Museums and more sunshine!

Hello all,

Today it was forecast to rain, but we were lucky with lots more sunshine!

Our first stop for today was Zagreb’s famous Museum of Broken Relationships. In 2006, a couple who were both artists divorced and decided to make an exhibition out of artefacts/memorabilia from their relationship with backstories behind them. The exhibition travelled and they began to get donations of items from other people that were meaningful in their breakups. In 2010, the museum opened here to house the donated items and is now home to over 200 artefacts. There is also a branch in LA, and still a travelling exhibition. I have never been to a museum where I read each and every sign, but I did here! Each item had a story written to go along with it. Some were funny and some were tragic. I’ve included photos of some of my favourite ones below this post. 

From here, we walked to the Zagreb City Museum. Much of the information we read here I covered yesterday so I’ll keep it brief. We learned about the renovations here from 1993-1998 unearthing many ruins from as far back as 1171. We then walked through and read the history of Zagreb from this time up until today. It was good, but we started to get tired as there was so much in the museum. 

Next we walked down to Dolac Market and bought some raspberries and cherries which we enjoyed in Ban Josip Square in the sunshine. Then we had a look in H and M and a few other shops, before having a refreshing drink at a cafe. 

Our next stop was the Memorial Centre for the Rocket Attacks on Zagreb 1991/1995. This museum was much more off the beaten track than the others, I couldn’t even find it on trip advisor! I had noticed it on google maps and thought it could be interesting. We had to walk up a few flights of stairs and press a buzzer to be let in. The museum was small, but had a good amount of information to inform you and sum up what had happened. 

All in all, Zagreb was pretty fortunate throughout the homeland war. However, two bad bombings did occur here. The first was in October 1991 that I mentioned yesterday, and was an assassination attempt on the president. One man died and many were injured, and the main bombings were in the upper town. The second bombings were on May 2-3 1995. Serbian rebels bombed a children’s hospital, a retirement village and the national theatre all in lower town. Six people were killed and 200 were injured, many of whom were sick children. 500 undetonated bombs had to be deactivated afterwards. The leader of the attack, Milan Martić, was sentenced by The Hague to 35 years in prison. 

Mum had seen a house she wanted to visit, so we went there next. It was the apartment of Cata Dujšin-Ribar, a famous Croatian artist. She first moved here in the 30s with her first husband, famous Croatian actor Dubravko Dujšin. He passed away from a heart attack in 1947. Then in 1952 Cata married again, this time to politician Ivan Ribar who was friends with Tito. The lady at the apartment was very knowledgeable and took us on a guided tour, showing us all four rooms and explaining what various paintings by Cata symbolised.

We went for a walk in the park behind here and then headed home for a rest. After our rest, we had a quick look at mass in St Mark's Church and then we went and had Ćevapi for dinner. These are delicious Croatian skinless sausages with bread and with kajmak (cheesy) sauce as recommended by Kristina yesterday. Soooooo yummy! If you’re in Zagreb, go to Plac and have some. Amazing!!

Our time in Zagreb has come to an end. We’ve really enjoyed it here and have found plenty to do! Tomorrow we are off to Ljubljana, Slovenia via bus. See you then!

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox