Zagreb, Croatia

Hello all for the very first time on our Europe trip!!

After a very long journey, Mum and I are finally in Zagreb, Croatia and are very excited to explore some more of Europe for the next three weeks.

We flew with Emirates, who unfortunately have sold out. Their customer service as always was awesome, as was their food. But since I last flew with them in 2014 they’ve started charging extra to select your seats. Being the kind of person who books flights 9-12 months in advanced, the lack of “first in, best dressed” and the emphasis on “highest bank balance, best dressed” really annoys me. We refused to pay any more than we already had, and ended up with seats right next to a toilet which were labelled as “limited recline”. Luckily for us, they reclined just fine (with the bonus of no one kicking us the whole flight!) and the toilet wasn’t too much of a problem. I still don’t understand why when I’m already paying $2300 return for flights I’m expected to pay for seats, but oh well.

We also had one of those surprise petrol stops that Emirates like to squeeze in that aren’t really on your flight itinerary. So just as we were all getting sleepy and settled in, we had to exit the plane and hang around in Singapore for an hour before reboarding in the same seats. The silver lining - the toilets were cleaned when we stopped!!

We managed four hours sleep on the Singapore to Dubai leg, and after talking a fair bit to the man next to me all flight, it wasn’t until the last ten minutes descending into Dubai that we realised we were both high school Maths teachers back home!!

After three hours of walking around and having a Starbucks in Dubai, we boarded our third and final leg to Zagreb. I went to Croatia in 2015 when I was living in London and used some birthday money to visit Dubrovnik and Split for 5 days total, but I told myself that I would definitely come back to see Zagreb and do a day trip to Plitvice Lakes. Well here we are!! Our last flight was a struggle as we were well over it by then. That added in Singapore stop made this the hardest long haul flight I’ve had for a while in terms of duration and lack of sleep. I was very glad when we had finally arrived after 6 movies and 26 hours of travel!! Reading that Collingwood had won once we exited the plane helped me feel better :)

Europe is my favourite continent as it is just so diverse in terms of languages, food, architecture, landscape and more. So much is going on in such a jam packed region. So I felt like a kid in a lolly shop as we boarded the bus to the city centre and I stared out the window. I read a quote once that travelling overseas is the closest we get to that childlike wonder of not really understanding what is going on and discovering it all. You can’t read the language, you’re working in a different currency, and you’re forced to ask questions to get by and learn about your surroundings. I absolutely love that feeling.

The bus was easy, and then we easily found the number 6 tram as well that took us from the bus station to right near our hostel. I love having to figure out what the signs on the transport all mean and where you need to go. It’s so satisfying when you succeed, even with a language barrier!!

When we had landed, it was sunny and 20 degrees. Some grey clouds set in as we were on the tram, but thankfully they disappeared. 

We couldn’t quite check in at the hostel, so we left our bags and went to the supermarket and to sort out our hire car for tomorrow. The office was closed so fingers crossed the booking we made months ago is all OK!

Along the way we admired a beautiful Serbian Orthodox Church, the National Theatre and the Mimara Museum’s facade. 

Once we could check in we did so and then set off again. I don’t have too much history about Zagreb just yet, and I’ve slept 4 out of the last 48 hours so my brain is having trouble piecing everything together!! But we are doing a walking tour on Tuesday so I’ll have more info then. What we did do was walk up the big hill in our hostel’s street, which is home to Europe’s shortest funicular. Then we walked through the Strossmayer Promenade, a lovely leafy pedestrian area that looked like it has music and events on later at night. Then we walked through a park and ended up at Lotrščak Tower. Built in the 13th century as part of a defence system for the city, it is 30m high and we got magnificent views from the top! We then saw the very famous St Marks Church, but couldn’t go in due to something being filmed. We kept exploring the upper town and took in the colourful, winding alleyways and street vibe. We also saw the stone gate and some people in costume. At 5.30 we had dinner at a traditional local restaurant where we enjoyed a meat platter and Croatian crepes with cheese and sour cream. It was at that point that we just about started to fall asleep in our food!!! The waiter thought we were funny.

On the way back we quickly checked out the inside of Zagreb cathedral, and had a peak at the Japan vs Senegal World Cup match on the big screen in one of the main squares. I’m excited to watch Australia vs Peru on Tuesday!

First impressions of Zagreb - pretty, lively and great tasting beer! I'm just really tired and looking forward to learning more about my surroundings over the next few days. 

Now it’s 7pm and I’m going to have a shower and then we are heading to bed. We have done so well to walk around and do everything we did today after such a huge journey!

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox