We left Virovitica on a clean modern train, at 7:30 am, part of the trip was by bus because the train tracks were being serviced, then back on another train, and arrived in Zagreb about 10 am. The most striking thing about the rail stations here is that there are a lot of smokers! We just couldn’t get away from them, also in the other parts of Europe we’ve been in. We hadn’t booked a room but fortunately there was a hotel straight across the train station with reasonably priced room and an early check in. The old town of Zagreb is a very stately looking place with lots of gardens and mature trees around which we spent a few hours walking. It was hot both days so we headed for the botanical gardens which were shady and cool. We went to my cousin,s Marica and her husband Miljenko’s place for very nice BBQ dinner which was sort of Ricks 52 birthday celebration, followed by a walk in the residential part of Zagreb, where they have the typical dual occupancy houses where several generations live in the one place and of course a large vege garden and fruit trees and balconies. Permaculture seems to be universal despite this being a city the size of Perth ( except poultry are banned in the inner residential areas ) along with home made rakia and wine – Miljenko’s white wine ( though the Croats call it zelena – “green” ) being especially fine .
