italian

Day 29 – Zagreb

Posted on July 25, 2017

The storm, it’s coming.

A chill day today. In the morning, the others went out shopping while I caught up on yesterday’s blog post/photos and watched latest GoT episode. Then we met up for lunch at the Italian place we went to a couple days ago. I had some lasagne and chocolate mousse for dessert.

From there, we walked around the main square a while, stopped for a coffee at a cafe, before resting back at the hotel. Later in the afternoon we headed back out to go to the Zagreb Eye (observation deck) and see the panoramic views of the city from up high.

It was karaoke night, so the scenic views were accompanied by some terrible singers, but still enjoyable nonetheless. We had a drink, looked out over the city and took some photos.

A storm was rolling in though, so the others were panicking and we left soon after sunset so we could make it back to the hotel before it hit. We almost went back to that Japanese restaurant for a bit of food/dessert, but it was full, so we just called it a night, and made it back as it started raining.

Not a whole lot of excitement today, but a nice relaxing way to finish our trip and say goodbye to Zagreb. We leave for the airport tomorrow at 12pm, so we can take it easy in the morning. From there, a bit of a wait for our flight at 3-ish (which is an eight hour flight?), followed by a ten hour wait in Dubai, followed by another fourteen hour flight… feelsbadman.

Overall, not a bad holiday. In fact, I would go as far as to say it was a good holiday.

Day 25 – Zagreb

Posted on July 21, 2017

We’ve had one yes, but what about second breakfast?

Our hotel has a buffet breakfast included, so we didn’t have to worry about that. After we ate, we got ready to head out and just started exploring the local area. There is pretty good signage around pointing out the various museums and other landmarks around, of which there appears to be a lot.

We walked down to the nearby square, where there was a market and a folklore festival of sorts happening, with a stage set up and performances by a range of different groups from various countries. They played instruments, sang and danced in traditional fashion.

After listening for a while, we walked around some more before needing a break from the intense heat (well over 30 degrees), so we stopped into a place we came across called Tolkien’s House. There were some LoTR references around and on the menu, but it turned out to be a pretty shallow use of the name.

We had a nice cold drink though and a chance to rest, before continuing on and getting to a large cathedral. There were also some interesting old walls and buildings around the church.

From there, we walked back to the hotel, stopping into a supermarket to get water and a few supplies. After a rest, we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner which was a short walk away. We ordered some bread and a pizza as a starter to share, as they were quite cheap.

When they were brought out, we realised how big the portions were. We actually didn’t finish them, as we needed to save room for our mains. Speaking of which, those came out and were huge too. Everything was so good though, and we did our best to get through it all. Was way too full to try the dessert unfortunately, but we may go back another day to try some new dishes.

After dinner, we headed back to the main square, as the folklore concert was supposed to continue from 7pm, and lo, it was in full swing when we arrived. We watched a couple of the performances (from Iraq, then Macedonia) before calling it a night. I got mostly videos of the performances, so not many photos to share.

Tomorrow we’ll likely check out all the museums and galleries in the area.

Day 23 – Prague

Posted on July 19, 2017

It’s just like a bit of weird art.

We started the day by going to the Gerhard Richter exhibition at one of the National Galleries near our apartment. Apparently our tickets also get us into a bunch of other exhibitions around town. He had some really impressive photo-realistic paintings which were the highlight for me.

After walking around the gallery, we walked to the square and immediately needed to stop for a drink and morning tea, as it was insanely hot, and I was hungry. We shared a couple pizzas and had a cold drink, before beginning the long walk to where the other galleries we could visit were located. They were across the river, over near the Prague Castle.

We braved the heat and the many steps, finally arriving at one of the places, a palace, after an hour or so of walking. We entered, only to be told our ticket wasn’t actually valid for this place, or the other few in the area. It looked like it only gets into one other gallery, five minutes from the first. Feels bad man.

Since we had already trekked all that way, we thought we might as well go into Prague Castle again, and have a rest in a shady spot in the Royal Gardens, where it was nice and peaceful.

We sat on a bench under some trees and rested for about an hour, before going back to get some dinner. There was an Italian restaurant I found, near the river, which is apparently great, so we tried it out. It did not disappoint.

One of the best meals we’ve had on this trip so far! Fancy, but hearty and affordable. Some homemade lemonade. Rib-eye steak, mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce. Chocolate cake with lemon, banana, coconut and ice cream. Man I love food.

When we had finished our meal, we walked leisurely back to the apartment, following the river, watching the sunset. We came across this John Lennon Wall on the way back too which was cool.

Tomorrow is our last day in Prague. We have to check-out by 6pm, but our flight isn’t until late (11pm or so), so we’ll be hanging out at the airport! Yay! Not sure what we’ll do during the day, but probably won’t be many photos. Just relaxing, exploring a little more and having a nice lunch before getting organised to leave.