T.G.I.F.

My last Friday in Zagreb, I was invited to visit the Constitutional Court, where I was briefed on the functions of the court by one of the judges and the court administrator.

Later that day, I threw my going away party at Bistro Bardot, a new French place I discovered a few weeks' ago.  Most of my Croatian friends and colleagues were able to make it and I think a good time was had by all.

Last of Zagreb Sightseeing

There were three holidays last week.  All public attractions and many private, including some restaurants, were closed.  All the countries I visited in the region close public attractions on holidays.  And there are lots of them.  The three last week are representative:  Anti-Fascism Day (Wednesday), a communist era remnant; Corpus Christi (Thursday), one of the numerous Catholic observances; and Statehood Day (Saturday), a post-independence commemoration. Closing down and losing all that potential revenue seems a strange policy to me for a region that encourages tourism and needs the money.

John and Chris returned from their Dalmatia/Istria trip late Wednesday.  We walked around looking for things that were open on Thursday.  There was a mass at the Cathedral, which I had only seen from the outside.  The last time I was there with Valerie, the pope was in town and you couldn't get anywhere near it.

This time we were able to walk around the Renaissance fortifications, built in the 16th C to keep out the Ottomans. The fortifications are still largely in tact (they tore down a portion when they renovated the cathedral) and are reportedly some of the best preserved in Europe.





Although there had been a church on this site since the 11th C, the current cathedral is not that old by European standards.  It was renovated in the neo-Gothic style in the late 19th C, after it was extensively damaged by the earthquake in 1880.

I found myself back at the Cathedral on Sunday with Ellen, who finally came to visit from Belgrade.  We walked around inside to see the sarcophagus of Cardinal Stepinac, the controversial WWII archbishop of Croatia.  Ellen had a special connection with him because her brother (and Alan Alda) had gone to Cardinal Stepinac high school in suburban New York.  Stepinac was controversial because of his on again/off again relationship with the Ustashe (Croatian fascist party).  After the war, in what some claimed was a show trial, he was found guilty of war crimes, mainly for forced conversion of Serbian Orthodox to Catholicism.  Tito kept him under house arrest until his death in 1960. Pope Pius XII made him a cardinal and under John Paul II he was beatified as a martyr.  That certainly explains the prominence in the cathedral of the glass casket containing his mummified body.

After the cathedral, John, Chris and I went from the divine to the ridiculous -- the idiosyncratic Museum of Broken Relationships which displays momentos and stories of past loves lost but not forgotten.

We walked down the Strossmayer Promenade back to the apartment.  The promenade, named after another prominent Croatian prelate, is lined at the top benches and kiosks selling art and beer.  After that it slopes sharply downhill ending above Frankopanska.


John and Chris went on their own on Friday when most of the state-run museums were open.  They left very early on Saturday morning.  John was shocked that the taxi arrived on time to pick them up.  He had worried for two weeks that the cab wouldn't show and they would miss their flight.

Ellen arrived Saturday afternoon with her dogs.  After getting them settled we walked around Kaptol and people watched on Tkalciceva Street, Zagreb's best outdoor bar and restaurant venue.  We walked up the hill through the Stone Gate to Trilogija, a restaurant just on the other side, where we had a wonderful meal.  The food there is definitely the best I have had in Zagreb and perhaps all of Croatia.

Sunday we went to Gradec where I revisited the Naive Art Museum.  It was just as good the second time around.  St. Mark's Church, the one with the tiled roof, was also open.  I had never seen the inside.  But, unfortunately, there was a Mass in progress which was being televised, so we could not look around.



We walked down the hill, through the cafe district, to the Museum of Arts and Crafts where they have an interesting collection of furniture and art objects as well as a large exhibit devoted to the art deco movement in the 1920's to which Zagreb artists and designers made a significant contribution.

Ellen left late in the afternoon, having at last seen a bit of Zagreb after spending 7 1/2 years in Belgrade.

John & Chris -- Belgrade and Novi Sad

Our friends John & Chris arrived the day before Val left.  We took them to lunch at an outdoor restaurant behind the Museum of Arts and Crafts.

I had rented a car so that we could go to Belgrade the next day to see Ellen.  We dropped Val at the airport on the way out of town.  We had an early start, so no time for a proper cup of coffee.  Of course, as soon as Chris suggested we stop, there were no more gas stations with coffee shops on the highway.  Finally we found a place.  When we sat down in the outdoor cafe, I had an eerie feeling I had been there before.  Sure enough, when I went inside it hit me.  This was the bus stop where the bus had left without me on an earlier trip to Belgrade. Since I had the car keys, that was not going to happen this time.

