Ha! Not sure if it was coming off a wonderful week in Budapest with the best people ever OR the turmoil I put myself through deciding where to go next (stay in Croatia and work my way down to Greece OR work my way over to Italy and head down) OR maybe it was the fact that someone I care about at home was having a terrible week (P.S. addiction SUCKS!!!!!) OR maybe that the city was just waking up from their winter slumber and a lot of things weren’t open yet – most likely it was the unfortunate combination of all that. All the ORs and all the emotions made Zagreb…meh, for me. 

Now to be fair, I hope go back to Croatia a little later in the season to see Split, Hvar and Dubronik. Or, maybe I’ll just take the boat over from Italy and see what I really want to see, King’s Landing. 

On that note…my Zagreb Top 5.

Dear Zagreb, 

I hope we get the chance to, how you say “try again”. But for now, I just wanna remember the good times we shared. 🙂

1. The Free Spirit Walking Tours. Contrary to popular (aka my hostel’s) belief the free walking tours are year round – 11am at the Bloody Bridge. I highly recommend a free walking tour in every city that you visit. It’s a great way to get the lay of the land, meet people and learn more about the culture you just jumped into. But for me, it’s all about the tour guide. 98.3% of the time they are SO passionate about their city that you can’t help but sip the kool aid. Minus my disclaimer above, I really did enjoy this city’s history and all the stories of it’s medieval roots. Imagine a river dividing two towns in conflict, barbaric men pillaging women in the middle of the night and making them wave to their husbands from the opposing town walls the next morning, than everyone heads down to the Bloody Bridge for the final showdown. Ha. Coming from the States these stories seem like a fairytale. And we all know I love fairytales. 

2. The Museum of Broken Relationships. Imagine all the interesting breakup stories you’ve heard and give them each a talisman (like that CD you played on repeat when you started dating, or that sweatshirt you wore when you kissed for the first time, or the gift they gave you for Christmas 10 years ago, etc.) now put all the talisman in a museum. Volia. Here, you will experience every emotion imaginable. Get ready to cry, laugh, get angry, be heartbroken, seek revenge, you name it. This was a wonderful way to spend a couple hours. The strangest part – out of maybe 40ish stories, 4 or 5 of them were from Colorado. What’s that about, CO?

3. The Mirogoj Cemetery. I get it, I’m creepy. Just ask my mom I was a creepy little kid with all this stuff. Ha! But come on, look at this place! It’s more like a holy and beautiful park that you can wonder around and get lost in. And boy did I need an afternoon like that. I put my headphones in and just wondered. I took this time to think about addiction and how it’s killing the people that I love so much. And how I HATE it and wish my family didn’t have this struggle. I don’t know what your personal experiences are with addiction but it can ruin relationships, blow people up and make a mess of simple things. Ugh. I wish this for NO. ONE. The struggle is real and it’s ugly. Good thing there are some beautiful places in this world, even cemeteries, to take refuge in seasons like this.    

 

4. I came all the way to Croatia to see Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. After that sad note, let’s add a little celebrity. Haha. This seems so random. Or maybe not if you follow this kinda thing, but for me it seemed, totally random. Me – just walking down the street in Old Town Zagreb and into the Museum of Broken Relationships, turn around and guess who?! Seriously, SO strange.  

  

5. A good starting point for the rest of Croatia. I would HIGHLY recommend Croatia to anyone that asks. And I would say start in Zagreb, get some history, get your barrings and work your way down the beautiful country until you end up in Dubrovnik AKA King’s Land. Zagreb really is the backbone of this country and I can only imagine once I get over to see the rest of if I will appreciate my time there.    

All in all Zagreb, it wasn’t you, it was me. When I make it back to Croatia I might get you more and you might get me more. But for now, let’s just be aquaintances … that don’t talk much, k?

Deuces. ✌🏽

Emily Ann Peconi
Nerdy Girl Book Club

  

The Fever by Megan Abbott

I really wanted to LOVE this book. And I did … for the most part. It was a lot of build up for a pretty simple ending. So simple in fact I didn’t really see it coming. Haha. 

EP Tagline: Outbreak meets Mean Girls. Interesting, huh? It is pretty unique!

   

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Kinda like the movie but WAY more detailed. This was a perfect read for me in this traveling season. And I get it, people (mostly women) love books about women being empowered to do things out of the ordinary. Who run the world … girls! Right, B! But seriously, this book was a fantastic read. 

Notable Quotable: “I was entering. I was leaving. California streamed behind me like a long silk veil. I didn’t feel like a big fat idiot anymore. And I didn’t feel like a hard-ass motherfucking Amazonian queen. I felt fierce and humble and gathered up inside, like I was safe in this world too.”