, we were unimpressed. It has a nice produce market with a billion lovely strawberries, which is nice. It has a big cathedral, which is nice. There is a decent café culture (drinks only, no food?), which is nice. Other than that…not much. I did manage to twist my ankle stepping off a step onto uneven stones. It swelled up like a baseball and hurt like hell. I applied generous quantities of beer (internally) to help with the pain. Actually I held the cold bottles to my ankle when I wasn’t drinking them. Patrícia demanded to talk to Chad when we were talking on Skype and she asked him to go find some ice for me, which he did—thanks Chad. She still manages to take care of me from thousands of miles away.
The Dalmation coast of Croatia is supposed to be very nice so I will stop over there after I go to a few other countries. The country is stretched out and it will be easier this way.
