We flew a quick 55-minute flight from Dubrovnik up to Croatia’s capital city of Zagreb. I am not sure what I was expecting from Zagreb, but it exceeded my expectations handedly. This city is very reminiscent of other Austro-Hungarian cities, with big beautiful buildings and good public transportation.
Old Town
We stayed in the Old Town area and mainly wandered around that when we were free. Many of the buildings are being worked on, which we learned was due to a big earthquake in 2020. The Old Girls got roughed up and now need to be fixed up so they are structurally sound again. We heard this is expected to take many more years to complete.
Here were our main stops in Zagreb:
- Funicular: this funicular is the shortest public transportation route in Europe (supposedly) and for 60 cents will take people from lower town to upper town. It took less than a minute.
- Lotrscak Tower: this building was a fortress, but now is a tourist attraction and time keeper. Every day at noon sharp, a little cannon emerges from a window and blasts off. We watched it happen with lots of other tourists, who then cheered. The worker waved his hands out of the window. Ha!
- Pedestrian Tunnel: we accidentally stumbled upon this, but it was cool. They built several tunnels under town to be used as bomb shelters, but now they are just pedestrian walk ways.
- Broken Relationship Museum: this museum has pieces that people send in with little stories about their relationship that ended. Most were romantic relationships and most were a little sad. We were surprised to see two from Boise!
- Kravitcum Museum: this is one of the best museums I’ve ever been too, due to the dynamic tour guide who knew more about ties than anyone I’ve ever met. Did you know: a cravat (tie) is so named because the Croats (Croatians) fought in a 30-year war and the ladies gave their sweethearts their head coverings to remember them and also protect their necks? So a bunch of fighters were wearing these scarfs around their necks and the French added a v to Croats to make it sound more French.
Plitvice National Park
We took a day trip from Zagreb to Croatia’s premier national park. This park is in the mountains between the coast and Zagreb. This region has a bunch of limestone which makes karst topography, which in this park results in shockingly blue water.
The lakes were all on different layers, almost like big pools. We took a couple little ferries and walked on boardwalks and over trails. It was so stinking pretty and our guide was hilarious. At one point he had made an illegal turn and got pulled over by the Croatian fuzz. When he got back in the car he said not to worry, his smile got him off, but maybe don’t mention it to the tour company. Ha!
Zagreb: my thoughts
I really liked this capital city. It felt way less busy than the coast line and I just really love former Austro-Hungarian cities. I would definitely come back here.
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