Zagreb

Took the scenic route from Italy to Croatia – flying via Warsaw (one of the pitfalls of travelling during a pandemic). We spent 3 hours in Warsaw Airport and Jarrah ate traditional Polish food (dumplings) and we bought yummy Polish vodka and choccies recommended by my Polish friend (you know who you are) so Jarrah feels that we ought to add Poland as a destination but I’ve told her “if you don’t leave the airport, it doesn’t count”.

We had another very quick arrival at Zagreb airport, our luggage was the first two cases off the carousel and we walked straight out and were whisked away to our hotel. No temperatures taken but we had to fill out a million forms on both flights.

Arriving in Zagreb was like travelling back in time … 80s music playing in the car to the hotel and everything looks like it’s from the 80s too. Don’t know if Zagreb is usually this deserted or if it’s because of COVID but there was barely a soul around.

Next morning, our first stop after collecting the hire car was The Museum of Broken Relationships, Zagreb’s top tourist attraction. Very interesting concept, they explain it thus:
The Museum of Broken Relationships grew from a travelling exhibition revolving around the concept of failed relationships and their ruins.
Unlike “destructive” self-help instructions for recovery from grief and loss, the Museum offers the chance to overcome an emotional collapse through creation: by contributing to the Museum’s collection.
Whatever the motivation for donating personal belongings, be it sheer exhibitionism, therapeutic relief, or simple curiosity – people embraced the idea of exhibiting their emotional legacy as a sort of ritual, a solemn ceremony. Our societies acknowledge marriages, funerals and even graduation farewells, but deny us any formal recognition of the demise of a relationship despite its strong emotional effect.

If you’d like to donate, read here on how to go about it. (You’re welcome!) 🙂

Below are pics of some of the items donated, each item had an explanation next to it. Some of them funny, some sad, some downright bizarre.

We spent more time in this Museum than we have in any other, I think.

Love the one about the toaster (pic below), as if that is the only toaster in the world 🙂 Stories aren’t only about couples, also about parents and children. One lady talked about her broken relationship with her body after having a mastectomy (and donated two of her bras).

Pic above of the pier said …
1993-1995
Bloomington, Indiana, USA
A Florida lake where I skipped school with my boyfriend. The arrow indicates the spot where I first saw a penis in the sunshine.

Can highly recommend a visit to the Museum if you’re in Zagreb … or LA (there’s one there too). And do let us know if you send anything. Or tell us in the comments what you’d donate and why.

Yes, I know you would have liked us to record the story behind each one of these pics but (a) we don’t have the time or energy and (b) you’ll have to go see for yourself 🙂

We stepped out of the museum to take some pics of St Mark’s Church (below left) … and happened to be standing in the middle of a road (as you do), when I became aware of a sound behind us … Jarrah nearly got trampled by this lot. There was a whole thing happening with drums, and marching and barking of commands and pointing guns at each other in front of a building for about 15 minutes before they marched off again. Still don’t know what it was all about, but provided a nice diversion.

Took a walk around the old town of Zagreb …

Pic above left and above are of Zagreb Cathedral which we could see is undergoing what appears to be extensive restoration work. Found out later that the reason one of the spires (not pictured) is on the ground instead of up above, is due to an earthquake that took place in March this year!

We only spent one full day in Zagreb, can’t say I’d recommend it. There doesn’t appear to be much to do. Parts of it were really dirty, and smelly, dog poo and dead animals in the square in town and after walking to a restaurant on the second night, felt it necessary to recap on self-defence manoeuvres over dinner and were lamenting the fact that the hire car is “keyless” and as a result, we didn’t even have a key to stab someone with 🙂 Fortunately, it just appears like a place you’re likely to get attacked – we were fine and the walk home was very uneventful.