Zagreb Local Customs

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At the corner of J.J. Strossmayer Square and A. Hebrang Street is the Gallery of Contemporary Art with a collection of national paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries. The same building houses the Department of Graphics of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Open 10:00 - 18:00, Sun 10:00 - 13:00, closed Mon. Admission 20kn, 10kn students.

On a beautiful Sunday morning there's no better thing than to drink a cup of coffie with friends in one of the bars on Britanac square and then to go researching on the antiques fair. There's no thing you can't find here; from old books, postcards, jewlerey, porcelain, stamps, to old wooden tables,closets, chairs...Don't forget to bargain!

Zagreb's symbol is the Licitar heart (licitarka srca), a little heart made of dough which is covered with red glaze and normally has some decoration and a mirror on it. They look like gingerbread hearts but you can't eat them!

I was in Zagreb shortly before christmas and all christmas trees were decorated with these hearts. In the streets there weren't the usual tacky christmas lights but heart shaped ones everywhere. I thought it was beautiful. You could also buy little decorations for your christmas tree which had the special look but weren't all heart-shaped.

You can't only buy the hearts as a souvenir at christmas but all year. I bought mine on Dolac market, a kinda big heart cost 15 kn there. In the souvenir shop at the airport they were much more expensive.

The Croatian language is quite funny at times when you are a German speaker. There are many words which originate in the German language but the spelling is Croatian. My favourite words were sendvic (Sandwich), švarzvald (Black Forest Gateau ... from the German word Schwarzwald) and bedinerica (house maid) and I really enjoyed learning new ones all the time.

Unfortunately I didn't know enough of the language to talk to waiters or people in shops. As they only spoke little English or German I failed quite badly trying sign language but I guess that's all "part of the experience"...

I couldn't believe how friendly the locals were towards tourists. I hope that not too many tourists will flood Zagreb in the future (even though the city deserves it) so that the locals will keep this attitude.

When we were at Mirogoj Cemetary it was the 5th anniversary of Tuðman's death. I wanted to take a picture of all the candles lit for him in Croatian colours but didn't want to disturb the people who came here for a "serious reason". An old lady was saying something to Nikša and I though she was complaining about me taking pictures. However, she was telling him that I should go closer to the grave so that I will have Tuðman's name on my picture.

It wasn't the only time when things like this happened to me and it really made me feel welcome somehow.

When I was in Zagreb in December 2004 there were little booths everywhere with posters of politicians. I wondered what they are and was told that these people collect signatures because if they can collect 10,000 signatures they are allowed to run for presidency.

When you meet the local VTers you can't avoid this local custom really - the heated discussion about whether or not the "skyscraper" called Neboder at Trg bana Jelacica is ugly. Boris and Zdenka claim yes, Nikša says no.

When they asked me what I think I told them that I liked it because it made me find my way back to the main square many times.

I had heard about this cake specialty before a lot of times so I had to try it of course. HAHA I kinda knew that the first of these wabbly vanilla custard cakes wasn't the last one I had. In the end I stopped counting how many of them I had ;)

You get them in every café that serves cake basically and you pay around 10 kn for a piece of cake ... which basically is a piece of cake for something as delicious as Kremšnita!