Europe Day 1: Split to Zagreb

Start of the first train journey

The start of a slightly ambitious train journey, covering close to 3000km in five days, to get to Paris (for the flight back to CT). This day was Split to Zagreb.

The Split train station hides just off the road in front of the harbour - so easy to miss. The train to Zagreb took longer than the advertised six and a half hours thanks to slowing down to 20km/hr at intersections (which were frequent) and a fire on the tracks up ahead as we stopped in the tiny town of Unešić watching a small plane douse the flames. The staff on the train (hzpp) were very accommodating and apologetic.

Across from me sat an old man who had worked on the railways for 30 years and had been retired for another 30 years. Once he discovered I spoke “naši” (our language), he began chatting. At every small station we passed he would describe what exactly he had done there prior to 1992 (there is a person with a red hat at every town station signalling). He would also complain about how slow we were going, rueing the first half of the football match he was going to miss. Later, he would reveal to the ticket inspector that his wife had passed away five days before.

He moved to another section of the train about three hours into the journey, to be replaced by a teenage Polish couple who reminded me about what too much PDA looks like.