City Break in Zagreb

Friday 22 October 2021 - Saturday 23 October 2021

Today we leave to discover Croatia, starting with its capital: Zagreb. The bus trip was not relaxing: 30 minutes of delay at the departure from Ljubljana, then three controls on the road (one by the Slovenian customs at a gas station, another one at the border and a last one at the Croatian border).

When we arrive in Zagreb, we are quite happy, we have only 30 minutes to walk to reach the hostel we booked for two nights. But this is the surprise, our reservation was not registered! The website we used (hostelclub) is not connected to the hostel manager and the 6 euros deposit we paid was never received. On top of that, the hostel is full, we can't sleep here tonight.

After several minutes of discussion, some phone calls of the receptionist and we are saved: a partner hostel agrees to lodge us, we will not have to pay the deposit, only the amount indicated in our (false) reservation. This solution seems really acceptable to us, we jump on the opportunity. We shall discover a few minutes later that the inn in question is a "party hostel", that is to say a place where the occupants make the party a good part of the night. The advantage is that it allowed us to meet people of all the nationalities (Australian, Spanish, Peruvian and even French, with whom we learned a new very nice game). The disadvantage is that we slept very badly, which would not have been a problem if we had not slept the three previous nights in the car! Another positive point: the premises were very well decorated (some pictures just below).

The next day, we leave to discover the city by starting with a guided tour. It is ideal to get acquainted with the surroundings and the Croatian way of life. Geographically, Zagreb straddles two hills. At the time, there was the hill of the rich and the hill of the poor. Legend has it that they clashed so much that the river that separated them turned blood red. The bridge over which the battles took place was renamed the "bloody bridge". Today, the bridge no longer exists. Only a street at the site of the old river bears witness to this tumultuous past. It is also in this street that one finds the best restaurants of the city.

In Zagreb too, the scaffolding is out: Croatia suffered a very violent earthquake in December 2020 (magnitude 6.4). Zagreb retains heavy after-effects: many monuments have partially collapsed and are still under reconstruction.

The church of St. Mark and its adjacent streets are closed too. A week ago, a policeman was shot in the area. Of course, the terrorist attack was immediately considered the most likely motive. In the end, it was a crime of passion: the policeman had been in a relationship with a married woman. Guess who the shooter is? Unfortunately, this was not enough for the authorities to reopen the site. Not very romantic, is it?

Speaking of romance, the guide takes us to a street where the whole life of a couple can be summarized. At the corner of the street, gas street lamps that the city agents come to light every evening. Popular with lovers, this is the place where people declare their love and kiss (in the best of cases). On the left, the church of Saint Catherine is ideal to get married. Opposite, we discover the museum where many relationships end: the museum of broken relationships (yes, it exists! Statistics say that it is the most visited museum in Zagreb, even if the municipality does not want to acknowledge it).

Apart from that, Zagreb is a city where love is central, as shown by the most typical souvenir you can offer. A small red heart nicely decorated with a mirror in its center. Every inhabitant of the city has at least one and it often accompanies the Christmas festivities. It was a baker, who wanted to declare his love to the woman of his heart, had the idea to bake a heart-shaped bread, which he painted red. And to be sure that the young woman would not misunderstand the message, he stuck a small mirror in the center of the heart and told her: "the person you see in this mirror is the person who will be forever in my heart".

After this guided tour, we have lunch in the street of the "bloody bridge". For lunch, this time, a kind of gratin/lasagne typical of the region. It will be with truffles for Victor and with blueberries for me. To digest, we walk in the green spaces that surround the city and that are called the "horse shoe", because of its U shape. We also discover the tunnels which cross the basement of the city and which were used by the inhabitants to protect themselves from the bombardments during the war.

At nightfall, we stop in a bar, where Victor can taste the local beer and I the local wine. And it is again an eventful night that awaits us at the hostel.