Europe Travel Diary: Zagreb
Our Europe Travel Diary is an informal rundown of our day-to-day activities while backpacking Europe, starting with Madrid. This travel diary entry is based on our three nights in Zagreb. If you are after recommendations for Zagreb instead, we have a Zagreb Travel Guide coming soon!
Disclaimer: Some of the links included on our website may contain affiliate links. We may receive some commission from purchases made via these but it will NOT affect the price you pay. This is to allow this site to stay online and ensure that readers use, what we believe, are the best products possible whilst travelling.
Day 24: Venice to Zagreb
28/10/2021
In order to get to Zagreb, we had to go through Slovenia. Turns out, Slovenia is one of the most beautiful countries we ever laid our eyes on; tall autumnal trees, slopping landscapes and high mountains. However, we did have to get off the bus twice for covid/passport checks at Slovenian border control. Safe to say it was VERY cold and they made us wait outside for ages which was quite time-consuming for a double-decker bus; to make things worse, the two occasions were just 100m apart! As a result, I think taking a train would be a smoother way of travelling between Venice and Zagreb.
Eventually, we arrived in Zagreb and managed to get a 10-minute taxi to our hostel, Chillout Hostel Zagreb. It was quite late when we checked in so we immediately dumped our bags and went in search of dinner. By this time, fog had descended onto the city which made it absolutely beautiful to walk around in, especially as it was also eerily quiet.
Having had no time to change (we were dressed in hoodies, trackies, leggings) we found a very nice restaurant around the corner. Unsurprisingly, we were extremely underdressed so they politely hid us in a dark corner. Luckily we arrived just before they stopped serving us food so they quickly whipped us up some very nice, traditional Croatian food. I don’t usually eat lamb but the waiter convinced me to give it a try and it was absolutely amazing!
We then went back to our hotel bar for one drink but decided to head back to our private room before it got too rowdy. Our hostel was actually really nice and the dorms also looked really good; however, as we’d been in dorms for a while, we decided to treat ourselves.
Day 25: Zagreb
29/10/2021
We got up at a decent time this morning as we were so excited to explore Zagreb! We firstly found a nice cafe that served a traditional breakfast (horseradish; cream cheese; bacon, lettuce; and crispy poached eggs on toast) which Alex was desperate to try. Conversely, I had a chicken salad which was also very good.
We soon realised that we’d struck the jackpot with our hostel’s location; it was slap-bang in the middle of Zagreb and everything we wanted to do was within walking distance. Our first activity of the day was walking around Art Park which looked beautifully autumnal and had a great selection of dogs to pet while we walked around.
We continued to wander around the city, racking up the steps, and eventually plonked ourselves in a coffee shop overlooking a busy square; the perfect place to people watch and recharge our batteries. Despite having only spent a day in Zagreb, the cold made me realise it was time to purchase a proper jacket; I was still trying to cope with my thin denim jacket. Thankfully we found an H&M where I bought myself a coat and a woolly jumper.
Next on our itinerary was the Museum of Broken Relationships. I’d heard about this place on TikTok and it wasn’t far from our hostel; albeit on the top of the hill. I somehow managed to convince Alex to cough up £1 for us to take the cable car up rather than the steps. Nonetheless, the view from the top was absolutely beautiful and we luckily managed to get there for sunset.
After I finally dragged Alex away from staring at the views, we made our way to the museum. This is definitely a must-do if you ever find yourself in Zagreb as we absolutely loved it. The Museum of Broken Relationships was filled with over a hundred different individual items, each with their own story symbolising their heartbreak and/or loss. It was a really cool experience, each story is so different and it can have you laughing or crying. There is also a Museum of Hangovers in Zagreb that we would love to visit if we ever go back.
We then went back down the hill in search of food. Firstly we went for a sneaky cocktail and starter at Roots bar which was amazing. We then walked up the Ul Ivana Tkalcica, the main restaurant street, where we found a small Indian restaurant. I still say that this is hands down one of the best Indian restaurants I’ve ever been to and it was in a tiny little place off a side street in Zagreb. Given it was a Friday night, we thought it’d be rude not to hop into a cocktail bar for a tipple; albeit two and they were both very strong. We then went back to the hostel for another cocktail but Alex was being boring and wanted an early night.
Day 26: Zagreb
30/10/202
Today turned out to be a chill day. Everything was catching up with us and given we’d seen a lot of Zagreb already, we felt we deserved a lie. We eventually rose in search of food/brunch where we settled on a healthy burger place to kickstart our day; they even did gluten-free burger buns!
We continued to make sure we ticked everything off our list for the city which included the underground tunnel/bunker called Tunel Gric; these tunnels, built during WWII, were nothing like we’d seen before as they were so close to the city centre and just so big. It was then into the main shopping centre for some relaxation in the “sun”.
As usual, we sat with a coffee in a nice outdoor bar people watching, our favourite sport. After a few hours and it getting quite cold, even by Zagreb’s standards and with our puffer jackets on, we retreated back to our hotel room for a nap. Alex can’t nap so he wanted some rugby and booked our flights to New York in a few weeks’ time.
Again, after summoning the effort to peel ourselves from the mattress we again ventured out in search of food. This time, we visited a restaurant called Vallis that we’d planned to go to on the first night but was closed. Thankfully it was open and the food was amazing; we each had a hearty bowl of tomato soup before both having different types of risotto.
We then headed out to our favourite cocktail street for some more cocktails and people-watching in the evening cold. As with most occasions, we particularly enjoyed ourselves but the waiter used up our last bit of cash; for some reason, you could only pay in cash so we limped home to get ready for an early-ish start tomorrow.
Day 27: Zagreb to Vienna
31/10/2021
Despite the clocks going back overnight and it not being as early as previous travel days, 7am still felt quite early.
Thankfully, the taxi we booked the night before came to pick us up and we were transported to the train station. We got our obligatory coffee and waited until our bus arrived. I must note that we didn’t nearly miss our bus as Alex was queuing for food and for some reason wasn’t getting served; probably his own fault. However, we got on safe and sound.
Zagreb Summary
- One of the places that surprised us most in terms of how much we enjoyed the place. Despite knowing we wanted to visit, we hadn’t read too much into the city itself.
- The part of the city we visited was very walkable which we enjoyed greatly; less spending money on transport.
- The food was amazing and fairly cheap. There was also a big coffee and drinking culture which was right up our street. The Saturday was particularly fun where we just sat outside in the cold with everyone else having drinks and chilling.
Europe Travel Diary
Next Post: Vienna ->
Disclaimer: Some of the links included on our website may contain affiliate links. We may receive some commission from purchases made via these but it will NOT affect the price you pay. This is to allow this site to stay online and ensure that readers use, what we believe, are the best products possible whilst travelling.
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