Cats and Tito

Day 13

13 June 2012

Weather: Sunny, rain, 23

T-shirt count: 3

Cat count: 6+

Yes. It is the best bed in Europe. I managed to squeeze myself in among the masses and sleep for 9 solid hours. I needed that.

I get up. The cats decide to spend the day on the bed.

So, I put the Do Not Disturb (or rather “Enter at Own Risk”) sign on my doorknob and go down to breakfast to find such a nice buffet, one of my tourmates offers to give me a tour of the selections. Freshly squeezed orange juice, smoked salmon, pancakes with maple syrup, a variety of nuts and jams, danishes….and some stuff we simply could not recognize. That’s outside of the usual eggs, bacon, croissants etc.

What a feed.

A sight better than the breakfast I had the last time I was in Zagreb in 94 (which consisted of a bun harder than limestone with a piece of processed meat in it and an imitation orange juice.)

Yeah. Some breakfasts are memorable.

After breakfast, we board the bus for our included tour of Zagreb. Our guide is an elderly gentleman whose English is near perfect and his voice over the Whispers carries wonderfully for those of us who are slightly hearing impaired. (Oh, did I mention we use Whispers earlier? I don’t think so. They are smaller than the ones I used in Greece. Smaller than an iphone, lighter and they use a single ear bud instead of a headset. The headset was a pain to use in Greece. Prefer the ear bud immensely).

We drive off and first pass the opera house. The guide tells us that Zagreb used to be divided into two towns. One ruled by the church and one ruled by civilians. In 1850, the two sides united and the city had a population of 40,000 at the time. It now has 800,000.

Yup.

It’s growth was due more to the fact that a rail line from Vienna was constructed in 1862.

And in 1880, the city had a major earthquake which meant much of it had to be rebuilt. Little remains from the Middle Ages and everything wooden was burned down numerous times.

We soon pull up to St. Stephen’s Cathedral – a tall twin towered church with scaffolding on one tower. The guide said it seems to always be there. Much like the one in Vienna. They finish one side and go on to the other. 

The guide says there are services on now so he opts to show us the centre of the town first. We walk through a huge market full of stalls selling fresh fruit and vegetables of every description. The smells are wonderful. Cherries, strawberries, lemons, onions, peppers. They looked so beautiful in the sun, I was going around taking pictures of them.

Much to the curious glances from the vendors.

We turn up from the market and walk up a cobblestone street until we come across the statue of a man on a horse. It’s St. George and the dragon.

But the dragon looks more like a snake.

Then we go through a short tunnel where there’s a painting of Mary which apparently survived the fires of Zagreb while the homes around it burned to the ground. There’s a few pews in there and a place to light candles.

I chased after a cat instead.

Just up from the painting is the oldest operating pharmacy in Zagreb from the 14^th Century. The one in Dubrovnik is the oldest.

Being shown the oldest and second oldest pharmacies in Europe (world?) is definitely something unique. Can’t say any other tour I’ve taken has pointed to a pharmacy and told us it was 700 years old.

The drugs are not out of date, we are assured.

Then we walk up to St. Michael's Square to the prettiest church I’ve ever seen. I’ll let the pictures tell this story. Very nice.

They symbols in one coat of arms include the Kuna which is a symbol for Slovenia, the squares which represent Croatia and the three crowns which represent Venice and Dalmatia. The other coat of arms is the castle which represents Zagreb.

The Parliament buildings are located around this square and just below it is the City Hall which still uses gas lamps outside its main entrance. They apparently are lit every night.

Oddly, or rather ironically, enough, there’s a tribute to Tesla on the side of the building only a few feet away.

Then our guide leads us down to the look out where we can get a look at Zagreb. It’s a flat city with few high rises, but it’s not hard to find our hotel. It’s one of the highest buildings around.

Then we walk along what appears to be part of the original wall and come out to a large square called Jelacic Square after the governor who abolished the feudal system in 1848. We walk through the square and head back to the Cathedral, but coax the guide into letting us go to the washroom first.

Well, I thought I’d seen it all. I go into what appears to be a normal washroom and after it flushes itself, I hear this whining noise. I look around and catch something moving out of the corner of my eye and down.

Visions of an old X-Files episode where the rats come out of the toilet come to mind for an instant. My heart does a flip before I realize the toilet seat is rotating and being cleaned automatically.

Yes, folks. Here, you can use the washroom and go for a spin.

(I went back later to try and get it on video, but after three flushes, I couldn’t get it to spin. Then I heard the one next to me spinning. Though I don’t think the occupant would have appreciated it if I held the camera over the top of the stall to get it on video).

So, you’ll have to use a little imagination.

Or a lot.

Apparently, the men didn’t get rotating urinals. They feel short-changed.

We proceed up to the Cathedral for what is really the one and only tour of a major church on this tour (all the others were like one room schoolhouses, so those tours took all of 2 minutes and the scenery was usually an attraction).

This one is much like the other large churches of Europe. The guide showed us the major features and we did a circle of the church. When we got outside, the guide finished his tour and we met up with Gasper. He said that those of us going on the after optional had an hour of free time and that those who were not going had a choice to either take the bus back or go back to the hotel on their own. It’s probably a half hour walk.

So, I head back to the fruit market and take more pictures of fruit and cats. 

No cats eating fruit, though.

