June 1, 2018
Ha ha, yeah right. 😉
Today we got up quite late for us. Our bed and room are quite comfortable even though in a hostel. We both had earplugs in, just in case, but nothing would have woken me last night I think. Our room comes with a free breakfast, so we took advantage of the spread. Nothing to write home about, but it was free and different from the pastries we had been eating.
We set out on a walking tour of Zagreb that included two museums. The first was the Croatian Museum of Naive Art. Only 25 kuna each to get in or about $4. It features peasant artists of the 20th century who, although not trained in any recognized school, were remarkable artists. The paintings are so vivid and colorful, fanciful even. They are mostly painted on glass, in the reverse. Wow.
Next, we sat at a cafe for coffee and waited for the noon cannon fire. Even though we knew about it, holy cow was it loud! Not sure why, perhaps just for the tourists, but every day at noon they shoot a cannon out of a tower on the hill above downtown.
After our coffee break, we set off walking towards the second museum. There was a place of architectural significance along the way, so we walked, grabbed a picnic lunch and strolled leisurely to the Technical Museum that features Nikola Tesla works and demonstrations. Naively we figured museum = A/C and free WC. Apparently not, at 20 kuna each. The museum is under renovation, so the WC was two porta-John’s in the parking lot. Hmm, no thanks, I’ll pass.
Nathan perhaps enjoyed the museum more than me. It was mining machinery, motors, geologic maps and stuff along with the Tesla exhibit. It was basically the most boring version of Fargo’s Bonanzaville you could ever come across. And not everything was labeled in English. I sorta raced ahead of Nathan and OH GOD, IT’S THE LARGEST MUSEUM ON THE PLANET. And there is no A/C in here. On the main level, it was just really, really uncomfortable. On the second level, I began worrying we’d get heat stroke.
We were here, partly because of the 3:30 pm Nikola Tesla demonstration we naively thought would be in English. Duh, here’s your English text.
There were some cool exhibits: bees creating hives visible through plexiglass, local area building construction, old bikes, motorcycles, planes, boats, etc. We got to the point where we literally thought a toddler style melt down was imminent, and we left for the equally hot and humid outdoors. Certainly, there is an outdoor cafe somewhere near here that will revive us with tap water, and provide ice cubes if we are really really lucky.
We were so lucky, and clouds rolled in too. The waiters acted as if the big flood was coming, but we rejoiced that the temps cooled off so much under the cloud cover. Now at dinner, we are cool, but still stinky, with food and wine in our belly and another satisfying vacation under our belt. Tomorrow, we fly home to see our dog, whom we miss very much.
