Just photos in this post, primarily as I can’t remember much about this zoo (I’ve been to so many that I’ve got them all muddled up now). Anyway, these are from my visit to Zagreb in 2016.
Tag: Zagreb
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Zagreb – Rocket Burger
My visit to this Zagreb location in 2016 and was part of my plan to always go to the best rated pizza and burger restaurants in every city I went to. I still sort of do this, although I can sometimes get a little distracted by craft beer…. Anyway, this restaurant is still one of the best reviewed in the city, so they’re clearly doing something right.
A bright decor, with a not overly done space theme. And a panda.
That’s half a litre of Bavaria lager, which tasted like most other European fizzy lagers. Incidentally, at the time (and perhaps now) this lager was actually cheaper than the soft drinks. They did though do a few bottled beers, including some Belgian beer, which they are still offering.
The double burger was deliciously meaty (which was handy since it was meat) and had a decent flavour to it, with the chips being nice and firm on the exterior. That’s about all I can remember, but I know I liked this restaurant and its laid-back atmosphere and friendly staff. The prices were a little expensive for Zagreb, but still moderate by international standards. I’m pleased that four years on the restaurant continues to be thriving and still on-trend.
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Zagreb – Museum of Broken Relationships (The Toaster)
Another exhibit from the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb. The last photo I posted (Snoopy) was quite sad, but this ending of a perhaps once happy relationship has a more comedic side. The exhibit panel reads:
“When I moved out, and across the country, I took the toaster. That’ll show you. How are you going to toast anything now?”
The relationship was in Denver, Colorado, between 2006 and 2010.
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Zagreb – Museum of Broken Relationships (Snoopy)
My visit to Zagreb was a few years ago, but this is the Museum of Broken Relationships, a cheery little museum which is quite a beautiful idea I think. And it’s still going strong.
“He gave Snoopy to me on my 17th birthday. We had fallen in love six months before, on October 5 1981. Thirty years later, we have three sons, a house, etc. He fell in love with another woman and he chose her. He broke my heart. He said that for thirty years he hadn’t loved me at all. I just don’t understand”.
I found the whole museum quite addictive, the messages verge from sadness with this one to those which are rather more vengeful and angry. All quite thought provoking really.
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Zagreb – Mimara Museum
I’m a little unsure what to think of the Mimara Museum in Zagreb, which I spent a couple of hours meandering around. It’s a well designed conversion of a former gymnasium building and there’s an extensive area for the exhibits. Unfortunately, there are persistent allegations against the museum that a chunk of their exhibits are fakes and forgeries.
The museum doesn’t seem to be doing much to defend itself against these persistent allegations, so goodness knows what the truth actually is. There’s an interesting article about the museum at https://www.lootedart.com/MFEU4T15383.
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Zagreb – Vagabund Pizza
This is going to fall into the category of pretty much pointless blog posts, although to be fair, I have a lot like that. Unfortunately, I visited this restaurant in Zagreb two years ago and I appear to have forgotten just about everything about it. Which isn’t ideal when trying to write a little something about it.
The kitchen area.
This is the house pizza, which would explain why I ordered it, which has toppings of salami, bacon and mushrooms on it. If I could remember anything about the visit then I’d mention if it was a decent pizza. But I can’t, so I won’t.
This is why I should write about stuff at some point fairly close to the event taking place….
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Zagreb – Harat’s Pub
Harat’s is the largest chain of Irish bars in the world, although they’re nearly all in Russia and eastern Europe. There is now though a solitary presence in the United States, as a Harat’s opened in Miami a couple of months ago.
That’s an eclectic mix of beers to say the least, but the presence of Belhaven Black and Guinness make it entirely acceptable to me. The prices aren’t cheap, something like £3 per drink, but there must be a transportation cost in getting these beers over to Zagreb.
Most Irish bars around the world are a little over-stated and gaudy, well, with the exception of the Irish bars in Ireland which have heaps of character and charm. The bar was fine though, staff spoke good English, beer selection was acceptable and the atmosphere felt welcoming. There’s an outside area to the pub which overlooks the market, although that was rather too smoky for my liking.
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Zagreb – Antun Gustav Matos Statue
Antun Gustav Matoš was a poet and writer who has become one of the most important literary figures in Croatian history. He lived in Zagreb for some of his childhood but had to be careful on his later return to the city as he ran off in 1894 to avoid conscription into the army.
All was forgiven with regards to his desertion by 1908 and so he returned to Zagreb. It wasn’t though a long return as he died in 1914 from throat cancer, at the age of just 41.
The statue in memory of the poet was designed by Ivan Kožarić and although I thought it seemed quite modern and contemporary, it actually dates back to 1978. It’s located on the Strossmayer Promenade, which has views over the city centre.
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Zagreb – Do Worry
Either this is some local cultural thing that I’m not aware of, or something has been lost in translation here….
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Zagreb – A Story of a Rail Crossing
I needed to cross these railway tracks, but as I approached the barriers came down. This is a perfectly normal occurrence with trains and I thought that I’d stand there until they went back up again, as this is usually how these things work.
However, two people walking near to me decided to lift the barrier up a little and carry on their walk across the tracks. I assumed that they were locals and knew what they were doing, so I decided to ignore them and stay waiting where I was. Then two more people came along, although there was no sight of a train, and they did the same. Another small group came along and they also offered to hold the barrier for me. Friendly, but I still didn’t want to get run over by a train.
After another eight people had crossed, I was getting irritated at this situation. Being British and obeying rules, I decided that this was most inconvenient. And then, as can be seen in the above photo, a bloody pushchair is pushed across. By this time the barriers have been down for around five minutes and there’s a total absence of trains.
At this stage I decided I was just going to have to wait, as stepping onto railway tracks with a barrier that’s down just doesn’t seem sensible. Then I hear a train is coming, which pleases me greatly as I start to think that the barrier might go up. I’ve probably been here now for around eight minutes, although I didn’t time it exactly as I didn’t know I was spending the entire afternoon here.
Anyway, the train above comes along and then screeches to a halt. And two other people cross in front of the train as it’s stopped. This set-up that a train has to stop to let pedestrians across seems bloody ridiculous to me. This is all made more bizarre as that barrier isn’t easy to lift up, so everyone going through is either doing some kind of limbo move to get under it, or they’re struggling to lift it up.
At this point I’m now quite grumpy about the situation. I decide that I’m not going to walk in front of the train, so I pretend that I don’t want to cross. There’s a signal box to the right of the crossing and the man there was waving at people, although I wasn’t clear whether he was waving them across or waving at them that they might die.
After around another two minutes the train goes and the barriers go up. And I then get the above photo, but I was conscious that a bloody train was likely to come flying along just at this point.
When I got back to the hotel I recounted this story to someone who pretended to look interested. His reply was “we’re Slavs, we don’t do what we’re told” and he added “it’s the Germans and the Poles who do what they’re told, they would wait all day if that barrier didn’t move”. I’m sure there’s some truth to this, although personally I’d add that as a Brit, I’d have probably stayed there all day as well….
