6/9 Sunday
On Sundays, the farmer’s market is
closed, but the Flea Market is the Sunday thing to do. We have a nice walk to
the market square, where there are rows and rows of vendors, ringed by tables
full of people having coffees and drinks. There’s so much for sale, much of it quite
desirable: porcelain figurines, glassware, jewelry, military paraphernalia,
Turkish carpets, typewriters, record albums, crochet and embroidered linens,
antique furniture, paintings of varying quality. I’ve gotten so used to seeing
flea markets tables full of multi-paks of calf-high athletic socks and crappy
sunglasses, I’ve forgotten how interesting they can be.
Alas,
we buy nothing, not even a coffee (no seats at the cafes), and head over to the Glyptotique, the
factory exhibition space we missed yesterday. It’s a really interesting place.
Several buildings from the former tannery make up the showrooms, and provide
the kind of huge, open space with polished plank floors that make everything
look special. One exhibit is particularly compelling. There are traditional
headstones found throughout mostly Bosnia-Herzegovina from the 12th-
16th centuries that resemble huge sarcophagi, carved with
representations of hunting, or royalty or other kinds of figures, interpreted
by local artisans. In this gallery, there are plaster replicas of the stones,
huge things, very realistic-looking, filling the entire floor. It’s something
we’ve never heard of before, so it’s very interesting for us to see this. There
are several other shows in place, modern photography and metal sculptures.
It’s a beautiful afternoon, so we
just mosey around the parks and the plazas, navigating around the piles of
Japanese tourists that are out today. We take another look at the cathedral,
and find it just gleaming in the sun, unlike the grayish day we had at first.
The effects of the restoration are very much in evidence.
As
we walk along a small park, we hear music, and find a great church picnic going
on. The church parking lot is full of tents and long tables, with lots of
people sitting with beers and bottles of wine. There’s a huge cauldron of
chicken cooking in a red broth that is calling out to Bob. There’s a bandstand
with a traditional brass band blaring out a lively polka-style song that
everyone knows and sings along to. The crowd is dancing in the hot afternoon
sun, sweating and swirling. There’s a traditional stepping dance with everyone
holding hands in a great circle, step step step, kick a foot out, step step
step. Some more accomplished dancers are twirling around in a waltz. Suddenly
the music picks up to a grand tuba-punctuated crescendo, faster and faster, and
the circle breaks into chaos with everyone running hither and yon and back,
shouting all the way. It’s exhausting to
watch, someone is bound to have a heat stroke. But what fun.
We
really can’t stay longer; the air in the tents is stifling. We go back to the
mall for a movie. This time we get Star Trek. I have to say, I find the new
digital format unpleasant most of the time. I just do not care to see the pores
in Jim Kirk’s nose so much.
2 Videos Included
Zagreb Flea Market
Zagreb Glyptotheque
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