Zagreb

Having arrived in Zagreb late on Sunday night…. Thanks Ryanair, so on Monday after breakfast in the Hostel (£5- ish, which was OK), we set off walking, trying to cover parts of the city we had not managed to do on our day trip to Zagreb, a few years ago. We headed towards the river, past the University. The river appeared very benign and low, however there was a huge flood plain and flood defences, so we assume at times the river can be wild and furious. 

We walked back to the old town for a late lunch at the Kaptolska Klet, a posh hotel opposite the cathedral, it was “Restaurant week” in Zagreb this week, so lots of restaurants were doing cheap set menus, the Kaptolska Klet was doing a very nice 3 course + a glass of wine for HRK 125 (about £13) – we like Restaurant week!

Tuesday, lots more walking including up the hill to St Marks Church (see pic) but obviously something official was happening – lots of police and posh cars, so we couldn’t get close to the church. Our coffee stop today gave us the opportunity to try Knedla, a type of dumpling, which comes in a savoury and sweet version, both of us were happy bunnies!

We then found the botanical gardens to look round, at a very reasonable HKN 10 (£1.10). Beautifully tended and laid out. Lots of spring flowers were out, and there were terrapins in the pond. Nic wanted to come back in a month to see the Iris bed, which has the potential to be spectacular in a few weeks time.

After an evening of watching the world go by, at a street café in Zagreb centre, it was back to the hostel to settle in for the night, it is worth mentioning that every evening the hostel hosted entertainment in the bar, tonight was quiz night, in Croatian, the place was crowded and smoky (as it was every evening!– smoking indoors is still a thing here!), and our room overlooked the bar area’s glass roof, so it was quite noisy until about 11ish when everything would go quiet.

Wednesday, the weather was not quite as good, so we went to the Museum of Illusions, an interesting interactive museum based on optical illusions and puzzles.  Interesting Nic could not ‘see’ some of the optical illusions (i.e. “Count the number of black dots” – Nic “what black dots?”)

Headed to Restaurant Frida, for another Restaurant Week special, which was stunning.

We had three courses. Rog had a Curried Carrot Soup, followed by Shrimp Risotto, then Chocolate Mousse. Nic had an aubergine dish to start stuffed with cream cheese and pesto, then grilled with melted cheese – delicious, followed by pasta with a creamy pancetta sauce- also delicious. Nic’s pud brought envy from Rog (this is unusual in itself!), it was a Lava cake with ice cream, better known as chocolate fondant, with that gooey chocolate centre – Rog was lucky that Nic was willing to share! We also had a couple of glasses of Croatian white wine with our meal, interesting that everywhere served their wine in 10cl measures. Once again the price for the meal was HRK 125, but we did have to pay for the wine.

After an hour or so of packing at the hostel, it was out for a last few drinks, including a tasting tray of beer, and a shared Pizza, before heading back for bed.

Thursday, woken by lots of rain in the night, still falling as we got ready to leave. After a last hostel breakfast, where the lovely waitress remembered my daily order for English Breakfast Tea without me asking for it. Once packed with half an hour to kill Nic continued to read the wallpaper in the bedroom, this was made up of sheets of New York times articles. There was a really interesting article about someone tracing and photographing her half siblings, who were all from the same sperm donor. This meant walking round the room looking for the next page to follow the story! Time to leave and it was still raining, but this was OK as we had a taxi booked back to the airport, they even picked us up right outside the hostel, which they normally don’t do due the tram tracks. 

Zagreb Airport, what a difference from Manchester, we spent about 3 mins in the security queue rather than the 1hr 15 mins in Manchester! Ryanair flight was on time so back to Manchester on time, and thankful we did not have any bags checked in, so we had a little time to kill before our train back to York, the to bus to Pock, through the snow!

Spent Friday, repacking the motorhome for the next adventure, Scotland after Easter.