Day 52: Zagreb, Croatia - More Museums, More Cafes

St. Mark's Church.

After Plitvice, I decided to spend another day in Zagreb to see the museums I had yet to see. I started with the Mestrovic Museum, home to the work of Croatia's most famous sculptor/artist. Like the other museum I had visited two days ago, it was housed in a home. I like that idea. No need for a fancy new building that looks like a Greek temple. They have lots of old big houses, why not put one of them to good use. I've never heard of this guy, but he's certainly worth a google image search. Of particular note is a statue I saw in Split, a giant bronze of a Croatian priest who defied the powers that be by preaching in Croatian. The museum had the various studies he composed leading up to the ultimate construction of the sculpture.

Next on my list was the Museum of Modern Art. Unfortunately, it was the weekend and it was only open for three hours. Not much point of only being open for three hours. Might as well just close for the entire day. It would, however, be open the next day for the same three hours. I made a mental note and looked around for something to do.

Having visited the only museum I wanted to that was open, I spent the rest of the day doing what Zagrebians seem to do best -- loiter for long lengths of time in cafes. One of the benefits of hostels is swapping books. Once I finish a book, I just swap it for some new book at some new hostel. I finished another book today, thanks to Zagreb's seemingly infinite number of cafes.

More pictures of Zagreb.

A couple of Canadians checked into the hostel and I spent the evening with them. They were younger, about 20 or 21 each. It's unbelievable how old I can feel backpacking. I used to be the youngest person in hostels. I'm now the oldest about 50% of the time. When I first checked in, I was surrounded by a big group of Brits who had just finished high school, i.e. 18-19 years old. They invited me to hang out with them that night. I was so scared. Luckily, there were only two of these Canadians. We picked a bar, sat down for a few hours, and people watched the majority of the time. Guess what two 20 year old young men were looking at in a foreign country.