Back to Zagreb

We took the bus (at 7AM!) from the small town of Grabovac where we stayed near the Lakes park to the Croatian capital city of Zagreb. It is one of the oldest cities in Europe, but I have to say that I liked everywhere else I have been on this trip much better (sorry zagreb-sad but true-you can't love every place). The ladies here are too fancy and ordinary people are very much "too cool for school." I never like that anywhere in the world from anyone and every other place I have been here the people are much more friendly and open (Toshi said it reminds him of Downtown Crossing in Boston and I agree).

One highlight of the day was that we visited inside the beautiful and incredible Catholic Cathedral, which was built in 1200-something.


Outside there is a very nice fountain with this tall pillar with angels around the base and Mary at the top.

We lit 2 prayer candles. I don't know what Toshi prayed for, but all I felt today was gratitude, so I gave a pyrayer of thanks for everything we have in our very blessed lives. Inside they have a lot of small altars and one of them had a really nice fresco of the last supper.

There is also a ceremonial "statue" (for lack of a better word) of the late Pope (who visited Croatia before passing away and literally everywhere he went they have his photo up-- even the ferries we took had a picture of the Pope riding the ferry!). Anyway, in the Cathedral, this replication of the Pope is laying in state and there is a bit of a coffin-looking thing under him and nice canopy over his "body." He is wearing some kind of fantastic bishop-looking hat. Very stylish.

The best part of the Cathedral was the organ which was simply massive. I wished we could have heard it playing, because it must sound incredible in that space with its high vaulted ceilings (painted with stars- very celestial).

The Cathedral ("Katedrala" in Croatian) has two tall bell towers rising up so high that it was hard to get a photo with the whole church in the shot! One of them was damaged by shelling during the war (in 1994), and it is still under construction now.

These former occupants of the tower are currently awaiting their return to former glory. (I imagine it is expensive to restore it to its former condition, especially because there were a lot of full-size statues and also detailed frescoes carved in to the walls that need to be fixed or resculpted before reattaching them). There is a small gift shop where you can buy tiny pieces of the tower, but we didn't think that was necessary. (I am happy with my little piece of the Berlin Wall).

The best part of Zagreb is the farmer's market which is open everyday and features everything from kitchy stuff to fresh lavendar from the islands to the most tender carrots to tiny tart cherries that only grow in Croatia (and they don't export them either, so you have to come here to try this treat!). We bought some medicinal honey with herbal tincture for sore throats (apparently Croatian honey is some of the best in the world!) from a guy who said he could not speak English well enough to explain to us about the different types of honey. He then proceeded to answer all of my questions in perfect English with a nice lilting accent.

I have noticed that many people criticize their Engligh as a second language when I think it is great, and they won't listen to me when I try to tell them they really do sound great and they are making sense. I guess everyone is a bit self-depricating in this way when trying to use a language that is not natural to them (I always say I only speak a little Spanish and I always insult my skills despite the fact that I have actually been studying and using the language for over 15 years).