Our initial plans to visit the popular Dalmatian Coast were dashed when we saw the prices (high) and the availability (none), so we changed plans and headed inland to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.
The train pulled out of Ljubljana station, headed east through mountainous country toward the Croatian border and deeper into the heart of the Balkans. Again, images of the Appalachian mountains lingered as we followed the Sava river through a narrow ravine with farm houses and gardens until it gradually widened and we saw tidy river towns nestled on its banks. Fishermen lined sections of the river widened by small hydropower dams providing electricity to the train line we were on, among other needs.
There were towns with names having few vowels, and soon we crossed the Croatian border at Dobova where the guards asked for passports. Ours were stamped quickly but two passengers were escorted off the train to wait in the station until the arrival of the next train back to Ljubljana. We left them on the platform calling on their cellphones. The story we overheard from the young lady just across the aisle was she's a Peruvian living in Germany who thought she needed no passport since Croatia is now part of the EU (since July 1).
Apparently that part of the new arrangement is still in transition. So is the use of Euros, and we would need to visit an ATM very soon for a fist-full of Croatian Kunas (about KN5 = US$1) if we wanted anything to eat or drink while in the country.
Just over the border we passed a Cemex (!?!) plant. At least some Mexican companies appear to be on the global track in Europe these days. Zagreb is close to the border, and we don't see much of the countryside before we're at the station. The little we do see leaves the question of why these people with similar languages felt compelled to separate so violently in the recent war. The rugged intervening mountains separated these people in centuries past and allowed the development of different dialects, but are they really so different today? We'd have to wait and see if we'd find great cultural differences during our brief stay.
While cruising the internet in Ljubljana, Carolyn found another fine small business hotel, this one located in a very nice part of Zagreb near Lake Jarun, a well-used recreation area. The Hotel Jarun is very quiet and comfortable and puts out a good breakfast to enjoy on their outside patio. It is also only two blocks from Zagreb's excellent tramway system, so getting to the center city is easy.
We spend a very pleasant first evening walking by the lake along with throngs of joggers, skaters, and families with baby carriages. Teams in rowing sculls slice the quiet water, and swans feed in the shallows. There's an innovative, if odd, water ski tow line that whisks skiers around an obstacle course with ramps. It looks like fun – for 20- or 30-somethings.
Eateries and drinkeries line parts of the pathway. We decide it's time for dinner and discover that everybody is drinking and nobody is eating. We keep walking, our noses searching for whiffs of food, as we discover yet another interesting society and another quaint custom.
Finally we leave the park, following our noses, and find a good pizzeria on a quiet street. Most people are drinking, but they serve food also. We order a vegetable-covered pizza and a glass of good red Babić. It's a pleasant end to our first day in Zagreb.
Zagreb, it's a medieval sounding name for a city. It rolls off the tongue like castles, dragons, trebuchets (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06P_RNGP8LU), dungeons, and caves.
In the morning we take the tram into the center city to experience it first hand. The old center drips with charm and history as narrow streets meander around the hill where things began. We take the funicular to the top for the view and to begin our wander back down. There are many museums in Zagreb, including the Museum of Broken Relationships. We decide not to relive that best-forgotten era in our own lives and find the Museum of Naïve Art instead. They mean art by people unschooled in art, and the selection is quite good. It's well worth a visit the next time you're in Zagreb. (One of the artists represented, Ivan Generalić: http://pinterest.com/turkovich/ivan-generalic/)
There's a museum to Nicola Tesla, since both the Croats and Serbs claim him as their own. (An irreverent ode to Tesla: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla) And in a dusty passageway an old iron mural leans against the wall waiting for a place of its own.
The old city gate is an important source of legend as it is said when it was burned in a siege, the only thing to survive unharmed was a picture of the Madonna and Child. It hangs there now in a special shrine surrounded by ancient plaques honoring its many patrons.
Street cafes are plentiful, and small shops, and stores selling ties, especially red and white ties commemorating the legend that ties began here in Croatia when their soldiers first wore brightly colored scarfs into battle. The symbology continues on the blood-sodden battlefields of today's corporate world.
It's early afternoon so we enjoy an early dinner, not wanting to forage again for food late into the evening. And then a visit to the city's nearby soaring Cathedral. We appear to be some of the few wearing modest clothing (as in shoulder-covering) on a hot day, despite signs by the doorway. The power of religion seems to be waning here, as elsewhere.
Then it's back down the hill for a nice long walk past more ancient buildings, by a street-side park, past a pretty fountain to another park with heavy-duty exercise equipment, and through a Botanical Garden before catching the number 17 tram to the hotel.
The next day, our last, we grab a quick, cheap, and delicious lunch with beer at a local stand before catching the tram into town.
Today we'll visit the large Mimara Museum, a privately gifted facility. Among the important works is a large bronze statue called the Apoxyomenos recently recovered from a 2000 year rest in the Adriatic. It was discovered several years back by a scuba diver who reported it immediately, and the conservation work began. (http://www.louvre.fr/en/expositions/croatian-apoxyomenos—-bronze-athlete)
Ante Topic Mimara's personal art collection is an impressive and generous gift to the city, covering artifacts from ancient times through famous painters like Raphael, Rubens, Van Dyke, Renoir and others. Or, was he "The Master Swindler of Yugoslavia," and his collection a mishmash of forgeries, botched restorations, and looted art from the Second World War? None of this is mentioned in any part of the museum, and we were surprised at how few guards were there and how accessible the 'art' was. We noticed odd bits of Scotch tape on a few, and unglazed touch-ups to others, but we're not 'experts' in this. So in the end we'll let you decide, Dear Reader, with this ARTnews article from 2001: (http://www.lootedart.com/MFEU4T15383)
In a distant room we heard the dissonant sounds of a piano being tuned for a concert later in the evening. We thought we might attend.
But after a long day of art we decide instead to make our way back past sculpture, the National Theatre (nothing playing in August), and up winding streets to the top of the hill again for a planned guitar concert in the open air.
As we settled in with a tub of popcorn and two glasses of red Mediterranean, we felt a raindrop. Then a second. And soon we were scuttling for the stairs. At the bottom we found a passageway and hid from the torrents until it was safe to catch a tram for the hotel and a cheap dinner in our room.
So after visiting two capitals of the former Yugoslavia, what have we learned about the decade of violence called The Yugoslav Wars? Not much. For one, we really didn't want to just bring it up and have to deal with an onslaught of recriminations. So we didn't ask anybody about it along the way. This long bloody civil war, a war of division and ethnic hatred is still a recent memory and it may require a generation or two before it's forgotten, like the US Civil War (oh wait!! – bad example). It's extremely complicated and involved at least six different ethnic groups, but if you want to delve into it, try this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars
Next: We continue eastward, on a night train through Serbia, to Sofia, Bulgaria. — PRW