Weekend in Croatia

Heavy rain and “Rain Dogs” by tom waits. Light blue denim jacket with pockets everywhere and off to Zagreb.
Bokeh, blurred evening and a narrow street of Ilica led us to the Brit hostel. We dropped off our brand new backpacks and then shared Belgian frites on the way to already closed Zagreb Cathedral–gothic and mysterious, yet welcoming in the very heart of the city.
November is not the best month for travelling – my travel buddy said while hugging a white Siberian husky in front of the cathedral.
Indeed, next day I was sure it was the gloomiest morning I had ever seen before. Reticently and regretfully, for the sake of each others’ company uphill we walked in search of the spirit of Zagreb as we realized we had to find a shelter from pouring rain.
Well, how about the museum of broken relationships?
Tokens of ordinary love stories - letters, doodles, CDs, clothing, toys in white light rooms. Watching a video memoir of random lovers from another land I was thinking that ordinary lives are not that ordinary after all. We left the museum discussing the story of a young British guy writing his girlfriend about 10 reasons why she should move from Australia to London to live there forever.
Naïve.
Right across the street something much more naïve – museum of naïve art. Turns out Naïve artists were also ordinary Croatians creating innocent masterpieces. Seeing spring late evening and blue flowers’ blossom – two my favourite natural events together in “Spring” by Ivan Lackovic Croata was a landmark moment of my life.
Later technological museum of Zagreb gave a different flavour to our day with Skylab and Saljut space station models hanging from the roof next to each other, small planetarium playing “chariots of fire” of Vangelis, real coalmine and a space capsule. And speaking of special flavours, I do not recall the specific reason why an hour later we found ourselves at moss-covered grand wall which surrounded Mirogoj cemetery where the graves were somehow full of life with flowers and lit candles for all saints day.

What a way to celebrate your birthday–later my travel buddy pointed out having a bottle of beer. Sleepless I was trying to summarize the day at the city viewpoint and with my half-closed eyes I was seeing the image of Zagreb - same checkerboard pattern of Croatian flag on St. Mark’s church and cozy tables in Cappuciner restaurant as a background of the cathedral, white Siberian huskies all around and “time” by Tom Waits playing along.