Zagreb & the Stunning Waterfalls at Plitvice

OK!  That's it!  No more museums!  I've been to Zagreb and there are SO MANY museums there!  So many!  Too many, you might say!  All that aside, Zagreb is a really cool city, with lots of hip young things strutting their stuff, graffiti everywhere, bars all over the place (and I mean bars, not 'I'll go and drink a coffee in that bar' bars), great public transport and (OK, I'll admit it) really interesting museums.  And I went to quite a few!

Yet another statue of Tesla

The government 'palace' and St Mark's Church

A WWII tunnel, used as a pedestrian thoroughfare ... also for one of the first raves in Zagreb (told you it was a happening place).

There was a summer festival on when I was there, with clowns and street art and some music ... 

... and some lack-lustre performances. I didn't see anyone stop to watch this guy.

Zagreb has museums.  I only had a day so I had to choose carefully and wisely - what was I going to see?  I narrowed the field down to the following:

• Museum of Broken Relationships
• Museum of Illusions
• Tesla Technical Museum
• 80's Museum
• Museum of Naive Art
• Museum of Hangovers
• Museum of Lost Tales
• Chocolate Museum
• Museum of the Cravat
• Museum of Selfie and Memories
• Museum of School
• New Wave Rock and Roll Museum
• War Photography Museum

This is just a small sample of what was on offer.  See what I mean!  I'm surprised they didn't have a Museum of Museums!  In the end, I went to four - the Museum of Broken Relationships, The Cravat Museum, the Museum of Lost Tales and the Museum of Hangovers.  I won't bore you with details of all four but instead tell you about my two favourites.

The Museum of Broken Relationships was full of items people had sent to them, along with an explanation of how this epitomised, explained, repaired or destroyed their relationship with someone.  A bit intense after a while ... I felt like saying "get over it!" which was probably not the right response.

My favourite museum was the Cravaticum, Museum of the Cravat.  Although it was quite small (afterall, ties don't take up much space) it was fascinating.  I was the only one there so the lovely Vin (an anthropology major) and I had a really good talk.  He took me through Croatian history; their military background and martial tendencies; how horrible the Serbs were; why Bosnians can't be trusted; why Bosnia should be in Croatia but they are being nice and not insisting on it; the stupidity of soccer; aboriginal practices of burning the land; what religion has done to the area; what is wilderness; atrocities his father had endured under the Serbs; what is AFL; whether the haka is frightening (he said no); how Serbians are really a mixture of Turks and gypsies ... an interesting young man with some concerning ideas.

Back to ties ... they come from Croatia!  OK, here's the story ... many years ago when the Croatian men were heading off to fight the 30 year war (1618 to 1649 if you're interested), the girls used to give a scarf to their fellas.  Sort of a remembrance gift, a 'come back soon' gift, a 'don't go looking at any floozy' gift.  At this time, the Croats (who do seem to be a bit like a country of mercenaries) were fighting for Louis XIII and he was rather taken with the scarf and took to wearing one (but a lot fancier ... he was French).  He called it la cravat, which is a reference to the Croatians.  The cravat became the necktie and ... voila! 

International Tie Day is on 18 October

There are 177 147 ways to tie a tie but only four are commonly used.

I then went to the Museum of Lost Tales.  This was a bit like a museum invented by Tim Burton, all cobwebs and strange stick-figures, creepy costumes and dusty macabre knick-knacks.  The museum is actually the work of Croatian artist Zdenko Basic, who has collected and recorded little-known Croatian myths, stories and legends ... traditional tales passed from generation to generation.  It was fascinating to see the local twist on stories about death, fairies, vampires etc.  All beautifully illustrated with paintings and models and animations.  Reading the explanations, I could almost hear the old women telling their tales ... the magic of oral history!

Death ... she always walks alone, stalking her victims for days, waiting for them to be ripe.  If she's seen holding a scythe, it's a sign that more people are about to die.  When she carries a knife, she will take only one soul with her.  When she's robed in white, she has come for a child and when her cloak is grey, she brings the plague.

Old people say that there were four Embers that held the world together in one piece.  Three of them would wander the earth while one remained home to hold the world together. There are three Ember nights in Winter when, after twilight, people had to remain silent.  If there was any noise, the Embers would come and jeer, remaining all night, surrounding the house and terrifying the occupants.  

The World Tree is a gigantic tree that holds the cosmos together.  It began to sprout at the very beginning, just as the Egg's shell began to crack.

But enough of that (the Museum of Hangovers was just silly), the next day I went on a minibus to Rastoke and the Plitvice Lakes.  Surprisingly, it was a cool and overcast day ... which ended up being a blessing in disguise.  Our first stop was Rastoke, a small village on the the banks of a river that was famous for having 22 mills scattered along the banks.  Only one was still working (and that just for the tourists) but it was a wonderful sight, these old buildings, all higgledy-piggledy on the river's edge, water pouring from their basements.

Then it was on to the Plitvice Lakes National Park.  Oh my!  What a stunningly beautiful place!  The parts that are accessible to the millions of tourists each year are the upper and lower lakes, formed by tufa barriers.  So there are waterfalls after waterfalls, some low, some high, all cascading into bright turquoise pools, teeming with fish.

I ended up spending most of the day here and walking all the trails, leaving behind some of the crowds of tourists that flock here every day.

This is how the tufa barriers form the different lakes.  See the submerged one in the lower lake? So there used to be two lakes, but the bottom barrier grew too much and the two lakes merged.  I could see this old barrier through the clear water.

Poor Tesla ... he's everywhere!  Even on the rubbish bins.

I could continue to rave about the views, but I'll just put up some photos.

Walking up the top of the gorge gave a totally different perspective to the lakes and their formations.

A great day ... but it was time to leave Croatia and head to Slovenia.