I wrapped up all my classes on Friday, changed into some traveling clothes in my classroom, and then dashed out the door heading to Sannomiya to meet Kuniko and our suitcase for the bus ride to the airport. As starts of trips go, this went really smoothly. Years ago we left right on Friday night and an earthquake hit, screwing up all the trains and making it a close call at the airport. This time, not a bump at all.
We had time to buy a couple of cold beers and some jagarico at the local convenience store before getting on the bus. It was a pleasurable ride to the airport, and I even got in a little sleep. At check-in, we talked with the counter staff about upgrading to business class, but apparently only Kuniko had enough miles to do it. We decided to wait for the return trip, and hopefully we would have enough miles for both of us to upgrade on the way back (as it turned out we couldn’t both do it, but more on that later). By chance we bumped into the vice principal of Kuniko’s school, and he seemed like a nice guy. Thanks for letting us take a long holiday, VP! We stuck with our ritual of a celebratory cocktail before departure – it is a great feeling to relax at the airport bar and switch your mind from the work mind-set to the vacation mind-set.
The flight to Istanbul left on time. It was an eleven hour flight, and our seats were a little tight. I’m willing to put up with a lot for a two week vacation in Europe, so the tight seats don’t bother me too much. It’s just mind over matter.
In Istanbul we had about three and a half hours to kill, so we explored the airport a bit. We had coffee at a sports bar served by two grouchy Turkish ladies. Maybe they were not happy to be working at a sports bar at 6 am local time. There was a huge group of older people wearing the same or similar outfits – light beige. They were all middle Eastern, all quite rotund, and they broke into a group song (or prayer?) before boarding their flight. While waiting for Kuniko to use the restroom I sat in a massage chair that was awaiting customers, and after about 20 seconds it started making loud noises and a voice in Turkish presumably told me to put some coins in if I’m going to sit in the chair. The other people waiting around the terminal looked over at me as I sprung out of the chair in record time – so the message was effective regardless of language.
I bought a Turkish cheese wrap from a friendly vendor (he winked at me) and then we went over to await our flight. Near our gate an argument broke out between some family members that ended in a lot of screaming and some running. I get it, travel can be stressful. Luckily we’ve never been that stressed in the airport. Not yet, anyway.
So, Istanbul airport can be interesting, even at 6 am, but we were happy to board our two hour flight to Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia. For a capital city, the airport was quite small. No problem – I like small airports for arrivals. Our suitcase came out in record time, and we changed some money into Croatian Kuna, and then walked outside and promptly found the bus that takes people into the center of the city. There was only one bus, and it was waiting for passengers – I guess they time the bus with the planes that come in, so it was very convenient (and cheap).
It was about a twenty minute ride to the city center, and we enjoyed the scenery as we approached town. There was a lot of corn growing, and during this whole trip we saw corn growing just about everywhere. As we arrived in the city, we saw a big colorful office building that served as a landmark for the bus station. Once we got off the bus, we walked about twenty more minutes to our hotel, rolling the suitcase along behind us. Unfortunately, after about ten minutes of rolling the suitcase wheels started to squeal. This was going to be a long trip if we had a squealing suitcase behind us everywhere, but the squealing noise came and went and ended up not being a big deal. Phew!
We left the suitcase at our hotel because we were there way before check in time, and decided to walk around and explore town a bit. Zagreb felt like an old European town. Lots of beautiful architecture, very clean, and an overall safe feeling. Maybe because it was a smaller town, but everywhere we went we felt like everything was going to be OK. We both liked it a lot.
We stumbled upon a farmer’s market and I had to buy some blackberries – Kuniko had never tried them and I hadn’t eaten them in a long time. The ones we got were a little sour, but every now and then we’d hit a really sweet berry – yum. Good memories of picking wild blackberries near our old house in Glen Ellen on Railroad avenue.
