27 August 2007
Quote:
"Ave Maria!"
Fact:
A "kavana" is a café.
Zagreb
After my arrival in Zagreb I managed to withdraw some "kuna" from the ATM and buy a tram ticket at the kiosk. Then I waited for the right tram, but when it came it didn't have my destination on the sign. I waited for another, but it also didn't go to the right place, but I boarded it anyway. A bit along the line they made everybody get off. I waited with the crowd for another tram. It was a number 2 which no guide had mentioned. Everybody apart from me got on. I waited some more and then boarded the next 2, thinking that it might go somewhere near my hostel. It didn't. So I took another 2 to the bus station and waited for the alternative, number 7. Unfortunately the number 7 also stopped somewhere along the line, and it had gone a different route from the one advertised. I gave up and walked the last kilometre. When I asked at the hostel the girl said that all the trams were being diverted because of road works. I had guessed that much. After the long trip which had taken 2.5 hours instead of the usual 20 minutes, I didn't bother to go back into town. I bought a sandwich at a petrol station and spent a quiet evening in the hostel. It is still very hot, 30 degrees.
Zagreb is "The City of Museums" so staying here on a Monday when all museums are closed was a slight flaw in my travel plan. I had tried to rearrange dates, but it just didn't work any other way. So no museums it was, just walking. I did two walking tours through the town centre and had a late lunch in a Macrobiotic restaurant. I tried to visit some galleries, but had no luck either because one couldn't be found and the other was just in-between exhibitions. It was very hot all day, 35 degrees, and it is noticeable. I was knackered by 5 PM and decided to go back to the hostel for an early night. I have booked a bus for Tuesday morning that should get me into Split by 3 PM.
Croatia is a fiercely
Catholic country. I guess if religion is such a strong element of
national
identity people are especially eager to practise it.
When I went on my tour of the city, I kept bumping into this really
large
group of nuns who also were on a sightseeing tour. At this one
landmark,
the Stone Gate, which has a Madonna icon that works miracles
(apparently)
the stopped to sing a hymn, and all Croatian passer-bys joined
in!
Otherwise Zagreb looks like any other European city. There are shopping malls, loads of (mainly German) chain stores, lots and lots of cafes, and of course the museums. It's quite a green city, too - many parks, and nice botanical gardens.
I have no wireless
internet
access in the hostel so I need to type offline and then transfer
everything via USB stick. Stuey has already chased me about my
Turnmills
pictures. I might send him some next time I'm online. I didn't
know
I was the court photographer now. What's the deal? LOL
It looks like George made it to Mykonos on Saturday; I am impressed!
When
does he sleep?! And I'm sure Greece is even hotter than Zagreb...
Annoyingly, I have lost my contact lense case, so I had to rinse out
my
hair gel tub and put the lenses in there last night. Today I tried to
buy
new lense stuff, but apparently drugstores to not stock any. I saw
some
overpriced solution in a chemist, but decided not to
bother.
At night I found my lense case
after all. Of course it was lurking in the bag
where I
had looked 37 times before.
A cat amongst the pigeons
???
in the Botanical Gardens
People in the West tend to look at this region with a sort of contempt and see the people as somehow backwards, uncultured and basically "poor". That's so far from the truth. What I love about this area is that there is so much art and culture about. So many young artists, and experimental art projects.
One tends to envisage the ex-communist countries as grey, grim, ugly places where sad, deprived people struggle to survive whose only hope in life is to make their way (possibly illegally) to Northern Europe and work as maids or waiters in underpaid jobs in the service industry. One tends to forget that people LIVE here. And they have good lives, education, and a future.
It's a pity that with the natural flow of money, many young people first have to emigrate to the Western capitals to make a career, because it simply takes a while until there are equal economic opportunities in their home countries. We should speed things up a bit by opening lots of offices in Eastern Europe -- then everybody could come and live here. There are some lovely places!
