Zagreb and Plitvice

We had a relatively long and low key stay in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb. We wandered around a bit, went to the Plitvice National Park, and celebrated Canada Day. Unfortunately during the stay I got a little sick but had plenty of time to start recovering.

To get from Budapest to Zagreb we took a bus, our first time in Europe. It ended up being an easy and comfortable journey. We did have one hold up at the Croatian border, the border patrol asked for all of the passenger’s passports. The stop ended up taking nearly a full hour. Our bus driver told me it was because my beard makes me look suspicious.

Our hostel in Zagreb was a pretty standard big hostel. We shared a room with up to 6 other travelers. The hostel had a bar on the ground floor and had seemed to have spread into an neighboring park with a second bar and music. The party kept up late into the night, every night. A problem for me was the air conditioning in the rooms, or lack there of. The hostel advertises AC but it is not nearly powerful enough to combat the Croatian heat combined with heat of 8 bodies sleeping in a room together. The rooms were hot, I sweated through every night. This will become a problem later on.

Our first day in Zagreb was spent checking out the main local tourist sites. We started the day at a local market where Morgan was extremely excited to see piles of fruit and berries. We ate blueberries and raspberries in a park for breakfast.

The cathedral in Zagreb was massive and, like all cathedrals, beautiful. If you were feeling cynical you might say that like all cathedrals it is currently undergoing maintenance. One unique attraction was the museum of broken relationships, a collection of objects representing failed relationships along with the story behind the object and relationship. The image below is from Morgan’s Snapchat, the exhibit’s object is the photo on the right with an English version of the story on the bottom left.

Another stand out story involved an adolescent romance which ended as the children moved away from one another. Decades later the woman was working as a dominatrix and, right in the middle of a session, recognized her client as the boy from all those years ago. After a quick reunion he asked from one of the stiletto heels from her outfit to remember her, the museum had the other in its exhibit.

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The standout bit of our trip to Zagreb, and one of the reasons we came to Croatia, was the Plitvice National Park. Our day trip to the park turned out to be a bit of an adventure. We booked a full guided tour including transport. A two hour bus trip took us to the park. As our guide made sure we remembered, there are 16 lakes in Plitvice with each lake feeding the next with a waterfall. The park is large (maybe not by Canadian standards) and incredibly beautiful. At least it is when it is sunny. Unfortunately when we were there it rained, quite a lot. According to our guide it was the worst day he had done in six years of work. Some of us were responsible enough to bring raincoats and others were not. Despite the rain our group kept trekking and were treated to some excellent sites.

During a rest period at a concession area we had our second little adventure. Over the last couple of days my stomach had been hurting. Enough that I wasn’t eating as much as I normally would or walking around as much. I had the same problem while walking in Plitvice. During the rest period I started to feel a little weak, then a little more, then woke up sitting on the ground with people around me asking if I could hear them and whether I was okay. Turns out the heat and especially the nights spent sweating in bed had caused some dehydration. Walking through the park and the cold from being soaked with rain must have pushed me over the edge and I passed out where I was standing. Luckly Morgan was there to guide to the ground safely. Our guide bought me some coffee and a coke which I quickly drank. A middle aged Australian couple was generous enough to buy me a plastic parka to keep the rain off. After a little more rest I was ready to get back to the tour, although I did take my time on some of the stairs.

After that little adventure the rain had very nearly all gone and continued to dwindle as the day went on. We walked up and down a large vertical cave structure and saw the lakes and waterfalls from many different angles. The rain must have scared the other tourist away as the park wasn’t nearly as full as it had been, lucky for us. We went home exhausted and very satisfied with our day.

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We managed to have a solid Canada Day celebration while in Zagreb. We spent the day an artificial lake inside the city, about 20 minutes by tram from our hostel.

We went out that night with four people we had met at the hostel. Knowing we would be travelling on Canada Day we had brought sheets of temporary Canada tattoos. By the end of the night our drinking mates and ourselves were covered in these tattoos.

We did learn one awkward fact after asking two strangers at the bar if they wanted some tattoos. One of the men was Croatian and while he did accept a tattoo he said it was a little strange because of a military conflict between Croatia and Canada that had occurred. I believe he was referring to Operation Medak Pocket during the Croatian War for Independence where Canadian Peacekeepers got involved in a firefight with Croatian forces. I felt a little embarrassed and ill-informed not knowing about that. Although it didn’t seem like a huge deal, we made sure to clean all the tattoos off the next day.

The day after Canada Day was mostly spent sleeping. We (Morgan) did some shopping, we got a couple meals, and watched Game of Thrones. The next day we got on the bus for Split.