One day, three countries

Well, Donna has left for home. When we were having dinner last night we were talking about the dreaded trip home - not because you are headed home, but rather because of the thought of 20+ hours flying in cramped conditions and endless hours of stopovers in generic airport lounges where it is impossible to get any sleep, or maybe even worse - the fast stopover that has you running from your arrival gate to the departure gate. Both Donna and I have exhausting memories of arriving at Gate 1 in Hong Kong and then needing to leave only one hour later from Gate 89 and the mad dash to get there in time. Unfortunately, she only has a 1 hour turnaround in Hong Kong again - hope the gates are closer this time Sis!

We left the Hotel Stella about 5:20 am to take her to the Airport and once she had checked her luggage through, left her at the departure point to come back and try to get some more sleep. You know what it is like when you know you absolutely positively have to wake up by a certain time - yep, you sleep with one eye open even through you have set the alarm - just in case! Huh - good intentions, but there is a construction site within easy earshot of the hotel - hadn't been a problem over the last couple of days because it was the weekend. This morning however is different . . .

And so we move out too. This begins the countdown for us as well and from here we are headed north towards Germany and Steph and Felix and then further north for London and our own departure. Don't have an exact date yet, will know by the end of the week I hope. (We are trying to change our tickets for a week later). We will definitely be home for Christmas though.

Before we leave Zagreb for good we are going back in to the old town for one last try to get a look at Ban Jelačić Square - the one spot that we have missed so far. But today is not to be lucky either - parking on a week day is just as bad as on the weekend, if not worse. Michael dives out at a Souvenir shop to get a few mementos and comes back with plenty to share with Donna as well. Nice. We also get a photo of the local tie shop - you see, neckties were invented in Croatia - go one guys say thanks! We head back in through the main commercial area to turn north and join the crawling traffic. With nowhere to park I am left wondering if they just drive round and round in endless circles!

Once we are clear of the city though it soon thins out. Today is very foggy. It looks dim and dismal, but apart from being rather dank, and despite being very cool (down to 13.5C), it is a very comfortable day for driving. We want to make one last stop at a supermarket here - I want a bottle of Orahovac (Walnut liquer) that I have come to like so much! I'll add it to the Pear Cognac I have to bring home - so from now I will be building Michael's alcohol allowance!! Don't worry though, my cigarette allowance is still intact. So we follow the signs for one of the Konzum Super stores and end up about 10 kilometres away! Still, shopping successful (we also bought enough of their lovely Jamnica mineral water - by far the very nicest we have ever tried) we re-join the motorway.

This part of northern Croatia is much like Slovenia for where we are headed en-route to Graz in Austria. Through the foggy mist, we can see mountains developing from the lowlands we have left. There is plenty of ploughing going on in the fields by the roadside - everyone is getting busy preparing for what feels might be a long cold winter. All around, we can see the smoke from the home hearths burning inside the houses. Without any wind, they curl lazily upwards in straight columns.

As we near the Slovenian border, the countryside gives way to more rugged scenery with deep chasms appearing between higher cliffs - oh how I wish we had more time to explore this part of Croatia. It has been a wonderful two weeks getting to know this jewel of the Adriatic and its people. But push on now we must. The motorway ends, with further construction going on ahead of us - boy Croatia is really in a road building blitz. And as the motorway ends, the traffic comes almost to a total stop. We crawl forwards so slowly that it doesn't even register a speed on the speedometer. Ah, this is the last kilometer before the border crossing. At least it gives me time to get one last look at the colours of autumn in their blaze of glory before winter and the white claims victory shortly.

As Croatia is not yet a member of the European Union, border posts are still manned at its borders. There is a huge traffic jam here - cars in three queues, buses and coaches in one and trucks in another. We join one queue hoping that there is not going to be any need to open theboot - I mean it is packed to the upper limit. As we get close to the officials, we can see the passengers on all the coaches disembarking to file past a border office and have their passports checked - no wonder there is such a long line of coaches. It would be faster for an official to get on the bus and check the passports - but hey, they are the ones in control, right!

