Croatia: Zagreb

Zagreb, Croatia: view of the city from some tower
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So we finally made into Croatia, National Geographic's choice for the the world's top summer tourist destination.  And it was packed.  Not exactly in Zagreb, but everywhere else.

Zagreb is a huge city situated on the Sava River, population 750,000+ in the city itself and the largest Croatian city.  It plays like a big city too.

The Biggest Croatian City

There are several fine museums (of which we went to zero), and also many areas of the city which actually feel pretty cozy.  The University of Zagreb was founded in 1669, and students were everywhere.

Zagreb, Croatia: outside the train station
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Our hostel was an interesting place.  The owners were two young locals who liked to drink and party.  They were very knowledgeable about the former Yugoslovia and they "welcomed" us to the hostel by providing shots of their palinka, which is a very strong shot multiplied by 100.

It is beyond disgusting, but, hey, it's not right to offend your hosts.  Oh, this was in the early afternoon too.

We walked around the city a bit, arranged for a rental car for the following day with the super helpful tourist info bureau, checked out the exterior of their beautiful catholic cathedral (88% of Croats are Catholic!), and basically lounged around.

Zagreb, Croatia: old school trolley
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There were many cool cafes, lots of people everywhere, and some interesting fellow hostel guests.  We all decided to go out to eat and drink with the two guys who ran the hostel, and ended up at a great local place for some food and good Croatian beer.

A late night journey to the local bar proved too tiring for Rachel and me, so we wound up fairly early compared to the rest of the crew since we had to get our rental car at eight the following morning for a trip out to the Plitvice National Park.