Dobro došli u Hercegovinu

As part of Will's visit  we planned to road trip through Bosnia with stops in Mostar and Sarajevo . While road trips are fairly common in the USA, most people I told of my plans to drive from Zagreb-Split-Mostar-Sarajevo-Zagreb, gave me all sorts of warnings about road conditions, traffic  and drivers. Having spent several hours on a stretch of road where highway 169 connects Ely to highway 53 in Virginia, Minnesota, I figured I could cope with anything that Bosnia through my way. A few hours after leave in Split, Croatia, we encountered the first of the terrible road conditions and I began thinking we may have gotten ourselves in a bit of jam. We appeared to be in the middle of a sort of no man's land, where we weren't sure if we were in Croatia or Bosnia, there were no road signs, no guardrails on some pretty scare hillside drives, and often no pavement.

However, we were following a car that was stuffed to the top with boxes of Guess shoes, so we figured we could just follow this to the border (if we hadn't inadvertently already passed over it). It turns out that the bad roads were still in Croatia and were part of a detour to road construction on  new highway. Once we saw the border, and the road, we all breathed a sigh of relief-of course a road trip through the country was a great idea. Here is the sign welcoming us to Herzegovina. Herzegovina is the area in the south and east of the country and one half of the proper name Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

In the end,  the roads were just fine and our first impressions of Herzegovina were wonderful. We all thought the countryside was beautiful with lots of rolling hills in this area and small towns. Our first stop was the city of Mostar. Most famous for the beautiful bridge that connects two sides of the Neretva River. The town gets its name from the main bridge Stari Most (most means bridge and stari means old-therefore Mostar). The bridge that currently stands is a reconstruction. The oringinal bridge survived from the time of Ottoman control until it was destroyed in 1991 at just over 400 years old.  The destruction of bridge during the the war has since been considered a war crime as it is viewed as a deliberate attack on the cultural of the Bosnia people. It's reconstruction was finished in 2004.

These pictures show either side of the the bridge and the old fortifications that were built to protect it. 

The old part of the city was very beautiful with a lot of little shops selling souvenirs even though we were clearly visiting in the off season. We had a very nice lunch, took some more pictures, then were off again on our journey to Sarajevo. 

Will and I posing for the camera. 

Another American in Zagreb

While I have not had any trouble finding other Americans in Zagreb, in March I finally had my very first (and likely only) visitor. My good friend and colleague, Will, came to Zagreb as part of an extended European trip. In anticipation of his trip, we made lots of plan to travel but not before exploring the city a little. The morning, we hopped in our rental car and took off for the coast.

Here we are on of the great overlooks in the old town. Behind us is the Zagreb cathedral.

Here is the famed Zagreb funicular. It's the shortest in the world and since we also have funiculars in Pittsburgh, we had to take a ride!

The next morning we drove to Split on the Adriatic coast with my friends, Amy and Jenn. The town has many interesting sites including Diocletian's place and an excellent coastal promenade. 

The city streets of Split. 

This is part of Diocletian's Palace next to the Split cathedral. Many parts of the palace are still used as shops and homes today. 

This is the view from an old rotunda, I couldn't help but share the beautiful weather we had this day. 

Amy and Jenn in the rotunda.

The promenade on the seaside.

Winter in Zagreb....was it ever going to end?

So everyone in Zagreb that is a veteran of winters here has told me this past on was the worst in several years. In turns out this year's winter in Minnesota takes the title as the most miserable season ever (according to friends and family), but Zagreb winter was a bit peculiar. This winter had a pattern of a big snow, complete melt, and a few warm days before the cycle started over again. It was a bit like a form of meteorological torture, as I thought spring had arrived on several occasions, only to awake once again to another snow day. In the end, spring skipped Zagreb and we straight to summer. Since it's now consistently warm and sunny with a few thunderstorms at night, I am certainly not complaining.

This photo was taken in the early hours of December 1st on my way home from a friend's place. While it didn't seam so bad, I woke up in the morning to this on my terrace (below) which I had to find my way through since I was entirely out of groceries...poor planning on my part. 

However unpleasant my trip down the hill to the grocery store (I didn't even bother to check if the market was open), I was able to get some good pictures of my street in the snow.

