We crawled out of bed and had a quick breakfast at the K+K breakfast area and then set out for the Cedaz Shuttle bus to Ruznye Airport. This time our driver was more prompt but didn’t ask us to which terminal we were going. When we got to the airport he was idling on the median trying to find out where we were going while we were trying to tell him Zagreb, Croatia, Hrvatsko. Nothing worked until he pulled over to one of the terminals, dashed out of the van and into the terminal and somehow figured out what he should do with us. He seemed quite irritated with us throughout all of this but we couldn’t get through to him. The flight on the propeller prop plane was fine and we arrived in a very warm Zagreb a little early. We tried to reschedule our flight to Pula but we were told that “it was not possible” to do so without buying a completely new ticket. We also discovered that we couldn’t store our bags but we could, however, check in for our 10:15pm flight 8 hours early, which we did. With all of this time to kill we tried to locate the bus to Zagreb and spend the afternoon seeing the city. With a few buses to choose from we were able to connect the dots between our pre-travel itinerary that specified a busline and the buses idling at the curb outside the main terminal. The bus put us at the main Autotrans Kolodvor not an overly busy bus station by any means. With some careful navigating we were able to find our way to the tram that would take us into the Upper Town section of Zagreb. We waited for a streetcar just outside the bus station in what had suddenly become a very hot afternoon. The streetcar slowly traveled into town passing some more industrial and graffiti-covered neighborhoods before leaving us in a main square.
There was a tourist section in the main square and their agent was helpful in sending us on a walking tour of the most historic sections. First was their cathedral at the top of
a hill where the earliest inhabitants of Zagreb first put down roots. The cathedral was dark and cool compared with the bright sun of the afternoon and we bathed in its tranquility before venturing back outside for some lunch. Across from the cathedral there was a nice café frequented by local students and we stopped there for lunch. The rest of the tour continued into the common market in the Centar of town which had been closed for the day. We had hoped to catch the end of this market but were too late by what looked like about an hour or so. Then we cut down a narrow café-lined street to a larger thoroughfare that was very common and busy. This pedestrian street was lined with cafes on both sides and was a central location for people-watching and sipping Jannica, Karlovacko or coffee. The cafes on this street were busy towards the center of town more sparsely populated further away.
The older ornate roof-painted church near the Croatian parliament building was next. The roof was vibrantly colored with red, blue and yellow colors. While the exterior walls of the church were being restored the roof itself was exposed allowing us to see just how unique its design was. The walking tour th
en took us down a historic cobblestoned street to a small square with an High School building and a church named for St. Catherine. This brilliantly decorated church was breathtaking on the inside with highly detailed paintings behind the altar and exquisite pink and white carvings and paintings along the ceiling. We treasured the peace and solitude the church afforded us. We left just in time to miss a throng of Russian tourists who were entering the church as we exited. We left the church and crossed behind the High School to an historic tower that once guarded the city and took panoramic pictures of the Zagreb skyline. We descended the hill back down to the busy square where we started our tour.
While having a quick refreshment in the main square we noticed how many of the homeless and destitute in Zagreb were usually old and hobbling about not crazed and raving like many of the homeless in the st
ates. Perhaps these were the segments of people being left behind as the country continues to rebuild after the Balkan Wars of the 1990’s. We began to walk down the main parks, south of the city Centar where there was a jazz concert going on beneath a gazebo. This matched the goings-on in the main city square where a band had been playing. We rested on the lawn and listened to music absorbing the brilliant sunshine. The parks were linked together and were each lush with grass and vegetation. This link ended at the train station. Walking through these parks was taking us closer to our eventual destination, the main Autobus Kolodvor. Along the way we visited the nearby Hotel Esplanade, the grande dame of Zagreb, to drink in its glamour. At the main Autobus Kolodvor we caught a bus to return to the Zagreb Airport and catch our flight to Pula. We were a little early and had to wait in a small waiting room in the Croatia Airlines terminal which was in the process of being renovated. After an hour and a half we were on our way. The small plane landed in a very quite Pula Airport at nearly 11pm. With a relatively large line of cabs waiting for us as we left the airport we had no problem catching a cab to our Hotel. Given the lateness of the hour we were a little concerned with the fact that reception at Hotel Scalletta would be closed but since we had forewarned them of the lateness of our arrival, one of the hotel employees was waiting for us outside and checked us in.
