Wow, we love Croatia. Zagreb is beautiful. We arrived around 5:30 and our friend John picked us up and we checked into our hotel then headed for his apartment. We met his lovely wife Jen and the cutest kid ever, Harper, not quite one year old yet. Fruit trees were in bloom as well as the early spring bulbs. We ate a great meal at the Craig’s home-chili, cornbread and salad. We were so ready for a lettuce salad and so grateful to have one after two weeks in Vranje with no lettuce.
After dinner we walked around old town, our favorite, of course. We wandered through six connected two squares that are very pedestrian friendly. Our hotel used to be a refugee hotel. It looked as though it has been recently updated and we found it totally adequate although somewhat spartan. The breakfast buffet was good with cabbage salad, multiple breads, cheeses (goat cheese and feta were my fave), sausage, good coffee, yeah. The scrambled eggs had a ladle as a serving spoon so I skipped the eggs!
Croatia is expensive. Internet costs $6.00 an hour, meals are as expensive if not more expensive than the US. Zagreb is also a modern city with scads of development. Croatia is graduating and going off the developing country list so there will be no more aid such as USAID. Bummer, Ron won’t be able to get work here. What a sweet post this would be. The infrastructure is great here: excellent roads, drinkable water, solid waste collection, etc.
On Saturday we went to the fresh market. Beautiful fruit and veggies and beautiful homemade cheeses. I spied some lovely needlework and couldn’t resist buying a small tablecloth. Everything closes at three and stays closed until Monday in Zagreb. Sunday Ron and I got up and went out to take photos around old town since we had forgotten the camera on Saturday. We retraced our steps and found everything and were proud with our sense of direction.
Around noon we loaded up the car and John drove us to Istria where he and Jen have restored a 200 yr old stone house. We visited Motovun, a hilltop village where Mario Andretti was born. This area of Croatia was part of Italy until 1945 when it became part of Croatia (Yugoslavia at the time) so most people here speak Italian. Motovun was one of the most picturesque villages we have ever seen. Istria is one wonderful sight after another. There were so many villages to see that are hundreds of years old, all constructed in Istrian stone, a light colored stone indigenous to the area. We passed several medieval castles along the way.
People drive crazy here, I mean really fast. Motorcyclists raced between cars at unbelievable speeds. We went through a number of tunnels as we drove through Istria. There were narrow canyons, small rivers and deep valleys. It was sunny all day. We saw lots of olive trees, vineyards.
The Craig’s home in Istria is in a village of nine homes, all stone houses and no other buildings. All villages have names and city water. We were astounded because these little villages are in very rural areas. They live in the village of Boscari. Their home is four floors and they gutted the interior of the building and started from scratch. They had to re-point the stone walls that are TWO feet thick! They have done a grand job and are still hard at it. John had spent the week buying IKEA furniture and kitchen cabinets in Austria and then trying to get it through customs in Croatia. It took four days!! Oy…so we spent Sunday evening assembling cabinets before heading out for a fabulous meal at a restaurant that specialized in truffles. Ron had gnocchi with truffles and John had steak and truffles. I opted for venison and pasta. YUM, they had bread that had been grilled on the open hearth and served it with a variety of olive oils each with a different flavor. My favorite was truffle oil. John’s steak was also grilled on the hearth. We have eaten well in Croatia.
On Monday we spent the day assembling cabinets and furniture with some tense and some very funny moments. But the team of three got all twelve cabinets assembled and one very complicated day bed. We took a lunch break and went to another charming village. It was an artist’s colony although we only saw one studio, as it is the off-season. We only found one place serving food. A woman was mopping the floor in her bar/café and offered to make us a sandwich. We decided to eat outside since her floors were wet. She made some thick sliced bread with very thin single slices of cheese and ham. We didn’t care because we couldn’t believe the ambience of the village. We were charged $6.00 for one bottle of water…ouch.
Time to head out to the Internet café so will continue this later today or tonight. We arrived in Venice yesterday so there’s a lot to exclaim in Italian.