Zagreb: A Story of Unexpected Beauty

Hi Going Expat people,

long time not writing but here I am again, and back from a short holidays when I visited a new city: Zagreb. It was unexpected beauty!

How we (me and my partner) ended up in Zagreb was absolutely casual, in fact we were looking, a bit last minute, to destinations not too far were to spend my birthday (I just turned 39 on the 31st of May) and Zagreb was in the top list of the possible flights. “Why not?” we said.

And we are back with the eyes full of beauty. Unfortunately many of the main buildings were closed and under construction due to the earthquake they had 5 years ago, therefore we missed to visit many places, but we were still happy with the city.

What to don’t miss when you visit Zagreb:

We haven’t prepared much the trip, in fact we did almost everything on the spot, sometimes you need to go with the flow and after a very stressful period, well it was needed.

The first day we just went a bit around exploring the Upper and Lower town. They are actually both part of the historical area where the Upper Town is the old, medieval core of the city and Lower Town is devoted to business, museums, art and green spacious parks.

We saw so much green indeed, and I think this is beautiful!

As I said, some of the locations I am listing here were closed, but I am sure they are worth a visit when they will open again, sooner than later, I hope.

• Art Pavillon
• Cathedral
• Saint Mark Square and its Church
• Lotrščak Tower
• Cable-car to Medvednica mountain 
• Zagreb City Museum/ Musi Grada Zagreba
• Botanical Gardens
• Dolac Market

One thing you will read in all the guides is The Museum of Broken Relationship, I think there is not more waste of money (€7,00) than that. They sell it as the place where they take in account the grief of loosing the person you thought was The one or where they give much more importance to this kind of feelings, and that grief, indeed, is not only about death. But to be honest is just a collection of objects someone left behind when a romantic relationship ended. Some stories are super long and after 3 or 4 it gets really boring.

In Zagreb you can find many peculiar museum, it looks they have a museum for anything. I might sound old and boring myself, but the one I have appreciated was the classic museum of Zagreb history, it was a nice jump in the past and very informative as well.

Cable car to the Medvednica mountain

I want to dedicate a few more words to this experience which I found amazing and have read nothing about in the research made (as I said they were on the spot) and not even the tour guide we got for a free tour (worse guide ever though) named it until another person whi was in the tour with us asked about it.

It takes a little bit to get there, but it is worth it.

With a tram ticket for only €0,53 (tell you later what about transports) we took the tram 14 and exchange it for the tram 15 from the main square in Zagreb, Ban Jelačić Square, both until the last stop (you cannot be wrong), to reach the cable car station.

Going up and down costs €20 return per person and for 20 minutes you “fly” in the sky to reach the most hight point of the mountain.

There of course you can enjoy the view of the city from a different perspective and have a bite of traditional food to one of the 3 restaurants. In winter you can also ski. There is a TV tower, which entrance costs €12 to go even higher, but we decided to don’t do it.

The real experience is, in fact, the journey by the cable car, I share here a few images, but it is hard to give you the real idea.

What to eat in Zagreb

I have found the best blog about it and we weren’t disappointed at all, so folks, go for it!

That blog is about 41 places, we didn’t have the time to eat in all of them, so here what we tried.

Our first dinner was at La Štruk a simple yet super cosy and romantic restaurant in the Upper Town.

The name give away what you can eat here and in fact, it is all about Štrukli. Lasagne-like dish. You get an oven dish with layers of fresh dough and cheese.

Although traditionally they are filled with just cheese at La Štruk you find different filling and topping. For example I had the one with truffles, and they were extremely tasty. As entrance we got also some fried ones, and what can I say? They were just amazing

Our first lunch was a lot of meat (there is a lot of meat in the traditional cuisine but you find also many vegetarian alternative, like the Struk but not only, you’ll see later).

We went to Batak Grill again in the Upper Town but a bit more distante to the many (too many) touristic places. Although we were lucky enough to find a table on the spot, it is better to book in advance.

It looks like there are many Batak around, the one we were at looked like the best from the pictures.

As recommended we had the platter for 2, with a mix of grilled meat and the mazalice as appetizer, which are a sort of bruschetta, but also that is with spread meat.

It is dinner time again, and after have booked it the day before, we could have our table at Gostionica Ficlek where, they say, they cook traditional dishes the way a Croatian grandam would.

Of course I don’t know about it, but I can confirm that everything was delicious, we shared a plate of Krpice sa zeljem – handmade pasta with sautéed cabbage and bacon, then I got Punjene paprika – minced meat stuffed peppers served next to mashed potatoes and Martijn got Roasted turkey with mlinci.  Here and also in the other places the staff was welcoming and ready to give some tips, also on what beer or wine to drink next to the dishes chosen.

Going to the mountain and eat in a fancy or super modern restaurant is not the kind of experience we liked to have, therefore we have chosen for the chalet-kind one we found just a few meters a part.

Super simple, in the good way, clearly very local, we haven’t heard a word of English, except for ours, while there and the portion are served as you would to at home.

I believe the picture says it all. It was hard to finish these amount of Ćevapi or ćevapčići , but they were to good to be left in the plate.

It would have been probably better to walk down the mountain to go back to the city but of course we didn’t!

If I knew about this place I would certainly brought my hiking shoes to enjoy a walk and reach the castle which is a little bit further down, but quite complex to reach.

The last dinner was the one of my birthday and so we went to a more romantic and traditional place, but yet cosy and with a great deal of food as well.

Bistro Bestija, is located in the lower city in a small street you won’t choose for a restaurant, and that makes it even more interesting.

How does transportation work in Zagreb

I have been surprise by the efficiency of public transportation.

From the airport to the city center we got a shuttle for €8 each. The shuttle lives you at the main bus stop and from there you can take a urban bus or tram to reach your destination

In the city there are trams and bus to go everywhere, new or taken care of, punctual and cheap.

You can pay cash for any ride directly to the driver, but you pay a few cents more in that case. Or download the app ZET, top up your balance and scan the QR code you find at any transport door.

A 30 minutes ride is €0,53 and 60 minutes is about €0,90. Used to the price in the Netherlands and in Italy this felt like nothing at all.

Fun Facts

Let’s close this article with 3 curiosities about Zagreb:

• You can still smoke inside bars and restaurants… we were a bit shocked by it.
• There are a lot of cats drawings, some graffiti and reference to this animal everywhere but we didn’t get why
• They have invented the cravat/tie therefore you see many shops that sell any kind (and price) of cravat and some giant ones around the city center.

And now tell me, have you ever been to Zagreb?

Are you considering to go after this blog post?

Let me know your thoughts.

Talk to you soon

Rossella

Written by

Rossella Daví