When we were booking our hostels on hostelworld, the one we chose for Budapest apparently fell through our filter. We unfortunately found ourselves staying at one of the wildest party hostels in Eastern Europe, where everyone goes out around 1:00 AM and returns around 6:00, and sleeps till well into the afternoon. Though I unscrewed the room’s only lightbulb on the second night to prevent it from being turned on in the middle of the night when our roommates returned, I chose not to do so our third night, naively trusting that they had “learned their lesson.”
As futile as it is to explain, the result was that we got less than three hours of sleep our final night there so when we boarded our train to Zagreb at 5:40 AM, we peacefully slept until about 10:30 when we crossed the Croatian border.
I am utterly convinced that individuals choose to join their nation’s border security forces so that they can harass and intimidate others. After the immigration officers had given us a thoroughly menacing performance, a gruff blond-haired woman from customs probed through our souvenir Christmas ornaments for signs of….contraband? before finally getting bored and moving onto the next compartment.
When we finally arrived in Zagreb, however, we were awed at how beautiful the city is. It is likely one of the most beautiful cities we’ve yet visited on this trip. When one realizes that this city was under siege just a little more than 10 years ago, its beauty seems all the more surreal. While in Budapest, we felt as though all the buildings needed a good pressure washing. Though the former Yugoslavia was communist for nearly 45 years, it remained fairly independent and free from Soviet influence, and to a certain extent, free from heavy industry and so was spared the environmental problems which countries like Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic are now coping with.
Zagreb has been, in every sense of the phrase, a breath of fresh air. The architecture is just beautiful, the streets are clean, and most importantly….there are no tourists! Part of me wonders what exactly is financing this beautiful city. Between the brand new trams and the police force which seems to have an exclusive contract with BMW, this city and its people seem impressively strong willed, proud, and wealthy.
We spent the rest of our first day just wandering around. The chocolate croissants we ate for lunch held us over well into the evening so for dinner we just went to a small cafe and order glasses of wine with tapas.
Thursday morning began in the Dolac market. As in Budapest, this market was remarkably similar to many markets we had been to in South America or Africa, just more hygienic. The fish, meats, cheese, produce, and bakery sections of it all looked so fresh. From one vendor, we bought a liter of wine. She sold them in simple plastic bottles out of an enormous vat. We also bought some interesting bread and then later dried fruit for desert.
There is currently a Marc Chagall exhibit in Zagreb which is apparently the single largest collection of his works currently on display. We had a pleasant time spending some time viewing his paintings and lithographs.
A great part of Zagreb’s appeal has been the pleasant walks we have had while we have been here. We haven’t really “done” all that much as we have simply enjoyed walking around for hours on end. After a street-food filled dinner of grilled sausage, veggie pizza, chocolate crepes, and ice cream, we went to the cinema to go enjoy a movie, before we returned to our hostel for the night.
Finally, we would like to wish everyone a happy International Joey Day. Apparently, it is even being celebrated in Croatia.