Zagreb, Croatia

A Nice Train Layover

July 21, 2012

- Bob Dylan

Walking through the dark graffiti filled corridor underneath the tracks at the Sarajevo train station I instantly knew I should have taken the bus. In theory they both take about nine hours and leave at roughly the same time, however I was told that the train is more comfortable. I don’t know what the bus might have offered but I doubt that this was the case. And it certainly did not take nine and half hours. After several delays en route, including the train engine completely breaking down and the cars being transferred to a new one, I rolled into the Zagreb station two and half hours late.

On arrival I was told that the next train to Ljubljana didn’t leave for another three hours. Not wanting to wait in order to have more time in Ljubljana I walked to the bus station thinking that surely there would be an earlier bus since Ljubljana is the next closest capitol city to Zagreb. This was not the case either. Apparently there are more buses per week to Ljubljana from Sarajevo than from Zagreb, three versus two, leaving only on Monday and Friday. That is rather ridiculous since from Zagreb the Slovenian capitol is less than three hours away. Disappointed I walked one kilometer back to the train station.

There I bought a ticket for the next train to Ljubljana and found the platform. Looking up at the departure board under the column labeled “min” there was a number, 155. That meant that my arriving train was 155 minutes late; so much for punctuality. On the negative side this meant I wouldn’t arrive in Ljubljana until after 6pm but on the plus side it gave me time to wander around Zagreb and enjoy the scenery in the center of the city.