Our visit in November to Zagreb, capital city of Croatia; was based on surfing Skyscanner for cheap flights and stumbling across this destination that was almost unheard of amongst our friends. Zagreb is an old city that was foundered when two opposing towns - Kaptol and Gradec decided that it would be more beneficial to unite than to continue brawling with each other over rights to resources, trade and taxes. The river that divided the two towns has now been paved over and is lined with cafes perfect for beer, coffee and people-watching.
Travelling to Zagreb
We arrived into Zagreb on a Friday night from Gatwick airport. Prior to our departure, we had a quick meal at Cafe Rouge where we (and several other patrons) noticed that a bag had fallen off a transport vehicle and was lying across the road.
We all then watched many vehicles pass by the bag and take no notice of picking it up and bringing into the terminal. When the bag was finally noticed, it was put on top of a side barrier where it remained until we boarded the plane - pity the poor traveller waiting at the baggage return for luggage that never arrived.
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| The lonely bag |
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| Photo of the snow covered Alps from the plane |
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| Chasing sunset |
Best Western Premier
Our hotel, the Best Western Premier (the most luxurious of the Best Western brand that we had ever been to) was based in the middle of the Lower Town, about a 15 minute walk from the bus station where the airport shuttle bus dropped us off. The walk from the bus station to the hotel involved passing through a very shady looking district full of graffiti and run down buildings.
Zagreb City
On our first night, we were too tired to go exploring so we stayed in the Lower Town. Zagreb City is divided into three sections:
1 - South of the Sava river and towards the airport is full of modern buildings;
2 - Between the Old Town and the Sava river is known as Lower Town or Downtown (Donji grad). It is built up during the years when Croatia was ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire with the buildings and wide boulevards closely resembling the streetscape of Vienna and Budapest.
3 - The Old Town / Upper Town (Gornji Grad) contains the main tourist sites of the city including the Cathedral, market and the popular pedestrian walkway - Tkalciceva Street that is built over an old stream that divided the two townships and is lined with restaurants and coffee shops.
Purger Restaurant
On our first night in Zagreb, the temperature was in the low single figures and we were keen to find some hot food for dinner. We walked into the nearby restaurant Purger that came with good reviews on TripAdvisor. We later found out during our trip that the term 'Purger' refers to person that can trace seven generations of their family as living in Zagreb. The food menu was extensive and we took the recommendations from the waiter, eating Samobor steak (veal in a garlic sauce with potatoes) and a type of pork schnitzel. The meal filled us up so much we had no room for dessert.
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| Pork schnitzel |
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| Samobor steak - part 1 |
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| At the restaurant, Purger |
Sightseeing
The next day we walked up the main grass-lined boulevard that included Zagreb Park, a number of monuments and cultural buildings. The architecture in Zagreb is in the Baroque style but also painted in bright striking colours.
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| All rugged up |
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| Beautiful architecture |
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| Think this was an art gallery |
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| Colourful buildings |
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| Statue near Zagreb Park |
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| Band stand in Zagreb Park |
Ban Josip Jelacic Square
We walked up to the main square - Ban Josip Jelacic Square, named after a Croatian Army General remembered for battles against the Bosnian Ottoman troops and abolishing serfdom in Croatia. The center of the square was filled with a large marquee housing a pop-up Christmas restaurant that sold small dough fritters - fritule, mulled wine and grilled ham hocks.
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| Statue of Ban Josip Jelacic |
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| Christmas marquee |
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| Stall selling fritule |
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| Eating the fritters |
Pigeons
And like any open space in Europe, there was an abundance of pigeons that were being chased by local children.
Dolac Market
From the square, we walked up the steps to the Dolac Market full of stalls selling souvenirs, flowers and fruit. It was refreshing to see an abundance of colour even though the seasons were heading towards winter.
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| Dolac Market |
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| Statue at the market |
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| Autumn wreaths |
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| Christmas decorations |
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| Potted colour |
Walls of Kaptol
From the market, we walked around the old medieval walls of Kaptol that have now been transformed into urban parks. The centre of Zagreb has a lot of trees and as it was Autumn, we were lucky to see the leaves start to turn into different shades of gold, red and brown.
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| Parks full of trees |
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| Colour of the changing seasons |
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| Looking towards Gradec (Upper Town) |
City Tour
We had found out from the city's tourist office that a guided tour ran daily at midday and we were lucky that no other tourists were interested that day, allowing us to have a private English speaking guide for two hours. Sonja, our guide was the director of her own travel company, iCroatia Travel and throughout the tour gave us an amazing number historical facts and recommendations.