It is much faster to be in the cars and none are being stopped at the moment thankfully - I think that the police are annoyed at the traffic building up that by now must be kilometres long. A police car has come to a screaming, angry stop at the border post just a few minutes ago. We get to a bored official who no doubt must have sore feet. He just glances at our passports and hands them back with a dismissive way. So we crawl forward about 50 feet and this time don't make the mistake of not stopping for the customs official. He doesn't even look at us before waving us through! Guess there is no hard and fast rule.

So we are now back in Slovenia and the EU. First stop is a roadside petrol station for a Vingette that we need to have in order to travel the motorways and main roads. And you can't get one for one day and have to buy one for a week for €15. That's an ouch as we actually need it for less than one hour to travel the 60 kms to the Austrian border where again we must buy a weekly vignette but this time we need it for about a 24 hour period as we are stopping overnight in Graz to have a look. And at €7.70 at least it is more reasonable. Ah, revenue raising in Slovenia is alive and well. As we are travelling the motorway, there is not much we can see of this area of Slovenia, but as with the more western edge, it is very scenic - rolling hills with villages in the valleys and copses of trees left standing on the ridges to minimise erosion and lots and lots of churches - some with tall spire and others with the more orthodox onion shaped domes. Bugger bugger bugger that our time is ending - there is so much more to see. Anyone want to finance us to keep travelling????

Graz is just 40 kms into Austria from this southern border, so it is not long before we are back into a city. The outskirts are very familiar looking - individual houses with fenced or hedged lawns. Once we reach the more urban areas, this gives way to medium density apartment blocks and commercial enterprises. There is the golden mile of car yards, lots of 'bars' thatare advertising scazntily clad women in provocative poses - ah, a (brothel) rose by any name is sweet I guess. There are also numerous casinos and gaming shops.

Austrian motorists here are about as crazy as the Italians, taking crazy crazy risks overtaking on this major road that is generally thick with traffic. And like many other European cities, the horn rules here as well. Gosh, you kind of forget how crazy a large city can be. Kate has no trouble getting us to our accommodation at Hotel Daniel which is literally right next door to the main railway station. However, it is as quiet as!!

The hotel is one of those funky modern types and our room is very interesting with a shower that has a glass wall that looks into the room! Hey Donna and Helen, aren't you glad that you are not with us now! Its very comfortable and that bed looks really really inviting after what has turned out to be a longer day than usual. So instead of going out for dinner, we give in to the dreaded takeaway from the world's largest chain before crashing. By tomorrow morning we should be ready to have a look around!

You know, we swore when we started out on this trip that we would not do the ten countries in two weeks thing that so many visitors to Europe do. Today proved us a little wrong I guess.

A stroll through Zagreb - dead and alive

Daylight saving finished today which meant we all got to sleep in for another hour - whoo hoo. Michael and I certainly got more sleep than Donna did as she battled with her cold last night. She is on medication from the pharmacy, but it sure doesn't have the efficacy of some of those we are more used to being able to get at home. What she really needs is a good decongestant! And that space that Donna could call her own last night was very hot - the window is on the other side of the room, and the airconditioning unit over the door, so it means that Donna's alcove had no circulating air. Poor thing was hot all night.

And it has stopped raining - yahoo! It is still cloudy, but more of the light high type than the dark filled clouds that threaten to burst their edges at any moment. But that is not all together a bad thing - it means that we will not have to worry about beating sun today as we return to inner Zagreb to have more of a look around - today we are concentrating on the Lower Town.
But first we are off to Mirogoj to have a look at the cemetery. And today we are armed with the name of the streets on which it lies to make sure that Kate can direct us there correctly the first time!! We get about half the way up the hill when we encounter what I had thought we might - thousands of people on their way to the same spot. The traffic was at an inch by inch crawl for the last kilometre or so and with cars parked over the (?) footpaths on both sides of the road, as a driver, you had to be ever so careful not to bump the myriads of people walking up the hill. But Frances came good on the second try and we got a parking spot along the wall about 150 m from the entrance gate.