Of course all the snow above melted after several days and we experienced only a few blustery December days after this. On Christmas Eve, the weather was actually quite nice. It was dry and warm with a temperature near 65 degrees followed by a sunny and warm Christmas day.

I woke up on this morning in mid-January with only a few inches on my terrace but in the course of a few hours, this is what arrived. I ventured into to the center (which I should clarify is about a 2 minute walk down my hill) in order to hop a tram to see my Croatian Tutor. I never made it to the tutor, but I did make it to a cafe to have coffee with a few friends. The view from inside the cafe offered the great photo above. Later that day, my friends and I decided to make the best of it and built a snowman outside my place. 

A few more big snows followed in February but perhaps the most frustrating was this day at the end of March. I was so annoyed with the snow, which lasted nearly a week followed by another few days of rain, that I ran off to Venice in search of the sun. 

Even the gorgeous view from my living room window seemed a bit depressing as the winter continued....

Weihnachtsmärkte in Vienna

Just before Christmas, my friend Jenn and I decided to go to Vienna, Austria to spend a weekend celebrating the season with the Christmas markets. Christmas markets are a traditional part of the Advent celebrations throughout Europe but perhaps the most famous are held in Germany and Austria. Vienna was recommended as the place to see by several friends so we went for a weekend trip. Vienna has several markets and we managed to hit up five of them. Each market offers several gift and craft items, food such as sausages and cheeses, baked goods, pretzels, and of course, plenty of drinks. The most popular drinks are hot punch and gluhwien (mulled wine). Each variety is offered in several different flavors and comes in its own souvenir mug. Market revelers must pay deposit for the mug which is returned when the mug is, or as in our case, is a small price to pay for a great souvenir. Below are some of the highlights of the markets.

Our first stop after our arrival by train and a stop at our hotel when the Maria-Theresien Platz market in the center of the city. This market had many ornaments and crafts for sale and we had our first gluhwein. 

Perhaps the prettiest setting for a market is this on at the Rathaus (or city hall) with the beautifully lit building behind us. Here we have a photo of my friend Jenn and I with out mugs. 

The trendiest market in Vienna is this one is in the courtyard of the Museumsquartier. This is a complex that was next to our hotel and houses several museums, included the Museum of Modern Art and the Leopold Museum. This market didn't sell anything but drinks, but had these igloo like tents that each had a different theme complete with furniture, decor, and music. 

We did visit some of the markets during the day to do a little bit of shopping. Below is a picture of a few wooden puzzles I bought for my niece, Lucy.

In the end, we visited five different markets and I now have five different mugs to haul back to America.

Greetings from Zagreb

Hello friends and family. I'm still alive and still in Zagreb for about three more weeks but I've been slacking on the blog posts. There are a few reasons for this. First and foremost, my research has taken off and I've been busy with appointments at the Croatian Parliament, the Sabor, and having coffee with some political candidates for the European Elections. Second, I've been traveling a lot before I leave the region for some more research in Belgium. I've taken trips to Vienna to take a statistics course (I know, I'm a geek), had a visitor from Pittsburgh who accompanied my friends and me on a road trip to Bosnia. I also planned a last minute trip to Venice, spent the end of April in Serbia, and will be off to Montenegro in a few weeks. I am putting together several posts now and will hopefully be all up to date before I leave for Brussels!

Here is a photo from Rijeka where I spent Carnival weekend with a friend and had another chance to see the sea in February. 

Christmas in Zagreb

So I know this post comes a little late since Christmas was last month, but maybe it will cheer up some of you that are already missing the holidays. Christmas in the U.S. is definitely a spectacle with all the commercials that start in October, the crazy shopping in November, and all the hassle when those of use that live 1000 miles from home try to travel back. In Europe, or at least in the Catholic countries of in my current area, it appears to be more about getting together with friends and family and taking sometime to enjoy a drink and a snack. In Zagreb, the season was kicked off with the lighting of the Christmas decorations. Since I live in the center, I had these decoration virtually everywhere I went, which was great. It also meant that I began noticing their appearance in early November and waited for what seemed like weeks for them to be turned on. I may be biased because it's my neighborhood, but my favorite were these big read globes that they put up between the houses of my street. Perhaps I just liked them because it made the walk up this hill a bit more pleasant. The lights came on on December 1st so I spent the evening walking around with Amy and Jenn and enjoying the sights. 

