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Eastern and Southern Europe - part III

Zagreb - Hrastnik/Ljubljana - Split - Trogir - Makarska - Medugorje - Dubrovnik

Fred and andy
2005-10-21 09:19:32

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12 September, Zagreb, Croatia to Hrastnik/Ljubljana, Slovenia, 102 km (f)

"Zagreb rocks," Andy kept saying. He was overwhelmed by how active the streets of this obvious capital were. Neither of us had ever been in a city where public spaces were so used. Every bench occupied, every square inch of sidewalk stepped upon, each tram full and every café alive. I had the sense that no one wanted to or could go home so they just stayed out all the time.

Unfortunately the streets "rocked" with cars on our way out of town. We wove through the town looking for a quiet way out and found none. Our route to Ljubljana began on a four lane agouti highway avoiding ruts and cars while fearing for our lives. After about 25km of nail biting while riding we made it to the countryside. As we did Andy’s rear tire blew out just in front of the only Eastern European polo field we’ve come across. Lucky in some small way, we had been on the wrong road and only realized that we were headed the long way to Ljubljana when we stopped.

The border of Croatia and Slovenia was a bit of a worry. The soldier on the Croatian side was not able to speak in English so he let us pass, but the Slovenian border guard was a little more articulate.

"This border crossing is reserved for Croatians and Slovenians only." Our faces dropped as we considered the 40 or 50km of backtracking we’d have to do to get to the border he suggested in lieu of this one. We looked at one another sadly and began to speak as though the border guard wasn’t there. "What a shame it comes to this after ten thousand kilometers," I said. "Yeah, I was looking forward to seeing Ljubljana," Andy retorted, "guess we’ll have to just backtrack and take the train to Rijeka and skip Slovenia altogether." That last comment effected the guard’s national pride. "Go ahead," he said reluctantly and handed us our passports. I grabbed ...