6/8 Saturday
Another beautiful day, and we may
even get through it without the traditional torrential downpour. We walk into
the city and stop for a visit to the Botanical Gardens, a beautiful, quietly
lush park, with all the plans and trees labeled, paths along ponds and pools of
water lilies, English gardens, cactus plantings, palm trees, lots to see. It’s
a very relaxing park.
In the city plazas, the Fest is
ongoing, and musicians are playing all over. Lots of people are out today, more
families, children, couples, and tourists. Stop for a latte to people-watch a
little. There’s a young couple sitting together, sort of a date. The waiter places
a nice pizza on their table, about a 16” pie or so, but only one set of
silverware. The young woman picks up her knife and fork and starts in, cutting
choice slabs from the center and rolling them onto her fork, eating slowly and
deliberately, while the guy sits and chats with her. Our minds are reeling! Is
she going to eat that whole pie herself!? In front of him!? Is she going to
pick out the middle and leave that beautiful puffy crust!? Can we get her to
give it to us!?? This goes on for quite a while. Finally, she’s eaten enough
for herself and starts sharing with her date. Not with us, though. We have seen
that people do order pizzas individually, even if they are pretty big, and they
are not cut into slices. People also use their knife and fork for things that
we would just pick up, like pizza or sandwiches or hamburgers.
We
walk through the main square to find an old tannery that’s been made into a
sculpture center, but get there too late; it’s closed at 2pm on Saturday. We’re
right at a big, modern mall, so we stop in. The shops are interesting. There
are some big names, Marks and Spencer and such, but most are small boutiques,
not the gigantic sprawling stores that we’re used to in the U.S.
We find ourselves in front of the CineMax,
and decide to see a movie, since they’re mostly in English with Croatian
subtitles. Unfortunately, we’re just in time for After Earth, which is so bad
it makes us long for the awful street performers.
1 Video Included
Zagreb Botanical Garden
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