Adventure on the train

We arrived safely in Croatia, with adventure, of course! Once comfortably on the train to Zagreb, I started a conversation with an Austrian man about how to properly work my seat. He told me about himself and the home he had just built, and his family. He happened to mention that the train didn’t have a dining car, which seemed funny to me too since we had to travel on the train for 6 hours. Then he looked at me funny when I said we were taking this train all the way to Croatia. He said “This is just a city train”. For just a second I considered that we might be on the wrong train, but then remembered the conductor had handed us a flyer that showed all of our stops on the way to Zagreb. Phew, correct train….. Well kind of… An hour later the conductor came along for our tickets. He looked at ours. Said “Just a moment” and disappeared. When he returned, he said (in very careful English) This train doesn’t go to Zagreb. You need to go forward, past the dining car, and you will be on the correct train”. We had to load up all of our stuff that we had spread out for the long ride and haul it up 4 train cars, past the dining car, and first class to get to our car.. Which was “Croatian nice” and not “Austrian nice”. Noticeable difference!




We were 30 minutes and two stops away from Zagreb when we stopped at a border crossing. We had passed from Austria to Slovenia without a passport check but the police boarded the train at the Slovenia/Croatia border. It was one of those moments that you wish you spoke the language. A loud scarey guy came along and threw open our door and said “(fill in something you don’t understand here in a language you aren’t familiar with)” What did he say? Suddenly the police swarm the place and say more things that you don’t understand. Then they try “your identity papers. Your passport”. This was said in heavily accented English. We present them and he looks through them to see where we have been, Then he asks where we are going and speaks to some unseen person through his mouthpiece. Few moments later and then the reassuring kachunk of his passport stamp. They finished our train and moved on to the train traveling in the opposite direction. We watched in the dark while they went through the other train, and we waited. And waited…um hmn…and waited. What was supposed to be a 5 minute stop lasted 30 minutes. What this meant was, that our 21 minute time between trains was now…negative time. We wondered what we would encounter when we reached Zagreb. What we found, was a much smaller station than expected, only one timetable board (which was at the direct opposite end of the track from where we were, and direct opposite from ANY train at the station!). I asked someone if he spoke English. He looked panicked and hurried away. The next guy said “not really” so I just said “Split! Train to Split!” “Split. Split. Two! Down and up.” We took the chance that he knew what he was talking about because it was already 1 minute past the scheduled departure. Down the stairs, up the stairs and there was our train. I jump on and Tom remembers that we have assigned seats in car 3 and I have jumped on car 2. We don’t want to be on the wrong train again because what happens is the train stops in random places and drops cars off and picks others up. If you are in the wrong car you may end up in an entirely different country than you were expecting. (Which was what almost happened to us in Austria) When we burst through the closed door, and drawn curtains of our car (with the assigned seats, which we were forced to pay 7 euro for) there was one man inside and he was in one of our seats. Oh well. We’ll make a big scene only if more people arrive and want their seat, that we will be sitting in. The three of us, without a common language, work out the sitting/eventually sleeping arrangements, through smiles and sign language. Not the best night sleep ever, but we manage.





The train arrived in Split, Croatia at 7am. We leave our backpacks at the train station, and go for coffee/hot chocolate to wake up and get our bearings. Local money is an immediate necessity. We not only have to pay for the drinks, but I have to have change for the WC. 60cents to pee in Croatia.