Zagreb Cathedral
The first stop was Zagreb Cathedral that had existed from 1093 AD but rebuilt several times as a result of war with the Ottomans and an earthquake. We toured the inside of the building and Sonja provided us with information about matyrs, bishops and generals that were honored with grave stones.
The Cathedral also contains an inscription in Glagolitic script - the Slavic alphabet from the 9th Century AD that commemorates the 1300th anniversary of the baptism of the Croatian people.
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| Zagreb Cathedral |
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| One of the statues decorating the Cathedral |
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| Inside the Cathedral |
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| Glagolitic script |
Upper Town
From the Cathedral we climbed up a number of stairs to the Upper Town where we had great views over the city. The boundary of the Upper Town used to contain four gates, of which only one - Kamenita vrata (Stone Gate) exists and contains a shrine to a painting of the Virgin Mary which escaped the fire of 1731.
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| Stone Gate |
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| Statue outside the Stone Gate |
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| Symbol of Croatia, the cravat |
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| Stone lion looking fierce |
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| Nature trying to imitate art |
St Mark's Church
At the top of the hill is the richly decorated St Marks church that has been built in the Gothic style, except for one window in the bottom left of the photo where you can see the remains of an older Romanesque building dating from the 13th Century AD. The tiles on the Church are based on the Croatian coat of arms - the checkerboard representing the Kingdom of Croatia, the leopard's heads representing the region of Dalmatia and the martin representing the area of Slavonia. The three-tower coat of arms represents the city of Zagreb.
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| St Mark's Church |
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| Bell Tower from 1811 |
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| One of the carvings from the Gothic door |
Lotrscak Tower
During medieval times, the gates of the Upper Town were locked every night. Before they were locked, a bell was rung from the Lotrscak Tower to warn the citizens to come back inside the city walls. This tradition is continued into modern times with a cannon fired at midday.
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| The tower that the cannon is fired from |
Funicular Linking Upper and Lower Town
For those that are less inclined to walk up the stairs to the Upper town, a funicular (66m, inclination of 52%) is available that takes only 55 seconds to bridge the distance.
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| The Funicular to the Old Town |
Oliver Twist Pub
It was here that we parted ways with our guide and we continued to walk along the main pedestrian strip to find a pub where we could have a beer and people watch. The 'Oliver Twist' pub was a fitting location and we settled into the alfresco seating area to enjoy lemon beers that we had first tasted in Dubrovnik.
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| Oliver Twist Pub |
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| Lemon Beer |
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| The Hansel and Gretel Restaurant |
Trilogija Restaurant
Later that night we headed out to a restaurant listed high (#2) in the Tripadvisor rankings for Zagreb - Trilogija inside a building that dates back to 1749.
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| Trilogija Restaurant |
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| Dates back to 1749 |
Wine Bar and Tasting Menu
The restaurant had a wine bar feel and served a tasting menu with matching wines. We started the night off with a glass of Rose. Olie, trying to build up his wine knowledge asked the waiter where the wine originated from. The waiter, perhaps trying to lighten up the mood told Olie that the wine came from a small unknown country called Italy. Olie, mishearing the location then said "oh, I've never heard of that place", sending Mei into fits of laughter.
After five glasses of nice wine, Olie wanted to continue the night at a jazz bar but it was rock music night at the club that we visited, and we ended up going back to the hotel.
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| Glass of Italian wine |
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| Food photos - can't remember the detail of each dish, blame the wine |
City Museum
The next day was filled with walking back up to the Upper Town, with the option of visiting the Museum of Broken Relationships (slightly quirky) or the City Museum. We chose the latter as we needed to use up our Croatian Kuna - no point saving it for future trips as Croatia has joined the EU and will soon be adopting the Euro.The museum contained a lot of historical artifacts about the archaeological foundation of Zagreb, the years during the Austro Hungarian empire, the Nazis, being part of Yugoslavia and then the Balkan war of the 1990s.
Goodbye Zagreb
We headed for the airport in the early afternoon, eating a quick dinner at the restaurant overlooking the tarmac (de ja vu) but this time there wasn't any fallen luggage to distract us from our fish soup or Samobor steak.
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| Croatian fish soup |
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| Samobor steak with potatoes |
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