Croatia - Zagreb

We took a train from Hungary to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. It was quite amusing. They say you know you are in EU if you can travel everywhere by trains. Croatia is on its way to joining the EU. Midway through the journey, we had to disembark from our train and transfer to a hot and stuffy bus before being transported to another railway station to continue our journey to Zagreb.

Zagreb is characterised by these blue trams everywhere. They city is small enough to be walkable by foot to most places.

And hello Zagreb at dusk. This city is surprisngly beautiful. It looked drab and dreary when the trains rolled into the main station. Boring industrial buildings, grey and functionalist. It is only when we hit the city centre and explored around did I realise how pretty this place is. 

Its the city with the biggest lounge and yes music filled this place. There was a constant stream of musicians, choirs and bands playing on the stage in the middle of the centre. Europe should be called the continent of music. The talents you can find on the streets are amazing. European cities has this defining vibe that makes them magical and its something I always miss when on returning back home.  I am grateful for the blind busker that strums on his guitar sporadically at the cross streets of tampines junction.

Often, I am amazed by how long the spring/summer days are in europe and how short dusk is. The photo is taken possibly 5 minutes after the one before and the sky is already several shades darker. The   night descends swiftly and so does the chill. I am used to the long evening skies in singapore. It starts getting darker at 6.00pm here. Dusk lasts for at least an hour or more. 

Quaint little houses, the never ending fountains, statutes and imposing cathedrals. What is there not to love about zagreb/europe. However, it around this time, midway through my journey across eastern europe, the cities were melting into a mash of similar landscapes. and so did the food. We ate mixed grill from every country we visited. I got a little sick of bread and yoghurt. And I missed my mother's soup.

One of the best ice cream places in zagreb. They serve a plethora of ice cream. This was yummy, but the one from Vienna is the best.

We visited this really interesting museum in Zagreb. It is a collection of momentos from break ups and broken marriages. There were several stories from Singapore too. The guys found this place really depressing and cracked jokes about having their guy talk if they can't sleep at night. 

There was this cute little cafe called Ivica Marica which translates to Hansel and Gretel. They serve traditional croatian cakes, ice cream and coffee. We didn't fancy their cakes with poppy seeds. 

Photo credit: Tea Mamut

We chanced upon this blogger's desserts selling in Konzum and we had to try it! Her tiramisu are indeed not bad. Better than some in house restaurant tiramisu.

Next onwards to Split!