Zagreb

At some point in the last few years, I think I became a city girl. I have sortof dreaded coming into the big cities for my whole trip, and I have pretty intentionally either avoided them or stayed on the outskirts of them (like while in Split). Now that I am in one, I am realizing that I sortof love them.

I got to Zagreb at 12:15 last night, checked into a horrible hostel, and passed out. Checkout was 9 a.m. this morning (does this seem absurdly early to anyone else?), so I packed up and got an early start. I dropped my bag off at the station, flirted with a cute German boy for a minute (person #1 that I am going to fall a little in love with today...), and took off. I have spent the morning wandering around the city. There are several pretty parks that i have found. I also found the most amazing pastry place that I have been to. So pretty excited about that (it COULD be bc i was super hungry, but i am going with best place ever anyways). The tourist board was helpful, and I have a decent map (something that was harder to come by in Hvar, since there were no street names). I am planning on maybe actually going and seeing some touristy stuff today. I met a guy in Split at Cafe Fife (my favorite restaurant in Croatia - if anyone is ever in Split, they should def go there) the other night who actually lives in Zagreb. I think he is going to show me around when I come through in a few days. Right now, I am looking at being here for about 48 hours, heading to Ljubljana for 4 days or so, coming back to Zagreb for another day or 2, then heading to Budapest.
Whoa - and i have a plan. And i think i am ok with it. i was pretty agitated all yesterday evening and on the bus ride last night because I think I would actually like a plan. So I decided to make one.

I think I realized that I am a city girl this morning when I realized that it is once again ok for me to just walk across a crosswalk, regardless of the cars coming, and they are the ones that must wait for me. In San Francisco, I do this all the time. Usually I can walk down the street reading a book and don't really even look up at the crosswalks. In every other town that I have been in in Croatia, the crosswalks seem totally irrelevant. No driver stops for people that are waiting to cross. If there isn't a crosswalk signal, you just kindof have to wait for a break in traffic and go for it. Even when there IS a crosswalk signal, drivers seem to have little regard for pedestrians. In Zagreb, it is different. Pedestrians are much more aggressive, so cars are forced to slow down. It is awesome.

I am meeting up with Crevar (an ultimate friend who lives in Croatia), and he is going to offer me free lodging for a few days. I actually think that I am not staying with him, as he technically was living in Dubrovnik and is now just in Zagreb on another friend's couch for a few weeks. So i think i am staying with some of his friends. Either way, I am sure that they will be cool, and it will be free (which is sweet). I might even get to throw a frisbee, which would be pretty wonderful. Hearing about DUI from Fury was hard - it made me homesick and ready to be there and working out with everyone.

I'm off to spending MORE time trying to figure out how to get from Budapest (or anywhere in the general area) to the Pyrenees. If anyone knows a great secret airline that doesn't cost a million dollars and flies back and forth between East and West europe, let me know. Ryanair and Easyjet aren't really options. I already tried those.