Day 97 Mountian High, winds are blowin..

Tuesday 26/06/2018 Apartment Vuksa Ribnjak ulica 54, Zagreb, 10000, Croatia

This adventure sure has us clocking up the k’s, today maybe not as many k’s as some days, but still a bit of the way from Split to Zagreb.... the trip takes us back over a lot of the hwys we have already done... the roads in Croatia especially on the main hwys are just unreal... so easy to drive on... you do need to go through a toll at the beginning and at the end... depending on the length to the cost, as we aren’t sure what the costs will be we just have you hope it’s not huge at the end, being so far today we are a little wary at what this costs will be... our costs today was exy €40 so not cheap...

The most challenging section of the trip is again the section heading up towards the huge mountain range that fascinates me, the way it always has clouds hanging around it’s peaks is just surreal..... No matter where we have wittinessed these awesome mountains the clouds constantly are clinging in a long cloud formation along the whole length of them... for some reason they also seem to draw wind currents around their bases... the other day when we headed to a Plitvice Lakes it was pretty hairy but today it was even more so, the winds I am sure were swirling around us at about 30-40 Knott winds.... watching caravans trying to keep their little vans straight on the road was a bit scary, especially when you are passing them, even if you are in 2 lanes...

We had a stop at about the 200 k mark for fuel and a cuppa, about 10 bikes with couples pulled in, my goodness the poor women looked totally dishevelled from the wind, we both wondered how the poor things were coping with this horrendous wind.... I actually wondered if this Hwy ever shuts if the winds are too much?

We set off again and the great thing about this range is you go through tunnel after tunnel, each seem to be longer and longer and with each one the wind gets less and less.... so by the time we hit Tunnel Mala Kapela which was 5821 m long so unreal..coming out the other end the scenery changed and the wind was gone thank goodness... like stepping from one picture to the next!

We arrived in Zagreb a lot earlier than planned, I had hoped to see sights on the way, but the tour director was on a mission again and that was to be from A-B.... we have been telling our apartment owners we won’t arrive until between 5-6 pm.... after some of the disastrous trips we have had in the past and arriving late to be on the safe side we put down this later time.... but today we arrived over 2 hrs early... we found our apartment yep another ghetto looking area.... only really due to all the Graffiti, and if we thought Split had bad Graffiti well think again, Zagreb’s is 10 times worse... on our way in there is hardly a building not touched by it... it just makes the whole place look unloved and unkept... anyway we contacted the booing agent who organised for the owner to meet us... a bit of a wait, but we are next to a little supermarket so checked it out... also on a Main Street with grams and constant cars wizzing by... not a lot of room on the footpath... our other issue was parking, it said they had parking and yes they do, but it’s first in first served... we had to park a block away at first then a John moved the car 3 more times till we finally got a spot for the car... don’t know what we will do if we have to move the car...

The owner like our last ones is a young guy.... he takes us through the ins and outs of the place and says bye enjoy your time... this unit is small especially compared to our last one.... the bedroom lounge, dining are all one room, a tiny kitchen and funny a roomy bathroom... but has a washing machine, we do have a microwave, and a sandwich toaster but no oven, this time... we can never seem to have the lot... but it’s only for a few days so we make do...

This morning before we left the apartment we have to contact our owner who was to collect the key, when he arrived it was the older brother who was also young, also extremely tall and very nice young man.. good on them for doing this with apartments, we are starting to see a trend with most being young and trying to get ahead... they all have made them very neat and both lots seem very proud of what they have!

After settling in our next plan was to see what our surroundings have to offer... turns out we are fairly close to the main city area... only a couple of blocks and you are fare smack bang in the thick of it all.... through a park discovering a massive old city wall, then into main town Zagreb and it like everywhere else is in the middle of football/Soccer fever... and the whole main square is done up with, bars, food stalls, a huge stage and a band pumping away... people everywhere in the Croatian colours for their team... flags and colours everywhere of the footy team.... pics of team members it is actually unreal to see how much they really are into it!

We did find much to John’s joy a Maccafe and he could order a large cappuccino.... and it was large sized and he relished each mouthful... we had by now looked at a few different sights including the Zagreb Cathedral, out front of it, inside if it and around it... pretty much did the lot... saw heaps of restaurants and cafes again, and what we did notice as in other cities all the surrounds are covered in graffiti but very little to none in the main cities... I find this odd, how do they police one spot and not the rest...

So off home again we headed, tonight I will cook dinner, and ohh my goodness what a challenge... the kitchen is so small you had to move things to put things down, move them again to access something... actually it really is like camping, with the limited space you have when cooking on an outdoor set up, no space to spread out... I am one of those cooks that do spread out... but when you don’t have the room, it makes you have to be minimalist or try at least...

The owner told us about a free walking tour in the city everyday, so we hope to do that tomorrow... see what Zagreb has to offer tomorrow...Læs mere