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Woke up with an headache, again… It passed quick with a painkiller, but then it was my digestive system being most unhappy. Aïe! When I come back I’ll have doctors pumping blood out of my system for analysis.

I finally got out of the hostel, and walked towards Zagreb’s funicular, which is one of the shortest and steepest in Europe! But it was also closed today, meh. I climbed the stairs to the high town, which is much more ancient looking. A zone around official buildings was all cordoned off, and a few TV cameras were there. I don’t know why though, and left.

I took a tram, and didn’t manage to understand how to validate my day ticket. Oh well.

I changed for a second tram, a long one going all the way on the edge of the city in the North, at the foot of the mountains.

There I took the cable car. Wow, I was not expecting that! The ride took 25 min! I was so far away, when I reached the summit, at the foot of a big TV tower, I couldn’t even see the horizon, for the weather was a bit misty and cloudy. But all Zagreb could be seen on the Southern side, and the countryside and villages to the North. I ate at a restaurant there at the top (not even that expensive), and came back with another half hour of cable car, this time having one for me alone. And I saw a roedeer, just under the cablecar lines!

Jumped back in the tram to the city, my belly still aching occasionally. I decided best to get a bit of rest and went for a two-hour nap at the hostel.

Having recovering some strenghts, I walked back out determined to visit the Mushroom Museum. That was super interesting! A woman was ever explaining plenty of stuff about the hundreds of species they somehow manage to conserve here. It was a real childhood throwback, of my mushroom passion years, when I could spend days rereading for the billionth time the same book about thos little fun guys.

I took another tram for a big park further East in Zagreb, but I managed to take the wrong one, so I walked back through a much smaller park.

I went back for an early retreat at the hostel.

And just like that, half a month passed again! Two weeks ago, I was in Shkodra [Shkodër] in Albania with Kamel. I went through Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and finally Croatia. The second half of an entire month of Balkans.

I haven’t taken many trains since then (11, five of them being trams), but one of them, the Montenegrine, was the most beautiful in my life. Most of those were actually quite unique: the one-hour night train over the Montenegro-Serbia border, the Bosnian territory-violating Serbian train, the crazy good Bosnian train, the tilting Croatian train. I took the final bus for a while too.

I have seen many outstanding beauties that floored me, mostly in Montenegro. I was very pleasantly surprised by Bosnia and Herzegovina, and regretted not giving Serbia more of a chance this time. I also spent my first night in a station.

Croatia is the 29th country of the trip, so I’m still one country « ahead » of previsions.

This was a very pleasant start of the month, and I’m looking forward to the second half, especially with Slovenia up next!