Zagreb to Prague…

Woke around 5:30am had to be up at 6 to get the 7:25 train to Prague. We were packed and headed out of the hotel for 6:45 and took the to the central railway station.

My only sight in Zagreb                 Zagreb railway station

      

The train leaves Zagreb and within 10 minutes of leaving the station the Croatian border patrol come on to check and stamp your passport, you then get the Croatian ticket people that come round and check your train ticket. Ten minutes later the Slovenian guards come on and again check your passport and stamp it, you then get the customs guards and then again the ticket guys but this time Slovenian! The train engine also has to be changed from a Croatian one to a Slovenian one!

Kevin and i have first class travel in Europe on the trains, the comfort level is far better than the UK and they eve have business class for another 25 Euros! The difference is there's only 4 seats to a compartment as opposed to 6 and the seats are a touch wider, i was more than happy with the 6 seats, especially as we had the compartment to ourselves for the 6 1/2 hour journey we were on the train. The seats fold perfectly flat too so i folded the seats opposite each flat and made a flat bed for a couple of hours sleep.

First class                                  Business class

 

As I'm typing this now we've been on the train a couple of hours and some of the scenery is amazing, the train lines follow a river and the road at the other side of the river all through the mountains and green fields. There's castles on hills, churches up mountains and waterfalls all over the place, its beautiful

So we arrived in Vienna (Ahhhh Vienna i hear some of you say:) around 2pm and had 30 minutes to change trains. Kevin went off to the store and i watched the bags at a small cafe in the station. 35 minutes later and I'm now sat on the train to Prague typing this up. We’ve just booked a cheap hotel for one night tonight as from tomorrow I'm sharing with the mad Danes! (Jens and Lars!) Harry is doing a small show tonight in a jazz bar so depending on what time we get checked in the hotel we may have time to go check out his gig but were not due to arrive into Prague and 7:35 so we’ll see how time goes.

So before we set off from Zagreb we both bought a sandwich and something to drink for the journey, i wanted some orange juice but couldn't find it anywhere, the lady at the small shop in the station help up some orange container and without thinking about it i just said yeh that's fine. So when i come to open said container i see the top of it is rather large, i thought nothing of it and twisted it as normal, as i took the top off i looked inside and it looked like there had been something in there and a hole had opened up below into the bottle. This was exactly what had happened, upon looking at the instructions on the bottle it appears the drink in the bottle is clear and flavorless, in the cap of the bottle is a sherbet/powder type substance that when you twist the top it releases this powder into the liquid and your meant to shake it up and then drink it! All very odd and certainly not what i had in mind when i bought it.

Its now 7pm and we've just had dinner in the restaurant dining car, i felt like something off the orient express! The tables had table clothes, the waiter was in full dress and the food was excellent, certainly something I'm not used to when traveling on British Rail!

Some random pics below of the scenery whilst on the train journey.