An exhausting day but overall we were both very happy with Zagreb and glad we didn’t get to Pula early. We enjoyed the city and its history and thought much of it was quite beautiful. Some parts, however, looked a little rough around the edges but others possessed a youthful exuberance that we could appreciate.
There was a tourist section in the main square and their agent was helpful in sending us on a walking tour of the most historic sections. First was their cathedral at the top of
a hill where the earliest inhabitants of Zagreb first put down roots. The cathedral was dark and cool compared with the bright sun of the afternoon and we bathed in its tranquility before venturing back outside for some lunch. Across from the cathedral there was a nice café frequented by local students and we stopped there for lunch. The rest of the tour continued into the common market in the Centar of town which had been closed for the day. We had hoped to catch the end of this market but were too late by what looked like about an hour or so. Then we cut down a narrow café-lined street to a larger thoroughfare that was very common and busy. This pedestrian street was lined with cafes on both sides and was a central location for people-watching and sipping Jannica, Karlovacko or coffee. The cafes on this street were busy towards the center of town more sparsely populated further away.The older ornate roof-painted church near the Croatian parliament building was next. The roof was vibrantly colored with red, blue and yellow colors. While the exterior walls of the church were being restored the roof itself was exposed allowing us to see just how unique its design was. The walking tour th
en took us down a historic cobblestoned street to a small square with an High School building and a church named for St. Catherine. This brilliantly decorated church was breathtaking on the inside with highly detailed paintings behind the altar and exquisite pink and white carvings and paintings along the ceiling. We treasured the peace and solitude the church afforded us. We left just in time to miss a throng of Russian tourists who were entering the church as we exited. We left the church and crossed behind the High School to an historic tower that once guarded the city and took panoramic pictures of the Zagreb skyline. We descended the hill back down to the busy square where we started our tour.While having a quick refreshment in the main square we noticed how many of the homeless and destitute in Zagreb were usually old and hobbling about not crazed and raving like many of the homeless in the st
ates. Perhaps these were the segments of people being left behind as the country continues to rebuild after the Balkan Wars of the 1990’s. We began to walk down the main parks, south of the city Centar where there was a jazz concert going on beneath a gazebo. This matched the goings-on in the main city square where a band had been playing. We rested on the lawn and listened to music absorbing the brilliant sunshine. The parks were linked together and were each lush with grass and vegetation. This link ended at the train station. Walking through these parks was taking us closer to our eventual destination, the main Autobus Kolodvor. Along the way we visited the nearby Hotel Esplanade, the grande dame of Zagreb, to drink in its glamour. At the main Autobus Kolodvor we caught a bus to return to the Zagreb Airport and catch our flight to Pula. We were a little early and had to wait in a small waiting room in the Croatia Airlines terminal which was in the process of being renovated. After an hour and a half we were on our way. The small plane landed in a very quite Pula Airport at nearly 11pm. With a relatively large line of cabs waiting for us as we left the airport we had no problem catching a cab to our Hotel. Given the lateness of the hour we were a little concerned with the fact that reception at Hotel Scalletta would be closed but since we had forewarned them of the lateness of our arrival, one of the hotel employees was waiting for us outside and checked us in.An exhausting day but overall we were both very happy with Zagreb and glad we didn’t get to Pula early. We enjoyed the city and its history and thought much of it was quite beautiful. Some parts, however, looked a little rough around the edges but others possessed a youthful exuberance that we could appreciate.
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