We packed up to leave Croatia yesterday, and got to the train station to find it so quiet that we were not sure it was even open. However, one small ticket window in the sleepy establishment had its curtain open- and an accommodating gentleman issued our one way tickets to Ljubljana, Slovenia. He swung open a cabinet door and revealed the oldest ticket dispensing apparatus I have ever beheld. Sarah and i turned to one another wide-eyed. It was like witnessing a piece of history. We were granted two little brown stubs with black type- the letters were impressed on the stock; I could feel them when i ran my fingertips over them. It was wonderfully old fashioned.
Finally a train engine came into view to pull the couple cars that sat idle at the station since we had arrived. We boarded. Nothing happened. Departure time came and went. Still nothing. We disembarked. I asked another passenger "Problem?" He replied, "Yes. Problem." We waited. The late afternoon sun glared overhead. We sat on the platform and waited some more. Some teens sat by the tracks a distance away and played guitar and smoked cigarettes. We waited some more, chatting with a german girl and a slovenian girl who were waiting for the same train. At last, over an hour after we were meant to leave, another engine arrived and we boarded again...this time moving away from the platform immediately, finally leaving Croatia behind.