We met Ellen at the Belgrade airport where we caravanned to a restaurant for lunch.  After that we visited Tito's tomb.  For some reason I did not take any photos.  The most interesting part was the collection of runner's batons.  Shortly after he became president for life, the citizens of Yugoslavia began honoring Tito one day a year by running carrying a baton.  Apparently who could come up with the best, most original design became a competition.  Tito kept them all and they are displayed in a room next to his tomb.  There is a museum next door that displays all the gifts he received from various countries and foreign dignitaries over the years.  After that, I took a nap while John, Chris and Ellen did more sightseeing.  Then I met them for what was perhaps my last dinner at the Iguana.

The next morning jet lag finally caught up with John.  We had decided to head back to Zagreb anyway because John and Chris were catching a flight to Dubrovnik the next morning.  On the way back we visited Novi Sad where Ellen said there was an interesting fortress.  When we got there we were able to walk around the walls but the museum, where the underground parts are, was closed because it was Monday.

We had lunch in a restaurant on a terrace below the fort overlooking the Danube.

Rather than retracing our steps to get back on the highway to Zagreb, I decided that we should triangulate.  We were in farm country so it promised to be a pretty drive on back roads.  Our map was one they give away in gas stations so it was less than ideal.  But it looked like we could pick up the highway at Ruma, which would have cut off about a 100 K's.

When we drove into Ruma, the cops started directing us away from the signs pointing to the highway.  We ended up on a small street with a barricade at the end.  There was a cop who would not let us turn onto the street we needed to be on.  We backed out and tried it again, ending up in the same place.  Finally, as we sat there trying to figure out what to do, brightly colored bicyclists began passing, riding very fast, on the barricaded street.  After the first few, the peloton, about 50 riders, zoomed by followed by the support vehicles.  There were girls in the street wearing green t-shirts which had on the back  "Tour de Serbie."  Having seen the Tour de France I felt sure that we would be moving any moment but the cop still would not let us pass.

Finally, a large bus drove up beside us.  The driver looked very angry when he got out and questioned the cop.  After that he backed the bus out of the street, a delicate operation indeed.  There was a destination sign on the windshield of the bus.  I asked Chris if it was anywhere near where we wanted to go.  She said it was.  So, we followed the bus out of town and made it back to the highway after a frustrating hour in Ruma.  Next stop Zagreb.

Three Island Cruise

We booked one of the cruises they sell at stands, which are set up right next to each other at the old port.  Young Croatians compete with each other for customers.  They hit on just about every passing tourist, waving brochures and yelling, "Glass bottom boat!"  It was interesting to watch who chose the good looking guy and who chose the attractive girl next to him.  We chose the guy.

The next day, when we came back at the appointed time for our cruise, they told us that we were going to be bused to the port outside the old city because the water was too choppy to sail around the city from the old port.  The water did not look that rough, so we wondered just what kind of boat we were on.  The salesman assured us that it was "a big boat.  It could hold 80 people.  You could sail to Florida in it."  The converted fishing boat didn't exactly fit that description but seemed reasonably seaworthy nonetheless.

The cruise took us to the three Elaphite islands, Kolocep, Sipan and Lopud, just off the coast from Dubrovnik.  We spent about 45 minutes on Kolocep where there were two choices of activity.  Walk around the port area or sit in the dockside cafe and have a drink.  Val walked about, wading in the water and gathering shells.  Guess what I did?  Here's a hint.

At Sipan we had lunch, which was included in the trip.  There was another boat there, so we alternated.  We had lunch first, then an hour on the island and vice versa.  After eating and walking a bit Val bought some shells from a little girl who was selling them by the seashore.  

Then we watched some kids fish a soccer ball out of the water.

The highlight of the cruise (for me) happened on the way to the last island, Lopud.  One of the crew came out with a basket of fish tails left over from lunch.  A flock of seagulls materialized.  The guy put the tails in his mouth and the gulls hovered right over him, grabbing the fish tails in their beaks and flying happily away.  I wonder if they had practiced this?

Lopud advertised "sandy" beaches.

Val gave a guy 40 Kunas to rent two lounge chairs.  It turned out that they were free.  The guy was just standing nearby and happy to take the money.  We passed a pleasant 2 hours lounging on the beach surrounded by French tourists before heading back to the boat for a farewell drink. 

Zivjeli!  To a pleasant day.

