Coveted "Quietest Country" Award goes to...

Croatia. It won by a landslide. Just wandering the narrow streets with the rows and rows of outdoor cafes, there was just one thing missing: noise. They are quiet around here. And gruff. That about sums up Zagreb.

But let's go back to Slovenia for a moment. Shandon and I got up at 8 and went down to the advertised "American-style buffet" included in our hotel. SCORE! I'll tell you what... they did it up right! I made mine more of an "Armenian style buffet" because I went straight to the stuffed peppers and had myself a breakfast dolma. Guess what else... Ljubljana is the Book Capital of the World. No kidding. I was among my people all day yesterday and didn't even realize it. We hung around the hotel until check-out... okay, I cannot tell a lie... we went back and slept until 11:30. All this blogging and jumping takes a lot out of us, apparently.

Our train from Ljubljana was at 2, so one short jaunt to a market and a kebob for lunch later, we were headed to Croatia... but only after discovering the neatest contraption since the Snuggie... a conveyor belt that takes your luggage up train stairs for you. (I sure hope you are keeping track of the number of kebobs two girls can have in one 24 hour period, because the tally was up to two... so far) As people filed off our train before we embarked, we noticed boys were shirtless and many girls had knotted their shirts high. It took us 2.2 seconds to realize the train was full and NOT air conditioned. That's okay, you are saying to yourself, sit by the window, Shandon and Laura! Nope... full train, we had no choices, and our window was the broken one. We sat in a compartment with four others... there are these little rooms with three seats facing each other. The other four were from Switzerland, but they were more than willing to share their Skittles and their Croatia guidebooks with us. We only accepted one of those offers... and you should know it was for the guidebook. The train stopped at the Croatian border for a customs official to stamp our passports. This is the first time this has happened, because you can travel anywhere in the European Union without stopping.

So. Zagreb. Quiet. People are not super friendly. Cool buildings. We checked into our super cute and old hotel, then walked to the center. It took us five minutes to find the best bread place in history. We then had a kebob for dinner... ahem, that makes 3. In the main square, I was busy setting up the timer for a picture when I heard Shandon yell, "Hey guys!" I could not imagine that she actually found someone she knew in Zagreb. She did. It was our friends from the AC-Free Train Ride... you can see them in the back of the picture waving.

I think my favorite part of this town is the abundance of corn on the cob stands. Who doesn't enjoy that!? Anyone can get a churro... Late cappuchino in the hotel cafe and we are done!

Headed south tomorrow down the Dalmatian Coast!