My last post left off with me exploring Zagreb, Croatia’s historic upper town. Specifically, I was in what remains of Gradec, one of the two feuding towns that merged in the mid-1800s to become Zagreb. Continuing the Rick Steves Zagreb walk, I approached the Stone Gate, the only surviving gate from the old city wall.
7 June 2018
Inside that metal grating is a painting (a not very impressive one in my opinion) of the Virgin Mary that miraculously survived an 18th-century fire. It’s now something of a pilgrimage site. Note all of the plaques giving thanks (hvala) to Mary (7 June 2018).
I might not think the Virgin Mary painting here is impressive, but many of the locals do (7 June 2018).
Near the stone gate is my favorite place in all of Zagreb: Pedestrian-only, café-lined Tkalčićeva (tuh-KAHL-chee-chay-vah) Street. In Split, I paid 46 kuna ($7.25) for a pint of the local “witches’ piss,” Ožujsko Beer, and the privilege of sitting on a red cushion on the steps facing Diocletian’s mausoleum while drinking it. Here in Zagreb on Tkalčićeva, I took a sightseeing break and drank a pint of solid craft beer for 19 kuna ($3.04) at an outdoor table, amid people-watching that was almost as good as in Split. I chatted with the Australian couple next to me, who had also recently been to Split. They informed me that they’d also sat on the red cushions outside Diocletian’s mausolem, but hadn’t bothered to buy anything from the pricey bar there. D’oh!
I liked this particular brewpub (Pivnica Mali Medo) so much that I came back a couple of nights later and had dinner, another good beer, and a couple shots of their local brandy during their 9-10pm brandy happy hour. That time, I sat very near the table at the lower left (7 June 2018).
Still more appealing cafés on a different stretch of Tkalčićeva a little ways uphill (7 June 2018).
From there, I crossed over (via stairs and some very narrow streets) to Kaptol, the other precursor village of Zagreb, whose claim to fame is that it’s home to the twin spires of Zagreb’s spectacular Neo-Gothic cathedral.
A stairway leads to a statue of St. George, and a band of Australian tourists on a Segway tour. Apparently many Aussies trace their descent to Croatia, accounting for their large presence here (7 June 2018).
Don’t attempt this street if you’re obese, or broad-shouldered, for that matter (8 June 2018).
7 June 2018
7 June 2018
A close-up of part of the fountain up front (7 June 2018).
I was here (7 June 2018).
The cathedral is the end of the Rick Steves walking tour, so from there I made my way back to the lower city, passing through the main market (Dolac) on the way.
Notice the brightly colored recycling bins. That’s one thing I like about Europe. They make it easy to recycle (7 June 2018).
Seemingly every city in Europe has a market like this, either in an outdoor square under umbrellas or tents like this one, or in a beautiful old building, as in Spain and Portugal. Unfortunately, they’re all mostly morning affairs — if you get there by 2 or 3pm, which is generally the earliest I can be bothered to be dressed and out the door, they’re dead. I finally made it to the market early enough (12:45pm) today, 11 June. Sadly, European strawberry season finally appears to be over. But nectarine season has begun! I bought 1.5 kilos (17 nectarines) for 10 kuna ($1.60) (photo 8 June 2018).
After spending my first day and a half exploring Zagreb’s upper city, on Saturday, 9 June, I walked the length of the “green horseshoe” of parks and stately buildings in Zagreb’s modern lower city. “Modern” as in 19th-century, as far as this greenbelt is concerned.
I returned to this inviting park, Zrinjevac Square, for a picnic dinner 11 June. More great people-watching (9 June 2018).
As was the case in Rijeka (and in Spain and Portugal), some of Zagreb’s Austro-Hungarian-era buildings are gorgeous, and others are in a state of advanced decrepitude.
This is an inviting block (9 June 2018).
This building, on the other hand, has seen better days (9 June 2018).
The Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences. Again, note the Austrian Empire’s love of the color yellow (9 June 2018).
This building looks like it hasn’t had a new paint job since Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated (9 June 2018).
The blue residential building on the left, Kallina House, has some funky Art Nouveau bat motifs in a horizontal stripe there. Rick Steves’ book doesn’t really cover the lower town (or I ripped those pages out to save space in my luggage; I can’t remember), so I relied on the excellent “Zagreb Step by step” booklet the tourist information office here publishes (9 June 2018).
Zagreb’s impressive train station is in much better shape than Rijeka’s (9 June 2018).
9 June 2018
Walking around this part of Zagreb, I was struck by the similarities with Washington, D.C. Not architecturally, but in other ways. For one thing, Zagreb lower city blocks are long. Just like Washington, D.C., and unlike short New York City blocks. Also like downtown Washington D.C., this part of Zagreb is pretty dead on a Saturday. There are a few cafés with signs of life, and some tourists and locals enjoying the parks, but I got the sense that when the Croatian government workers go home for the weekend, this place turns into a bit of a ghost town. So D.C.! And that’s odd, considering Zagreb only became a national capital in the early 1990s with the breakup of Yugoslavia. Most of this very national-capital-looking part of the city predates the Yugoslav wars by a century or more.
Downtown Zagreb isn’t entirely dead on a Saturday. Here these women are decorating a car for a wedding (9 June 2018).
I love these owls on top of the Croatian State Archives building (9 June 2018).
Zagreb’s Botanical Gardens are underwhelming. But they’re free (and, more importantly, there’s a free public restroom), so they were worth 5-10 minutes (9 June 2018).
As I was finishing up my green horseshoe tour, I stumbled upon Zagreb’s gay pride parade. It’s definitely not as much fun as D.C.’s, which is basically a block party for its entire length — in Zagreb, at least the dead part of Zagreb I was in, there were very few onlookers — but the march did attract a youthful crowd.
Those cops in riot gear turned out not to be necessary, as far as I could tell (9 June 2018).
9 June 2018
And that was pretty much it for my exploration of the lower town, other than some long runs and bike rides I took over the next couple of days. The most appealing parts of Zagreb, to me anyway, are Tkalčićeva, Jelačić Square, and a few blocks’ radius of each. I’ve spent so much time in both of those areas that I’ve come to recognize the local characters. One guy I call the “pigeon whisperer.” He entices pigeons to perch on his hand and eat out of his palm. A couple of days ago, this act captivated a group of Korean tourists. Today I saw him again, up to his usual tricks, but, surrounded by a more local crowd, nobody paid him any mind. Then there’s the old man who always stands on the same street corner a block south of Jelačić Square and smilingly asks me (and everyone else) something in Croatian every time I pass. I just smile back because I have no idea what he’s saying. And there are the 10-year-old street musician violinists. They sound pretty good, but not amazing, for 10-year-olds, but mainly I admire their entrepreneurial gumption. Zagreb’s not a huge city by any stretch, but it does have a big-city vibe that I missed in Ljubljana and Split.