Above is my street, Radićeva, with the red Christmas Balls. While we see decorations similar to this in the USA, in Zagreb the season emphasizes Advent and yes, it's more than just a calendar filled with mini chocolates to count down to Christmas. This year Advent started on December 2nd because it is the 4 Sundays before Christmas. In Zagreb, there are plenty of activities planned including Christmas markets, concerts, and special exhibits in the city museums. I experienced very few of these things, mostly on account of trying to get my work done, spending too much time in the wine tent (see below), and going to hockey games. However, you can check out Zagreb's advent program at this website http://www.adventzagreb.com/ it also includes an English page (click the British flag on the right hand side). 

This photo is a side street right off Cvjetni Trg, or the flower square. This square has a lot of flower vendors but more important, it also has the H&M and my main grocery store. Red, white, and blue are the national colors of Croatia, but we Americans like them too!

Also all of the main streets had these white lights. This street is just of the main square and the trees have the blue lights. This is a also a good photo of the trams in Zagreb (at least the newer ones). The picture below is of  the main square and the wine tent. The wine tent opened before the lights turned on and quickly became on of our favorite spots to hang out. Inside is a stage for live music, plenty of mulled wine (both white and red), beer, and a good variety of hot sausages for a snack.

On the first night before Advent we stopped in the tent after perusing the lighted streets and the markets. It was a bit early so we were nice and comfortable but the tent quickly filled to the point where we couldn't get out, even if we wanted to. Turns out the band that was playing is pretty famous in this part of the world. We enjoying actually being able to understand some of the lyrics as our understanding of Croatian has improved significantly over the past few months. After doing a bit of research the next day, I learned the band is called BOA. You can learn a little more about them on Wikipedia if you google searc, unfortunately this is the only sight where information is in English.

The Dolac: My Neighborhood Market

So instead of trying to write about things I've done (when I've done them), I've decided to just start blogging about daily life in this city. I'm positive I will still write some posts about various events and outings, but I haven't been very good at keeping up with that-so this is my alternative. Today I'd like to tell you about the Dolac. This is an open air market for fruits and vegetables located above an indoor market for meat, eggs, and dairy.  The modern market has been open since 1930 (I think,my source is a tourist brochure in Croatian*). It is one of several markets located around the city where merchants sell produce that is both homegrown and imported and deliver fresh meat. I usually buy all my produce and most of my meat here.I'm still nervous about shopping at the butcher stands for beef and pork since I don't know how to order what I need. I shop about twice a week and find the prices are basically the same as the grocery store, but I feel like I'm actually participating in Zagreb life by going there....plus it's closer to my apartment than the store. 

Here is a picture of the open air section of the market as I approach it from my place. It's not the best photo it, so I might update this if I can get another one. Under the arc you can see the big square where the vendors have their tables and all the people milling about. 

This is a typical stand. Here you can see they are selling citrus fruits on one the left side  (homegrown clementines are the best now) and various leaf and root vegetables on the right. 

This is the view from the stairs in the underside of the market where all the meat is sold. 

Typical butcher stand. I've noticed that they each tend to focus on one type of meat: pork, beef, poultry, but many stands offer their own sausages. 

This is where I buy all my chicken. I took this photo on a Saturday, when it is really busy. 

 I get my eggs at this stand. The eggs here are amazing and have the brightest yokes. I don't think I can ever go back to eating egg whites again. 

This is a photo of my typical purchase at the market. I always get some kind of chicken, although this was my first time buying a whole chicken to bake. I also have a few oranges, lemons, zucchini, carrots, onion, garlic  fresh parsley, potatoes, and 10 eggs. Usually a trip of this size cost around 80 kuna ($14), but the sausages costs a little more. I'm slow in my understanding of the language so I accidently ended up with more than I had anticipated. They are sold in pairs, so when I asked for two, I actually got four but I didn't mind. I shared half of them with Amy. Every time I make a "new" purchase at the market, I learn a bit more of the language and figure out how to get what I need. This week my new purchase was mushrooms so I learned about how many grams (roughly 300) I should buy at one time. Small victories are making life here a bit easier every day.

*http://www.zagrebtouristinfo.hr/brosura/korak_po_korak/brosura%20korak%20po%20korak_HR_web.pdf