Saturday in the Park...

We caught the bus early out of Zagreb in order to get to Plitvice Park. This is a national park made up of 16 smaller lakes and waterfalls everywhere. Our bus was very full and we were just out on the highway and picking up speed. On the bus there was the driver and then something like a porter who checks and organizes the tickets. He was walking down the aisle and had just passed us when our driver blasted the horn and slammed on the breaks because two cars had basically stopped in our lane. All the overhead baggage was sliding forward and I thought for sure we were heading for a collision. We stopped in time, but, unfortunately for the porter, he didn't. I felt something bang into my shoulder and saw the porter fly by, desperately trying to grab onto seats....no such luck. He took a very hard fall but was actually able to get up and with a lot of wincing and back rubbing was able to carry on while giving the driver an earful of what he thought about his driving. Croatian can be a very expressive language it would seem.
Luckily there were no more incidents and we arrived safely. We stored our bags and headed out to the trails. I guess we didn't actually read about which way to walk the trails so we found ourselves walking against the traffic a lot of the time. And there was a lot of traffic. We were surprised at the number of people already visiting. It must be crazy in the summer.
We did a lot of hiking, getting lost a fair bit of the time ("Okay, we'll get a map!) but we still saw a lot of sights. Mary even thought she saw a Croatian fox! Turned out to be a squirrel with really long ears.
(She'd had a long day. She figured it out when it ran up a tree.)



In order to get to the big waterfall we had to get over, or under in Mary's case, the boards they nailed across the boardwalk. I think they were worried about water levels but it was all okay!
Great day. Lots of sights, lots of walking and no rain. Calling for rain tomorrow, though. You can't have it all.

Good Day, Sunshine

The sun has appeared! And it actually brought some warmth. We started off the day by doing a "Brenda". That is we did a test run to the bus depot to see how long it will take us to get there tomorrow in order to catch our bus to Plitvice National Park.....25 minutes to walk there so leave our apartment no later than 8:00 am. Our apartment is in an old building with one other holiday apartment and the others are just residents of Zagreb. Here is our entrance and halls.









On the way back from getting our tickets we strolled into town and saw lots of familiar sights but in a whole different light. It's amazing how much weather can affect your impression of a place. We walked up to the cathedral and over to St. Mark's church and then walked down one of the main streets looking for a little eatery that had been recommended to us. On the way we stopped in a little shop of Naive art. The man was very friendly. The shop is a co-op for these artists who have had no formal art training but the work is beautiful. He showed us a partially done painting which is done on glass. So the actual painting you see is the mirror image of what they drew and painted. Here is the outside of their shop.



We finally found our restaurant, Sherry's Wines & Bites and had our snack...


and then back strolling the city in the sunshine. We came to a city park and did a stroll.


As we were walking along we ran into H, he's the guy that checked us in and showed us to our apartment.


After our long stroll we decided to have an early dinner so we went back to Mundoaka for chicken, roasted potatoes and salad and one more serving of their panna cotta in dulce leche.






After a bit of down time at the apartment we did one last stroll around town in the evening light.











Tomorrow, Plitvice. Unfortunately the weather is not looking good for Sunday.

Location:Ignjata Đorđića,City of Zagreb,Croatia

Sloshing in the Rain

We tried to beat the rain and go to the Mirogoj Cemetery first but it figured out our plan and caught us pretty much in the middle of our walk through. It's a huge cemetery and quite impressive when you first arrive but both of us found the one in Lisbon more interesting.















Later we made our way to the Museum of Naive Art. This was definitely the highlight of our day. Some beautiful pieces of art. While we were there a school group was having a workshop and the kids were making their own pieces of naive art. A very well behaved group.















Our last stop was the Museum of Broken Relationships, a quirky little place where people have sent their story and a memento of their failed relationship.



Later we walked through the rain and found a little place and then back to our apartment.

Location:Ignjata Đorđića,City of Zagreb,Croatia

Zagreb....Za food!

Travel day. We left Ljubljana at 8:30. If you ever go there be sure to stay at the Dvor Tacen, it is a great place to relax at the end of a long day and Jasmine, the owner, couldn't have been more helpful.
We were only 2 and a half hours on the train so we got into Zagreb too early to check into our apartment. We took our bags up to reception and met H (his name is impossible to pronounce let alone spell). He gave us a few details about Zagreb and directed us to a coffee shop, Express, to dry out from our walk from the train station. I've included a picture of our bill. Check out their wifi password.



Later we explored a bit and then feeling a bit peckish and quite cold we went into a small restaurant called Mundoaka. We ordered some rosé wine and we split a panna cotta. This may be the best dessert I've ever eaten. The panna cotta is sprinkled with crumbled chocolate cookies and topped with strawberries and sauce and all of this is sitting in a sea of dulce leche....heaven. I tried to get a picture before Mary started chowing down but I was too slow.



After we devoured this we went back to reception at ZigZag Zagreb. What they do is buy apartments in older buildings, renovate and rent them out to tourists. So H brought us over and showed us around.







Now it was dinner time...we didn't do much but eat and drink today. Hopefully the rain stops soon otherwise we might come back weighing a lot more. We found Didov San, a restaurant recommend by many sources. We split a Banino Tara which is a turkey stew with roasted potatoes and other vegetables. Great comfort food on a cold, rainy day.






Tomorrow we're planning on getting to the Naive Art Museum as well as the Museum of Broken Relationships! Sounds kind of uplifting doesn't it?

Doviđenja or Bok, both mean goodbye.

Location:Ignjata Đorđića,City of Zagreb,Croatia

Goodbye the Cobblestone Road) of Ljubljana)

For our last day in Ljubljana we decided to just have a slow kick around day. It started out blue skied and relatively warm. On our bus trip into town we didn't really know our stop and overshot it by quite a bit but it was a nice walk back into old town. I was able to get in a few sunny shots of the city before the clouds, rain and cold returned.







I spent a lot of time at the Dragon Bridge while Mary browsed the daily farmers' market. We went for a hot drink and a sweet at A Roma, a coffee shop recommended by a local. Mary is very happy that she has found the name of the big American sized coffee drink, bela kava, not that she ever remembers the words when she tries to order one but she's getting good at describing it to the waiters.
Because it was cold again we thought we'd try a museum. We decided on the Ethnographic Museum, a very quirky museum. The two displays we saw were Doors and Us and Others. I never knew there were so many different doors!






Right near the museum was Metelkova Park. This is an area centred around a hostel, Celica, that was once a prison.



The whole area has been opened to alternative art including graffiti and music. At night it turns into clubs and bars with very little , if any, police presence.











It was interesting to walk through a non-tourist district of the city and see some of the "old" Yugoslavia.



Later we walked back to town to Marley and Me, a quaint little restaurant where after our meal we had another cremesnitte can't get enough cremesnittes.









Tomorrow we head out early to catch a train to Zagreb.

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Location:Ljubljana,Slovenia