A(thens) to Z(agreb)

Well Zagreb turned out to be quite the fun city, we liked it a lot. For a start it was sunny when we got there and it looked sparkling and clean, second it was very cheap and third they have a pretty wacky sense of humour. We're not seeing any more of Croatia on this trip (unless we can sneak back for some summer action) cos we are keen to get up to Budapest (on our way there now by train - just got over the border onto Hungary) and probably then further east, but we certainly liked what we saw.

 

Perhaps the best thing was the museums, especially the Museum of Broken Relationships. It's a collection of objects and stories that people have donated that represent the end of some relationship, perhaps through a break up, death or political disillusionment. It was quite profound in a way, and certainly more immediate and meaningful than the usual museum stuff. Some stories were funny, some very sad, some weird, others quite happy and optimistic, in a now-I'm-single-and-that's-good kind of way.

 

 

At the Art and Craft museum, which was basically your normal paintings, furniture, statues type deal, they had clearly become very bored with it all. So they added props to give you a better feel for what the object's original purpose was, or how the object would be used in the modern world.... Hilarity ensued.

 

It was only some of the objects that had been given the treatment, and you often had to look carefully to see what was going on. Shit it was funny. In the antique ceramic doll collection there was a mass produced in China doll, perhaps a commentary on how we've regressed artistically...?

 

This was the best one below - ashtray, radio going, half eaten sandwich - on a French 17th century table.

Spot the differences... A far more fun way of looking at paintings.

 

So yeah, those Croatians are a pretty funny lot. The beer was a bit average, and the food not as good as Slovenia, but they had some cool stuff. And our room was super nice too. Now it's 5 days in Budapest which will be awesome. We've just finished our talking book murder mystery which was excellent, and I'm trying learn some Hungarian. It's going to take a while I suspect, some of the train station names are about 20 letters long.