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August 8, 2002

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People warned us it couldn't be done alone: we returned to the Russian embassy, armed with more documentation, and managed to submit an accepted application. Local travel agencies charge 50-300 dollars per passport (that's their quoted price range) to help with Russian visas, so we were proud to ignore their predictions of failure and obtain the visa by ourselves. Our job done in Budapest, we boarded a train to Zagreb. The Hungarian-Croatian border is a no-hassle crossing, yet we arrive in Zagreb as night falls. Finding cheap accommodation isn't easy here and after wandering the streets, we manage to land a bed in a youth hostel.
Croatians call their country Hrvatska, which makes it easy to find if you're a foreigner reading a train schedule.
This building is the first thing you'll see coming from the train station. It's all a part of Zagreb's lower town. Upper town is the older part of the city where the people built fortifications. In those days if you lived in lower town then you were 'bandit-bait.'