I’m sorry this post is so late, the blog was down for a little while.
Zagreb greeted me with cold and rain but I didn’t hold that against it. This is a beautiful city, and very manageable. Plus it had the absolutely amazing strength of having also attracted my grandparents at the same time, and so gave me the gift of spending time with people that I love.
Zagreb is not a big capitol, and two full days here definitely felt like enough, but it is a lovely city, and this place feels lived in and comfortable.
I basically spent both days just walking the city, first with my grandparents and then on my own. There is a cute little old town, a bustling market, a street devoted to coffee, and a horse-shoe of adorable parks.
I spent all of my first day in Zagreb with my mom’s parents, who were accidentally in the same city at the same time as me. I joined their tour’s walking tour in the morning, we learned about the origin of the word Kuna, saw a miracle painting, and rode the world’s shortest funicular. We had lunch together, and then we spent the afternoon visiting the museums in Zagreb’s old town. The Croatian folk art museum was excellent as was a nearby museum dedicated to sculpture, both providing sketching opportunities and food for thought. It was so nice to spend time with family after being on the road alone for 6 weeks.
I spent the day I had on my own in Zagreb exploring it’s many parks including the botanical gardens, which were beautiful and deserted, my favorite combination. I wandered into the botanical gardens, where there seemed to be no officials of any sort so I just walked through the gates and started exploring. I then strolled through the other 6 parks that were nearby.
In the afternoon I went back into the old town for a bit to see it in the sun light as it had been rainy the day before. The rain had driven away many of the tourists, but on day two the main square was bustling. I took some time in the afternoon to explore Zagreb’s coffee street, stopping at a little cafe that served fresh squeezed orange juice with their cappuccino for the equivalent of $1.50. I had a lovely dinner with my grandparents and then headed off to bed, prepared for the train ride to Budapest the next morning.