Bloc party in Zagreb

   

Another trip over the Alps, this time not by Easy Jet or elephant but by European Greyhound, the Flixbus, and this time not over the true Alps but the "Dinaric Alps" or also commonly called Dinarides (it's highest peak is 8839 ft in Albania) the mountain range that runs north-south through the Balkans.  We arrived in Zagreb after a five hour bus trip from Split. Traveling  from rock, scrub and olive trees to lush valleys surrounded by pine, while listening to a group of Croatian teens play a dirty version "Never, have I ever..." in a combination of Croatian and English. They read the questions in English, but unfortunately answered each other in Croatian, with lots of giggling.

The day was dreary, cold and gray as we entered equally gray and bleak looking Zagreb, which actually felt rather refreshing after the past few weeks of the stunning views of the ancient Adriatic coast.  Our rather drab first impression started to fall away as we were warmly welcomed by our very earnest Air B&B host, who texted us throughout our alpine journey to check on our arrival time so her son could pick us up from the bus station.


David met us and what would have been a five minute walk was shortened to a 3 minute walk to the parked car followed by a 1 minute drive to the apartment. We parked in front of a pockmarked concrete block building part of a massive housing complex. All  doubts about our housing choice were eliminated however, when we walked into a very homey apartment, probably the most pleasant we've stayed in.  They even left us a complementary chocolate bar.

 

We immediately set out on our traditional first day scouting, walking along a very clean (consistent throughout Croatia) street.  Vukovarska Street was lined by candles, which we later found out were there to commemorate the start of the Serbo-Croatian war on November 18, 1991 with the bombing of the city of Vukovar.


The walk was perfect! The boulevard flowed into an underground shopping street (below the train tracks) which opened up onto a classic, European grand square, complete with massive statues, beautiful buildings and the beginnings of a Christmas market-with a holiday skating rink and track. This was the first of three Christmas markets we saw under construction as we wandered through Zagreb.

 

Zagreb is Croatia's Capitol and largest city. Dubrovnik and Split felt and looked like coastal California if the California missions were limestone castles. Zagreb put us back into the Gestalt of Europe with grand buildings reflecting the changing roster of rulers; Roman, Ottoman, Napoleon, Austro-Hungarian and Communist Tito.  The ubiquitous graffiti being the contribution of the new generation.   Unlike the coastal cities clinging to the cliffs, Zagreb is in a spacious valley with plenty of room for multiple town squares surrounded by majestic churches,  government buildings and palaces, a pleasing mishmash of styles, with a richer varied architecture and art than the old fort cities  of Dubrovnik and Split.

While there was a lot to see, and since this was Croatia, a lot of stairs to climb, we were able to hit most of the tour-book sites in an afternoon.

Zagreb is like a layer cake- the top is the Kaptol where the clerics reigned. Here were government buildings, old convents and  monasteries converted into museums.

Gregory of Nin by Mestrovic in Split

One museum was the former studio of favorite son, sculptor, Ivan Mestrovic.  His sculptures have been a constant and familiar feature on our wandering through Croatia.

The Cathedral, like most, has been a work in progress for hundreds of years, remodeled by fires, earthquakes, wars and priorities of religious and secular (Communist) governments.

The middle layer is the Gradec where the secular rulers built their fancy buildings and squares. Gradec dropped into the bottom layer or Lower Town with  restaurants, squares, more churches and interesting shops (not that we would buy anything). Many of these buildings were designed by architect Hermann Bolle (native German, adopted by Zagreb as their own) with streets and squares named after the prodigal son who never came home inventor Nikola Tesla (sculpture also by Ivan Mestrovic).  This was a far livelier area then our apartment in the surrounding crumbs.

The World Cup results still being celebrated here

Okay, we probably would buy something here

On our walk back down, the candles were lit, another reminder of how recent the war was.  In May of 1995, Zagreb suffered two days of civilian targeted cluster bombing in the waning days of the war.

After our usual stop at the market, we came home and made potato soup.
Our potato-rationed  dreams were fulfilled as we awoke to snow.

In the morning, sitting in a warm kitchen, drinking tea and instant coffee, watching snow fall outside our window,
and a stereotypic elderly, overweight Eastern European woman dressed just in her black bra hanging out laundry on her porch across the courtyard. Feeling the old Republic of Yugoslavia.  Yeah, we could live here.

What better way to spend the snowy day then at the famous cemetery, Mirogoj Cemetery designed by Herman Bolle, as well.    We walked around for nearly 2 hours absorbing the sublime beauty of the acres of buildings and grounds housing nearly 300,000.

The two bell ringers

A hand-bell was rung, as funeral processions passed, another reminder of the deep attachments to Old World traditions.

In contrast to the current and historical Balkan fighting,  Catholics, Christian Orthodox, Muslims and Jews lie mixed together in peace. Although the tour-books mentioned Jewish graves and memorials, we could not find them on the map or during our fairly thorough exploration. This is pretty consistent with what we have read and seen about Croatia's relationship with Jews; minimal references, poorly memorialized coupled with revisionist history. In the old cities of Split and Dubrovnik, we had to search to find the kiosk sized synagogues which seemed to exist only as tokens for the Jewish tourists.  The one Jewish cemetery we have seen (Split), was completely neglected and no mention of why it was not used after 1945. It's poor condition is most likely related to the virtual absence of Jews in Croatia, down from about 30,000 pre-WWII to about 500 now.

Walking down from  Mirogoj Cemetery through the layers of the city, again, experiencing the Balkan melange of beauty and ugly- passing the Children's Hospital that was deliberately targeted on the last few days of the war,  deterioration of the buildings due to neglect and, those magnificent buildings.

Despite our ambivalence, we loved Zagreb.  It had a positive energy, it reminded us of Liverpool in some ways.  It was mix of everything good and bad in Croatia, and consistent with it's Cathedral, with each disaster and revolving government, it perseveres.








This week's photo of topless old man looking out window contemplating his life "Never have I ever, ...anything"