Z’s back!! And it’s a good reminder to never play Scrabble in Croatia, Z’s on tap!

We’re back in our starting point of Zagreb and we can now safely say that if you happen to have a stopover in the current Zagreb International Airport (cross) shed, please don’t judge the rest of the town by that…maybe just the socialist parts.

We arrived in town after a lovely drive through the many changing faces of the Croatian countryside, from the limestone coast, through the mountains, into the first pasture we’ve seen and then a confronting drive through the (still) bullet/shrapnel ridden houses outside Zagreb.

We arrived on a sleepy Sunday, which was a nice change of pace and included an interruption of a church service at the beautiful Cathedral (who knew Catholics went to Church on Sundays?)

Surprisingly, James wanted to stay for the next seven weeks. Zagreb is a real change from the Roman/Venetian dominated coast into a beautiful Austro-Hungarian influenced “new town”. It’s kind of like a small Vienna that’s been abandoned by its parents after a bitter divorce caused by outside parties, lived with oppressively regimented foster parents and been constantly beaten up by its siblings, finally getting independence and acting out while expecting someone to come in and help out.

The first museum visit of the honeymoon happened and it was of course to the Museum of Broken Relationships. A very funny and moving display of donated objects reminding the previous owners of their failed unions. Classic newlywed stuff.

We walked around the entire city before embarking on our walking tour that followed the same route…of course not putting our hands up when asked by the 20 year old tour guide if we know the story of the cravat or the Museum of Broken Relationships etc…that’s not what Stewarts do. It dawned on us that this young man was surely one of the new Baby Boomers his country needs, but are all leaving as the population dives post joining the EU. But with his blame of everything on his government for not spending more sitting right beside the belief that tax and tram fare evasion is a national right and moral obligation, it feels like they’re just about stuffed. If only there was a nearby analogue to learn from…right now…next door. As an Aussie, surely we can give some advice, they should all just pick a big strong country, sell them everything they have as quickly as possible (who cares about price) and it’ll all work out…right? Sort of like investing in pumpkins in October.

All that said, Zagreb was one of the coolest, cheapest and least touristy places we’ve been in Croatia. For half the price of tiny room in other towns we got a Five Star hotel (oooh), complete with l’Occitane toiletries (ahhhh). But sadly, the day count without a bidet has reached 10 (awwww). Surely we won’t have to keep wiping through to France?

Also, this was the first full jeans day; James put passports in safe but left it wide open on eve of first country move (which Lea found hilarious, appreciate the 2 followers I have probably won’t), Lea channelled her ancestry’s linguistic roots in realisng the combination of English and Italian, upon hearing James ask for another grrrraaasshhh o’ vino prease, was used to create the popular Grasevina grape; went to the Museum of Illusions, which took 45 minutes to find, turning out to be their most impressive illusion; saw the Museum of Naive Art (James’ new favourite art style…replacing: NA); rode the world’s shortest funicular, which despite the 3 passengers James stood up and had plenty of headroom…but the ride was very quick; and listened to regional musicians play jazz with local instruments in Strossmart (our new favourite drinking hole with a view over town).

Sadly this marks the end of our first country, on to Slovenia!