Croatia: Zagreb

Our first stop in Croatia was Zagreb, the capital city. That's one of the old blue trams pictured in the center. The same line has an eclectic mix of old and new tram cars.

We took our first meal in the main square (currently known as Jelacic Square, named after the general on the horse...names have changed a lot for political reasons). This was the first of many excellent meals in Croatia! Here's a picture of the yummy mushroom soup:

Zagreb has many beautiful buildings and parks with lots of colors and textures:

This hotel used to be a major stopping point for travelers on the Orient Express. The inside is so sumptuous! I'm jealous that I wasn't staying there, but happy that I got to hang out in the lobby for a while :)

We visited this art museum in the park. I took a photo of this painting because it represents Salome with the head of John the Baptist, and my niece is named Salome. :)

Croatia has a lively cafe culture; this street is considered the place to people-watch in Zagreb, especially if you like to critique fashion:

We didn't actually drink a coffee on this street, but here I am drinking coffee on another street, in the shirt I made from New Look 6870:

Thanks, Drew for the iPad photo :)

Zagreb also has fun markets, selling flowers and vegetables along with some souvenir stands:

For my next blog entry, I'll show you where some of those flowers and vegetables come from. If you don't like travel photos, you can skip the Croatian entries to come, but I hope you'll stick around and enjoy them!

P.S. Sorry I'm not providing many travel details (i.e., street names, museum names) but if you're interested I can add them back later. I'm also intending to stay pretty light re: the trip...just showing you some photos to (hopefully) tempt you into a visit. Obviously the Balkans have a recent history of violence and that should not be ignored. I can recommend a book about the break-up of Yugoslavia and subsequent war: The Impossible Country: A Journey Through the Last Days of Yugoslavia by Brian Hall. I'm only one-third of the way through it, but so far I've loved every page and feel like I'm learning a lot...which, as I remarked to my travel-buddy, is not hard to do when you start from zero.

P.P.S. Just in case you didn't know, if you click on the photos you'll be able to see a bigger, clearer version of the images.