Zagreb

Zagreb is the capital city of Croatia. Fun Fact: If you were to list all the capital cities of the world in alphabetical order, Zagreb would be the last one.

During my trip in Croatia, I stayed with relatively distant family (that’s a little play on words, there). Vlatka and her son Lovro welcomed me into their home and planned a three-day weekend to discover Northern Croatia. Here is the thing, Vlatka is my grandma’s mom’s sister’s daughter’s granddaughter. According to the Wikipedia page for "Cousins," that puts Vlatka and me at a third cousin status and Lovro and me at third cousin once removed status. And through the course of the trip, I met even more distant relatives, but everyone welcomed and fed me like I was a prodigal, American first cousin.

I spent my first couple of days in Zagreb, home of my two hosts. At around a million residents, it houses about a quarter of the nations population. There are a lot of old buildings and stuff.

First, a couple of sculptures in front of buildings.

In the background of the first is the Opera house. It was finished in the mid-19th century and has been the place see and be seen ever since (especially for Croatian celebrities). In front is the Source of Life. I forget the name of the second sculpture. Something like the Woman of Education or Knowledge. Both are by Ivan Mestrovic. Mestrovic is a famous Croatian artist-sculptor and is considered one of the best sculptors since the Renaissance. He is important to you because he was a professor at The University of Notre Dame, and his sculptures are all over the campus. Also, there is a nice one at Saint Lucy’s Croation Catholic Church in Troy, Michigan (the city of tomorrow, today).

But Zagreb isn’t just a bunch of ancient buildings and sculptures (there are just old buildings too). It is also a bustling downtown.

The roads are lined with tramways and there are people everywhere. Croatia, and Zagreb especially, has a café oriented culture, maybe more so than France. Cafés litter the storefronts, and tiny tables, chairs, and umbrellas crowd the pedestrian streets.

We stopped more than a few times for a coffee (that is espresso for you) throughout my trip.

The funicular.

Zagreb sits on two hills. Traditionally, one is the hill of the state government and the other of the Roman Catholic Church. You’ll notice the skinny, white building in the top-right of the picture. Besides giving some stunning views of the city…

… this building is something of a landmark. It was built a long, long time ago and rebuilt a few times over the years. It played a major role during the wars (i.e. Ottoman Wars, World War One, World War Two, Croatian War of Independence). Nowadays, it just houses this.

A cannon. Every day at noon, the Croatians fire this cannon. Me? I prefer bells. But cannons get the job done.

We passed a few traditional, Croatian stores selling souvenirs and whatnot. This one was pretty neat.

This woman was handcrafting a lace doily on a pillow. She had about fifteen of those wooden pegs going, twisting, turning, etc. Apparently, it takes something like 90 hours for each doily. You can do a lot in 90 hours. Or you can make a doily.

At the pinnacle of the state hill sits this church.

Wait a minute… that doesn’t make much sense. Alas, the church has the seal/emblem of Croatia on it, so everything is okay. Needless to say, the Catholic Church is pretty important here.

To the left and right of the Church, respectively.

The former is the President of Croatia’s office (note the journalist and camera man reporting the evening news). The latter is the parliament building.

Less than a five minute walk from here sits Our Lady of the Stone Bridge.

This unassuming archway/passageway used to be part of the city gates (the city has expanded and most of the gates have been dismantled). In this archway hangs this painting.

The story goes that the entire city burned down in 1731, and this painting was the only thing to survive the devastation. Now, that is a really nice story and I don’t mean to be a downer, but if anything is going to survive a city fire, it is going to be something stored in a stone building. Miracle or not, people come to the painting, light candles, and pray. The Mother of God of the Stong Gate is the patron saint of Zagreb.

Speaking of praying, let’s go to the other hill and see the Zagreb Cathedral (where do they get these names?).

At night.

And during the day.

Fun fact: the towers of this cathedral are not the same height. One is a full meter taller than the other.

The inside is pretty ornate, complete with chandeliers, and the altar is nicely decorated.

There is also a dead bishop in the back!

That’s enough for monument seeing. I want to see a little into the Croatian culture. What better way than the daily market?

Every day, except Sunday, a main square in the town fills with local vendors selling the usual fruits and vegetables and local goodies. I really liked their balance/scale systems.

Put the desired weight on one side and the lettuce on the other. Bam! One kilogram (that’s 2.2 pounds, I’ll have you know, but 1 kilometer is NOT 2.2 miles… figure that one out).

Some of the local products:

Croatians must really like honey because it is everywhere. This vendor was selling honey, honeycombs, honey combs in honey, and pollen.

There was also olive oil. And it was really good olive oil, too. I may have taste tested.

And the cheese and cream.

Croatia has a tradition of cheese and cream. You buy them separately and then combine them to make a cottage cheese like concoction of dreams. It’s made from milk taken straight from the cow, no pasteurization or whatever. I ate it and was fine. Take that U.S.D.A.

But that is not all. Below the outside market sits an underground marketplace with even more vendors. Going down the stairs, the smell of vinegar was so pungent I sneezed. Why? It probably had something to do with the tubs and tubs of pickled cabbage. Sauerkraut.

I like this place. There were also meat vendors, cheese vendors, more fruits and vegetables, bakeries, and the like. Take a look at a meat station.

And seafood had its own room.

Not far from the market square, there was a smaller (but no less impressive) gathering of flower vendors.

After the market, I found myself in the main square of town, Trg bana Jelacic.

That giant sculpture (it is actually small in this picture) of the soldier on the horse (just to the left of center) is of Josip Jelacic and has an interesting story about how it was facing the other way toward Hungary to commemorate the battles against Hungary in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, but it was turned in the 1990's to face south, toward Bosnia and Herzegovina. Isn’t that nice? The square is pretty at night, too.

Outside of the downtown area but still in the city limits of Zagreb sits an old 13th century building called Medvedgrad.

As far as buildings go, it is as impressive as all the other middle-aged buildings lying around Europe. What is more notable is the view.

So there is Zagreb. I liked it. Its not too big, everyone is nice, most people speak English, there are cafés everywhere, and there is a market everyday. What’s not to like? But there is more to Croatia then Zagreb. So much more…