Now, that wall and its cupolas look far more stunning in the light of day. It hides a 500 m long neo-renaissance arcade with 20 domes. There are lots of famous Croatian people buried here - both in the arcade and within the cemetery proper. Graves here are amazing - there is everything possibly imaginable from austere simple crosses or headstones to elaborate works of art that include all forms from the very traditional to art deco to very modern and abstract. Yet they all sit very happily side by side. We go on a search for old graves but don't find many before the turn of the 20th Century. Ahh, the cemetery was only built in the late 19th century - so that explains that. And do you know what is a little spooky? Some graves have the names, birthdates and the numbers 20 already engraved - for people who are not yet dead!

The number of people out here cleaning graves and just visiting is amazing. There are whole families here - with kids (and some teens too!), there are groups of old ladies and the odd very old couple who look like they are not long before permanent residence here themselves! People also stop at a couple of other spots to reflect and/or pray. One is at grave of Franjo Tuđman, the first post-communist leader of Croatia, others are at the memorials to the fallen in the various wars and the last is to a gilded crucified Christ that stands half way down the main avenue. At all these, people leave wreaths and lit candles. You know, it was that interesting that you could spend a whole week here just ambling through the thousands and thousands of graves.
And so now that we have seen at least some of Mirogoj, we take our leave for the lower town of Zagreb. Being a Sunday, there is no charge for the normally metered parking IF you can find a spot. Luckily, we are happy to leave the car at the far end of the area we want to visit, down near the main rail station. There are less residences here and we get a spot first time - thanks Frances! The area we want to see measures about 3 long blocks by 5 blocks. Now, anyone who knows me knows that this is going to be one huge day for me!! So, off we set . . .

First stop (because this is where we have parked the car) is King Tomislav Square - a large open green space with a monument to Croatia's first king (9th century) standing proudly at one end and looking towards the main Railway Station. It is situated across a myriad of tram lines, bus stops and a major road. Built at the end of the 19th Century, it was one of the stops for the Orient Express Rail Service between Paris and Istanbul in its hey day and the nearby Hotel Esplanade was built to cater for these first class passengers.

At the northern end of the park is the classically beautiful Art Pavilion. Parts of the building are shrouded at the moment with works underway. We wonder whether there are problems with the footings as there are lots of core samples being drilled and at the moment, they lie in wooden boxes drying out.

The next park up is much plainer and is basically a green space with a playground and playing fields. With so many people living in the centre of the city, these sort of facilities are really needed. And then comes Zrinjevac. This is the most beautiful square and park that we see in all of Zagreb. It is named for the Croatian man who died heroically defended a Hungarian fortress beseiged by Turks in the 16th century. The park is very formal in its layout with mature Plane trees, flower beds, neat rows of fir trees and plenty of pathside seating.

Within it are located some important pieces of Zagreb's history including the Meteorological Post where weather conditions have been recorded since 1884. The clock however, is wrong by ten minutes! The first fountain in Zagreb was built here in 1878 just after the opening of the Zagreb waterworks. And nearby stands a bandstand - hmmm, I could just as easily be describing a nice part of Queens Park in Maryborough back home! And there are busts to many notable locals - all recently cleaned with their engraving re-gilded by the look of them.

Lining the streets that border this trio of parks are some amazing examples of architecture - most in Neo-Classical and Neo-Renaissance styles. Opposite the park is one building of great interest - it houses the Archeological Museum. We go on over, only to be stopped by the guard at the door. It closes on a Sunday at 1 pm and it is now almost 2 pm. She does however, kindly let Michael walk through the still open doors into the foyer to have a smidgen of a look.

