Wednesday 24 June 2009

an additional zagreb

so, laden down with pastry, dough and cakes we get to a vegetarian restaurant for a bit of detox. and not just one but two, both of which were very fine and managed to stretch their menus way beyond the british vegetarian staples of salad (cheese), omelette (cheese) and pasta (cheesy). we waddle back to the hostel. we're at the stage where even the thought of another cake is making our arteries spasm. and we're not even close to vienna...

questions arise.

why does it seem that every third shop is a shoe shop. do the women of zagreb have secret imelda marcos style shoe cupboards the likes of which we can only guess at?

when do people actually work? true they're out an some ungodly hour but by the time we're up there's already a substantial part of the population drinking coffee, smoking, chatting and generally lounging about. admirable yes but how do they sustain it?

smoking. everybody smokes. don't they have lung disease here. among the smokers where we're staying they love it and i have to admit that if i was here longer, or drinking, i would struggle.

where are all the russians? there are some but they're all blended in. what we're after is the russian man in all his white clothed plumage, smoking and firmly gripping his (much younger) female companion. we saw many of these during the baltic shenanigans last year and were expecting more. sadly. no luck so far and we fear none ahead. we miss them.

yes zagreb, loads of culture we're seeing. honest.

(there really was a more serious post lurking in there but i think it was averted by a clot of cream in my brain somewhere..)

7 comments:

Rachel Fox said...

I love these posts. Just keep travelling...and eating...never stop!
x

Rachel Fox said...

Plus more huge lunch than naked lunch.
x

Roxana said...

hahaha - a clot of cream in your brain :-)

for my part, i will only say that i am chuckling to see those stereotypes confirmed once again, that everybody smokes in the East :-P

swiss said...

it's not my fault the croatians smoke so much!

Rachel Fox said...

It's not that long since we were all smoking here, Roxana. People forget very quickly!
x

Roxana said...

i had never thought of east-europeans being heavy smokers until i heard swiss mention it once. it's always so interesting when one discovers its own culture through foreign eyes. and also, that's one thing great about travelling, that we can confront stereotypes about the others and our own culture, see whether they verify or not, and to what extent. the bigger the cultural gap, the most captivating the process, as i experienced it in Japan.

swiss, we are all waiting for Ljubljana :-)

swiss said...

if only i could record the lung sounds of the slovene guy here today!
we had the english in last night. quiet before the drinking but afterwards? not pretty.

i was glad they weren't scots. but it turns out the scottish, despite the drinking are very popular here, there's a scottish-slovene society, a scottish shop and everything. weird!