In addition to attending and presenting at DORS/CLUC, I had the opportunity to see some sights while I was in Zagreb, Croatia this past week.
My tourist days began in the late afternoon on Monday when my local friend Jasna could pull herself away from conference things. Huge thanks to her for doing this, I know the exhaustion and pressure of working with a conference, and I’m really grateful that she was willing to take the time in the midst of this to walk around the city with me.
We did about 7 miles of walking around the center of the city. Our first stop was to visit the Nikola Tesla statue! I learned on my trip that Tesla was born in what is modern day Croatia so visiting the statue quickly became a must.
From the statue, we walked north and picked up a snack at one of the dozens of small bakeries that are all over the city and sat down next to the beautiful Croatian National Theatre to enjoy.
I was able to get some shopping done and when we made it to the main square in Upper Town I noticed that it had been almost completely taken over by World Cup festivities. Most of the United States doesn’t get too excited about the World Cup, so being in a country that cares about it during it was a treat. In addition to giant screens put up, they had little soccer (er, football?) games set up at pubs, roadside stands selling fan goodies and even cars were sporting the iconic red and white checkers of the Croatian team.
As our adventures wound down, I also got to see the outside of the main railway station in the city, which we’d go back to on Tuesday to catch a tram down to the zoo.
Monday night after tourist adventures, the conference organizers had a wonderful dinner for the keynote speakers at Pod grickim topom or “Under the Canon.” The food was exceptional, and even though I’m off alcohol at the moment (no honey schnapps for me!), I really enjoyed the family style dinner that was prepared for us.
Photos from the rest of my touristing adventures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/sets/72157645274192044/
On Tuesday evening we went to the Zagreb Zoo! It’s always interesting to visit zoos in other countries, but I’m also a bit apprehensive since they often aren’t particularly accredited by organizations like the AZA for many zoos in the United States, so I am not sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Zagreb Zoo – many of the animals had big enclosures, very natural. The new lion enclosure was particularly impressive. As a city zoo in a park it reminded me a lot of the Central Park Zoo, but it definitely larger, if not as big as some of the other zoos I’ve been to.
More photos from the zoo here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/sets/72157645264459992/
Unfortunately I had to cut my touristing short by Wednesday as I had come down with a cold and decided that my time would be better spent getting some rest before my trip home. Still, I got a lot in during my stay. Next time I’ll have to visit the coast, I hear the beaches on the Adriatic are well worth the visit.