The capital is beautiful. Before we came here, I had this image in my head of an old, dirty and destroyed during the war city. Instead it's clean, spacious and lively. We like it a lot.
Martina and her 11-year old son Noa live in the west part of Zagreb. We bought a travel card valid for 3 days (90 kunas = 10 pounds) and we took tram and then a bus. She picked us up from Dudovec bus stop where she lives in a nice flat. Martina is a very approachable person and we had a great evening, chatting until late.
Martina has a dog that is lovely and quiet. She (the dog) is scared of something and her favourite place to hide is behind the toilet. It’s a strange feeling... going to a toilet where a dog is staring at you whatever you do. Ha ha ha…

This morning we met Igor from Couch Surfing and his cousin (in the first picture). He showed us some parts of the city and in general he was a great company. We learnt a lot of things about Croatia in the process, for example that there was a referendum in the country at the beginning of this year, asking citizens if they wanted to join European Union. 66% said "yes". The country is preparing to enter EU in 2013. This means they will have to... recycle! - as at the moment the recycling system is non-existent.
Accession of Croatia to the European Union

In the evening we met Denis who showed us the botanical garden and some buildings (for example the national theatre). Denis told us an interesting and very sad story from his life. He was going to be recruited to the army during the war in 1990s as many other men. He could have fought against his own people or even family but he was lucky, unlike others - he escaped to Germany and came back after a year, when the war was about to finish.
Yugoslav Wars
We all went to an excellent restaurant, of a very good value and with great traditional food. Our host Martina joined us after work, as well as Robert from Couch Surfing who I also contacted from London (in the second picture).