Wednesday, June 29: Bopping around Zagreb

 After recovering somewhat from the flight, we decided to stay in Zagreb on Wednesday.  A good decision, in retrospect, as we needed the time to get our bearings.  I slept, by the way, nearly 15 hours!

Yesterday evening (Tuesday, June 28) Steven discovered that a massive blister on his foot had popped into a bloody mess.  So the next morning I dropped into the local pharmacy and got him some large bandaids and anti-bacterial creme, along with some morning victuals that put me back in Central-European mode: Semmels, organge juice, joghurt, muesli, croissants, cheese and salami (yes, that's a CE breakfast!).  I was delighted to find along the way a street food cart vendor with the most awesome of strawberries.  Croatia is a foodie's paradise, and they insist on everything as fresh as possible.  Grocery stores are really only for the packaged goods and sundries.

After a late breakfast, we headed out.  First stop, the uspinjača (funicular...cog train) that takes you up the hill from Donji grad (lower town) to Gornji grad (upper town).  As it climbs to the top, you get a gradual panorama of the city before you. 

Our first stop was the Museum of Broken Relationships.  It started over 10 years ago as a traveling novelty exhibition, then found a permanent home back in Zagreb.  It's collection is made up of mundane objects donated from people all around the world, who describe how the objects speak to the end of their relationships: some as love affairs that ended, others with the deaths or abandonment of family members. This is a fun and fascinating exhibit.  The stories written by the donors themselves are engaging and span a wide range of experiences.  I kept thinking this would be an awesome source for modern dance; Steven thought it would make a terrific stage play.

From there, just less than half a block further, we went to the Museum of Croatian Naive Art.  (Think Grandma Moses, except many of the artists are actually accomplished and trained professionals.)  I recall seeing naive art for the first time back in the late seventies when I visited Croatia on that Lawrence U. trip.  This museum delivers!  Fantastic works by the likes of Iosip Generalić, Ivan Lacković Croata, Ivan Rabuzin, Petar Smajić. I didn't take pictures, but here are couple images from the website below.

Rabuzin

Iosip Generalić

The trees in the above remind me of nerve endings.  The rendering of the sky in Generalić's landscapes are incredibly nuanced.  Actually, that's rather typical of the works of most all the "naive" painters. 

When I lived in Zagreb in 1982-1983, a friend introduced me to Generalić's son, also a painter, who, I suspected back then, was capitalizing on the success of his father.  He gave me a lithograph of one of his own works. It hangs in our newly built downstairs spa-bathroom.

We couldn't get into St. Mark's Church--one of my favorites in Zagreb--as it is under repair (or maybe the Sabor was in session or both). There is a remarkable crucifix above the altar there by Ivan Meštrović, one of Croatia's most famous sculptors that I wanted Steven to see, but alas.  Maybe next time....

We headed back through the Kamenita vrata (stone gate) that dates from the 13th century.  It contains a number of reverential plaques, statuary, prayer pews, and place to light candles.  It was here I got the sense way back in the 80s of just how pious many of the Croats are.  Mind you, this is a pass-through from the Upper Town to the street leading to Lower Town.  I didn't take a picture out of respect to the people praying there, but this one from St. Mark's parish does it justice.

We made our way back down Radić Street (where I used to live) and stopped along the way to Kravata Zagreb, a tie store.  One tie with glagolithic symbols jumped out at me.  (The glagolithic script, by the way, was the first alphabet that Sts. Cyril and Methodius employed in their missionary quest to Christianize the Slavs. They later resorted to the Cyrillic script based on Greek letters.)  For a brief while before they went all in with the Latin-based Church in Rome, the Croats employed it.  They now tout it as evidence of their ancient heritage.  Anyway, we bought a tie for Steven, as I can't stand wearing ties.  Here's what it looks like:

Incidentally, the Croats are credited with inventing the tie.  During the Napoleonic Wars, Croatia was an integral département of France.  Napoleon raised armies there for his campaigns.  When Croatian men went off to war, Croatian women tied neckerchiefs around their neck to remind them of their loves waiting back home.  The French were so impressed they called these neckerchiefs cravate after the Croats.  So now you know!

The temps in the 90s compelled us to duck into a craft beer pub a few blocks lower in Radić Street for a round before our next museum foray.  The craft brewery scene in Zagreb has exploded since the 20-naughts.  My favorite beer to date is the pilsner from the Zmajska pivovara (Serpent brewery) which incidentally started the whole craft brew phenomenon in Croatia.

Our next adventure took us up the block to the Museum of Zagreb in the 1980s.  What a hoot!  It's a hands-on museum where you can touch, hold, and play with everything.  Each room was a recreation of an apartment from the 1980s.  This could very well have been my friend Anda's family's apartment.  My biggest thrill here was a cassette that I actually bought back in 1982 featuring the singer Zana and her greatest hit "Touch my knees" (Dodirni mi koljena). Think big hair and shoulder pads and that should give you the right picture.

At this point we were feeling kind of "hangry" so we made our way to a restaurant in front of the cathedral, Konoba Bracera. (A bracera is a Dalmatian cargo ship.) Great filling lunch; awesome waiter.  I realized I have to stop ordering for Steven in Croatian, because I ended up ordering him wine that he didn't want.  Trying not to be a control freak....

After lunch, we headed back to the apartment, as we still had a dance performance to attend.  After a quick change of clothes into something more respectable, we made our way to the Croatian National Theater (HNK) for an avant-garde production of Madame Bovary.  The theater itself is an expression of nationalist sentiment from the latter part of the 19th century. This grande dame of neo-Baroque historicism is showing its age though, due no less to the recent earthquakes the city has been experiencing in the last 20 years (the last one occurred just as the pandemic broke out!).

Steven and I were mightily impressed by this production that incorporated several different works ranging from Chopin to Philip Glass to...okay, I don't recognize some of these names, but there were sixteen different musical works set to dance that incorporated ballet and modern in a truly innovative way.  I wasn't particularly into the narrative--the plot of Madame Bovary leaves me cold--but Steven and I were really impressed by the choreography, staging, lighting, and costumes.  It was contemporary in feel and drove home the message of unrestrained lust and materialism leading to despair.  (Look up the plot in Wikipedia if you don't know it.  It's truly miserable--that is, ground in misery.)  One of Steven's favorite characters was the Ana Wintour-look-alike who systematically plotted the bankruptcy of the Bovarys by enticing the madame with all manner of haute couture and furnishings.  The catwalk scene was riveting.

Needless to say, this day thoroughly exhausted us.  I was in bed by 9:30.

God, I love this city.

Next post: Thursday, June 30: Cave men, Medieval castles, and Parking in 19th-century courtyards