CROATIA - Phil & Jill

The first thing to get used to is the local currency -Kuna. Even though Croatia belongs to the EU it still has it own money. 1 Kuna is worth $A4.5 and 1 Kuna is worth 7 euros on today's conversion. So Kuna is in large denominations and has lipas as its coins.

My first impressions as we drove into the city on the airport bus was large green parklands, wide well planned streets and cycle paths everywhere. Cyclists could travel from the airport to the city on well formed and well marked paths off road. The journey took about 12 kms but in very heavy traffic took around 40 minutes. The weather was sunny and no wind.

We arrived at the main bus station somewhat out of the city. Phil had perceived this in the pre-trip planning and had rented an apartment not far away. We felt right at home back in Europe when we saw 2 Flix buses in the carpark. We knew we were back in Europe!! The walk took about 20 mins. Maja, the owner had sent us a video of how to obtain the keys and let ourselves into the Zveki flat in Ulica 83 Petrinjska. We duly saw the brown graffited garage door and yes the instructions worked perfectly. Not like our recent instructions in Caen. The apartment was very modern and spacious.

Even though it was beautiful sunshine and we had had a good break in our flight with the unexpected stop over in Doha, we had a coffee and then about a 4 hour sleep. When we emerged it was time to find dinner. This wasn't very far away at Lari & Penati one of the small but chic restaurants in the street.

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Phillip thought his Pork medallions with blueberry and red wine sauce with potato sauce was one of the best meals he has ever had. High praise indeed. I had BBQ marinated spare ribs with coleslaw and potato salad. With drinks the bill came to 173 Kunas. Well fed we continued to walk (about 15 minutes) to the main square Trg bana Joseph Jelacica. The Square is a spacious paved space with a fountain and a large statute of Jelacica. The architecture of the buildings dates back to the 1800's and they are spectacular and beautiful under the warm street lighting.

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There were lots of people out and about which gave the city a real buzz. It felt safe, friendly and orderly. Whilst we were there much activity was taking place to set up a huge market which we later learned was the Zegevege Festival of Sustainable Living where organic farmers and producers of vegetarian food, cosmetics not tested on animals, ecological innovations together with educational programmes featured for 2 days.

We walked back a different way and came across a Pop up Summer garden housing the Tuskanac Summer Cinema and film festival. The Tuskanac forest had Christmas lights in the trees, small huts were selling cocktails, drinks and food. Giant deck chairs were in the garden and romantic table settings in the park. They had also had had live entertainment on the set of the film festival before we arrived.

We returned to the apartment with a very positive feeling about Zagreb.