Zagreb Recap

The trip to Zagreb was exciting. I've never traveled that far by train (about 12 hours roundtrip), but it was fun to travel with friends.
We stayed in a hostel that was pretty central, so we were close to most things in the city. Zagreb is not as large as I thought it would be, but I loved it.
We got there on Thursday and left Sunday afternoon. Our guide was not able to make it at all, so Frauke and Ann had to improvise and come up with a schedule.
We went to a restaurant the first evening and had traditional Croatian cuisine. If you've never looked at a map of Croatia, please do. (Here, I'll make it easy: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/croatia/)
The country shape is somewhat unusual. Croatia is not only close to the rest of Eastern Europe, it's also close to Italy. Therefore, much of the Croatian culture has Eastern European and Italian influences. The food we ate was good. I had veal (would not have been my first choice, but they had a set menu) and mashed potatoes, with chocolate and cherry crepes for dessert.
The Croatians use kuna as their currency, with 5 kuna approximating 1 USD.
The next day, we had a guided tour of the upper city, ending with the traditional cannon being fired at exactly 12 noon.
That night, we explored some of Zagreb's nightlife, including a trip to the Tolkien pub (filled with memorabilia from the movies and other Tolkienish objects) as well as another place, where we heard a not-so-great cover band alternating between pop songs from Croatia as well as the States. It was fun to sing along, even though I was only pretending to know the Croatian words.
The next day, Saturday, we went to a large cemetery. That was probably my favorite part of the trip. I like cemeteries, normally, but this one was huge and very nice.
There were people everywhere, cleaning the elaborate tombstones of their dearly departed. It's pretty traditional for Europeans, or so I was told. I liked it. I could have stayed all day and walked around. I'll have to get my friend to post the pictures that I took on her camera of all the cool tombstones, because they were pretty special.
I also got a chance to go to the city market, and certain people can be expecting a present from Croatia when I get back... :)
Other than that, the train ride home was extremely long and boring and I was driven almost crazy by the other people on our trip. Not that it was their problem, I just needed some alone time, and there was none to be had. We were in compartments, and the train was pretty filthy, and I couldn't fall asleep.
Also, I have an equally long train ride to look forward to next weekend, when I go to Venice!
I'm very excited about Venice, but it's going to be a lot more expensive than we estimated at first, so that's not so exciting.
However, Venice is the setting of one of my favorite young adult books, The Thief Lord, so I can't help but be excited that I'm going there.

Tchüss!! *kiss on both cheeks* (typical Austrian farewell)