The complaints book is at the bar

Day 1 in Croatia: Zagreb

Random Croatia fact: Lots of the establishments (restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels, etc.) that we visited had signs or notices that the Complaints Book (or Book of Complaints) is at the bar. We found this exceedingly bizarre, but also quite cute. Not that we had any complaints... I guess my only complaint was how many Aussies are in Croatia. It's like we're fricken taking over the world - we're everywhere!

So after three delightful days in Slovenia, we caught the train (which we almost missed) to the capital of Croatia: Zagreb. We hadn't planned on spending too much time in Zagreb. Capital cities can be wonderful and fun with plenty of things to see and do, but they can also be like Canberra ('nuff said). We arrived in Zagreb in the morning and left in the late afternoon to catch a flight to Dubrovnik.

This is the view from the Zagreb Train Station of King Tomislav and the Art Pavilion at the Trg kralja Tomislava.


We then strolled up the gardens of the Strossmayerov Trg before hitting the town centre, Trg Josip Jelačića (where there were naked gypsy boys diving in the public fountain scooping up all the coins people had tossed in). Following the "LP Bible" (as one maladroit British backpacker we met referred to the Lonely Planet Guides as), we covered pretty much all the interesting things in town in a couple of hours, including the Dolac fruit and veg market, the outside of the Botanical Gardens (was closed already), the Sabor (Parliament) and Banski dvori (Ban's palace), Lotrščak Tower. There's not really that much to offer in Zagreb. And like most of the rest of Europe, a lot of the sights there were in varying stages of renovation and refurbishment like the Katedrala Marijina Uznesenja (Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary). And, Tammy even managed to twist her ankle again but she recovered quickly enough to make it to the plane without any worries or dampening our spirits.

This is the Stone Gate, which was the entrance to the town of Gradec from Kaptol. Gradec and Kaptol were the two medieval towns that formed Zagreb. The history books tell us that they always fought with each other except for when they had their annual market day and fair or were being attacked by invaders.


This is their master sculptor, Ivan Meštrović's "The Well of Life" fountain, in front of the Croatian National Theatre. (No, I don't get it either).


This is the Sv. Juraj ubija zmaja (St George Slaying the Dragon) statue nearby.


Still, we managed to do some shopping (there must be a million shoe and handbag shops in Croatia), we ate some very nice fried seafood (including sprats) in a local underground cafe/bar called Mimiće, enjoyed some ice cream at the very busy Vincek in the sweltering heat, had a drink at one of the sidewalk cafes on the Trg Preradovića, and devoured a giant pizza at the cool Pizzicato.

We then arrived in Dubrovnik late that night and then found ourselves in a clean and lovely room on top of a cosy, family-run private hostel with an amazing view of the newer parts of Dubrovnik, with the moon over the ocean (sorry, but we couldn't manage to take a photo to match how breathtaking it was).