I Love Zagreb, Croatia

Just spent 3 days in Zageb, Croatia.   Beautiful city.  Great People.  I am still amazed at the lively street life that exists in Zagreb (Europe in general?) even when the weather gets cold and rainy.  People are still outside walking around; still sitting in the outside cafes.  Of course they have more clothes on and are under the umbrellas, but in this weather no one in Kansas City would be having coffee outside.

I attended the Zagreb Film Fest (that’s a separate post), bought cheese in Dolac marketplace, went to a couple of museums, and visited with friends – old and new.

I met my friend, who works for Croatian public television covering cultural events – just think they have a reporter whose sole job is to cover film, books, music, art openings. I won’t put her name or information on the blog as I know how she feels about privacy on the internet.  Anyway, I first met her on the train from Zagreb to Pecs about 5 years ago and have kept in touch.  We spent half a day just catching up – had coffee and then went to a local restaurant for lunch.  

Talking Croatian politics – did you know that their prime minister pulled a Sara Palin?  He resigned; said he did not want the job anymore.  Although there was speculation about the cause, he gave no reason.  Apparently, it was quite a shock.  Croatia now has its first woman prime minister, whom he appointed.  There are some investigations into corruption in government and folks speculated he may have been involved.   The government is under pressure from the EU to clean up the corruption if Croatia wants to join EU.  And you may have heard that last year a journalist who was reporting on this corruption was killed – with a car bomb in Zagreb.  So interesting conversations.

 I went to the Croatian Artists Center to see its current exhibit.  Absolutely amazing video installations.  Strange video of performance artist Hermann Nitsch, involving butchering a cow – and naked people drinking blood and having cow inards all over them.  I can’t describe the piece really well.  There were also some disturbing videos of anti-gay demonstrations in Belgrade – very ugly, violent stuff.   With a Serbian priest talking about how bad homosexuality is in the world.  Just a reminder that these issues are not only in the United States.  But lots of thought provoking work.  Fabulous. 

I also got to the Museum of Arts and Crafts 40 minutes before they closed and saw an interesting exhibit of mosaic chairs and paintings from Vladimir Meglic.  The permanent collection in this gallery is overwhelming and can’t be seen in such a short time – everything from clothing to furniture to watches and clocks, glass, photographs, art deco objects.  The basic initiative of the museum is to preserve the material culture of past life in castles, to give a look at the everyday life of Croatian nobility and middle class over the centuries.  It has the largest holdings in Croatia of applied art from 14^th to 20^th century.  I did not get to see it all, but it was worth the visit.  Me and a Japanese tour group.  This Muzej za Umjetnost I Obrt.

Some just some general shots of my time in Zagreb.