november-2010

WEEKENDER | ZAGREB
I joined locals in the Saturday morning
tradition of spica, a communal gathering
over coffee to chat at terrace cafés around the
fl ower market.
Zagreb’s fi nest art collection is housed
at the downtown Mimara Museum (5
Roosevelt trg, tel: +385 1 48 28 100) with
nearly 2,000 items, including Spanish and
Flemish masters, in a grandiose building
amid the grid-patterned streets of the Lower
Town. Nearby, there are works by El Greco
and Delacroix in the neo-Renaissance palace
of Strossmayer’s Gallery of Old Masters
(11 Nikole Šubića Zrinskog Trg, tel: +385
1 489 5117). Moving into the 21st century,
and taking a tram over the Sava river to the
post-war residential blocks of New Zagreb,
I saw Croatia’s cutting-edge creatives at the
newly opened Museum of Contemporary
Art (MSU; 17 Avenija Dubrovnik, tel: +385
1 60 52 700, msu.hr). The most important
(and largest) cultural institution to open in
Croatia for decades, the Muzej Suvremene
Umjetnosti puts particular focus on local,
innovative computer art from the 1970s.
Much of the city’s action seems to be
moving to New Zagreb, where I found an
early-evening drink at underground music
60 | TRAVELLER | 15 TH BIRTHDAY ISSUE
bar Spunk (Hrvatske bratske zajednice, tel:
+385 1 61 51 528), near the famed classical
music arena of the Lisinski Hall.
I headed back to the Esplanade for
light, Mediterranean cuisine at the highend
Zinfandel’s, before moving on to the
adjoining bistro for the fi nest štrukli in town
(Croatia’s strudel-like pastry delicacy). A
short walk past the Botanical Garden, I took
a number 17 tram out to Lake Jarun and
Aquarius (Aleja Matije Ljubeka, aquarius.hr)
Zagreb’s longest-running DJ club. There are a
couple of top clubs around the lake (including
Gallery, where stars such as David Guetta
and Ian Pooley have appeared recently),
but Aquarius has attracted Croatia’s (and
occasionally Europe’s) best since 1992. The
admission fee was easily affordable, allowing
for a blurry taxi ride home.
Clockwise from below, St Mark’s
church; Zinfandel’s restaurant;
the Regent Esplanade hotel;
the funicular railway to Lotrs˘c˘ak
Tower; Zagreb cathedral
SUNDAY
On my last day, I joined other local browsers
at Britanski Trg (British Square) market, a
Sunday-morning ritual with classic Yugoslavera
mementos and sundry bric-à-brac at
more than 100 stalls. A coffee nearby was
obligatory, and the best is found at Eli’s
Caffé (63 Ilica, tel: +385 91 527 9990), where
Trieste-trained baristas serve various Arabic
brands. That left just enough time for a
farewell, hangover-killing lunchtime feast at
the traditional Stari Fijaker by Britanski Trg
(6 Matija Mesnića, tel: +385 1 48 33 829),
where I tucked into a classic local Zagrebac˘ki
odrezak schnitzel (veal schnitzel) amid sepia
prints of fi n-de-siècle Zagreb. Remembering
the people back home I purchased a couple
of good quality souvenirs at Babina Kuća
(7 Strossmayerov Trg, tel: +385 1 48 52
525) – gingerbread and hand-crafted items
for the kitchen – before a dash back to the
Esplanade to pick up my luggage and head to
the airport.
easyJet flies to...
Zagreb from London Gatwick and
Paris CDG. See our insider guide on
page 178. Book online at easyJet.com
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