Dubrovnik in June

On Monday, June 6, Val and I flew to Dubrovnik.  We stayed until Thursday.  The highlight, again, was the wall.  We saw a few things that I hadn't seen with Tim, including the Franciscan and Dominican monasteries and the aquarium.  The Franciscan monastery houses a pharmacy opened in 1317.  We also took a boat trip which will be the subject of another post.

A cautionary note for those of you thinking of visiting Dubrovnik -- it was much more crowded than in April.  The buses stream in and drop groups who crowd around a guide carrying a sign on a pole.  As the ameba-like blobs of people flow around the city, an observer is struck by the cacophony of languages being spoken -- French, Italian, Japanese and English being the predominate ones.  Fortunately, most of them clear out by sunset.

Enjoy the slide show.

Zargoje

Saturday, after we returned from Istria, Eva took us to Zargoje, the mountainous area between Zagreb and Slovenia.  First we went to a castle, Trakoscan, which Eva jokingly assured us would be open.  The last castle we visited together had been converted to a golf resort.  This one was perched high on a hill overlooking a lake where there is a floating restaurant.  We stopped for a snack before making the climb.

The castle dates to the 13th C, but acquired its current form in the 16th C when it became the domain of the Draskovic family who were the proprietors into the 20th C.  The interior of the castle, where no photos were allowed, largely reflects how it looked in the 19th C when the family still lived there.


After Trakoscan, we drove about 50 K's to a small town near Varazdin where there was a restaurant that is the favorite of one of the former Croatian presidents.

We found it, thanks to some excellent directions from an auto mechanic.  The trouble was worth it.  When we walked into Mala Hiza (small house) almost the first thing we saw was a pile of local mushrooms, which they turned into the best mushroom soup I have ever had.  Then there was a salad made with greens fresh from their garden followed by trout almondine.  It was one of the best meals of the trip.

After the late lunch we drove the 10 K or so into Varazdin, once the capital of Croatia during the Hapsburg period.  According to the guide books it is Croatia's best preserved Hapsburg town.  We walked around.  It was too late to visit the castle, or anything else.  The old part of the city certainly lives up to its reputation.






We returned to Zagreb and had a drink at the cafe on our street.  Val and Eva left and I stayed to watch a combo led by the cafe's owner playing bass.

More photos:

Varazdin

Trakoscan

Istria 2: Deja Vue All Over Again Almost

Val and I retraced some old ground (from my last trip) and explored some new.  On Monday, we got lost going to Oprtalij but found it eventually and had lunch there.  After that we drove to the old part of Buzet where we walked around and stopped for a drink.  Tuesday morning we drove to Roc (Roche).  It is a charming little village, known for its tradition of Croatian folk music.  We had lunch at the only restaurant in town which was right next to the school where we could hear the music students practicing.

After lunch, we went to Hum, the self-proclaimed smallest village in the world.  There are supposedly only 14 full-time residents, yet it has a wall, gate, church, etc., not to mention souvenir shop and restaurant.

From Hum, at Allen's suggestion, we went to Kotli, a wide space in the road, where there is a pleasant cafe/bar next to the river.

After that we went to Allen and Mihaela's for another dinner on the terrace.  We were joined by Ellen and her friend Julie who arrived that afternoon.

The next day we joined Ellen and Julie, who was also on her first trip to Istria.  We started with a visit to the remarkable church in Porec (see Istria:  Days Three and Four).

From there we went to Motovun for lunch and after, a walk around.  We went into the church, which I had not done before.  It was designed by the famous Italian architect, Palladio, who was a big influence on Jefferson's neo-classical style.  Inside the frescoes next to the altar were in the process of being restored.  The photos speak for themselves.

By the time we left the church, the weather had turned colder with sprinkles.  We walked around the wall and the village, taking in the views under increasingly threatening skies.

We ended the day in another small, nearly deserted town which was once on the railway that connected interior Istria to the ports on the coast.  Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the village.

Val and I drove back to Zagreb the next day, after a visit to the truffle king's to pick up some goodies for friends at home, and, of course, some Rakija (grappa) with truffles for me.

Groznjan

Our base of operations after leaving Rovinj was Groznjan, a small hilltop village not far from Allen and Mihaela.  Groznjan ("Grow-znee-aan") was salvaged from ruins by offering artists free space there in return for rehabbing the property.  We had our own little apartment right across from the village church.

There were cherry trees filled with ripe cherries in the back garden and a small table and chairs which we put to good use.




Here are some more photos.

Groznjan