Zagreb

When I was a child I was very happy every time I travelled to Zagreb with my family. I was excited about it and I experienced many great things during my visits to Zagreb. I live in a region of which Zagreb is center and I'm still very happy when I may visit Zagreb. This lovely city has special place in a heart of every Croat.

Zagreb is a center of almost everything in Croatia because Croatia is a very centralized country. It's a city with rich and long history which started before 1094. You can still experience much of Zagreb past. Many parts of the Zagreb especially historical center look very similar like decades before. Gradec and Kaptol were two little places on the territory of modern Zagreb and they united together with Vlashka Ves in 1850. Kaptol is the religious center with cathedral. Both Kaptol and Gradec form Gornji Grad (Upper Town) and are the nucleus of Zagreb. The newer part of Zagreb is called Donji Grad (Lower Town or Downtown). Gornji  Grad is really up and Donji Grad is down.

Zagreb has nice geographical position and it's not far away from Vienna (Austria), Budapest (Hungary), Venice (Italy) and some other better known European cities. Above Zagreb is a beautiful mountain and Nature Park of Medvednica. Name of Medvednica comes from the Croatian word for a bear (medvjed). European brown bears really lived there till the Middle Ages. Medvednica is great for a recreation like hiking, skiing, climbing and the best thing is that you need only 14 kilometres from the Zagreb city center to Medvednica. It's interesting that the highest elevation near Zagreb is 1,035 m (3,396 ft) and the lowest is 122 m (400 ft). The city center has an elevation of about 150 m so it's not difficult to walk.

I usually travel to Zagreb by train. Domestic train which I use is an old one and travels relatively slow (about 40 km per hour). Croatian railways need lots of modernization which goes very slowly and didn't change much in last 30 years. All trains to Zagreb go to the main Railway Station (Glavni kolodvor) which is monumental long building in the Neoclassicism. The station is usually very busy especially during summer when many tourists use it to reach the Adriatic Sea. When you get out of main the Railway Station, you can see amazing views on the Zagreb city center. It's hard to forget it. There are many interesting places there like a monument of the most important Croatian king Tomislav (10th century), Art Pavillion (Umjetnichki paviljon), legendary historic luxury Hotel Esplanade which provided accommodation for passengers of the famous Orient Express train, which traveled betweenParis and Istanbul and modern underground shopping center Importanne. It's possible to go to nearby main Zagreb square Trg bana Jelachica by tram or to have a nice walk through park Zrinjevac. Zagreb trams and buses look modern and new. The ticket is relatively expensive because Zagreb city authorities have big problems how to pay this new trams and buses. You can be sure that in every tram and bus there is at least one passenger who doesn't have a ticket in his pocket. There are officials who do ticket control. Sometimes you can meet them twice in an hour and once in a month depends on your luck. They are usually gentle for tourists and will forgive you if you don't have a ticket.

People of Zagreb, especially women are very fashion conscience. They like to wear trendy clothes and to put lots of make up. Women pay big attention to their appearance. There is a tradition of local people to visit the city center on Saturday morning and to dress elegantly to see and to be seen. On the other hand, Croats doesn't like to experiment a lot with clothes or to dress individually.

Main Zagreb Square is already mentioned Square of Josip Jelachich (Trg bana Josipa Jelachica). He is one of the most beloved Croats. When the Croats feel bad they sing: „Stand up Jelachich, Croatia is calling you!“ On the square is horseman monument dedicated to him which was removed during communist times. The square is the very vivid place with lots of crowds including tourists. There are often temporarily constructions on the Jelachich Square for the purpose of selling things. They are more uglier than nice. On the corner of the Square is nice Zagreb Tourist Office. On the north of the Square are many interesting places to see like main market Dolac, Zagreb Cathedral, Croatian government institutions, Croatian parliament, Kamenita vrata (Stone Gate) and church of St. Mark.

Market Dolac is a very colorful open-air market full of tasty and healthy domestic products and some souvenirs. The most popular Zagreb souvenir is gingerbread heart called licitar (licitarsko srce). It's a symbol of love and it's protected by UNESCO as cultural heritage. Zagreb Cathedral was made in the neoghotic style at the end of the 19th century. It's the higest building in Croatia with 105 metres. Croats like it a lot and every Croat who visited Zagreb for sure visited Cathedral too. There are many interesting things inside of the Cathedral like Glagolitic letters on the whole wall and grave to cardinal and martyr Aloysius Stepinac. It's possible to visit a museum dedicated to him near the Cathedral. In the Upper Town of Zagreb the most interesting is Church of St. Mark with unique roof with coat of arms of Croatia and Zagreb. Near are Stone Gate (Kamenita vrata) the only preserved old city gates. Inside is a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary of Stone Gate, patron saint of Zagreb. In front of  Stone Gate are chains from British military ship HMS Victory commanded by famous Admiral Nelson who died on ship in the battle of Trafalgar he won.

