Zagreb Croatia

 This Christmas we decided to visit a European Christmas market.  Initially we were thinking of going to Germany to their Christmas markets but I wanted to explore a culture and a place we didn't know anything about.  When I did a quick search for best Christmas markets, Croatia made the list as number one a few years in a row.  I started doing research on visiting and was immediately hooked with the idea of visiting.  It's been fun learning about the culture, language and customs of Croatia.  The country is beautiful and the people are very friendly.  In the late 90's when communism fell, the country decided to teach children English as the second language so everyone knew English.  Everyone spoke Croatian first and we did pick up a lot of words.  It was fun walking into cafe's and shops and hearing "Dobar dan!"(good day!) or "hvala" (thank you).

The Christmas markets and advent areas were spread throughout the city in the various parks and open market areas.  It was great to walk around at night and listen to the music and see the lights.  It was weird however to hear all of the music in English, I would sometimes forget where I was.

They created a winter wonderland in one of the old world war 2 tunnels.  It was magical with the lights changing.  

Fritule, a favorite for Christmas.  It was deep fried donuts with chocolate. 
 

Ice skating was fun but chaotic with kids stopping wherever they wanted or going too fast and yelling, "oproste!" (sorry) when they would run into us.  

A weird tree.

There was fun street art everywhere and cats.

 Dolac Market

The huts had food and Christmas gifts.

The city had so many hidden alleyways with shops.

I loved the architecture.  

Stone Gate built between 1242 and 1266.  This is a shrine to Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Catholics make the trek to pray to Mary.  It was humbling standing there thinking of all of the people through the centuries that have stood there in prayer.

Lighting a prayer candle.

A view of the city near the Lotrscak Tower.

A guy had an owl on a leash attached to his backpack.  We aren't sure why but it was neat to see the owl so close.

A sun dial. It looks like a light saber when the sun reflects off of the metal.

 

The church of St Mark built in the 13th century.  It has the coat of arms of Zagreb represented in tiles on the roof.  

The cathedral of Zagreb.  It was closed and under construction because the two spires were damaged during the March 2020 earthquake.

The inside

There were so many museums in Zagreb.  This was the museum of illusion and it was fun!

A chocolate museum complete with chocolate tasting along the way.  It had a great history of chocolate through the ages.

Mirogoj cemetery.  This cemetery was purchased by the city in 1872 and has all religious backgrounds.  There were many large, ornate personal mausoleums.  Some had stained glass, fireplaces and sitting areas inside.  It was definetly one of the most interesting cemeteries we have visited and was listed as a must see.

We stayed at an Airbnb across from Tomislav square where the ice skating was.  The apartment had tall ceilings, pink walls and weird decorations like this vase of flowers we are holding.  It was a great location to all of the advent activities and between upper and lower town.