So we are now at the northern most point of the parks. From here we turn to the west and follow the streets to Petar Preradović Square. This is just short of the half way point and there are a number of cafés open and doing a roaring trade. So we decided to join them all in a coffee and cake. But first we want to find the grounded Sun. No, not that yellow thing that hangs in the sky, but rather a contemporary sculpture that is set in the ground amidst the forest of café umbrellas. In relation to its size, there are supposedly metal spheres representing the planets placed around the city in true scale to this sun. Hmm, no clues as to where and if it were true, then we should at least be able to find Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, but no such luck - we wonder whether they are pulling our legs! In the immediate vicinity are two architectural gems - the Octogon and the Napredak Skyscraper, which the architect hates being called a skyscraper as it is only 7 stories high, but it was the first of the modern tall buildings built in 1936 to serve as a commercial and residential building.

The Millenium Café beckons so we sit and enjoy good coffee and great cakes while we gather our gusto for the remainder of our walk and give our tootsies a momentary rest. Thirst quenched we walk back through the square taking photos of the statues of Petar Preradović and Tim Ujević. Both were poets and Petar was an army general as well.

From here it is a few blocks over to the other set of parks that we want to visit. It is amazing to see under the grime of centuries that the grand old buildings now house couture design houses and up market retailers. Street signage is almost non-existant, so you need to walk directly past them to know that they are there. Many of the buildings are covered in scaffolding and hessian and plank walkways that are raised above large holes in the footpaths. Seems that there is much to be done! Masarykova Street houses some lovely commercial buildings and apartments with exquisite finishing touches such as coloured tiles, statuary around doorways and fancy balconies.

And so to the other set of three parks and squares. At the northern most is Marshall Tito Square although there is no statue to him to be found - guess there are mixed feelings about him! The square houses the elegant facade of the Croatian National Theatre, the Well of Life, the Museum of Arts and Crafts and a stunning statue of St George slaying the dragon. His poor horse looks scared half to death! Now, many of the sculptures around Zagreb are the work of one man - Ivan Meštrović and this is considered possibly his best work. It is very striking and you can imagine the figures from young, to lovers to old people reacing in to scoop out the precious water in the well. It is no deeper than the sculpture. This is one busy place - although with the buildings closed on Sunday afternoons, there are not too many tourists around. In fact, the local skateboarders outnumber us all!
The next park is filled with walking paths set amidst mature trees, oh, and that water supply! Nothing much to look at otherwise. And so we come to the last of the large squares within the Lower Town. This is Marulić Square. It houses Croatian State Archives that was once the National and University Library. The building is heralded as the best example of Croatian Art Noveau architecture with its detailed facade elements. The statue of Marko Marulić dominates the open space behind the Archives. He is known as the father of Croatian literature, writing in Latin, Italian and Croatian and wrote Judita (Judith), an epic poem that was the first work to be published in the Croatian language.

And we have now reached the border of the green horseshoe that is formed by these six garden squares and the Botanical Gardens now in front of us. But the day is done and none of us want to explore them, so we turn and head back past the Hotel Esplanade and the Railway Station to the car. We make a quick trip into the Upper Town so that we can get a photo of the amazing tesselated tiled roof of St Mark's Church and one also of St Catherine's Church and the nearby tower. We can't even pull up here for a few minutes as the streets all around here are home to the various consulates and embassies. And Michael is told tersely that he must not take photos of these buildings - a bit hard when they lie directly behind St Marks which comes a very close second to the Cathedral in terms of the wow factor. Sheesh! In the last light of the day, we admire finally the gaslight lamps - more than 200 still exist today in the Upper Town and are lit on dusk by two lamp lighters. Neat, very neat.

We walked a total of 4.24 kms today - no wonder we are tired! There is no way we want to eat out near the hotel tonight and so we decide to try to find somewhere here in the city. We know that there are some restaurants at Kaptol near the Cathedral, BUT, there is no parking up there. Donna pulls out her Croatia guide and we find that we are but a few blocks from one called Restaurant Čiho that specialises in seafood.
Entrees:
Salata od hobotnice (Octopus salad) Michael
Creme škampi juha (Creme scampi soup) Donna and Maria
Mains:
Kraljevska grdobina sa crnom palentom (Royal Frog-fish with Black Polenta - cooked in squid ink) Michael and Maria
Pijana grdobina (Drunken Frog-fish - cooked in white wine) Donna
Desserts:
Čokolada palačinke (Chocolate pancakes) Michael
Orah palačinke (Walnut pancakes) Donna and Maria

Yep, a marathon day today! And bed awaits . . .

