Since I still have my rental car, the plan today was to drive to Varaždin which is a small city approximately one hour away. So I happily woke up at 6 AM in order to start the day early to make sure I would have enough time in Varaždin.
The interesting fact about that city is that today it has a population of 47 000 but it was actually the capital of Croatia between 1756 and 1776. Unfortunately, there was a huge fire in Varaždin in 1776 which destroyed most of the town, so the capital was moved to Zagreb.
It is fairly simple to see most of what there is to see here in less than a day, and here are some of the pictures that I took. Unfortunately, the weather was bad today and all we get is a gray sky which is quite boring, so the pictures don't look as nice as when the weather is nicer.
I had a chance to taste a sample of Rakija today! According to Wikipedia, Rakija is: "an alcoholic beverage that is produced by distillation of fermented fruit; it is a popular beverage throughout the Balkans. Its alcohol content is normally 40% ABV, but home-produced rakija can be stronger (typically 50% to 60%). Rakija is considered to be а national drink in a number of countries, including Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey"
It tasted very good but after one sip I was afraid of getting drunk so I didn't buy any!
After seeing the town of Varaždin, I drove back to Zagreb. I'm really starting to enjoy the freedom of having a car and I think I will be sad tomorrow when I bring it back to the rental place :( Maybe I will break my promise and rent another car later on!
I was once again in Zagreb toward the end of the day so I still feel like I haven't seen much of Zagreb, although I did get a chance to walk around a little bit more. I can't help but comparing it with Belgrade since they are both big cities and capital of their countries, and I do have a few points to mention but you will have to wait another day because I haven't seen enough of Zagreb yet to fully tell you which one is my favourite :)
There is a huge cathedral in Zagreb, you may have noticed it in the pictures yesterday, unfortunately it is currently under repair.
It wasn't really on my way to go to that cathedral again today but I wanted to see it again and take more pictures (it really helps when the phone has batteries!) I am VERY impressed by the sculptures around the door that are highly detailed.
The whole building is really impressive to see in real life with all the carving, the sculptures, etc. That style is called gothic so I just discovered myself a new passion for the gothic style :)
On the right hand side of the church, there was a big fence with a sign that meant "do not enter". However on the left hand side, there was no "do not enter" sign and the gate was opened, so I went in to discover that both sides are connected. Either Zagreb think people are stupid, or I wasn't supposed to cross the gate. Nobody kicked me out so all is well. I was taking pictures of the side of the church and I started hearing some singing coming from a building. I got closer and I think what I heard was a choir practice. Someone was playing guitar and there was a solo singer with the choir making lots of awesome harmonies, all in Croatian! It was absolutely beautiful and I listened to one whole song before moving on.
Here are a few pictures that I took that I thought were very interesting. First of all, the Museum of Broken Relationships that I definitely plan on visiting:
This picture is for my colleagues, I have no idea if they read my blog or not, but the sculpture shows a guitarist surrounded by either dead people or dead-to-be I'm not sure. My colleagues tell me I bore people to death when I play guitar, so the sculpture reminded me of them :)
And this picture is for my uncles:
They are quite silly sometimes haha so when they see the picture, I'm sure they will think it is a sculpture of a guy peeing. But no, the water is coming from the mouth of a snake that the guy is holding.
There is a place in Zagreb that you can either climb up and down through stairs or take a "funiculaire". I have no idea how these things are called in English. It's like a lift.
The lift is under renovation during the month of April, so I had to take the stairs. Fortunately I was on my way down, on the way up I found a different route :)
Down the stairs I reached a street that is full of action and really fun:
I can't wait to go again with more energy to enjoy it better. I also found a big shopping center and it was quite interesting to go inside because in a matter of a few seconds, I went from being in Croatia to being in North America:
And finally, here are a few more random pictures from Zagreb:
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