Croatia - Zagreb

Croatia will always hold a special place in my heart as it was my first international solo trip and the people of this country are so nice and thoughtful, I felt so at home.

I stayed in Zagreb, where I flew in. Due to my chronic foot pain condition, I had decided to stay in the city and take it easy and take lots of time to just relax and slowly explore without pushing my body too much. I was told by so many locals as well as travelers to visit the coast. I know I will have to go back to see Split and Dubrovnik at some point but the area around Zagreb has its own charm.

I stayed with Igor at his Airbnb and had the best Airbnb experience ever, hands down. Igor loves getting to know people and sharing his friends and his city and his hobbies. He’s also very musically talented and I really enjoyed listening to him playing piano!

View from the Airbnb Balcony

The first night I arrived, Igor invited me to get drinks with his friends after their basketball game. As a 28-year-old, I felt a little weird having drinks with 3 men in their 40s in a foreign country that I had just arrived to. But they were very nice, and I had conversations with them that I haven’t even had with some of my friends. I told them why I was here, for a journaling retreat, and we started talking about what we journal about, which put us on the topic of mental health. It wasn’t a long conversation, but I think it set the tone for my trip, to be open with complete strangers and talk about life. I likely won’t see these people again, so why not be vulnerable and learn from them?  The irony is once you share and become closer with these people, you do hope that you see them again.

One of Igor’s friends had opened an art studio, a pottery studio, where he held classes and workshops. He had been doing it for a year and seemed to love it. And I loved that someone could pivot their life and manage to make ends meet while doing what they enjoyed, to be able to live the most fulfilling life they could. I’ve always been proud of my work ethic, but I’m starting to view it a little differently. Work isn’t everything. We work to live, not live to work. The people I met in Croatia worked, but it wasn’t their focus; it didn’t cause them the same stress I let work and my career cause me, such an American trait. Everyone I met was so creative and focused on their passions. I want to be more like that; I want to chase the joys in life, make enough to do that and use money as a tool to fuel my passions. This earth is too beautiful to not explore, get outside, and enjoy.

This trip also restored my faith in humanity. The people were so nice and open. I felt so safe, and I forgot how much I love connecting with people. Being human is being vulnerable and forming connections with others. When we lose touch with our ability to connect with others and truly see and understand others, we lose what it is to be human.

Igor had an extra bike for me to use, which I greatly appreciated as bikes are so much easier on my feet compared to walking. I decided to go into the city with the bike, a harrowing experience. There are narrow sidewalks with heavy foot traffic and cobblestone streets with lots of drivers and tram, weaving in and out. It was an absolute nightmare and I ended up walking a couple times to make sure I didn’t get run over or crash into anyone. I wouldn’t recommend biking around the main city center.

One thing I will always love about Europe is the bakeries. There’s one on every street corner and they offer delicious pastries for cheap. I keep hoping America will pick up this trend. I don’t have any specific recommendations; they are all amazing and unique!

Igor met me for lunch on the 2nd day. He took me to a cheap place to eat, similar to a food court. For 6 euros, you get bread, soup, salad, and a meat dish, which was an awesome deal and good food. He also took me for cream cake afterwards and even bought it for me which was super sweet. Croatian people are just the best. Igor had left after 9 that morning to do some work but ended up running into a friend and never making it to work before our lunch! It’s wild to me to have that flexibility, to just run into a friend and enjoy that time with them instead of stressing about work and deadlines and promotions.  We also randomly ran into his sister in the street, and he told me it was a small town and that you’re constantly running into people you know. I didn’t fully believe how small the city was until 3 days later when I was walking with a fellow JoCluber and what do you know, we ran into Igor. What are the odds?!

Here are my recommendations of things to do in Zagreb. I didn’t do everything as I tried to take it nice and slow and not completely damage my feet, but you can’t go wrong taking in the city and getting to know its people!

If you can, walk around the city center. Check out Tunnel Gric, Stone Gate, St Mark’s Church, Market Dolac, the central plaza called Ban Josip Jelačić Square, and Cathedral of Zagreb. I wouldn’t say anything is a must do; I recommend starting in the central plaza and wandering through the streets and just take in the city. Note that when I was there, summer of 2023, there was a lot of construction. St Mark’s Church was under renovation as well as the Cathedral, however, it sounds like this is pretty common. I did a photography tour of Istria with a local who grew up in Zagreb and he said he had never seen that cathedral without scaffolding, so don’t be disappointed when you see that, it’s to be expected. Parts of Zagreb are still recovering from the earthquakes in March of 2020. Imagine you are in a COVID lockdown, and you experience a 5.5 ML earthquake; a lot of people felt like the world was ending. But the people of Croatia are resilient.

Tunnel Gric

There are countless museums in Zagreb, and I’ve heard great things about them. I ended up not going to save my feet, but here were two I heard the most about:

1.       The Museum of Broken Relationships. This is a well-known museum in Zagreb, and I had a friend go and really enjoy it. It provides stories of various types of relationships varying from a woman’s relationship with her body to romantic relationships and everything in between.

2.       Locals said they really enjoyed the Museum of Naive Art.

Like I said, most places you go will have good food and good coffee and good beer. I don’t think you can really go wrong. However, I do have a couple suggestions! There was one café/bar that I enjoyed as the vibe was adorable and the view was amazing. The drinks are a little pricier than most places, but make for a nice break with a fancier cocktail. The bar is called A’e Craft Bar. If you want some fun live music, the jazz bar Bacchus is a fun place to go with a lovely outdoor garden seating area or a cozy indoor space to be closer to the music. Check out their Facebook page to see what nights they have jazz or trivia going on! Most places, this place included, only charge 2 euro or less per beer, very reasonably priced. The train station and Trg Kralja Tomislava are also right outside the jazz bar so be sure to check out the square before heading to the bar!

Here’s a map of Zagreb with all the places I mentioned within downtown Zagreb. I also park hopped, and all the parks were amazing, I highly recommend you take some time to relax and enjoy the greenery with a good book or maybe a journal! A park outside the city center that is 100% worth visiting is Park Maksmir, it has a zoo and lots of area to explore! I got a coffee at Vidikovac that had a good view overlooking part of the park and then hung around Drugo jezero and Trece jezero to read and watch birds glide over the water. The tram can take you from the city center to the park, so I definitely recommend it! There are multiple tram lines that run through Zagreb. You can buy tickets at kiosks (I found a Tisak kiosk near my stop). The tickets are very cheap. Do know you need to validate your ticket at the very front of the tram as there’s no other place to validate on the tram.

Park Maksmir