The most interesting part for me was the border control - the first passport check I've had since arriving in Lisbon; this is because while part of the EU, Croatia is not part of the Schengen Convention, which allows for border-free travel elsewhere (they also don't use the Euro, so that meant changing money too - and just when I was starting to get used to the Euro, now I've got Kuna to deal with). Passport control was handled on the train; first the Slovenian checked my passport and asked if I had luggage, then passed my passport to the Croatian who checked my passport and handed it back.
After arriving, with directions in-hand, it was off to the apartment that I'm staying in (on my own this time, but with the host family living right next door in the same building) for my five nights in Zagreb. I caught the tram from the train station, then walked, but now that I know where things are, and have a map, I will be walking in future - it's probably a 25 minute walk from either the bus station (for day trips around Croatia), or the train station (for the next leg of my trip next Monday), and it's all pretty flat too!
I'm sure you know the drill by now - first, off to buy some food: I saw a local green market on the way so went there and picked up all of the necessary fruit and vegies, and eggs, then the other way along the street to the supermarket for a few other essentials. Once stocked-up, it was into the city for a bit of orientation - which meant all of a 10-15 minute walk.
Now, I can't decide if Zagreb is a big city with a small city feel, or a small city with a big city feel - it seems caught somewhere between the 2 (nicely so, I might add). Like many of the other cities that I've visited so far, the inner city area is not particularly built up - only to around 5-6 stories. But at the same time, it appears to have all of the services that you could want, an excellent tram system running around the city, and is quite vibrant.
Yet again, there are significant areas of the city that are given over to pedestrians, and the locals seem to love it; many of those streets are lined with cafes, which even in the early afternoon of a working day were buzzing with activity.
I focussed my walking around parts of the "upper town" area; Zagreb is split into the upper and lower town areas; the upper town is home to the medieval part of the city, while the lower town is from the later expansion of Zagreb.
The first recorded appearance of the name Zagreb is dated to 1094, at which time the city existed as two different city centres: the smaller, eastern Kaptol inhabited mainly by clergy and housing Zagreb Cathedral, and the larger, western Gradec, inhabited mainly by farmers and merchants.
First stop was the Cathedral:
The square has served as the city's commercial heart since 1641, when it was designated as a place where fairs could be held. Most of the buildings date from the 19th Century, but there are also a number of early 20th Century buildings too.
The cathedral is surrounded on 3 sides (originally 4) by a turreted outer wall, built from 1512 to 1521, to defend the Cathedral from raids by the Ottoman Empire; the south and east bastions were later converted to the Bishop's palace.
I must say, it's actually quite attractive, in an odd kind of way.