I pick up my Zagreb t-shirts and fridge magnet and walk around the Jalacic Square (and do my re-visit to the Wonderful World of Spinning Toilet Seats). At 11:30, we’re all back on the bus.

Well, almost all. There was some mix up on how many were going on the optional and because some pulled out at the last minute, it was a bit confusing. We thought two more were to show up but they didn’t. We waited 15 minutes and left. After all, if you’re that late, you’re singing and dancing in an empty parking lot.

Turns out the couple were sipping beer in a café.

So, off we went. We dropped off a few to the hotel, including one who wants to go to the spa. She’s lucky the cats really like the bed or she’d never get a spot.

About half the tour chose to take this optional. I wasn’t sure about it. A visit to Tito’s home doesn’t sound exciting.

But that isn’t the highlight. This optional includes lunch.

By far, one of the best meals we’ve had on this tour and that’s saying something. It was a selection of local foods including cheeses, meats, baked beans, bread and more. Including a delicious bowl of cubed beef in pumpkin seed oil.

And that was the appetizer.

The main meal consisted of veal and duck with baked potato and a pasta that reminded me of boiled hard tack.

The veal was delicious.

Dessert was an apple strudel done differently. You know how German strudel can be more bun than burger? 

This one was more burger than bun.

Okay. Apple.

The apple was rolled among the thin crust. Delicious. Everyone was raving about it.

The location was much like our Be My Guest area – up on a hill with a view of the castle above and some animals around including what the Australians called Guinea Fowl. They said they were not native to the area. 

The location is also at the top of a very steep hill about 50 metres long. You definitely feel the ‘burn’ as you climb. Gasper had said he could call for a pick-up if any of us thought we’d prefer the ride up. No one accepted and we all make it in one piece. Then we look behind us to see others from another bus accepting the offer of a ride.

Except it isn’t in a pick-up. It’s in a Mercedes.

We all ask if we can take the ‘pick-up’ down the hill. 

No go. But Gasper does warn us not to run down the hill. He had one guy do it and once he got going down the steep incline, he couldn’t stop. He later said that as he got near the bottom, he had two choices…run to Greece or use the bus to stop him.

Apparently, the driver was sitting peacefully in his seat when suddenly he heard a “BANG” at the back of the bus. Scared the crap outta him.

We opt to walk. Slowly.

The sun slowly gives way to very dark blue skies on the horizon as we drive to Kumrovec and the home town of Tito. It’s actually a nice location. Very well kept and some great photo ops. 

Gasper gives us some history on Tito and tells us that “Tito” in Croatian means “you do that.”

Heh.

He said most loved Tito and it wasn’t until after he died in 1980 that they learned of the political prisoners and mistresses etc. Most still love him.

We take a look inside Tito’s house...

...then Gasper tells us we can take 20 minutes to wander the rest of the town. (How nice! On other tours to similar villages, we’d have to go from house to house to barn to house with the guide. I so much prefer to visit them on my own).

So, as we walk away from Gasper, it starts to rain. Everyone gets a few feet down the road and turns around.

That makes up for the 15 minutes we lost at the start of the optional.

I manage to make it the length of the short town to take pics in the rain, visit the WC and take some cat pics before I pack it in and head to the gift shop for the obligatory fridge magnet. 

As the bus pulls away from the town, the rain stops.

LOL

It’s an hour’s drive back to Zagreb through the same beautiful countryside of rolling hills and homes and farms. The sun even peeks out but that dark blue, almost black mass, on the horizon is following us. We get back to the hotel by 5 pm and that gives us two hours to get ready for the farewell dinner.

I get up to my room and find the bed still happily occupied.

Then it starts to pour rain. And I mean pour. The noise was deafening.

And then it started to roll with thunder and lighting.

Well, you want to see 315 cats move?

Yeah. You should see how they fit under the bed, too.

I manage to get caught up on my computer stuff and get changed for the farewell dinner. I choose my All Roads Lead to Zagreb t-shirt and tell people that I had looked for one that said all roads lead away from Zagreb but no luck.

One woman said the road on the t-shirt was much too straight to be the road leading to Zagreb.

Touche!

The farewell dinner is at a local restaurant and Gasper hands out our free photos. Then we have the usual toasts and go crazy taking photos of each other while we wait for the appetizer.

The choice as always is fish, meat or vegetarian. I had opted for the meat and while everyone around me loved theirs, I got the piece that had a huge chunk of fat running through it. Luck of the draw but I didn`t care. I had eaten so much at lunch, I didn`t need it. I did enjoy the risotto appetizer. Some were saying it was undercooked. It probably could have used like 30 seconds more, so you weren`t crunching on it.

Dessert was a three layer chocolate cake. I liked the top two layers.

By 9:30, we were full and photo-ed out. With two airport transfers and a group of 8 going back to Vienna, we`re constantly asking each other who is going where and when so we know when to make our farewells. The 6 am transfer will leave before most of us get up. When we get back to the hotel, we must have spent a half hour doing our bye-byes.

I ask Gasper for an address to send him a copy of my book. I think he`ll find it interesting.

I give him a tip in Euros and make it a bit generous because he was such a good TD. Interacted well with everyone, never got impatient and thought of everything. One of the best TDs I`ve had.

I get back to the room and I`m wasted. All I want to do is spread out on the best bed in Europe.

Oh. Wait.