I’m currently sitting in the park by myself in Zagreb as the sun sets on my back. It’s a nice image but I’m really just sitting here because a weird AF person decided to check into the bed beside me at the hostel and I decided I didn’t really want to listen to her talk to herself while writing this. Sam and Max have left for the Greece leg of their journey and I fly out tomorrow to somewhere I’ve been planning to visit long before I even started this blog.
I didn’t have any great expectations for my stay in Zagreb, Croatia’s biggest city, so it’s nice to be completely surprised but how nice it is. As far as cities go, this has to be one of the most relaxed and cool I’ve ever been in. Also, I’ve seen the most PDA ever in my life, haha. After our rush travelling the past couple of weeks it’s been a welcome change to relax with a couple of ciders in the park and people watch. I’d 100% recommend visiting if you can, I know I’ll be back eventually. As for hostels, I thought it might be helpful if I do a little city by city rating of whichever I’ve stayed in as I go (I even added on to my Budapest post because that hostel was AMAZING) and let you know whether I recommend it.
My Way Hostel: 4/10 – not far from the bus stop but a strange mix of people, lumpy pillows and shitty Internet. I wouldn’t stay here again unless I needed to catch a super early bus in the morning.
Highs:
- Being in such a relaxed city – minus he strange encounters, for Zagreb being the biggest city it definitely doesn’t feel too large or congested. Everyone moves at their own pace and you can tell from walking around how chill it is.
- The Zrinjevac park in the middle of the city that we visited everyday where they’ve set up sand, music, beach chairs and umbrellas and provided free books for anyone to read. It’s really popular and such a great vibe bringing people together.
- + I’m just sitting in the park on the free wifi listening to music, late at night in 25 degree heat. Dreamy.
- The Cookie Factory in Zagreb is a must visit for a sweet tooth ’cause the brownie was 10/10 after a long bus ride to this city.
- I’m just going to chuck this in here (even though I didn’t go) but they have a “Museum of broken relationships” that started as an art display and became so popular it’s now a permanent thing but the place is filled with real submissions from people, remnants of relationships past.
Lows:
- Stupid hostel and the fact I haven’t slept in like 48 hours. If you know me, you know I can’t function on no sleep.
- Creepy guy who stalked me from behind the pole outside the supermarket. LOL it was as strange as it sounds.
- The novelty of Maps.me taking us on strange circles all over the city rather than a straight route there has run out. It is a pretty good app though, just don’t trust the directions!