Day 28 - June 12

Distance: 4.2 miles (6.8 km)

Ljubljana.  It's a mouthful, but a tasty one.  Slovenia's capital is just a 3ish hour journey from Zagreb, and it's one of Europe's smallest capitals with a population about the size of Lincoln, for you Nebraska folks reading this.  Its historic central district is ridiculously small - like a small town or a big village.  What it lacks in size, though, it makes up for in character.  Ljubljana feels like Salzburg, Austria with a bit of Balkan flair.  It's got lovely, Hapsburg buildings, beautiful baroque churches, pedestrianized streets and squares, and a big castle on the hill overlooking it all.  It also has zesty Balkan-influenced cuisine, cafes and street performers playing gypsy-like music on every street corner, and prices that are far cheaper than neighboring Austria.

After getting to our hostel, I was feeling restless, wanted to see the city, and I hadn't done much physical activity at all over the course of the day, so I went for a short jog along the river that loops around the historic center.  It was a very easy, flat run, only four miles, too short for the pain in my heel to kick in (that takes about 6 miles). 

After running and eating, we went to a bar to watch the first match of the World Cup - Brazil vs Croatia.  We were just unlucky (or lucky?) enough to leave Croatia just before they played in the World Cup.  I'm sure the atmosphere in Zagreb would have been wild, but we were rooting for Brazil, and seeing as Brazil won, maybe Zagreb wouldn't have been the safest place to be!  Anyway, the bar we picked had a big outdoor TV and the crowd was fairly evenly split between Brazil and Croatia-supporters.  The beer was good too.  Slovenia only has two major domestic beers - Lasko and Union.  Lasko tastes like Bud Light.  Union is delicious.  Get Union.

Dragon on the Dragon Bridge

Day 27 - June 11

Recovery Day

Zagreb is nice enough.  It was formerly under the rule of the Hapsburg Empire, so it's got the grand style of Austrian architecture you find in Vienna and Budapest, but on a much, much smaller scale.  It has a nice old town with a couple of nice medieval streets.  It has a nice cathedral.  It has a good public transport system.  All around, it's a nice city, but there's nothing that makes it really stand out, so if you find yourself in Croatia, it might be worth just taking a quick look around the capital and then spending the majority of your time on the coast and in the national parks.

We spent our morning in Zagreb walking around the upper and lower towns.  The upper town is the old, medieval portion of the city center, while the lower town was built by the Hapsburgs in the grand, opulent style of the 19th century.  Probably the most interesting part of these two areas is the marketplace in the upper town, which has just about every kind of fruit and vegetable you can imagine, and, in the underground section (yes, there is a massive underground market below the above-ground market), there are vendors selling probably every kind of meat and cheese made in Croatia. 

That night, we hung out with a few Americans in our hostel bar and were joined by some Kiwis (people from New Zealand).  We all went downtown to a very small club/bar and had a jolly good time.

No running of any kind today, but we walked I-don't-even-know-how-many miles.  I had some good places in mind for running in Zagreb, so I guess I'll have to come back some other day - assuming I can still run years from now.

The marketplace