Road Trip Europe 2017 - Part 5 - Goodbye, Split! Hello, Zagreb!

Fifth day of my trip around Europe! Just till now great places everywhere. Marvelous Croatia! One more thing to experience and it was its capital - Zagreb!

The capital Zagreb is located in the inner part of the Europe, about 360 kilometers away from Split, and we decided, that it's better to leave in the early morning, so that we could stop somewhere on our way and eventually arrive safely about 18:00.

Of course the day started with some espresso... The last drink to have in "the Cave" and we felt a little bit sad, because of the fact that we had to leave this magical place.

Our daytrip led through very beautiful mountains and the national park where the Plitvice Lakes are. Wewere considering visiting the lakes too, but couple of reviews said, that in the high season it's not recommended going there, because of the countless tourists. Although the whole national park around the lakes looks very magical and I definitely recommend visiting it.

Here are the mountains...

Beautiful Croatian inland nature.

The only place we stopped on our way was a little city, just to have some ice-cream for lunch and a brief coffee break. We were so excited about going to Zagreb, that it was our only target this day. About 17:30 we were on our final destination, which was a small apartment we had booked earlier this week. Our host Nina was a very nice and friendly young girl, and she had make everything for us to feel at home. She gave us even a city map with instructions how to get to the city center, which was actually a 3 stops away with the tram. And the tram stop was 10 minutes away from our apartment. (You can check Apartment Pijuko"!!! Definitely worth stayind and the price is great.)

When we left our spacious room we headed towards a nice restaurant, also recommended by Nina! She claimed, that there was a very tasty tomato soup and some great craft beers. And she was indeed very correct on her thoughts! We got the mentioned Tomato soup, some fresh salad and two craft beers! A Pale ale and an IPA, accompanied by a great pizza!

Tomato Greatness

Fresh salad with avocado

Actually the beers were great! Varionica Croatian brewery!!!

Aaand the pizza!

Woohoo, after so much food we were definitely full and needed a immediate walk in the city of Zagreb. We headed to the tram stop, where we took our transport. It was already getting dark and the city of Zagreb revealed its night beauty with all the lights turning on. The city itself reminded me of Sofia in a great extent, but I think there were a lot more tourists. The cathedral in the city center looked magnificent, and all the architecture around was very pleasant. The Adriatic coast was definitely very beautiful, but the capital had its own beauty and we loved all the surrounding and the spirit of the place.

The big Josip Jelacic statue.

Unknown(for me) horse rider.

Glavny Kolodvor!!! Or maybe central railway station?!?!

Nice and clean!

Again, for fifth evening it came the time to have a sleep in the lovely room. We used the evening to pick up our next day route, because we haven't decided exactly where to go yet. The initial idea was the lake of Balaton, but it got changed to Maribor, so stay tuned for our Slovenian experience!

If you like my posts, please upvote them. I'll very happy to hear if you like the photos and places, that I visited.
Please also check the other parts of my trip!
Part 1: https://steemit.com/travel/@mdosev/road-trip-europe-2017-serbia-croatia-slovenia-hungary
Part 2: https://steemit.com/travel/@mdosev/road-trip-europe-2017-part-2-the-ancient-dubrovnik
Part 3: https://steemit.com/travel/@mdosev/road-trip-europe-2017-part-3-drive-alongside-the-adriatic-towards-split
Part 4: https://steemit.com/travel/@mdosev/road-trip-europe-2017-part-4-magical-split-boat-trip-in-the-adriatic

Thank you for reading and see you again soon!
Best wishes, Miroslav!