Croatia Travel Articles & Travelogues

CROATIA TRAVEL ARTICLES

Zagreb - April 2001

We managed to get lost in the one-way system in Zagreb, and found most of the hotels listed in the guide were in a street we couldn't drive down. Eventually, Norman parked the car, and I waited while he went to see if he could find a hotel. He was back before long to say he'd booked a room at Hotel Central, which was across the road from the railway station. We drove back, unloaded the car, parked and then went to look at the room. It was clean and it had a bathroom, but it was very small. In fact it was so small that the beds were end to end instead of side by side! In addition, the place was being renovated, so there were trailing wires and various building materials in the corridors. It was a little difficult to manoeuvre in the bathroom. The toilet was in an alcove, and there was no elbowroom when sitting on it. We had the impression that the place had been converted to en suite facilities without a great deal of thought. Perhaps this was the reason for the current renovation.

Having dumped our suitcases, we set off into the city centre. Our hotel was just off a very impressive square, at the end of an avenue which led, through more attractive squares, to the main shopping street and the main city square. We saw lots of lovely cafés and stopped at one for a very good espresso coffee.

After coffee, we walked to the cathedral area and looked around the streets for a while before we started the serious business of menu perusal. Just behind the main square, we discovered the remains of a daily market. There were still some lovely fruit and vegetable stalls there, and we promised ourselves another visit the next day.

Back at the hotel, I was reminded of how badly designed our room was – particularly the bathroom. If I had been any fatter, it would have been virtually impossible to sit on the loo. The shower was almost impossible to adjust; it produced a horizontal rather than a vertical spray and managed to spray the whole of the bathroom. Of course, the whole bathroom was only slightly larger than a normal shower cubicle! In short, the normal performance of ablutions was fraught with difficulties, but we managed.

After a little menu gazing, we decided to try a seafood restaurant we had noticed earlier. A wise choice. We both started with a large portion of delicious fish soup. I had cuttlefish risotto as my main course and Norman had octopus. I tasted a little of his octopus, and it was exquisite. This was a Dalmatian restaurant, Korcula, which we later found in the guide book.
After breakfast the next morning, we explored Zagreb, and even visited a few stamp shops where, needless to say, I made a few purchases! The city has some lovely old areas with lots of great pavement cafés. Needless to say, we visited the market again, and were impressed with the range and quality of the goods. Then we wandered round several levels of the old cities and saw some beautiful buildings and wonderful views.

When lunch-time arrived, we discovered that few of the cafés seemed to serve meals. Everyone was sitting around drinking coffee or beer, but no-one seemed to be eating. Eventually we had some pasta in the restaurant of the Dubrovnik Hotel, which is in the main square. After lunch, it was back to exploring and an occasional coffee. Once again, the weather was quite good, making our wanderings even more pleasant.

We were very impressed by the beauty of the city. In one area, we came across a church with a wonderfully decorated roof. Of course, there were many parts of the city we didn’t see. On our way into Zagreb, we had glimpses of the museum area, where there were some impressive 19th century buildings. There just wasn’t enough time to see everything.

We returned to Korcula for dinner. This time, we both had octopus salad followed by gilthead sea bream with a spinach-potato mixture. Afterwards we had pancakes and coffee. When we complimented our waiter on his excellent English, he told us he learned it from films and pop music! He said he was born in Germany, where he lived for six years. His family are from Bosnia-Herzegovina. When we were leaving he shook hands with us and we said we might return some day. We had really enjoyed the evening and I’m sure that, if we ever return to Zagreb, we’ll go back to Korcula.

On 19th April, the weather was beautiful as we left Zagreb and the scenery was quite lovely for the whole of our journey.