Zagreb Day 3

Today is my third day in Zagreb, but I feel like I still have no sense of how big this city is. That is one strange thing about going from lots of smallerish towns to a big city - it takes much longer for me to orient myself. I am staying fairly near the main square (actually really near), so that is nice. It is a good starting point every morning as I walk out and try to see new parts of the city.

Yesterday I had every intention of going to the Zagreb history museum, but I never made it in. I walked towards it, but then I just kept walking because the weather was so nice. The architecture is really interesting here - lots of very very old beautiful structures mixed in with a lot of Soviet-era huge structures that are quite ugly.

One of my favorite parts of Croatia has been the cafes in every city. I swear - it seems like no one in Croatia actually works because in every city I have been in, I can walk down the street in the middle of the day, and the cafes are packed with people drinking a coffee and watching the people passing on the street. The cafes all have a lot of outdoor seating and tables, but almost always most of the chairs at each table are facing the street. When people sit down, they don't face each other at the table. They will sit side-by-side and stare at people on the street. There is one street here in Zagreb that I guess is famous for all of its cafes. It is actually pretty surreal - a whole 2 blocks with nothing but one cafe after another (no shops or anything). People just walk up and down this street while other people sit for hours in the same seats watching them. Vjeran - the guy I am staying with - told me it is crazy on Saturday and Sunday mornings. He says that between 10 a.m. and noon it is like everyone in the whole city gets super dressed up and then just walks up and down this street.
I don't think that this cafe culture is Croatia - specific. I definitely have seen it in other countries. But they embrace it so fully here. Crevar told me that every transaction that goes on in the whole country begins with a conversation that starts, "Lets get a coffee..." even if you never actually go get coffee.
Vjeran and Crevar have been great - i have hung out with both of them some while also getting to spend quite a bit of time by myself. Vjeran is awesome because he is a historian that got his PhD in the history of Croatia and surrounding countries, specifically in the 20th century. He has already promised me that at some point this weekend I can have a full basic history lesson of Croatia. Despite not seeing any museums or a lot of touristy things, I am becoming more and more interested in learning the history of this country. I am even THINKING that I will probably try again today to go to the Zagreb history museum, but I haven't committed myself to it yet.

Yesterday afternoon I went and played ultimate with the Croatian ultimate team. I didn't realize how hard it is for them to get enough people to play here until, at the end of the practice (where we played 5 on 5 instead of the normal 7 on 7, bc we didn't have enough folks), I asked them how many people they have in their winter league. One of the guys looked at me and said, "Kate - you just played ultimate with almost every ultimate player in the whole country of Croatia. that's it. You just experienced our 'league'." Most everyone that plays is either an American living here or a Croatian that has only been playing one or two years.
I definitely felt a bit out of place last night - most of the Americans who play weren't there, so everyone was talking Croatian most of the time. Then occasionally I think they would realize that I was there and switch over to English for a bit. Then forget and switch back to Croatian. They were all really friendly, but they have a tight-knit community that i was definitely not a part of. It was so INCREDIBLY fun to play though. I hadn't picked up a frisbee since one late late night in a square in florence when we were playing keepaway at 2 a.m., so it was nice to throw a bunch and run around.

The night before last I hung out with Vjeran, his slovenian friend Meha (not sure about that spelling) and Meha's girlfriend from Budapest. It was quite fun. Meha's first language is Slovenian and his girlfriend's first language is Hungarian, so they communicate primarily in English (and occasionally in Portugese, because for some random reason, they both know portugese). It was fun to hear their stories about traveling around. Meha works with tourists in Ljubljana and said he would help me out when I go there, so that is pretty sweet. We sat in a bar and talked for hours while playing pickup sticks with a bunch of pretzels (though in Croatia they don't call them pretzels if they are the stick kind. then they are just "salty sticks." pretzels are only pretzels if they are in the pretzel shape). I like meeting people in this type of situation much more than meeting backpackers that i have met. it is not quite as overwhelming and in-your-face/whats-your-life-story.

Still no idea how long I am going to be here. Meha said that it is impossible to find lodging right now in ljubljana because there are bunch of festivals this weekend, so i might head over there sunday. Vjeran is pretty cool with me staying for an indefinite amount of time, which is sweet. i might skip budapest after all. all i know is that i have to be in bratislava on the 21st to catch my flight to meet up with steve to go to france for 5 days. other than that, i am still taking it one day at a time.