Good Day Croatia

8/9/2025

How could you be more different from your neighbor. Your hills are more plentiful, but graced with the same aquamarine water falling over tuff waterfalls. Yet you are so clearly European. What happened to your Mosques, your crooked streets? You were never part of the Ottoman  empire. Rather the Austria-Hungarian empire. Zagreb a medieval town turned capital your buildings don classic masonry facades, of flowers, and children, eagles and angels. I love your style, not to big and bustling, parks around every corner. You are classy and classic all in one.

During our time in Zagreb we frequented the market.  Where we let each person get inspired from the food around them and then they got to hold the purse and do all the ordering in their best Croatian. The abundance of fresh food is staggering. It is such a treat to shop in single item stores. Bread at the bakery, cheese from the cheese monger, did you see her peppers? Those are the ones, and peaches from that guy you can smell them from over here.

You see the locals frequenting  these shops, not in a hurry, not buying in excess for what is right today might be old tomorrow. This slow shopping for daily provisions is such a contrast to the massive, carts we fill at home with food we hope will last weeks in our larder.  It has Nate and I contemplating our relationship  to consumerism. When people shop in the Balkans their is no rush, no expectation to be be served speedily. Rather the  expectation is to go slow and interact with both the product and the people. Whole carcasses hang in the butcher shops and they ask you to approve your cuts.  Butchers yielding cleavers make perfect cuts, and no one flinches at the sight of real flesh transformed. What Americans have traded for “ convince” in their shopping experience are these  relationships, a chance to belong to their community through food. (Lets be real these “connivance” of prepackaged goods and self check out is really just robing you twice, they are purely a chance for someone else to make more more profit and keep you lonely and shopping for more.)

Most of the cities famous land marks and museums are closed and under repair from a earthquake in 2022. So we have just been frequenting parks and laying low. Kinda nice to to go to a new city and not have to see all the features. I posted a few photos of market on instagram if you want to see more.