Thursday 27th September
There was no time for a morning walk today as our taxi was booked for 7.45 am to take us to the airport for our flight to Zagreb. It was a beautiful morning though and a little bit warmer which raised our spirits in the face of an Austrian Airline booking. All went well though and we arrived at Zagreb without incident and found Mr Zarko waiting for us we had planned.
The trip from the relatively new Zagreb airport to the Old Town took about 25 minutes and, during that time, Mr Zarko gave us some snippets on Zagreb’s recent history. Apparently, Turkey and China are funding much of the infrastructure development around Zagreb and I gathered Mr Zarko was not too happy about that. The other interesting fact was that Mr Zarko played first grade football but missed a trip to Australia due to a broken leg! Anyway, we got on so well he offered to pick us up on Sunday morning for our trip back out to the airport to collect our hire car.
Our apartment, like the others thus far, was well located in the pedestrian-only section of the Old Town and just a few steps from the main square. It was 1.30 pm by the time we were ready to head out so we chose to walk to the Dolac Markets as I had read that was a good place to start any exploration of Zagreb. The Markets are spread over two levels and we headed upstairs to the outdoor area to find a restaurant to eat. Mark wanted to visit the Irish Pub but I drew a line here saying ‘why go to an Irish Pub when we are in Zagreb, Croatia?’. Rather reluctantly, he acquiesced and accepted my choice of a restaurant with a view out over the markets, Restaurant Kerempuh, but his mood soon improved once his beer and our lunch arrived. We used our time at lunch to decide on a place for dinner and settled on Agava and so set off after lunch to find this venue and to make a booking. It was during this search that we discovered the restaurant is located along a lovely pedestrian only street, Tkalciceva Street, with lots of cafes, bars, craft beer pubs and restaurants. It was at this point that Mark confessed that he thinks he’s going to like this place; after harboring grave reservations on the way driving in!
We headed home to charge our phones for a bit then set out again to explore the local area. First, seeking out the local supermarket and, then, back to visit the Cathedral. That didn’t take long though and we soon found ourselves at one of the craft beer places we’d spied on our earlier outing. Three, rather unsatisfactory, beers later we decided to head to dinner. We were the only ones at the restaurant and it did remind us somewhat of our UK trip from earlier this year but at least the food and wine were good. From there we headed home but with one further stop; for an ice cream from the Gelato store right near our building.