Zagreb

August 1, 2011 Zagreb
Dinner last night was better than the night before, which was a pleasant surprise. The Hotel Plitvice has such a nice dining room, we’re glad the food wasn’t as bland as we originally thought.
After breakfast this morning, we packed up and left at 10 to catch the 10:45 bus. Luckily we were at the bus stop on the highway by 10:15 because a bus for Zagreb stopped and picked us up at 10:20. There are several different bus companies. I didn’t have the timetables for all of them so we were lucky not to have to wait another half hour.
As we travelled through the little towns toward Zagreb, most of them looked pretty good but there are a few houses here and there that are pock-marked from bullets and some houses are abandoned. The fighting was apparently fairly heavy south of Zagreb although not in the city itself. We’ve read that the abandoned houses were probably owned by Serbs who lived here before the war, had to leave and will likely never come back.
It’s pretty country but not as dramatic as the coast. As we got closer to Zagreb the land got flatter and more populated.
We had reserved a hotel only a few blocks from the bus station (and train station) and not too far from the old downtown. We’re staying in the 5 star Sheraton Zagreb in a deluxe room with king bed and with free entrance to the spa. It’s costing us only $113 Cdn per night. It’s a business conference hotel and there aren’t many business conferences in August so it’s cheap. Plus we’re on the “preferred” floor, whatever that means, since I’m a Starwood hotel chain member (a leftover from my years on the road delivering training). Anyway it’s a really nice room. We always check a couple of booking web sites to see if deals like this pop up and every once in a while they do.
We went down to the Konzum grocery store (the local joke is “we konzum the food and they konzum our money”) and picked up some beer and wine. Then we hit the spa. The sauna and steam room are really nice, spacious and clean. After Anita’s finished soaking in the big bathtub in our room (usually we only get a shower), we’ll head downtown for the first time to find a restaurant that we’ve picked from one of our guidebooks.
So far Zagreb itself hasn’t been too impressive but the hotel sure is nice.
Tuesday, August 2nd 2011, Zagreb
Last night we walked about 10 minutes up to Jelacic Square. It’s quite a big square with a huge statue of Josip Jelacic, a Croatian nationalist hero who fought the Hungarians for Croatian independence. The statue was taken down during the Tito years so as not to inflame Croatian nationalism in Yugoslavia but was put back up when Croatia became independent in the 90s. The statue is of Jelacic brandishing a sword while astride his horse. It used to face north toward the Hungarians but when it was put back up they turned it around to face south toward the Serbs.
From the square, we walked up Tkalciceva street. It’s a pedestrian street with lots of restaurants and bars. We had seen one brew pub, the Pivnica Medvedgrad, listed in a travel guide that promised hearty pub food at reasonable prices. We found the place without much trouble. It was the one full of students and younger travellers enjoying .5 litre beers during the long happy hour for only 9 kuna per beer (about $1.80). Anyway, we ordered one plate of “pub sausages with overdone beans” and one plate of cicevapi (little rolled spiced meat sausages), all served with a basket of heavy bread. None of this looked very appetizing (I’d hate to say what it really looked like) but it sure was good. And cheap - with 2 big beers, wine and tip only 140 kuna ($28 Cdn). We liked it so much we’re going back tonight. It was a good change from the seafood and gnocchi and stuff we’ve been eating.
After our usual breakfast this morning, we wandered down to the spa and steam room again. Then it was off to the train station, less than 15 minutes walking, to get tickets to Ljubljana tomorrow. We’ll travel by bus from Ljubljana to Bled tomorrow afternoon.
We walked up through a long park and ultimately back to Jelacic Square. From there we followed a guidebook self-guided walking tour of the old town. It’s quite pretty in spots but there’s not a lot of it. Since our 35th anniversary is coming up soon, we couldn't resist a picture in the doorway of the Museum of Broken Relationships. Anita also got a picture with a statue at the market. There is a huge market here in a parking lot with lots of meat shops, a fish market and everything else food related in a building underneath. After an hour or so we stopped for lunch in a little café, walked over to the big cathedral and then home. Soon we’ll go back to the sauna for awhile and then out to dinner. Our train doesn’t leave until 12:30 tomorrow so we have lots of time in the morning to get packed.
We wanted to see Zagreb since it’s the capital and biggest city in the country. A few things are impressive but there’s really not a whole lot to see. We’ve pretty much covered it today. Tomorrow Lake Bled in the Julian Alps.