We spent the last month or so of our bike trip in Zagreb. It was Spring turning to summer and Zagreb was a beautiful place to relax with nothing to do.
We booked our flight to Zagreb a month ago and it feels like we are heading home.
“…everyone needs a somewhere, a place he can go. There comes a time, you see, inevitably there comes a time you have to have a somewhere you can go!”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
We fly out of Naples in just over two weeks. We only have a short time in Zagreb before we will
train to Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Our flight is at a reasonable time, 09:20, so no need for alarms and ridiculous hours. We travel with carry on so there is no need to check in. From the moment we step out of the taxi to arriving at our gate is 12 minutes. Dubai is efficient.
We find a coffee shop and relax. There is two hours until we depart.
Airports are great for people watching. It is the parents with young families that are the most interesting. Exhausted parents and angry kids in departure does not bode well for a happy holiday. This time of the year can be stressful for people, an international flight would have their nerves frayed.
“I like to prowl ordinary places
Charles Bukowski
and taste the people-
from a distance.”
I am thankful to have only myself and Shell to worry about, and there is nothing to really worry about.
I finished 1984 last night and loaded up the kindle for our trip. Half a dozen from Christopher Hitchens and a couple of Albert Camus.
I had intended to do a full rant on Orwell and just how much Eileen O’Shaughnessy influenced this incredible novel. In the end, I am really just happy the book exists. Maybe it was Orwell, maybe it was O’Shaughnessy, likely it was both.
Does it even matter? They are both dead. I am fatigued by the entire injustice of it all and there is nothing I can do.
It is an incredible book and as important today as it was in the 1940s.
“The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed.”
George Orwell
Time slips away and we wander to our gate only to find they making the last call for boarding. Not the first time we have almost missed a flight.
I read The Fall by Albert Camus in about two hours. It is an excellent insight into the ego that drives appearing to be a good person juxtaposed with actually being a good person. Having that illusion shattered, the realization that when tested, we are not the good person we believe ourselves to be happens to us all at some stage. How hard it hits home is intimately related to how lofty our own opinion of ourselves is.
“They wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate for them. As for me, i forgot. I never remembered anything but myself.”
Albert Camus
I am hungry and order some noodles. Five minutes later breakfast arrives. I am not hungry and eat it anyway.
I am Grants obesity.
We watch a movie. Shell has an aversion to Tom Cruise. I understand, he is a little strange in real life. Scientology doesn’t help. You can’t deny he is a good actor. This is not enough to get Shell over the line.
Fortunately, The Day After Tomorrow has enough going for it to get her though.
Snowcapped mountains out the window. Pure white, covering the peaks like perfect ice-cream. The mountains are a stark grey and the white is stunning. There is not much snow in Dubai so it is a bit of a novelty.
“What whiteness boasts that sun that comes into this wood! One would say milk-colored maidens are dancing on the petals of orchids. How coldly burns our sun!”
Roman Payne
I start reading Arguably by Hitchens and I am happy to see Shell is reading Animal Farm.
We touch down to bright blues skies and a winter chill.
Through customs and in a taxi in just few minutes. I watch an Indian get put aside by customs. I am reminded of how powerful the Australian passport can be.
I have been here five minutes and I want to stay forever.
Our place is in the heart of the city. We walk to lunch, Oranź Wine Bar. On our last visit we decided Croatia made some decent white wines. Hot days and cold malvasija, drinking away lazy afternoons.
We order two tomato soups and a steak to share. A glass each of 2022 Sina Pošip Majstor and 2022 Coronica Malvazija Istarska. The soup is delicious. The white wine does not have the same romance as it does in summer. Luckily, it turns out that in winter, Croatian red wines are as good as its whites in summer.
“Aw I don’t wanta go to no such thing, I just wanta drink in alleys.’…
Jack Kerouac
The steak comes out and a glass each of 2020 Galić Pinot Noir and 2021 Palvac Stina Majstor.
We head and the temperature is dropping. The Christmas markets at the park near our apartment open at 17:00.
I wake up at 19:30. I don’t remember going to sleep.
A quick shower and we head off to the Christmas markets. I slight flash of panic when I head out with damp hair. I recall reading somewhere that this is dangerous in blizzard conditions. I remind myself it is Zagreb not Ulaanbaatar and I am in no danger.
The streets are full of people. Everyone is enjoying the cold evening. The teens here are well behaved. Maybe they are just not dickheads. It could be that all the police are tall, big and men that look like they could handle themselves. I am not saying that women don’t make good police, but a short, 20 something woman who weighs 50kg does not have the same…. presence.
It is true. Forget your political correctness.
We gab some mulled wine, which is not so good. A telecéi hotdog which is delicious. Finish off with some chocolate covered fritule.
Delicious.
Head home and go to bed.
Zagreb, I never want to leave.
What a beautiful time of year to be in Europe. Love Shell in a beanie – beautiful.
She certainly suits cold weather.