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Published: August 28th 2017
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My grand plan was to get to northern Italy by the second Saturday in June to be available to start another month of summer camp like I’d done the summer before. This meant I had about 5 days after leaving Manchester to do a bit of traveling. When I was planning, I decided I’d like to spend time in Slovenia, because I’d only driven through a sliver of it the summer before. It was also conveniently pretty close to where one of my favorite Italian host families lived in Friuli, so it would give me the option to meet them again.
The way the flights worked out best was to fly from Manchester to Zagreb, so I had a chance to visit the small capital of Croatia that I’d last visited 9 years earlier with high school friends. It was so long ago that at first I couldn’t even remember if we’d stayed there or just passed through. But once I looked over old pictures, I remembered it. I decided to split my time with just one night/day there so that I’d have more time in Slovenia.
My flight got in at night, so I
went right to my hostel and went to sleep. In the morning I checked out and left my bag at the hostel to pick up that afternoon.
The town immediately felt familiar. The center is so small that even I could remember the basic layout from so long ago. I was also struck by how much of the language I got or could pick up again just from its similarity to the Czech I apparently remembered from years ago or from quick studies from traveling down through former Yugoslavia then too.
I walked up through the old town, past the central market. It was early June, and I saw some of the prettiest flower arrangements I’ve probably seen in my life. And they were 10 kuna, around $1.50. I was also surprised by how many tourists were around. I don’t remember there being so many the last time I visited.
I headed up to the hill Cmrok for a walk and hopefully to see some views. On the way I passed some old Habsburg-style mansions and also modern middle/upper-class houses. Unfortunately, instead of trusting Google, I saw a sign in real
life for a trail halfway up the hill. I turned off the road to follow it, but I soon realized I shouldn’t have turned off (I should have instead continued up the hill). But anyway that trail went down through an urban forest which was pleasant.
Once I got back to town, I decided to go to the Museum of Naïve Art. I was actually torn between visiting it or the Museum of Broken Relationships (not enough time for two museums). The Museum of Naïve Art was pretty small but impressive. I still wish I’d gone to the other museum too, though.
I wandered down through the old town some more and happened upon an artsy pedestrian hillside street which I think is called Strossmayerovo šetalište. It has benches and views of the city on one side and street stalls on the other. All along the street there are colorful streamers among the trees, yarn art, that kind of thing. I got some lunch from one of the stands and watched the city from above. It was really a great little find!
After lunch, I went on the hunt for some
fruit to bring on my trip. The market had a great selection. I decided on apricots, since they seemed to be in season. I think I only started eating apricots Italy the year before. They just weren’t really common in other places I’ve lived. They’re pretty delicious and easy to eat. I bought a kilogram’s worth, which is a lot, for 75 cents. So when I stopped at the hostel to pick up my bag, I left some for hostel guests.
While in Zagreb I recognized more than I even remembered from my previous trip. It was cool to see the city again and remember the great times we had. The only Zagreb place I remembered that I didn’t come across on this trip was a park where an American reporter happened to invite us to do an interview on camera about traveling and the exchange rates. Maybe when we do our 20- or 30- year trip do-over, we'll come across it...
The city is similar to other small ones in that area, especially Bratislava and Ljubljana. I liked it a lot this time, but that may have been because the nostalgia was especially
strong. It is getting more and more touristy, which may be good for their economy, but makes it less fun to be a tourist there.
While Croatia is in the European Union now, it is not in the Schengen Zone and it still uses its own currency. Both of these make things slightly more complicated than perhaps they need to be. I got along reasonably well using English and a very limited amount of (bad) Czech mixed with Croatian.
I would recommend going to Zagreb for two days. From Zagreb, you can go on to Slovenia like I did this trip, or maybe like I did years ago down to Dubrovnik and into Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Plitvice Lakes National Park is also day-trippable from Zagreb and looks beautiful. And the most popular option is probably to go to the seaside and islands.
For now, I was leaving Croatia and heading to Slovenia.
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