So by now everyone's probably wondering if I dropped my camera with its pictures of my trip to Croatia into a ditch, or something. No, rest assured that nothing has happened to my camera - or to my computer - or to me, as a matter of fact. I've been feeling really uninspired lately, and as I hate to post pictures without a good story to go with them, there have been no posts about my Croatian vacation. But here is the story of my trip to Croatia, at long last.
Friday, March 25th was Greek Independence Day, but since Greeks like to take holidays, of course we got both Thursday and Friday off of school. I had felt a yen to vacation somewhere unusual - somewhere outside of the typical American destinations of France, Italy, etc. - and with a little bit of encouragement from online photos of Croatia's Plitvice Lakes, I booked a flight to the city of Zagreb. It must have been a moment of insanity because I booked a flight leaving Athens at 4:25... AM. Therefore, I was quite surprised when I entered the airport to see a bunch of Greeks, all awake and ready to check-in for our flight to Croatia.
After a six-hour layover in Prague (which I'll get to in a later post), I arrived in Zagreb in the afternoon. Foolishly having forgotten to write down the address for my hostel, I went in search of the tourist center, toting my heavy hiking backpack. By the time I arrived, I had already considered collapsing on the sidewalk several times. (My tendency to get lost is even more of an inconvenience when carrying a weight roughly equivalent to an elementary school child on my back.) The employees in the tourist center were unbelievably helpful - giving me directions, booking a tour guide, and even helping me find a place to buy an alarm clock!
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| Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The architect who built the last incarnation of this church chose to use sandstone, a terrible choice for Zagreb's wet and cold winter weather. My tour guide told me that it has needed repair from the moment of completion. |
Despite a couple of days of sleeping in, I made excellent time in Zagreb. I wandered the small city on foot, alone and also with a tour guide. From my brief time in Prague, Zagreb seemed like a smaller version of the city, perhaps with a touch of Budapest, except that the people in Croatia are friendlier and more approachable. They didn't seem to possess the typical eastern-European reserve, but it could also have been a result of the weather. The weather was made-to-order: beautiful and mild, and the Croatians were out in full-force: playing guitar in the square, walking with their children, eating ice cream, and bicycling everywhere. (I had a couple of narrow escapes with the city's enthusiastic cyclists.) I even stumbled on a small concert in celebration of Earth Hour on my last night when the time changed for "spring forward."
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| The street musicians in Zagreb seem to be treated more as an acceptable form of entertainment than as any sort of nuisance. This saxophone player was a great favorite when I was there. |
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| Me and my tour guide. Smile! |
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| Bicycle! |
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| There is a famous story about how everything in a section of Zagreb burned except for this picture of the Virgin Mary. Now it's in a little chapel of sorts at the Stone Gate (where people also leave their thanks for answered prayers.) |
Of course, knowing me, you realize that I took advantage of a new city to eat... and eat... and eat. The first night I was so tired that I settled for a piece of pizza from the Surf 'n Fry for dinner. I don't know if it was simply because I was really hungry or because it was truly fabulous pizza, but that slice of cheese and mushroom was the best I have ever eaten. The next few days I made up for my slow start with several pieces of strudel, a cream square, daily gelato, french fries, fish stew, sausage, and a bunch of things I'm probably forgetting.
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| The ice cream my Lonely Planet guidebook recommended at Vincek's. With the intense flavor of gelato and a light, whipped texture, I loved every flavor I tried - even if I didn't know what they were, since the flavors were all in Croatian! |
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| From the Surf 'N' Fries - I had to get one of these cardboard cones because I saw SO many kids walking around eating these! You get the choice of two dips - mine are ketchup and garlic - and a cone full of grooved fries with a little pitchfork to eat them with! |
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| My fish stew came in a little kettle. The only difficulty is that the fish were not completely de-boned! I'm so glad the waitress told me this when I asked how to eat it. Choking in the restaurant could have been a rather traumatic experience. |
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| Umbrellas are considered a symbol of Zagreb. |
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| Not Mary Poppins... actually a famous Croatian authoress. |
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