Snapshots From Croatia: Zagreb

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag

Croatia is much longer than I had imagined before we arrived and so while journeying from one place to another we have had the opportunity to visit a number of terrific places, even if they were just in passing. While each is worthy as a destination in its own right we have at least managed a quick peek. And so I plan to post a number of Snap Shots of Croatia to provide a glimpse of these fabulous places. 

In my last post I left you coming through Immigration on a train from Budapest to Zagreb. There we met Nada at an apartment we booked for two nights not far from the train station. At this point we had to sit down and make plans as somehow we had never discussed Nada's plans with her.  Ignoring our travel fatigue I had planned on a week in Zagreb and a week in Slovenia at this time. Nada was worried that she would not have time to do everything  she wanted to and so she wanted to head quickly to Makarska.

In retrospect I am glad we decided to modify our plans as it meant we were able to get back and rest all the sooner. On the other hand it meant our time with our relatives in Zagreb was curtailed much more than I would have liked.

So all in all we have spent a half a day being tourists in Zagreb and we found it to be a lovely compact city. We bought a twenty four hour travel ticket for the public transport which was simple and convenient with a network of trams running all over the city and a funicular to save your feet when visiting Gornji Grad, the upper town.

We began by taking the tram into Ban Jelacic, the square at the heart of Zagreb, in the lower part of town. Here we found market stalls, shopping centres and cafes, not to mention trams and a number of tourists. We had breakfast to fortify ourselves before our planned exploration of the upper town on foot.

We rode the funicular and enjoyed the amazing view over the city from the terrace at the top. I can imagine on a sunny day the colours would be stunning. From here we walked up to Crkva sv. Marka (St Mark's church) and upon seeing this iconic church we knew that we had arrived in Zagreb.

There were hardly any people in the street and we were able to stand in the square and admire the beautiful tiled roof though the church itself was not open. Julian was particularly impressed with the "Lego church" as he called it.

From here we walked down to the Kamenita Vrata, a stone chapel in the city gate leading to the upper town that doubles as a pedestrian thoroughfare. One minute you are walking down the street and the next minute you are within a small and atmospheric place of worship. We didn't linger as we did not wish to disturb peoples prays. In the street leading to the chapel they were filming a Croatian soap opera as we passed and we were told to keep walking through the scene they were filming and so we made our guest appearance.

 By chance we found ourselves on Tkalciceva Street, an atmospheric old street filled bars and cafes. Even in September it was still quite busy and we heard little other than Croatian spoken so it didn't feel touristy. We walked the length of it and behind the buildings we could see the local people's grape vines and vegetable gardens. I later found out that a river runs beneath the street and perhaps this contributes to the serenity.

We never like to retrace our steps so we turned right at the end of Tkalciceva Street and looped back around and found ourselves at the Cathedral of the the Assumption, whose twin spires, albeit wrapped in scaffolding, can be seen across the city.

The Cathedral is partly surrounded by walls erected in the late fourteen hundreds due to the threat posed by the Ottoman Empire. The Cathedral itself was largely destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt in the 19th century. The kids were "grossed out" by the preserved remains of the martyred archbishop Aloysius Stepinac.

Nearby we found the Dolac Markets with mountains of fruit, vegetables, cheeses and other produce on stands under red beach umbrellas. We had time for a quick peak before completing our looping walk, returning to Tkalciceva Street for a delicious traditional Croatian grilled lunch.

I didn't know the trouble I was causing for our beautiful family when I sent a message asking if they would like to pop into Zagreb for a coffee. As we have four cousins under five the offer was made for us to visit them at home instead and the kids were so excited at getting to meet and play with their cousins for the first time. 

What I found out later was that the message had gone out to all of the family "their here and their coming today!", and what we thought was going to be a cup of coffee turned into a fabulous feast with a great group of people. I was quite overwhelmed with the kindness and generosity we were shown, and when I expressed this to Rob's first cousin she said "what..it's nothing we are family".

I feel very grateful to have been welcomed so warmly yet again into Rob's wonderful extended family.