It's Croatia, comin in HOT
Well here it is, my first overseas adventure with a partner. We've done a fair bit of domestic travel in the last year so I wasn't really nervous, but it's still a big step for us! Jason had the lovely idea to kick off our adventure a day early by spending the night at the swanky Crawford hotel in downtown Denver, and then catching the train to the airport the next day. We had an evening of great food and drinks, and even got to meet up with some friends at a brewery across the street. On Saturday, the REAL travel began. Our flight had two legs, with the first being from Denver to Frankfurt. Our flight was delayed, which meant we were not likely to make our connection, but after some actual running through the airport that my body was NOT ready for, we managed to make it on the flight and, miraculously, our bags did too! Pro tip - invest in some air tags, it was really nice knowing that our bags had made it before we even left so we didn't have that anxious wait at baggage claim. So, after flying overnight with basically zero sleep (because even with Benadryl I'm completely incapable of sleeping on planes), we finally arrived in Zagreb. What a weird, grungy, funky city. It feels weird to call it cool, because the heat was truly oppressive, but it was cool. Exploration had to be done in short stints in order to survive, but each time we ventured out we found something worth the sweat.
We started with the most traditional Croatian food we could find - meat and cheese and bread, oh my! We washed it down with some cold wine and water, and clearly it's not their first time serving Americans because they even brought us a little bucket of ice.
After retreating to our air conditioned hotel room to recuperate for a while, we stepped out again to see Zagreb at night, and that is definitely when it comes alive. It wasn't overly crowded, but there were definitely far more people wandering the streets and plazas than there had been during the sweltering afternoon. Don't get me wrong, the heat still had sweat running down my spine in no time, but at least it didn't feel like it was smothering us. We had crazy good cocktails in a former wine cellar, rode a funicular to the upper town (because I couldn't bring myself to do yet another flight of stairs), enjoyed beautiful views of the city buildings from above and the beautiful vibrancy of the city streets down below.
After a very long... day? Day and a half? I had completely lost track of the hours by this point, we finally collapsed into bed and slept for somewhere around 10 hours.
Day 2 was pretty similar, short adventures throughout the city in between escapes to the A/C wherever we could find it. We stopped in at a tiny ancient chapel, grabbed a gelato with which to better admire the city's architecture and beautiful tile work, and went through the Museum of Broken Relationships. It's this funny little museum where people have submitted items that are representative of some kind of relationship that has ended, along with a short story about what happened. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry, some will make you rage, but they all make you realize that no matter where humans are in the world, they are making connections and sometimes letting them go. I'm not really a fan of museums generally, so this was a poignant break from the norm.
We shared delicious focaccia sandwiches and cold beers on a patio, and then we found this tunnel that runs beneath the entire upper town, and it was deliciously chilly. It also happened to be used as a bomb shelter during World War II, but these days it's just a much more pleasant way to get across that part of town in the summer time.
We ended the day time hours by taking the tram to a large city park, with online promises of being able to feel lost in the woods, and boy did it deliver. Park Maksimir was everything I needed and more. Lush, dense forests of truly towering trees, multiple lakes, weeping willows, the songs of teeny tiny frogs and big birds, softened city sounds and all that magic hour glow that we live for.
We returned to the city center for another lively night, starting with dinner at an out of the way restaurant that has been my favorite so far. I had a dish of roast turkey and this rustic, hearty "flatbread pasta." It kind of reminded me of the chicken and noodles that my mom would sometimes make when I was a kid. It was pure comfort food, alongside another deliciously cold white wine. Jason had their fried chicken, a similar pasta but in a mushroom sauce, and a draft beer. We were both VERY happy with our choice of restaurant, and kudos to my fella for talking me out of walking away over having to sit on a stool after a long day of walking. I was bummed about not getting to sit on the patio, so I was grumbling over nothing. These are the perks of traveling with a partner, they can push you a little when you need it!
After dinner we meandered through the city center for a bit longer, enjoyed a couple cocktails in a noisy square, and then once again went blissfully to bed, with plans to get an early start for our last few hours in Zagreb. Tuesday morning came sooner than we would have liked, but still we got up to visit the city's cathedral before we had to leave town. We strolled through the farmer's market on our way there, which is always such a great snapshot of local life.
The cathedral is in the midst of extensive renovations, the downside of course being that we couldn't see a lot of it, but the upside being that I got to see the church bells up close!
After that there was nothing left but to pack up our things and go fetch the rental car so we could be off to our next adventure! We headed out for a one day stop in the Plitvice area, and as I sit here after having spent only a few hours in this place, I can't wait to share all the astounding beauty it has to offer. So, I'll be writing again soon!
This featured blog entry was written by kbuck0828 from the blog Wandering Wonderland.
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