Today is officially halfway day. 31 days we've been here, 31 till I leave for home. It's been a pretty good half way day. I really like Zagreb. It's not the architectural wonder some of the other cities we've been to are. It's got the old buildings, but quite a few are looking quite run down, and there are tons of dreary looking modern apartment buildings scattered amongst them. Having said that, it is a pretty place. There is a lot of greenery about, which being a Kiwi I really like. There was a plan set out when building a new section to leave space for lawns, and fountains, they like fountains. Theres also a botanical gardens right near the centre of town.
However the even better thing about in Zagreb is the people. Oh wow are they nice. You know I told you about the woman yesterday? She is not the only one. They don't smile a lot, which I find a little disconcerting, but they are so helpful. We went into a cafe to find shelter when it was raining and ordered a couple of coffees and some fries. About the time we finished eating (unfortunately because then we were keen to head on) the waiter started to talk to us. He was busy so it was only in snatches, but he asked us where we were from, said he wanted to go to New Zealand, introduced himself - his name was Alexander - and asked us where we were staying. I felt quite bad when we left, it was obvious he wanted to talk more. Then this afternoon we were standing in the little supermarket in front of the fruit trying to figure out how to use the machine to print the price stickers (like you get when ordering from the deli at the supermarkets back home - they have that with fruit but here you do it yourself). So we were standing there looking confused and the woman next to us said something in Croatian. I stood there looking blank, the phrase for do you speak English having vacated my head. So she said 'do you need help' and proceeded to stand and help us through the process. We were so grateful. Even just the little thing of tonight when standing waiting to cross the road. We were distracted reading our receipt so didn't notice it turn green and the girl next to us called 'come on' as she started to cross. It is actually feels almost crazy how helpful people are.
So, as for what we did today. We ran into the best luck. It turns out theres a street music festival on at the moment, which we accidently ran into (hard not to its scattered around the centre of town). Hopefully we'll get to see more tomorrow, though we do have plans to visit a park to the north of the city. The festival also brought me to cross paths with a fantastic little trinkets place. So different to the other places we've seen so far. I picked up this great little wire fairy necklace.
We spent the morning wandering a route through one part of the centre city that was marked on our map and took you past all the important buildings in the newer section, as well as our beloved greenery. After lunch we went to a museum called the museum of broken relationships. It was so great. Again, very different, it gets a little boring just seeing the traditional galleries and museums, as great as they all are, so you appreciate the less ordinary. This place was a museum dedicated to momentos of relationships that had failed. It was so interesting. People from all over the world had given items to the exhibit, and written something to go with it. The saddest one was a key bottle opener. The written explination said the person had always been surprised by little gifts, but had never been able to sleep with their partner. It was only when the partner died of AIDs that they realised quite how much they had been loved. The girl at reception there was also incredibly nice, but just to be different, she smiled.
After that we visited the museum of naive art. Basically a museum of works of unproffesional artists. I really enjoyed it, some of the art was fantastic. One man in particular liked to paint on glass, which gave the art a very distinctive look.
We had planned to stay in town for dinner, but at about 4 it started to rain quite heavily again and we didn't have anything in particular we wanted to see, so we headed for the hostel. Which, skipping the supermarket trip, a bit of Skins watching and dinner, brings us to now. Bed time.
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