IT WAS definitely a long day travelling yesterday.

We left Guernsey for Stansted around midday before taking a coach to Heathrow ahead of a flight to Zagreb, which was followed by an internal one to Split, before another journey by coach took us to our home for the next seven days – the Hotel Zagreb. Yes, quite a few connections.

Luckily, we didn’t encounter any delays on our various journeys because we didn’t actually arrive at the hotel until around 11.30pm local time.

Nevertheless, everyone in the squad has their own way to occupy their minds while travelling and for a number of the squad that involves playing multiplayer Mariokart on their Nintendo DS.

I’ve been reliably informed by Glyn Dyer that . . . Glyn Dyer is the best player and the one-to-beat from the first day of racing, while others have suggested Craig Young is the dominant force. Only time will tell how this battle pans out over the next week or so.

And for Jamie Dodd, one of those involved in the multiplayer antics, there was a lucky escape as the Saints defender realised he had left his handheld computer on the plane after we had landed in Zagreb.

Luckily for him the cabin crew from our Heathrow-Zagreb flight was also our crew for the Zagreb-Split leg of the journey and they reunited him with his console as he took his seat.

Anyway, that’s enough about handheld computer games.

But having arrived in Croatia only late on we have not really seen, or experienced much of the country so far.

Hotel Zagreb (and don’t be confused by the fact we’re in Split) is pretty much the only part of Croatia we have seen so far and is an interesting hotel.

It’s very large, but looks like it might have experienced its heyday some years ago.

However, that should not take anything away from the kind service we received last night following our arrival.

No sooner had we put our bags in our rooms than we were being treated to a four-course meal that the staff had stayed on late specifically to serve to us.

Today sees the serious business of the football get started with our first training session scheduled for this afternoon.

By the time you read this we will also have had the chance to size up our opposition at breakfast, with the squads of Croatia, Wales and Turkey all staying at Hotel Zagreb too.