Zagreb: month one and some

Let's see, a lot has happened and I have been slipping on this travel blog for some time, so I hope I remember all the important things.

Herelić (I think this is how it is spelled): this is a giant outdoor market. And not like farmers market, this is Goodwill or Value Village of Croatia. You have to take a tram about 20 minutes from the center, towards Novi Zagreb (the market used to be by Dugave, but they decided to move it for some reason). Tram line 6, in case you ever go. You get off right after you pass over Sava (the river), and then go down and follow all the people. You start walking and you instantly think...post apocalypse? Then you start seeing the people that are too lazy to go to the actual market to sell, they sit on the side walk. Soon you all cross the street and follow up a little hill and walk on the dirt path. And in the distance is a giant pile of trash, a mountain of used diapers and rotten apple cores, cigarette butts, broken bikes and the like. And circling the trash pile are a flock of crows. You follow the river and the people until you start t see something that resembles a state fair, the barns that they put the pigs, cows and goats, and you see a ton of new and used cars for sale. But this isn't it. Not the real thing anyway. Then you pass through the motorcycle section off to the right and you see all the usual outdoor market things, out of style clothes, but all brand new, and fake designer clothes. Finally once you get through all of that, you in it! And it is something, all used, bizarre items. In one pile you'll find womens clothes, a sword, German porn, half used shampoo and car parts. The mission is to find hidden gems, or the most bizarre item of the day, or most bizarre combination. Who is it for? Well Romani (gypsy) people run most of the stand (I say stands but they are just piles on blankets) and most people are either dirt poor, or trying to make statements by buying only used clothes...there are also tourists, and people who just enjoy it, but who cares about them. Don't be surprised if you see a baby falling out of a box and no one watching it, don't be surprised to see someone selling things from inside their car, don't surprised to receive an entire box of magazines for 10kn (about $2) that is just how it works.

Also Ivana and I found a bird. It was on the street and was screaming for help. It couldn't fly and it looked like it was going to die at any moment. We first waited to see if it would die. Ivana said "No one should die alone," and she was right. But when it kept struggling and moving around we found a box and took it home to our balcony. We named it Fup, after the book about the duck Fup, because we couldn't decide what kind of bird we had, but it looked like a hybrid of a duck and a pigeon...so Fup it was. We bathed it about 4 times a tried to get all the parasites off of it, we went to pet stores to see if there was anything we could do but they said no, we fed it and gave it water for 4 days, but in the end she/he died. We noticed it had pulled most of its feathers off while we had it and concluded it must have had some kind of psychological disorder and probably gave it self a stress induced heart attack. At least this answer makes us feel best. But it was strange that Fup died when it did, because it had finally started to act alive and was getting spunky the eve of its death. Fup especially liked when I played guitar, I think because it thought I was singing to it. It would chirp very softly and weakly, like it had a sore throat, and mostly just stretched as it stood in one spot on the balcony. After Fup's death we took the body to the river and put it to rest that way, as the trash seemed kind of rude and we were not about to let some dog get it or some other bird, because it could be sick and seemed unsympathetic.

During my stay I have seen the Re-election of Zagrebian mayor Milan Bandić, and I have seen him in person now twice. He was not who Ivana and I were hoping would win, but he has definitely been the most fun of the two, as the other candidate Kregar, was an actual politician knew what he was talking about. While Bandić is like a clown. But he has posters of himself all over town, and I have taken to collecting them. On Zagreb Day (a day to celebrate Zagreb) Ivana and I went out and about only to stumble upon an evening Mass that was going to be traveling across a section of the town. There was giant promenade of people and they were all singing hymns and holding candels as they walked through the streets, it was really something unique and really interesting, of course Bandić was present, holding a giant red candle. And after the parade we walked around and found a cardboard picture of Bandić and I ripped off the face part. Then we went to a really fancy bar that was completely empty and we took the chance to take some photos with my Bandić head. You can see the picture on here. We felt bad for the bartender because his boss kept bossing him around on how to do everything, even though no one was there to order anything and we had our drinks before he arrived.

I've also took to meeting other people...well, Ivana's friends. The most notable: Jelena (not pictured) whom we drank with and talked to one evening, Mirela (girl pictured) who I have met with twice now, both times for coffee...she broke her leg so she doesn't get out much, Ante (man by pool table) whom we have met with twice and is in the next up and coming Croatian band--his band was in the papers and interviewed on Croatian television...I haven't listened but they are probably pretty good, and of course the ever returning Nela whom I've met with many times and is always laughing.

Also it was Animafest, a film festival of animated films and we happened to catch one called Mary and Max, about an lonely Australian preteen who becomes a pen pal with a middle aged Autistic man from NYC. It was a very intense clay-mation movie and it made me miss my clay-mation movies, which hardly hold up to any merit.

The last thing I can think of is the food. We have been trying to expand out taste pallets by cooking some weird thing every week or so. There are pictures of our many dishes. The liquid brown stuff is actually an Ethiopia spice that is so spicy you can only use a table spoon or so in you recipe without breaking out in tears and sweat. As Ivana is a vegetarian, I have mostly become a vegetarian because it is so much easier than to make two separate things, but I still have some meat when we are out and about, but I don't miss it too much. And I have been having protein alternatives, to make sure I am healthy and functioning appropriately.

Alright I am pretty much up to date, so I hope you enjoyed this so far!

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Part of trip: Europe Trip 2

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