OK, so I finished that stuff I was talking about earlier and headed down the road to the Ravnice Hostel where I was staying for the day/night. But I’ll tell you more about that place later. After checking in and taking a brief nap I decided it was time to meet with Tomi and see what had been going on with him. We hadn’t seen each other for some six weeks or so and since we’re co-founding the nation of Couchsurfia I thought it was time to catch up. Plus, he’s ultra-cool so why not. He had mentioned that he had some plans which was why I chose not to surf with him, plus the Ravnice Hostel wanted me to check them out so I stayed there.
Tomi (Tomislav Perko) and I hung out and chatted at Cyber Funk Cafe where he’s a fixture. We related tales of our recent adventures and the adventures that we were thinking about at present. His path was taking him to Budapest later that day and mine was keeping me in Zagreb for a short while longer.
Later in the day I met up with Andrew Lee who was also in town and we caught up on things for a bit including some pivo and čevapí which we felt was a necessary thing to do. After that I thought it was time for a quick nap and headed back to the hostel. A nap was just the thing I needed but after I decided that I didn’t really feel like doing much else. So I had some dinner and read the book, striving to finish the massive tome so I didn’t need to carry it around anymore. (The System of the World by Neal Stephenson, picked up at Fresh Sheets in Dubrovnik).
That pretty much ended the night really.
26.July.2009
The next day brought the thought of packing as I was only staying in Zagreb one night. It was a critical place to be as it was partway between north and south. It meant I could go either way from there. That decision had yet to be made.
After a quick breakfast I noticed that there was no internet and part of the problem was because the main reception computer at Hostel Ravnice was sort of broken. Being Kerim, generous and helpful (according to Nedzla), I offered my prior 10 years of professional IT experience. It turns out that it was simply a broken video card and so I was able to get them up and running. But the built in hardware was not up to the task as they had a color-coded spreadsheet for reservations. So I suggested they email it to themselves and use one of the other computers or they put it on a USB flash drive and do that, which they did.
I don’t have all my notes from Ravnice with me right now so I can’t tell you all about the hostel. I do remember there’s something like 74 beds in two buildings with a common garden. The place was well appointed for a hostel and the kitchen area was cool. But it was some distance (15 minutes by tram + 200m walk)from the center which might put some people off considering that the price is no less than a place in the center and the fact that you have to pay for Internet, which I really think they should change in order to remain competitive with the other hostels that are springing up in Zagreb (both price and Internet). The bed was super comfortable as it was the first place I had a full 8 hours of sleep on the whole trip.
Later in the day I headed out of the hostel with my bag and did a little wandering with my bag on my back. At this point it had become so light to me that it wasn’t a major problem, but like all backpacks it did make my back a little sweaty. I eventually wandered through the botanical gardens and then to the bus station to buy my ticket…but where was that ticket to? Well I had some very interesting conversations during the course of the day and while I was very, very…VERY much tempted to return to Sarajevo one more time I came to an agreement of sorts with someone and I headed to Vienna in transit home.
Later that night Rob showed up and I assisted him with a Paypal issue (namely the fact he couldn’t get his money from them and I could) and we sat and chatted with one of his friends for a while over coffee. As it was getting late we said our goodbyes and I headed for the platform while they headed for home.
I’ll have an article that details all of the hostels that I have stayed at on the trip and will give my impressions of each in a more in-depth fashion in the hopes that it becomes something of a resource for other backpackers and travelers in the region…just as soon as I catch up on a 100 other projects.