Zagreb - Why again is this country not EU?

  Zagreb, Croatia
Thursday, December 14, 2006

Zagreb is the capital city in Croatia and it was not on our initial itinerary. We weren't far so we thought, "Why not?" found a hostel, booked a bus and gave it a visit. We watched a news report about the Christmas celebrations there so we had to see the city decked out. We were not disappointed. Like all its residents, this city dresses up for the holidays. Lights were everywhere and the main square had a faux German Christmas market, a gigantic tree and music.

Zagreb at Christmastime

They had hot wine but it was white. Something different. We tried chestnuts roasting on an open fire (despite the song, I have never seen these, much less tried one). They are quite tasty and very filling. One thing I appreciate about Croatia is that they are also popcorn eaters. We have traveled though this whole continent without seeing a popcorn stand but Croatian street corners are loaded with them. Eric in Prague says that he cannot even find popcorn seeds in that city. It makes us wonder why some American traditions like popcorn eating catch on here but not in other parts of Europe. They are also big turkey eaters. Go figure.

It was cold here, at least below freezing. Zagreb is inland and high elevation so it gets much colder here than the coast.We wandered around the city and visited the famous buildings and churches. It struck us when we stepped inside the cathedral on a Monday afternoon that the church had quite a crowd. There was no mass going on, but pews had people sitting there praying or saying the rosary. Others prayed before the altars of various saints. I didn't even want to take photos and disturb the setting. The tomb of Cardinal Stepinac is located here. He is entombed in glass like Mao so all can see. The guidebook called him "controversial" so we looked him up on Wikipedia. He is popular to this day because of his Croatian nationalism, the very thing that made him unpopular with Tito during the Yugoslavia days. The church sided with him which made Tito not happy with Rome.

Another very interesting site was the city cemetery, Mirogoj, where most of the city residents seem to be buried. Whole families share a grave plot, adding a name and photo when a new person gets buried. There are many interesting gravestones and the vast majority Catholic. The most prominent grave there was of Tudjman, the former president of Croatia who got the country through the declaration of independence and the war. He is hugely popular with many Croatians, as you can see from all the flowers and candles. A few days before was the 7th anniversary of his death so many people have been coming to visit his grave. From what we can gather from locals opinions, wikipedia and the guidebook he ruled with an iron fist, some thought he did some bad things in the war to the Serbs and many Croatians see him as a hero. Beyond that, we are not sure what to make of it all, except he has a very nice tomb in a good location.

We tried many restaurants including Cevapcici or "pork fingers" a tasty local specialty. We went to one restaurant that was very cheap and probably the busiest restaurant we had ever been to. I ordered "Zagreb Steak", assuming from the description that it would be like ground chuck. It was Chicken Cordon Bleu. I figured they got my order wrong but ate it anyway. Later I found out that Zagreb steak is, in fact, chicken stuffed with cheese and ham and deep fried. We learn something every day.

Finally, we made one new discovery here - Al Jazeera English. The hostel had it on their satellite TV. It is great and we are hoping Comcast comes to its senses and picks it up by the time we get home.