A Zip Around Zagreb

Europe is always being renovated! Key sights are forever covered in scaffolding!

In Split, at least it was only a couple of sections of old palace wall and the odd tower. In Zagreb it's one of the two spires of the landmark Cathedral of the Assumption, the sides of St. Mark's church (with the colourful shields on the roof), the buildings all round the one remaining entrance to the old city - the Stone Gate and two of the buildings in the row of parks that run from the station to the main square.

I've done my best to photo round the scaffolding, even craftily using a fountain in one case. But honestly! It's enough to drive a man to Photoshop!!

From the Tourist Info Office I got a pamphlet with two walks, and this morning I did the one round the old/upper city. Very nice. I found the market, in full swing as today is Saturday, and the street with all the bars (named "Tkalciceva"), which will hopefully be in full swing on Saturday night.

I climbed both of the feuding original hills, and walked up the street called "Bloody Bridge" ("Krvavi Most") over the former-stream between them, returning to the level of the main square by funicular railway. The guard proudly showed me his seaside holiday photos on his laptop!

Apparently, tourists are a fairly new experience for the locals - tourism never really came here before.

Although I only have one day here with a few daylight hours either side, the same as I had in Split, I feel that'll be enough to give me the "feel" or "flavour" of the places, which is what I suppose I'm looking for with a schedule like the one I've set.

This afternoon I did the "lower city" walking tour, mainly round a horseshoe of parks south of the main square. OK, but not as good as this morning. The walk took me past the station, where I bought my ticket for tomorrow. The 11:10 train isn't coming until 13:20 (ish?) "because it's coming from Vienna." There's a 9:00am train if I'm awake too early. Otherwise I guess I won't get to Belgrade before 18:30.

I found left luggage, so I can get there about 11:00 and dump my bags. I found an underground shopping centre where I can waste some time, possibly even including beer. Unfortunately, the station is away from the "drinky" part of the city, so the choice of bars may be limited unless I get creative.

Next order of business is to book myself a hotel in Belgrade. Having been kicked off all the wi-fi access points I can actually reach, and having failed to get my laptop on the hotel business centre wired network (I can work it out or I can get a beer), I'm typing this on a hotel PC that has spyware warnings coming up all the time. Public wi-fi zones are wide open to man-in-the-middle attacks, hence no credit card of mine is coming anywhere near the internet here.