Nearby we walked into an underground butcher area, and each butcher had their own little shop to sell meats to people directly. It looked like heaven to me – so many aged and cured meats ready for sale. We didn’t know it at the time, but this trip was going to become meat-centric. It is all about salt and meat in the parts of Eastern Europe that we visited. There was a seafood area of the market also, but we didn’t spend much time there since we just arrived from Japan.
Around the corner from the butcher was a room filled with old ladies making and selling cheese. The cheese looked like mainly a soft, fresh cheese, but there were some aged and white rind cheeses also. I wished I could buy some, but you had to buy the whole cheese, and there was no way it was going to fit in our suitcase. There was access to fresh fruit, meat, and cheese, so Zagreb was looking good!
Everybody we met as we walked around Zagreb (and other parts of Croatia) was very friendly, and spoke great English. Maybe they have some kind of government initiative in Croatia to promote friendliness to tourists. Whatever it is – it is working. Sometimes people can be a little cold to tourists, but we never felt that at all in Croatia. Nice work, locals!
There are some sightseeing spots in Zagreb, too. We walked through the old upper town to get to St. Mark’s Cathedral, with a beautiful tiled roof bearing the country and city seals. At the edge of the main square was a very tall cathedral, with one tower under wraps for restoration. The interior was not as colorful as most, but still very striking.
We stopped somewhere for lunch, and had our first Croatian wines. We were very pleased with the wines we tried – both whites and reds were quite good. I especially was impressed with the white Malvasia grape – it made some distinctive and interesting whites. Croatia shares the same latitude as Italy and so there are some prime growing areas in the west of the country. Lunch itself wasn’t as good as the wines, however. We went to a regular cafe so we didn’t have much in the way of traditional Croatian food – just some grilled chicken and salmon, and a pretty standard red bean salad that was pretty much just red beans and red onions.
By now we had been without a shower or sleep for more than 24 hours, so we headed back to the hotel for some R&R. On the way back we stopped at a small market to buy some cheese and crackers for our morning bus ride the next day. The clerk smiled and helped us with everything, and again we could really feel the friendliness.
After a long nap and a shower, we went back into town to look around some more and have some Croatian beer. The beer was not so special to me, but it served its purpose. The weather had improved quite a bit, and we enjoyed the blue skies and cool weather – almost 10 degrees Celsius cooler here than back in Japan. Nice!
While walking around we came across a giant Hare Krishna parade going through town. The Krishnas sang their mantra and danced around, and made a lot of noise. Later I read that they have made a lot of inroads in recruiting in Eastern Europe. It was a big parade – maybe more than a hundred members singing and dancing.
For dinner we went to a more traditional Croatian restaurant, and it was definitely about the meat. Almost all the dishes on the menu were roasts of different cuts of meat – of course pork and beef, but also others like deer and horse were on the menu as well. We started with a very salty beef soup that was delicious and rich with meat broth, and then moved onto our main courses. Big portions, with loads of meat, beans, and potatoes. I had some homemade sausages liberally stuffed with garlic, and everything went well with the wine by the glass we were enjoying.
After dinner we walked to burn off a little of the meal, and found a wine and cheese bar that looked a little upscale. Since we had all the meat, I think we wanted to balance a little so we stopped for a plate of cheese and a glass of wine each. The staff recommended the wine and gave us a huge plate stacked with many different kinds of Croatian cheeses. I really liked the cheese (especially the truffle one – truffles are big in Croatia). Despite our best efforts we couldn’t eat the whole thing, but the staff was happy to give us a box to carry the leftovers home – our bus ride the next day was going to be like a feast with all the goodies we’ve got to eat.
Finally, on the way back to the hotel we walked through a city park. We had passed through the park earlier in the day, and I was struck by how much it reminded me of an American city center. The park had fountains in two corners, and a big gazebo in the middle. The pathways were lined with benches, and people just sat and watched the world go by. When we passed through in the evening there was a concert going on in the gazebo, and it was nice to stroll past and enjoy the music.
For our first city of the trip Zagreb made a great impression on us. Our stay is short – just one night, but what a nice little stop to get back into the European lifestyle.