There are many parks in Zagreb. Maksimir and Zrinjevac are the best known. Maksimir is an English-styled big park on the eastern part of the city. It's a green oasis for students and business people. Zagreb Zoo is in Maksimir. It's lovely and not big Zoo. One cage is for humans to test how is to be in captivity.

Zagreb architecture is similar to architecture of other Central European cities like Vienna, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest. All this cities were part of the Austrian - Hungarian Empire. Vienna is in general role model for Zagreb like big brother.

It's very safe to live in Zagreb or to walk there, It's hard to notice or experience any crime. There are no slums or ghettos in Zagreb. „The worst parts“ of Zagreb look at least decent.

One of the bad things in Zagreb is graffiti. They are almost everywhere and they usually aren't a work of art. Lots of graffiti are dedicated to Zdravko Mamich, executive president of the football club Dinamo Zagreb. Football fans hate him and try to tell him to leave club by this graffiti. He is very successful businessman that uses football club to earn lots of money from selling football players.

There aren't many new investments in Zagreb. City looks more like a 20th century city or even the 19th century city than a city of the 21st century. After people come from work there are big traffic jams in the main transit directions.

Some people are too patriotic. The word Balkan is very unpopular and some may be offended if you say that Croatia is on the Balkan. Some Croats think that is not.

There are many interesting museums and galleries in Zagreb like Mimara Museum, Nature Museum (Prirodoslovni muzej), Zagreb City Museum, Strossmayer's Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art (Muzej suvremene umjetnosti) and many others. Except the last one, most of them are old-fashioned museums and galleries and still interesting. There are big so it takes lots of time to visit more than one-two of them. Once I tried to visit 4-5 in one day and I was exhausted. Modern and unique museum is Museum of Broken Relationships (Muzej prekinutih veza). This museum has exponents that people donated from their par broken relationships and there is an interesting story about every piece. One of my favourite museums is the Museum of Croatian Naive Art. Some decades ago, a Croatian peasants from the region of Podravina started to make paintings in their own new style. It's special and unique.

It's easy to find appropriate accommodations in Zagreb. There are plenty of opportunities from luxury hotels like Esplanade Hotel, Sheraton, Westin, Hotel Dubrovnik to cheap hostels. There are also various kinds of restaurants. The best of them are: Dubravkin Put, Baltazar, Prasac, Takenoko (Japanese), Capuciner (Italian) and Okrugljak. It's possible to try some of the South European food like chevapii (grilled dish of minced meat), burek (baked of fried pastry served in bakery shops), baklava (rich, sweet pastry) or Zagreb steak (veal meat filled with cheese and ham).

One of the most interesting sights in Zagreb is ambient Installation art of the Solar System. There are 9 sculptures of models of planets of the Solar System around Zagreb. It's not well known so even a majority of citizens of Zagreb doesn't know about it.

People of Zagreb like to spend summer days at the lake of Jarun on south of the city. Jarun is a lovely lake for various kinds of sport and recreation activities. But it's not so popular as visiting the Adriatic Sea which is about 4 hours drive by car from Zagreb. About 95% of Zagreb youth spend their summer holidays at the Adriatic Sea.

Zagreb is a good tourist destination for a few days. If people stay longer, they visit some other tourist destinations near Zagreb like the National Park of Plitvice Lakes, lovely city of Samobor or countryside in the nearby region of Hrvatsko Zagorje (hills).

People of Zagreb are tourist friendly. Zagreb is still a relatively unknown tourist destination even for people from the European Union. More and more tourists come every year mostly for some days. Young people speak English and people related to tourism. The second most popular foreign language is German. Rare people speak some other foreign languages.
I would recommend to visit Zagreb for a day or for a few days. Any time of the year is good to visit because the climate is nice with many warm and sunny days during the year. Lots of people of Zagreb leave their city during the summer to spend summer holidays at the seaside. That is the part of the year with less crowd and traffic.

Recommend this product? Yes

Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime