The travels of Tim and Megan: Zagreb, Croatia

Monday

On Monday morning we were up bright and early and we flew from Split to Zagreb, Croatia's capital and largest city. It was very hot in Zagreb and suddenly instead of being surrounded by beaches and water, we were surrounded by concrete and glass! Zagreb has a reputation as being a very commercial city with little character and charm. However, the Old Town in the centre of the city is actually very pretty.

We began our brief city tour by wandering through the Strossmayerov trg, a big park that runs from the main train station in the Lower Town up to the Trg Josip Jelacica (the main town square) in the Upper Town. The park was beautiful - an oasis of greenery amongst the medieval style buildings of the Old Town.

We passed through the main town square and saw the statue of Ban Jelacic. Jelacic was a 19th century governor who led Croatian troops in an unsuccessful battle with Hungary in the hope of winning more autonomy for his people. We also had a look inside the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (quite the name for a cathedral). It was very impressive.
From the cathedral, we walked around the Kaptol region of the Upper Town and stopped on Tkalciceva, the liveliest scene for bars and cafes. We stopped at one of the bars for a Coke, mainly to rest our weary legs! We walked down the long pedestranised street of Tkalciceva and past the Dolac fruit and vegetable market on our way to the Croatian Parliament building. If truth be told, the Parliament building was a little disappointing - rather unspectacular. Across from the Parliament is Ban's Palace, now the presidential palace. It too was a little bland. To get to the Parliament and Ban's Palace, we had to pass through the Stone Gate, which was once the eastern gateway to the medieval Gradec town and is now a religious shrine.

We needed to take a break in the shade of the park for an hour or so to escape the heat. We found a good shady spot next to one of the big fountains and cooled off. When our stomachs started rumbling, we went in search of lunch and ended up at a place called Nokturno. Again the food was very good and cheap. We had seen the sights we wanted to see so we filled in the rest of our time having a beer on Tkalciceva before heading back to the airport for our flight to London town.