The Pulse of Zagreb

It was supposed to be 100% chance of rain today. But instead we woke up to cloudy skies and cooler temperatures so we walked downtown for the day.
Everywhere you turn in Zagreb there are outdoor cafes with tables filled with people drinking coffee and a water or an alcoholic drink, anytime of the day. There is a ratio of 1 cafe to every 175 inhabitants!
About mid morning we sat down at the cafe in the first picture. It’s located in the main square. To our surprise, suddenly there was a small band and several men on horses coming into the square. So like all the good tourists, I jumped up to get a picture! It was the “Cravat”Regiment, an honor guard battalion, that protects the upper town. They do a ceremonial changing of the guard on Saturdays.
“Cravat” is the Croatian word for a men’s tie. Tradition has it, that the Croatian Calvary wore a red scarf around their necks. When the French King Louis XIV hired the Croatian Calvary, because he didn’t have a Calvary of his own, the French liked the red scarves so much and the men’s necktie was born! The third pic is of a famous necktie shop called Cravat!
From high end art, to low end…graffiti. You see it everywhere in town, on all the buildings. This is an alley where there was a lot of it.
A tradition that we had seen on the bridges in Paris, we found on a railing at a terrace overlook…couples put a padlock on the rail to symbolize their unbreakable love.
We didn’t have a padlock so we just took this picture of us instead!

Highlight of the day: we both bought rings and I bought earrings from a local artist!Read more