Zagreb and that blasted 'spider' crew

It was just after 11 am when we left the Hotel Paradise - the large room with separate lounge room and bar was very nice. We all had a tad of privacy. Breakfast was good but predictable. Michael is craving a good old Aussie breakfast now - cereal, poached eggs and toast, FRESH orange juice and his brand of coffee!

We can't get in to our next booking at Hotel Stella until mid afternoon, so we drive in to Zagreb city. And if we ever thought that there was difficulty in parking anywhere else, Zagreb 100% takes the cake. We find that all the street parking is for 1 hour only. And even on a Saturday afternoon, the 'spider' team are alive and well and very very active. We see them on the prowl and later, actually watch them remove a car from a spot - aha, so thats how they do it. Now we know how our car was moved in Dubrovnik!!

Anyway, Frances finally finds us a spot about half a kilometre away from the Cathedral (but it will mean that Michael has to come back to feed the ticket machine!) and we set off to take a look through the Upper Town. You see Zagreb is divided into the Upper and Lower Town by a mighty cliff of about 66 m. Oh, it can be climbed by stairs - that would make about 440 steps - not likely for me thanks very much. So we just explore the Upper Town and will leave the Lower Town until tomorrow.

The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary holds an impressive place at the Kaptol - one of the higher points of the upper town. Its twin spires tower over the city and can be seen from many vantage points. Construction of the cathedral began in the 11th century but over the years has been adapted and added to many times adopting new styles as they became 'fashionable'. An early gothic facade was added in the 13th century, but the gothic facade that it primarily shows today dates mainly from the early 19th century.

Anyway, whatever, it is beautiful and like many of the large churches in Europe, it too is currently undergoing major cleaning and restoration works - thankfully only on the outside, so we can have a good look around inside. Probably the most stunning thing about this church is the back wall where there is a statue set of the crucifixion. But behind it there is a piece of text that covers the entire wall that is in a language that we have not seen before! It does seem to have some familiar looking letters, but lots that are not. Turns out that it is a text called Glagolitic text and has been used in parts of Croatia for millenia! The exact origins are not known, but it was in use before St Cyril visited the region while preaching Christianity in 860! They also have a saintly resident effigy lying in state - its Bishop Stiepan, the 13th century bishop who had a chapel built next to the church and dedicated it to his patron saint to give thaksfor the deliverance of Zagreb from the Tartar invasion.

As the Virgin Mary is the Patron saint of Zagreb, there is a tall column that a gilded statue of the Virgin sits atop and four angels - Faith, Hope, Innocence and Humility stand beneath her column. At its base is a four-leafed clover shaped fountain complete with bronze reliefs of a face around the base - all crowned with dying wreaths in a somewhat pagan look. And the Cathedral is surrounded on three sides by renaissance walls built to safeguard it from attacks from Ottoman Turks between 1512 and 1521. There are small huts built into the inside of the walls that still stand. These are some of the best preserved renaissance walls in Europe.

We wander down the street opposite the Cathedral straight in to the Dolac markets. These daily markets are one of the landmarks of Zagreb. There are heaps of fresh fruit and vegetables and down on the lower section down the first of all those steps we can also see the flower sellers. There are some junky bits, but not nearly as much as we have seen in many areas. Everyone is very busy and if only our markets at home could be like these ones - fresh farm cheeses - hard and soft, figs fresh and dried - some tied with bay leaves in garlands, mounds of walnuts freshly shelled and never bitter. Ah, the tastes, and the smells! THIS is what markets are all about!!

Down behind the Dolac market is St Mary's Church - it looks a little forlorn with its leaves buried forecourt where the moss is already growing. We wander around to the front and the only reason we even got to look inside was because there was a veritable army of lady parishioners cleaning it with a vigour that was amazing. I think that they were all trying to be the one who cleaned the hardest and fastest - gosh, they can come do my cleaning any old time! This church is much more sombre than the cathedral (maybe fittingly) and had only its original lights fitted with electric lights, so that it is still very sombre. Baroque in decoration, we can only get a quick glimpse.

