As usual on these trips, we arrived in Zagreb, Croatia, very early in the morning (4:40am to be exact). We had planned on holing up in the railroad station until McDonald’s opened (our now-traditional way to start our very early mornings), and we quickly scanned the station when we arrived. Several things were quickly apparent. First, the lockers that we would use to hold our bags were in the station (a plus), but the lockers used change – and that was Croatia-specific change. Second, we would have to change money – but the ATM in the station was out of service, and the exchange office did not open until 7.
We hunkered down in a hallway in the railstation, as it was too dark to head outside, and it was nominally warmer inside the hallway. We figured it was one of the warmest, free places around, since many of the benches were filled with Zagreb’s homeless population. Erin was particularly frustrated by the situation this morning - due to fatigue (overnight trains do not provide a perfect night's sleep), and lack of clean bathroom and showering facilities. James did his best to remind her that this was (almost) the last overnight train, and that a shower was just around the corner. We curled up together on one of the benches and waited for the sun to come up, and for the currency exchange to open.
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| A view from outside the hallway we spent our morning sitting in. Notice the man scrounging for cans wearing a Michigan jacket... |
Once our baggage was squared away, we headed off into the city to find the McDonald’s where we hoped to warm up and plan out the rest of our day. We had gotten a tourist map from the exchange office in the train station, and James tried to pair that with the map he had downloaded onto his Kindle. We set off, and did not see the McDonald’s where the map indicated. We walked to a Sheraton to momentarily warm up, and then started back towards the rail station. After that path was fruitless, we tried a third way into the city – with still no success. At this point, Erin made a case for a breakfast at the Sheraton (and the attendant warmth), but James finally spotted the McDonald’s sign literally above Erin’s shoulder at this point in the road. Our breakfast was set, and we planned out the rest of our day.
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| McDonald's in Zagreb - finally - and very welcome indeed. |
Zagreb, like may eastern European cities, has an “Old” and “New” town set-up.
The vast majority of the tourist activities are centered on the Old town in these cases, and Zagreb was no exception – except that it calls its Old Town “The Upper Town.”
Our first stop was the Zageb Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was undergoing some renovations.
We took a moment for some pictures outside, including one with Tabitha. Inside, we were also surprised to discover the glass tomb of one of the Cathedral's previous leaders, Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac.
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| The Zagreb Cathedral, the tallest building in Croatia. |
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| Tabitha jumps into a picture of the Zagreb Cathedral. |
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| The Tomb of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac. |
We left the Cathedral and crossed one block to Zagreb’s central Dolac open-air market, where we viewed the clothing and food options from all over Croatia. We also bought a postcard to send to the students who are learning about different countries from our trip. We were pleasantly surprised by how clean and well-maintained the city of Zagreb was. From the outdoor market, we walked down Tkalciceva street, looking at the “bohemian” section of town, which at this point, is primarily restaurants and little gift shops.
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| James takes a "Plazma" biscuit break in the square before heading to the market. Erin found this particularly entertaining that James was eating "plasma." |
Erin was seeking the “Bloody Bridge,” connecting Tkalciceva with Radiceva street, that she had read about in her tourist materials.
We were disappointed to find out that the “bridge” was just a crosswalk; however, we did see this medieval archway.
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| The medieval arch in Radiceva street. |
On our way into the main center of political life in Zagreb, we passed through the Stone Gate, a tunnel under a building that also doubles as a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary. One minute we were walking through a street, the next we were in the middle of an actual church service!
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| The Virgin Mary Chapel - on the street. |
From the Stone Gate, we walked to the Square of the Church of St. Mark, a church built in the 13th century with a very stylized roof. Erin took one look and dubbed it the “Lego Church” and James agreed.
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| The Church of St. Mark - you can see the brightly-colored roof looks a bit like legos. |
It’s easy to see why when you look at the church, especially when there is no one else in the square:
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| We were a bit surprised that the square was literally empty. |
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| We stopped for a picture in front of the Church of St. Mark. (If you are especially observant, you will notice that we are, in fact, wearing the same clothing for the third day in a row). |
We believe there were three reasons for the empty square. First, the church was closed to visitors (we know, because we checked all the entrances). Second, it was raining, and it rained pretty much all day. Third, there were transportation problems leading up to the square. This was the next item of contemporary Zagreb we stumbled upon: as we were walking away from St. Mark’s, we found that the streets were clogged with taxis. Taxi after taxi was parked, filling up all the streets all the way to Zagreb’s city assembly building. We saw some news cameras and a group of men shouting loudly, and James confirmed with a police officer that it was a taxi-cab strike in the city.
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| The taxi-strike in Zagreb - there were hundreds of taxis lining the streets around the Church of St. Mark. |
We headed down from the Upper Town, passing a number of interestingly-named Zagreb museums on our way. The Museum of Naïve Art simply stands for self-taught or “folk” artists; we think the name of the Museum of Broken Relationships speaks for itself.
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| Zagreb had some interesting museums: one of which was the Museum of Naive Art. |
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| Another interesting museum we passed: The Museum of Broken Relationships. |
The path down led us to Ban Jelacic Square, the center of Zagreb city life, bustling with workers going to and from work, people taking their lunches, and still more taxis heading north to the strike. We walked down to the Zrinjevac portion of town to take a look at the imposing museums and government buildings, but as we did, we ran into the real difficulty of visiting Zagreb – the rain that day. We walked to the post office and assessed our day, and even considered going to a movie to wait out the rain.
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| The Croation National Theater - yellow in color, which seemed to be a common color for buildings in Zagreb. |
After the rain let up, we meandered through some Zagreb stores before heading back to the Main Railway Station, which sits across from the statue of King Tomislav. While we were not ecstatic that we were getting back on a train, we were happy to escape the constant drizzle and thrilled that we would not be on this train overnight. We met some Americans studying abroad on the train, and arrived safe and sound in Ljubljana, Slovenia, around 9pm. There was some slight confusion on our walk to the hostel, but we made it to our room to orient ourselves and take our first shower in days! We also took the opportunity to do some laundry, and before it got too late, we were both soundly asleep.
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| There was actually grafitti on our train from Croatia to Slovenia! |
