Zagreb, capital of Hrvatska (Croatia)

We by passed Zagreb last year as we were on a mission to get to Dubrovnik by a certain date, the campsite was so close to the city it was a shame that we didn’t have to time to visit, so this year we made a point of booking in for 4 nights, giving us plenty of time to visit the city.

The campsite, Camping Zagreb, provided a free shuttle bus to the nearest station 2kms away, so why walk when you can get a ride. There were only 5 stops into the city’s Glavni Kolodvor station so we were there in 20 minutes. The station is a really impressive old building built in 1892

Opposite is King Tomislav’s statue

And behind him is a large park reaching almost all the way to the main square, Ban Josip Jelacic.

And it seemed quite natural for locals to walk through the park in medieval costume, as you do!

At the top was a really interesting original glass fronted square pillar with each face showing something different – the time, temperature, barometric pressure and I can’t remember the fourth face 🙄

On the way back to the station later that afternoon there was a band playing in the park, it was lovely to sit and listen for a while.

Ban Josip Jelacic square is huge and it’s here where most of the trams pick-up and drop-off. In the centre is a huge statue of (not surprisingly) Ban Jelacic.

The central area slopes upwards, hence the station being in the Lower Town and the Cathedral being in the Upper town. Unfortunately the funicular railway wasn’t working as it’s being refurbished so we walked up to the Cathedral and found that it was closed due to it also being refurbished. Our guide book says something along the lines of the towers seeming to permanently swathed in scaffolding and not open to the public only now it’s the whole church.

Ah well, a disappointing start to the day but never mind.

The surrounding area was very quaint though

So the next place on our list of places to visit was the Lotrscak Tower, from where each day at midday a canon is fired. It was Sunday so it was closed 🙄 (Is this ‘being closed’ becoming a thing!?)

On the way to the Tower we came across the Market, only a few stalls were open as it was Sunday!!!! (a reoccurring theme today)

So we gave up on ‘places of interest’ and thought we’d visit some of the many Museums available.

The first one which grabbed our attention was the Museum of Broken Relationships. It was fascinating, I thought it would just be about marriages/partnerships which had split up, but it was much more.

All of the exhibits have been donated from members of the public and have an explanatory text next to them.

Then we thought the Museum of Selfie Memories looked interesting. Only when we got there I realised that you had to make your own selfie memories by taking various selfie pictures using sets which had been set up by the museum. Not my cup of tea at all but I threw myself into it.

Unlike some people… 🤣😂 (He says he was looking thoughtful !)

The next museum was The Museum of Cravats, I had no idea that the neck tie (cravat) was a Croatian invention. The curator of the museum, a nice young man called Tim, took us on an individual tour as we were the only people there!!!

We were so engrossed I forgot to take any photos inside!!! Anyway, it seems that back in the day women would embroider a scarf for their intended or husband to wear when he went to fight, they were worn tied and layered at the base of their neck to help protect their exposed throat, generally they were red, to disguise the blood. We were told that King Louis IV of France adopted the cravat as a fashion accessory and the rest is history, as they say.

The next museum we visited was the Museum of Illusions. We’d seen most of the exhibits before in different contexts but it was interesting and again the young girl curator was keen to speak English and chatted with us all the way around. She even took some of the photos.

As you walked up to this picture it just looked like a crumpled bit of grey paper, then as you looked at it from a different angle you got to see the eye, ear and mouth.

The next museum was for me, the most interesting. It was called the Museum of Lost Tales. The author and illustrator of this museum is Zenko Basic, it’s a collection of folk stories and tales from around Zagreb area. We could have spent half a day there, there was so many stories to read.

It seems that Croatians were very superstitious people, and still held witch hunts well into the 18th century, it was only when the Queen passed a decree that all witches had to be sent to Vienna to have the facts put to a court for them to pass judgment and that the cost of this would be borne by the citizens of the town where the witch was from, that the enthusiasm for finding witches waned.

Some of these are gross and some are quite endearing.

If you’re more interested in reading more about the tales you can download a book from the app store, search for TalesOfTheWind (it’s free to start but you have to pay to read the whole book)

The last museum we went to was an absolute load of rubbish. It was the Museum of Hangovers.

Basically, people had related stories about things they’d done whilst drunk and donated items such as road signs, a polystyrene zebra, a life vest, etc along with photos of their escapades (in some cases). I suppose because the museum of Broken Relationships had worked they thought this one would, but I’m afraid not. It was quite boring.

Then there was a darkend room where you had to use a torch to see the writing on the wall about the history of alcohol production and tales from ancient Greece and the Gods, like Baccus, who had a close affinity with wine. I took some photos but was glad to leave.

We really enjoyed our time in Zagreb it’s a very pretty city with some gorgeous architecture, the people were very friendly and the atmosphere was good.

Next stop Porec on the Istrian peninsula to a huge campsite, for a holiday whilst on holiday. (Well that’s the idea!)