From here we head down some of those stairs to Tkalčićeva Street where we meet Marija Jurić Zagorka - a local suffragette and author who wrote a series books titled The Witch of Grić based on the witch trials of the 17th to 18th centuries that Empress Maria Teresa later abolished. She stands in the ground beneath a lovely sundial that is the only part of the rendering on its wall - the rest has crumpled and fallen. In fact, there are lots and lots of statues throughout Zagreb, paying homage to all sorts of locals - minor and major, who have impacted on the lives of the community. This street was the separation point of property owned (and I think still is) by the church and that owned by the secular community.

The meter needs a feeding again, and so we head back to the car, passing through part of the remains of the medieval walls into Ribnjak Park which was the original site of the Bishop's ponds where the priests caught their Friday fish! Now it is a green space with a lady trying to train a very enthusiastic dog and children on a playground.

From here we walk past the Franciscan Church where it is said that St Francis himself lived for a time. Like most of Franciscan buildings, it is much simpler than other churches. There is a florist tying garlands on to the pews for a wedding later today and one of the monks is sweeping. He willingly lets us take some photos including this mural which depicts St Francis being welcomed into Zagreb. A church has been on this site since the 13th century and this church, rebuilt in the 17th century was damaged in a great earthquake in 1880 but repaired.

Back at the car, we are pulling out of the parking spot with another car is inching in behind us - yep, parking sure is a pain here. The other 'attraction' we want to have a look at today is the city's main cemetery - Mirogoj. It crowns the top of a hill and is known for its beautiful park and its amazing wall topped with multiple cupolas at its entry. Well, it takes us well over an hour to find it. Sure it crowns a hill. But so do many many mature trees! And that big wall - well, it is on the other side of the hill, so can't be seen from below. By the time we find the correct road in the honeycomb of narrow winding ones that go up into the hilly area, the light is fading fast. We do see the cupolas along the top of the wall and the impressive entry facade, but decide that a good look in the light of tomorrow is warranted (now that we know where it is!).

One suprise today has been the amount of rubbish and debris that is sitting on the streets of Zagreb. We are not sure whether there is one of those annual council clean-ups happening or what. A lot of the debris appears to be from offices while there is also rubbish from renovations. And there are lots of people scavanging and there appears to be a rather healthy trade in lumber - with Romany people seeming to be the most active sellers.

Once we get out of the city area, we come upon more of that high density housing that we have become accustomed to seeing in Europe. While there are smaller apartment blocks on the CBD fringe, it is not too far out that they mushroom to those huge soul-less blocks that see thousands of people living in very close proximity to each other, relying on public transport and the provision of close by shopping facilities. Gosh, I know that I could never live in these. And they are suffering the same fate of many of the buildings in Zagreb - decrepit, grey, broken and falling plaster. It combines to make it look very very grubby. Other areas are pristinely clean and we see a whole parade of Canadian and Croatian flags flying. We rack our brains trying to work out what the link is and find out later on the news that the Governor General of Canada is visiting - ahhh, politics - should have known it would be something like that!

After 1.9 kms walked this afternoon, tonight we are staying at the Hotel Stella. Funny shaped room, but it means that Donna has a little space of her own! They do not have a restaurant and have recommended a the Turk Restaurant a couple of kilometres away. Despite it being Saturday night, they are not very busy. None of us are really hungry so we just order mains. Michael and I shared Teleće pečenje s police krumpir (Roast veal with roast potatoes) while Donna had Teleće Turopoljski odrezak (Veal escalope Turopolje style – mushrooms in cream sauce) and we shared Pirjano povrće (Braised vegetables) and Šampinjoni na žaru (Grilled mushrooms). And if Donna's meal last night was a highlight, then this was the opposite for her, although the Roast Veal Michael and I had was moist and delicious in a light tomato based gravy.