Zagreb on the Street
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2006
1
75
120
Trip End
Sep 02, 2008
Zagreb,
Croatia
Friday, November 10, 2006
In terms of patio furniture, most cities are underwhelming, if not pathetic. Of all the countries I have been this year (see last entry), at least half of them have been victimized by the company that sells an ubiquitous aluminum and resin eyesore. I'm happy to announce that it has been discontinued (so I read online). And if it lasts as long as it looks like it will, its successor will be the next ubiquitous street chair by summer 2008.
This chair is everywhere in the West: Germany, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Austria, Poland, (where else have I been...). Someone has made a killing. That's why a cuppa costs three Euros; half of the price goes to pay for these lousy chairs. In cheaper countries, coffee is cheaper. The restaurants are not slaves to an obscure notion of fashion. There is more variety, but usually in the direction of uber durable or really cheap. I've even seen the use of normal indoor furniture outside more than once, often because it doesn't rain where I've seen it.
Not in Zagreb. They have bought into rattan, cast iron and aluminum, paper and polyethylene wicker (with cushions), and in so many styles. Apart from my former store, I have never seen such a diverse collection. The other difference was that during normal daylight hours they were mostly filled. The people of Zagreb like to go out.
Two English lads we met in Sofia told us that the ladies of Zagreb are the most beautiful in Europe and even though they hadn't been to Germany yet, they were not too far off the mark. This apparently random comment ties in because the inhabitants of Zagreb go out. Is it to have fun? Is it to be seen? It may be some of both. The gorgeous Leah at the Hostel Ravnice explained the local way of life to me in the wee hours of a morning that I had opted to stay in.
She told me that going out is the way of life in Zagreb. For a city of 700 000, it's fairly compact and public transportation is good. The city centre is the transit hub. Every time I went there, either noon or midnight or the hours in-between, hundreds of people were standing around waiting for the trams. It wasn't painful either. Mid November and it was relatively balmy. A jacket was essential but standing outside for hours didn't kill us.
Leah said that it's a well connected city and you can have fun without spending very much money. Drinks at cafés are cheap and by two o'clock we saw countless high school aged youths moving through the streets and loitering in the parks. The presence of the mass at the Dynamo Zagreb game made more sense too, after Leah's explanation. I thought that a great proportion of them looked like they were in their teens. They probably were: since the game only cost CDN $ 5, it's not like that is out of the price range of many teenagers like an Oiler's hockey game.
Life in Zagreb seemed to be pretty good. We liked it so much that we spent an extra day lounging around and drifting from one coffee shop to another, trying out the local food joints. There are a lot of pizzerias that are simply known as such with a number after them. We had dinner one night in Pizzeria 2 and a snack in Pizzeria 6 another time. Like everywhere else they were full of youths and we enjoyed our pizzas. Growing up in Zagreb must be the exact opposite of growing up in some anonymous Suburbia.
