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..)

risotto crimes in zagreb

the rain continues. last night we practised our croatian by watching chuck norris. today there:s a bunch of us watching some old richard widmark movie.

zagreb is an appealing wee place, much tidier than budapest but we suspect this is, in large part, to post war euros or maybe we're just being cynical. that said, it's difficult to get a handle on it as tourists are corralled a bit in the old town. which isn't so good on a monday when everything is closed. in the rain.

so little in the way of cakes until today. we haven't had any strukli as yet but we're continuing the chocolate odyssey with the local version. t's hot chocolate was so dense her spoon really did stand up in it, the best, she says, she's ever tasted. the chocolate cakes are good but not budapest torte good. and finally we get to local signature cake, the kremesnite. scottish readers will recognise this as the humble vanilla slice but instead of the donkey choking pastry and the luminescent paste sludge that constitutes a filling at home here in zagreb this is a rather lovely crisp thin filo filled with a light yet resistant cream. lovely. and unlike the vanilla slice or other such hallucinogenic scottish fare it doesn't cause genetic disorders

the market up the road is great but unfortunately we don't have anywhere to cook anything. still bread and ewe's cheese. can't complain. not about that anyway. but last night we were forced out to eat. i wasn't that hungry so i thought risotto would be simple enough. even allowing for local variation i was unprepared for what arrived. like rice pudding without the nutmeg. almost like risotto but without the risotto rice. and some sort of cream sauce.... a risotto crime and no mistake.

such trauma did it cause me that tonight we're off for macrobiotic fare tonight. and then ljubljana..