‘Welcome to Croatia,’ I laughed to myself sarcastically. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead, my arms wrapped over my stomach that cramped and my eyes were firmly rooted on the dwindling supply of toilet paper that hung raggedly next to me on the toilet. It was six in the morning, and already we hadn’t been in the country 24 hours before we met our first serious hurdle…the poops.
Now remember when we ate those Baklavas the night before that the hostel got a delivery of after we sampled Zagreb on our first day? Well, they would prove to our downfall.
So from the early hours of that morning to midday, Mark and I would be taking in turns in perfect harmony in our rushes to the toilet while our stomachs exploded. Once, I couldn’t move from the bathroom so Mark had to scout the corridor and to his luck found a room that the guests has already checked out of. Oh dear. We couldn’t believe it. Our comprehensive plan to discover the capital of Croatia on our only full day there was a complete and utter failure. Luckily, after discharging everything out of our system onto our poor toilets, we felt better enough to venture a trip down to the local pharmacy to grab some much-needed medicine.
Ooops…
So that should be easy right? Well, there was the language barrier to overcome. I suppose doing bad tummy charades while squatting is something to tick off on a bucket list, right?
But as we were feeling better anyway, we thought to hit up the town for the afternoon and check out the sights of Zabreb! Zing, zing zing! Armed with our Lonely Planet Guide book, we simply followed the self-walking tour included in the book. So where did we go? Here’s some pictures to help as we walked from our hostel, Palmers Lodge Zagreb to the city centre. 🙂
Kralja Tomislava Park
Dolac Market
Zagreb Cathedral
Within Zagreb Cathedral
Old Town Zagreb
Chilling out with the new gargoyles next to Zagreb Cathedral in the back…
On the way to Tkalciceva Street
A Kitten roams Tkalciceva Backstreets
Stay cool in Zagreb…it was effortless for me…
Now, let’s have a look at that adorable kitten again!
Stone Gate – The gate displayed a painting of Mary and Jesus which was “miraculously” undamaged by the fire. People still come here to pray and light candles.
St Mark’s Church – bearing the coats of arms of Croatia, Dalmatia, Savonia, and Zagreb city on a building that has lasted from 1200s. This is generally the old square.
Croatia’s Presidential Palace
St Catherine Church – depicting beautiful Baroque Art
Tower of Lotrscak – a 13th century gate house where a cannon is shot at noon everyday to help the residents set their clocks. We didn;t realise this when we walked past it.
Zagreb Funicular
Tomislava Park
Lovely flowers in the cool late Afternoon Sun
It was actually a wonderful afternoon to sightsee Zagreb. I heard that other travellers didn’t like the city believing it to be dirty, grey, boring and tense. I found it to be anything but. Zagreb is wonderful, green, friendly and quite frankly, a breath of fresh air.
Later on, were went out again to Tkalciceva Street sampling more of the Croatian beer such as Ozujsko and of course some Italian food (after the Baklava, we weren’t taking any chances!)
Ozujsko Beer
So for our full day in Zagreb, was it worth it? Definitely. There’s absolutely so much more to do here whether it is the City Museum, the beautiful parks nearby and also quirky and hipster scenes to meld into. But for us, tonight was all about what the locals were like. So we headed up to a popular nightclub that went underground from its front bar.
As I danced to the very recognizable music as we walked down, Mark groaned,
‘What?! They play Glee here?!’
Oh boy, Croatia did. This is when I grabbed two shots of Rajkia and gave one to Mark. After downing it, I simply smiled to Mark before coaxing him to dance,
‘Welcome to Croatia!’
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