Zagreb!

I have completely neglected my Europe posts recently because I’ve been back at another internship so I’ve been so tired when I get back home that I can’t muster up the effort to open up my laptop and right a post.

But anyway… on to Zagreb!

Zagreb was actually my least favourite place that we visited… I feel bad saying it because we weren’t there for very long (only about a day and a half) so we didn’t really get to experience it properly so I feel like I’m unfairly judging it. We were also so tired and there was a bit of a mix up with our hostel when we got there which put a bit of a dampener on the experience.  

Not to say that the place wasn’t beautiful but it was just like any normal city… we could easily have been back in Glasgow if it weren’t for the different languages that people were speaking. And for a Euro-trip, you kind of want to go to places that are completely different from where you live and we didn’t get that with Zagreb so it was a bit… boring. If you go out into where the mountains and rivers are, it’s meant to be absolutely beautiful. I’m kind of sad we didn’t get to do that because it was on our list, we just didn’t have time because we were there for such a short period. I’m sure if we had managed to do that, it would have been one of my favourite places we visited, but unfortunately not. 

We did however get to go to the Museum of Broken Relationships, which I absolutely loved. If you are in Zagreb you should definitely check this museum out. Its really cheap and its so different from all your usual museums. There are loads of different items scattered around the place, like t-shirts or shoes or records, and with each object there is a little story or quote attached to it. Getting a little glimpse into people’s lives and their relationships is so special and intimate that it really left a lasting impression on me. My favourite had to be the one with the shortest quote. It was a football jersey framed on the wall and the quote attached to it was: “He was a player.” I loved it. They also had a great quote on their café sign…

I also bought the majority of my souvenirs in Zagreb. I only bought 3 things on the entire trip (souvenir wise) and 2 of those were bought in Zagreb. Firstly I bought a big chunky ring that was handmade and sold in the market in the Old Town. My necklace, which I wear all the time, was bought on the walk up to the Museum of Broken Relationships. There was a little stand on the side of the pathway and a girl about our age was selling different charms and things. You picked your charm and then she got out the chains and you gave her the length you wanted and she would put it all together right there. She was a Fine Art graduate from the University there and she made all the charms herself. It was so impressive. I was torn between the one I bought which looks like the rose from Beauty and the Beast, and this one that had a piece of bacon in it. It sounds really weird but because of the glass, it zoomed in on the bacon and you could just see a really cool pattern. I didn’t even realise it was bacon until she told me. In the end, Beauty and the Beast won however.

We had a meal in this little pub place that was right by our replacement hostel. It was the most ridiculous thing ever. It was just a giant plate of different types of meat. I was starving before we ordered it and I think I over estimated my eating abilities… It was the biggest plate and the most food I have ever seen. As you can probably expect, I did not finish it all. You know the Thanksgiving episode of Friends where Joey has the meat sweats? Yeah that was me after eating this meal. Even though it was ridiculous, it was really good.  

Also, the street that this pub was on was really cool. Maybe not so much for us because we were exhausted and wanted to sleep and the noise from the street came right through the window of the hostel, but for anyone wanting to go on a fun trip away this is definitely a good place to go. There were so many bars and pubs and food places and all the alcohol and food was so cheap. There was live music playing and loads of people walking around and chatting and sitting outside soaking up the sun. If I was to go back to Zagreb I would definitely take advantage of the chill night life atmosphere.

All in all, for us Zagreb was kind of a pointless pit stop. Its pretty cool to say we’ve been to Croatia but we didn’t really get to see much of it and we were too tired and didn’t have enough time to go out and explore and enjoy ourselves. But I still think it would be a really cool place to go for a short holiday if you have the time to go on day trips and enjoy yourselves. Everyone there seemed to be loving it!