[OnyxCougar]

Day Three (Tuesday)

Woke up hungry again. Had more bacon and eggs with buttered bread. No hash browns this time. Our main project today was to get me registered at the Zagreb police station and to pick up Ivan's glasses, which we didn't do the day before, and take me to the cathedral in the daylight. We took the tram to Jelacica and walked to the Police Station. I was a little nervous, we were supposed to register within 48 hours of arrival, but we arrived on Saturday night at 11pm, they were closed Sunday, and we arrived too late the day before. We registered with the Embassy on time, but we were late in Zagreb. We went upstairs and there was no one in the particular line we needed, so we waited.

Sometimes rudeness trancends lingual barriers. This woman at the counter looked at us and sniffed softly, then motioned for us to step forward. Ivan (of course) did the talking, and told her we wanted to register me. She laid her arm on the counter and beckoned at me. I didn't need him to tell me, 'She wants your passport.' I gave it to her, and she looked at it. Looked at all my stamps. Then she put it on the counter and said something. Ivan nodded and pulled me aside by my arm. 'She isn't the one who does this. We have to wait till the other lady comes back from lunch.' I asked him why she needed to see my passport if she isn't the registration lady. He didn't answer me, tho. About 15 minutes later, lunch lady came back, and he went through the same spiel. She said something and there was a looong exchange, and Ivan again pulled me aside, but this time, he pulled me out of the office. 'We have a problem.' he said. I became alarmed. 'What problem?'

He explained that to register me as staying at his house, he needed the ID card of the owner of the house. (ID cards are so important there that just having the ID card of someone is like having them there.) The owner of the house, his cousin, was in Bosnia or somesuch (where he is from), and therefore, we couldn't get her ID card. We put in a call to Hrvoje, who was going to get Kelle registered in Kutina at his mom's house there. We made plans to take the train out there the next day, and Hrvoje would register us in Kutina. Great. No problem. Off to Jelacica to pick up Ivan's new glasses. Up two flights of stairs to the optika shop, and 1800 Kunas later (that's about $260) he paid them off, and could actually see what I look like. He didn't run screaming into the night, tho.

Walking through the Trg on the way to the cathedral, there was a little old lady with a cart, selling big pretzels. I squealed in delight. I love big warm pretzels with salt on them. Ivan bought two and handed it to me. It was cold. Hmm. He took a bite of his and didn't spit it out, but wasn't happy about swallowing it, either. They were day-olds, and basically, this old lady would go around with her cart in the morning and buy up the day old pretzles from the bakeries, then take her cart and resell the pretzles in the square. Well, I didn't much mind, we walked up the hill, and I munched on both our pretzles, and snapped some pictures.