Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I was in Croatia. Here are a few final thoughts and pictures from our last day there.
We left Split way too early in the morning for a flight back to Istanbul. The only flight available (or maybe the only one with a price low enough we were willing to pay) included a 7 hour layover in Zagreb. Fortunately, even though Zagreb is the capital of Croatia the airport and town are relatively small and easy to get around during our layover. We landed in Zagreb around 7:30am and took a bus from the airport to the main city bus terminal.
Our first stop was St. Mark's Church (Crkva sv. Marka) in the heart of old Zagreb. The church was completed in the late 1400's and is famous for its roof tiles depicting the Zagreb coat of arms (white castle on red background) and the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia. Although this is one of the top tourist destinations in Zagreb, it was pretty deserted at 8am.
Since it was fairly chilly out and nothing was really open yet, we stumbled into a wine bar that happened to be open and had free wi-fi. (Why a wine bar was open at 8am I have no idea.) But the gracious young gentleman working at the bar made us a ham & cheese panini and fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast.
I should have mentioned that old Zagreb is at the top of a hill but is mostly just government buildings so we descended a large hill in order to find restaurants. After breakfast we decided to go back up the hill to a museum. Rather than climbing all the steps we paid a few kuna and rode up the hill in style in an old funicular!
(Definition: funicular: (of a railroad, esp. one on a mountainside) Operating by cable with ascending and descending cars counterbalanced)
Next up was the Museum of Broken Relationships. It's a unique little museum that collects mementos and stories of love and heartbreak.
Next we wandered back down the steps into the newer Zagreb city center for shopping and lunch. One mandatory stop for the geek in everyone is the Nicola Tesla statue :-)
After lunch we walked along Zagreb Park which looks a lot like the National Mall in Washington D.C. and back to the bus station and then a flight back to Istanbul.
1 comments:
Wine bar? 8am? Sounds like you have a problem. :)
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