Croatia, etc. Day #8 “Life-Saving Zagreb”

After suffering the Croatian heat while walking around seeing some lovely sights the past few days, today we were treated to much cooler weather in Zagreb. There was some slight rain but being outside wearing long pants and my sweatshirt was a welcome relief. This was better than becoming dehydrated each day in spite of wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Enough complaining (Patrice here: “Enough complaining?” I have 42 years of experience to know that he is never done complaining)

We started off with an excellent breakfast which for me included “Eggs Royale” or “Jaja Royale” if you prefer to read it in Croatian. That dish is Eggs Benedict with lox instead of the Canadian bacon. I also tried (at our tour director, Gabby’s suggestion) the Zagorski štrukli. It didn’t look very appetizing but it was delicious.

After breakfast we heard a lecture from former Minister of Tourism, Pave Rusković. To say she was impressive would be an understatement. Ms. Rusković discussed the developement of modern day Croatia with great detail describing her involvement in tourism in a variety of positions cuminating in her heading the Ministry of Tourism. This was a post she held from January 2000 through December of 2003. A side note of interest is that Ms. Rusković is the mother of the silk worm lady I discussed when we were in Dubrovnik.

After that we had a walking tour of Zagreb armed with hotel provided umbrellas which were needed only briefly. We are staying at the Espanade Zagreb Hotel (Mihanovićeva ul. 1, 10000, Zagreb). The place is gorgeous and our room is spectacular. It is the type of hotel you might expect in a movie like “Murder on the Orient Express”. Actually it is adjacent to the Zagreb train station and that is not by accident. The hotel was built to accomodate the extremely wealthy passengers on the Orient Express traveling through Zagreb. There are all sorts of pictures of the famous rail line scattered around the hotel. We were told a number of celebrities have stayed at the hotel. England’s King Edward the VIII supposedly stayed here and swam naked with his wife Wallis Simpson. I asked Patrice if we could do that royal activity and she said “Have fun, I’ll meet you in the room when you are done.”

Our city tour included all sorts of fun facts and beautiful sights. One of the focal points was Ban Jelačić Square with the main attraction being the statue of
Josip Jelačić. He was a famous guy in these parts in the early 19th century. I won’t bore you with details about him because I don’t remember any. But I will show you his statue and let you know why it was important today. See below.

After the morning tour we had a lovely lunch and then were left to our own desires regarding further sight-seeing. Patrice suggested we go see “The Museum of Broken Relationships” (Ćirilometodska ul. 2, 10000, Zagreb). This museum has a collection of artifacts from emotional relationships that didn’t work out. Do you think Patrice is trying to tell me this will be our last trip together?

Some of the exhibits were funny and clever, like the mobile phone with the description “He gave me his mobile phone so I couldn’t call him anymore”. Or the “Ragged floor lamp” which a woman saw in some sex photos on the internet with her boyfriend with another woman…… Ouch!

Then there were some objects that showed some real pain. Like the exercise bike that one guy donated to the museum saying, “It was not the only thing my girl friend liked to ride”. Or the full length mirror a man said his wife used to spend hours in front of making sure she looked “just right” when she was leaving him at home with their 2 children while she was going out to meet clients. The husband later found out she was meeting other men.

After the museum we headed back to the hotel to rest our weary bodies and get ready for dinner. I am not sure how much I will be able to eat because I am very nervous. I announced to two of our new friends, Steve and Karen, that I will be doing a new magic trick tonight. They were a great audience for my first trick, how could I not perform an encore?

I will report about dinner and magic later. I need to practice my mind reading skills for tonight.

Ciao,