Happy New Year!

 

We decided to glue the pieces together this year with a hardened sugar because it's hard to get the pieces to stay with just the royal icing.  It worked out well and no one's houses collapsed during the build.

Pula Croatia

 For the remainder of the trip we rented a car and drove to Pula which is on the coast and north of Zagreb by 3 hours.  Pula is so close to Italy that it felt more Italian than Croatian in it's town center.  There were many Roman ruins and the streets were narrow and cobbled.  There were also a lot of fortifications as it was an important naval area for the Austria-Hungarian empire.  They created a vast network of tunnels and bases throughout Pula.

Our Airbnb had an orange and pomegranate tree.

I loved the cobbled streets in the downtown core.  

Temple of Augustus, dedicated to the first Roman emperor.  It was built between 27 BC and AD 14.  It was huge, 26x57 feet and 46 feet high.  The area where the temple is still remains the center of the social area in Pula.  There are shops and patios where people still gather today.

Walkway leading to the original city gate, the Golden gate also known as Arch of Sergii.

The square surrounding the temple.  

The Golden gate or Arch of Sergii.  It was built as the entrance to the city to commemorate 3 brothers that fought in a naval battle.  Parts of the wall are still intact as well.  

The Roman amphitheater in Pula. It is the only amphitheater to have all 4 towers still in tact.  The entire structure was well preserved considering it was built between 27 BC and 68 AD. 

Gate leading to the area under the arena where animals and gladiators were kept before the fights.  

The area under the arena has the history of the olive oil production in the area on the Istrian peninsula.  The area was a major producer of olive oil for the Roman empire. 

Fun city view of the amphitheater from the fort.

Pula's fort and tunnel system.  The entire town has tunnels throughout and can house 50,000 people.  It was fun walking through them.

This was creepy, in one corridor it just had a chair sitting in the dark.  

Pula also had a great Christmas market.  The hot chocolate here was interesting as it was very thick, melted chocolate.  We had a hard time drinking it so we brought it back to our apartment and added almond milk and a shot of espresso and it was perfect.

A visit to the beach.  The water was a pretty color and warm.

After a long walk, we enjoyed a delicious meal at Bistro Alighieri.  The fish was just caught that day and the desserts were homemade and only $4 a piece.  Our favorite dish of the whole trip was the falafel here, it had an amazing flavor and was breaded like the potato croquettes they serve in Croatia.

Most meals in Croatia were around 40 euros total for drinks, main dish and dessert with enough left over for another meal.  The most expensive item purchased was this fresh caught fish which was 65!  We didn't realize it when we ordered it as the waiter told us verbally.  It was fresh but bland.  Oh well, lesson learned to ask how much it costs ahead of time.

Christmas morning the kids awoke to Scott and I dancing to the Italian Christmas donkey, a song we have danced to every Christmas since they were little.  I never imagined I would one day be so close to Italy when dancing to the song.  I got them traditional Croatian junk food and kinder eggs.  

Our Airbnb we stayed in was in the old town area.  I loved the original stone walls.  

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.