Europe Pt 1
After graduating again, I spent the first part of Summer lecturing for CSE332. It was an incredible experience albeit also super tiring, so I was definitely very eager to finally take a break. I had never been to Europe before or planned for a trip this long, so yes, I was a bit nervous but mostly excited about new adventures. Taylor was studying abroad in Italy for fall quarter, so we planned to visit some other places in Europe the month prior before dropping her off in Naples.
Even figuring out which countries to visit was difficult to narrow down. There were a lot of places that we had like kinda? heard of, but most of what we knew consisted of iconic photography or just connotations with the culture. Ultimately, we decided upon three countries - Croatia, Paris, and then Italy. (And yes, Paris is a city, but we didn’t go anywhere else in France).
Croatia was my favorite country that we visited and it had my favorite cities. Overall, it had a relaxed, laidback ambience, and I will always be a sucker for gorgeous sunsets and beautiful seaside landscapes. I had not really heard of Croatia before, and it was actually because of the Schengen Area visa restrictions that we decided to spend time here. Lucky us!
Our first stop in Croatia was the capital city Zagreb. Zagreb is the largest city in Croatia and unlike the other cities that we visited here, Zagreb mostly offered architectural sights. One of it’s most iconic sights is the Zagreb Cathedral which was actually under repairs due to a recent earthquake.
Zagreb Cathedral. The spires were removed temporarily for repairs and we couldn’t enter sadly
While looking around at the fountain by the cathedral, we were solicited by a tour guide, Damir. Taylor and I were skeptical at first. It really didn’t help that he greeted us by asking if we were tourists. I think I debated lying but it was pretty obvious that we were. After some thought though, we ended up taking him on his offer to take us on a tour the next day, which ended up being a big highlight of our time there. Not only was the tour really enjoyable, it was only 20 euros for 3 hours!! We agreed on meeting at the same fountain the next morning.
What stood out immediately about these places we visited was how walkable everything was. Public transportation in Seattle is pretty inconvenient. Even better, our AirBnB was literally tucked right off of the town center. A really cute loft for some much needed rest.
a little sleep deprived but happy to have made it :)
It was a good thing that it was a really cute stay in part because we actually got locked inside the building the next morning (and locked out later that night.) Thankfully our host was super responsive and we didn’t have to wait too long, but it was definitely a uh… huh? moment.
For breakfast, we grabbed sandwiches from the local bakery (which was delicious and also so cheap!!!) and we visited the upper plaza where every morning, the farmer’s market opened. There was a bustling section where vendors sold fruits (peep nectarines!!) and vegetables. In the corner there is a section for seafood products and downstairs was the meat and poultry.
the farmer’s market!
The streets in Zagreb are really cute to walk through. It felt reminiscent of walking down the main street of Disneyland except this time the stores are real and it was far less crowded.
peep cathedral in back! we came back here for dinner later
Damir also showed us Lotrscak Tower which is where they fire a cannon every day at noon. He told us that all the tour guides gather here to see the event, so Taylor and I were expecting giant crowds, but it was actually still pretty empty… a great plus for traveling later in the season :))
Even though we were counting down to the loud noise, it still caught us off guard. It was so loud. The tower is manually operated so a person in the tower then waved at us as afterwards. It must be fun looking at the startled tourists haha.
you can see us both flinch. Damir was immune
Apparently, Strukli, this baked cheese pastry, is one of Croatia’s famous dishes. It tasted like a quiche which I definitely enjoyed but it was not really Taylor’s taste.
wanted to try the ‘homemade drink’ which turned out to just be (mediocre) lemon water haha
There are also these meet and greet statues all around Croatia. They are pretty new, set up by the local government just for fun and have these QR codes you can scan to learn more about various famous people.
us standing with nikola tesla
After the tour, we went to check out the museum of broken relationships. This is easily one of my favorite museums. Even though the building was quite small, we spent forever inside since we actually read each of the exhibit captions. There are some pretty wild things inside (and also some real creepy ones.) One exhibit was someone’s dreadlocks…
Outside of the old town district, there is some more architectural buildings as well as more modern style rises. We visited the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum. It turned out to be a dissappointment since we didn’t understand Croatian (so we left the live show feeling like a bunch of fools haha) and we also barely missed the underground mine tour.
very fascinating, much wow
One thing about Seattle that is definitely better is the water quality. It is simply unfair to make any comparison, so even though Croatia is supposed to have really safe tap water, it tasted pretty off at first. I think by the end of the trip, we had gotten used to European tap water which is supposedly more hard. But what ended up happening is I splurged on fanta and other sugary beverages. Hey! I’m on vacation ;)
fanta, lemonade, and a new take on caesar salad
We caught the sunset on the cannon tower before grabbing dinner. Not bad for the start of an awesome vacation.
fish and mushrooms and a different fish and potatoes