Zagreb, Croatia

Sept 16 - 18

Having traveled many different countries in the last year or so, I have discovered that I much prefer a small town surrounded by mountains and waterfalls and lakes over a big ol' city. But that said, I did really enjoy my quick stop in Croatia's capital city.

We arrived into Zagreb in the afternoon and quickly found our way to a free walking tour. Dora led us around the city, pointing out some cool buildings and telling some interesting stories.

The most unique buildings were Saint Mark's church and a random building with a whale on it! The whale-building  was built in 1987 as a "flashy modern" building to show off to the world when Zagreb hosted the student Olympics. However in reality it's an ugly building that was once used as an art gallery. The somewhat recent addition of a huge whale painted across it makes the building now much more appealing to the eye.

Saint Mark's church has a stunning roof tile design, including the shields of different areas of Croatia.

We also visited the 'Bar Street' - which is exactly as it sounds...a street full of bars. Apparently it used to be somewhat of a red light district. There is a statue of a naked woman hanging out of a window to mark the spot. Currently it's situated next to a children's playground. How appropriate..!

Dora gave us many tips on bars, restaurants and sights to ensure we enjoyed the rest of our stay.

Following her story of the cannon that is still fired daily, we made that our first stop the next day. The cannon used to be fired at 9am and 9pm each day to signify that the gates of the Old Town were closing. Nowadays, it seems it's just for fun! A mixture of cardboard and gun powder is shot out each day at noon.

Just up the road, we popped into the Museum of Broken Relationships, possibly the most unique and interesting museum I've ever been to. It was founded by two artists who, upon breaking up, realised that they had enough items to "fill a museum"...so that's exactly what they did! People from all around the world have donated items from failed relationships - mostly romantic relationships but also many family relationships. Each of them has a story to go with it and while sometimes depressing (one was a suicide note) it was also fascinating.

Zagreb seemed to have loads of food festivals on, so we had lunch at an international food market.

Our last stop before leaving Zagreb was the cathedral. Honestly it looks like just about every other cathedral, but what's interesting is that the chandeliers inside once belonged to a Las Vegas casino! Random.