Aside from Jim not feeling well the ride was fine. It is a lovely drive through varied landscapes the whole way and the entire route is on a fast toll highway. Tolls have risen along with everything else. We paid about 27 euros to get from the ramp near Promajna to the edge of Zagreb, a 4 hour drive if one goes 130 but closer to 5 for us given we drove slower and stopped a few times.
The first part of the drive is next to high steep rocky limestone cliffs mountains in a fairly dry landscape. After that there is a stretch of lower rolling scrubby hills, largely unpopulated until one nears the exit for Split where small clumps of orange roofed old houses are sprinkled about. And there is a large commercial area down the hill toward Split that looks bigger each time we pass by it from trip to trip. There are also sections with wind turbines on the hills and one large area covered with solar panels. Then the route curves east and more massive rocky mountains dominate the scene. Once you pass through the big tunnels (some of the longest in the Balkans, over 2.5 miles long) you emerge into a much greener forested region of lower big hills and small villages.
By the time we arrived at our place Jim was exhausted and had a headache, very glad to be done driving aside from needing to get us to the airport at 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
We are staying in the same apartment we stayed in when we arrived nearly 6 weeks ago. We have two full days to enjoy the town and pack for our 6 am flight Wednesday. We need to discard a lot of stuff- the frying pan and spatula we bought, salt and pepper, jam and other snacks. The biggest packing issue is always how to fit all the bottles of rakija we have been given.
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We ate dinner again at Bigy’s because it’s close by and the food good. We had the same waitress (we learned her name is Goga) as before and she remembered us. We had no energy to do anything else besides read and go to bed. But we were so grateful to have arrived safely!
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Monday morning Jim initially felt worse again. We walked down the hill and got cash, a couple groceries, and some pastries. I, too, wasnt feeling great, but after breakfast we headed up the long hill above us to the Mirogoj Cemetery, a huge sprawling place above town. This was my 4 th time there and I’d be happy to go many more. The city-owned cemetery is over 27 acres and was created in the 1870s. I don’t know how many people are buried there but one significant thing is that because it is city owned people from all (and no) religions are buried here as opposed to church or mosque or temple owned cemeteries.
The hilly cemetery is used also as a park because of its beautiful old trees, views, and walking paths. If I lived nearby I would go there every day.
In addition it is known as a sort of sculpture gallery because of the long long curving porticos with statues created by famous artists, as well as the many sculptures throughout the grounds commissioned by families of the deceased. Sadly the 2020 earthquake damaged the porticos and chapel and they have not yet been repaired.
Both of us felt much better after our very long walk through parts of the cemetery. It is much too large to see everything in one visit.
We hung out at ‘home’ for a while then walked to a restaurant about 15 minutes away. We had eaten at one of the other locations of this small locally owned chain and enjoyed our meal as we did at the other place. We stopped a couple times along the way to take cover from the sudden but brief rain storm. I was mesmerized watching the cars, motorbikes, busses, bikers and pedestrians navigate the very busy traffic circle in front of us. As I’ve said, I find crossing these streets, or navigating them in a car, to be a bit intimidating. But watching the action in front of me was fascinating. After dinner we came home and did a bit more sorting and discarding and packing to see if we will be able to fit everything. I think we will.
Jim had a lousy night. He woke with anxiety and more vertigo. I had a poor sleep as well because I was worried about Jim. But the morning was sunny so we did some more packing then met Zora for coffee. She had been sick all week with a flu or something but felt a good bit better today. We had a nice long chat about a lot of things, including trauma. She, like so many people, still deals with both personal trauma and trauma from the wars.
After coffee Jim and I walked to the large and popular Maximir park that has forest, small lakes, walking trails and a zoo. We enjoyed our walk although there were mosquitos. From there we went to Bigy’s for dinner one more time. Goga served us again and we had a nice little chat. She, like our apartment hosts, is going to Italy for vacation soon.
It’s 7 pm. We are mostly packed aside from a few last minute items. We need to get up before 3 in order to leave by 3:10. Here is hoping all goes smoothly on our trip back to Seattle.
What a wonderful trip!
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