It took about three days in Zagreb for me to pluck up the courage to stop changing the subject whenever Cassy asked “the women here are so attractive aren’t they?” Zagreb has its fair share of fat women in black dresses with sunken faces. But it also has its unfair share of the other type as well.
The longer we stayed in Zagreb the more comfortable I felt discussing this state of affairs with Cassy. And we came up with a number of theories about what we were seeing.
Firstly, we spent most of our time wandering around the old town in Zagreb. This would be a bit like walking through inner city Melbourne and then forming conclusions on the attractiveness of Victorian ladies without visiting Frankston.
Secondly, the Zagreb women mostly have natural long hair. Clearly the beauty industry’s incessant demands that women continuously mess around with the length, colour and style of their hair, usually by artificial means, have not yet penetrated into northern Croatia. (Although we did see some unbelievably wrong hairstyles in Zagreb.)
Thirdly, no-one in Zagreb seemed to eat. Ever. It was almost impossible to find a restaurant. Everywhere we went the public spaces were filled with tables served by waiters from “Caffe Bars”. But the Caffe Bars serve no food. We could walk for half an hour without seeing a restaurant. We concluded that the women clearly weren’t eating anything.
Fourthly, the smoking. Smoking rates in Croatia are very high and people smoke everywhere. In May 2010 new legislation banned smoking indoors in restaurants and bars. By the end of October 2010 the new legislation had been amended to relax these requirements. And everyone seemed to ignore the bans anyway. Chefs smoked in their own non-smoking restaurants. Combined with the lack of eating, the women appeared to be surviving on smoke alone – which is not at all attractive – but might keep the thin. And smoking keeps the population young by killing people sooner.
Fifthly, and this is a sensitive issue, the population of Croatia is probably (I haven’t checked the numbers) suffering from a gender imbalance due to the number of males that were killed in the Balkans War of the early nineties. Were we simply noticing more women than men? Or were there less men meaning that the women had to compete harder in the glamour stakes?
Sixthly, Zagreb is a young, up and coming city. It is one of those cool aspirational places. And cool aspirational places beget cool aspirational people.
Finally, there was a lot of sport in and around Zagreb. Football, volleyball, basketball, water polo, rowing, kayaking, cycling, swimming, running ... the list goes on and on. We saw a lot of fit people, men and women.
Not having our bikes, and still wanting to retain our giant appetites for new foods, we took up walking. 15 kilometres seemed to be the right distance for a good walk. We walked around Lake Juran – the artificial lake hosting the rowing complex. We walked through the hills overlooking Zagreb. We walked through the shops. But mostly we walked just to find somewhere to eat. We walked to the art deco masterpiece that is the Astor Hotel for breakfast. One night we walked to a fabulous restaurant serving beautiful local fair and tasty wines where we were seated on our own private terrace. Until it started raining and we had to join the smokers inside.
There was nothing for it but for me to take the most beautiful girl in Zagreb and whisk her away to the most beautiful natural place in Croatia.
Lake Plevitce is sublime and listed on the UNESCO World Heritage register. It is one of those places where the natural beauty makes you want to stay there for days soaking in the sublimeness (or is it sublimity?). And everyone is taking photos of everything.
We stayed two nights in a little bed and breakfast inside the national park. The second day we walked down into the park. We walked past lakes and waterfalls until we were at a lakeside restaurant serving stodgy local fair. But we didn’t mind. We sat with hundreds of Croatian locals soaking up the atmosphere. We listened to a local marching band playing old and new favourites.
Then we boarded the electric boat for a short ride to the other side of the lake. And we walked through a hundred more waterfalls cascading the clearest water across rocks, underneath the boardwalks and through water plants of various shades of green. We walked past forests with trees leaning over with their boughs to touch the lake. The water was so clear you could see the whole length of 10 metre long trees that had fallen into the water. We walked and walked and still wanted to explore more. The next morning when I woke up I said to Cassy that I would happily spend another day walking along the same paths that we had the previous day.
Lake Plevitce is the busiest national park I have ever visited – but I can understand why. We will return there – hopefully in winter to see the snow blanketing the vivid palette of green and turning the water a different colour.
The longer we stayed in Zagreb the more comfortable I felt discussing this state of affairs with Cassy. And we came up with a number of theories about what we were seeing.
Firstly, we spent most of our time wandering around the old town in Zagreb. This would be a bit like walking through inner city Melbourne and then forming conclusions on the attractiveness of Victorian ladies without visiting Frankston.
Secondly, the Zagreb women mostly have natural long hair. Clearly the beauty industry’s incessant demands that women continuously mess around with the length, colour and style of their hair, usually by artificial means, have not yet penetrated into northern Croatia. (Although we did see some unbelievably wrong hairstyles in Zagreb.)
Thirdly, no-one in Zagreb seemed to eat. Ever. It was almost impossible to find a restaurant. Everywhere we went the public spaces were filled with tables served by waiters from “Caffe Bars”. But the Caffe Bars serve no food. We could walk for half an hour without seeing a restaurant. We concluded that the women clearly weren’t eating anything.
Fourthly, the smoking. Smoking rates in Croatia are very high and people smoke everywhere. In May 2010 new legislation banned smoking indoors in restaurants and bars. By the end of October 2010 the new legislation had been amended to relax these requirements. And everyone seemed to ignore the bans anyway. Chefs smoked in their own non-smoking restaurants. Combined with the lack of eating, the women appeared to be surviving on smoke alone – which is not at all attractive – but might keep the thin. And smoking keeps the population young by killing people sooner.
Fifthly, and this is a sensitive issue, the population of Croatia is probably (I haven’t checked the numbers) suffering from a gender imbalance due to the number of males that were killed in the Balkans War of the early nineties. Were we simply noticing more women than men? Or were there less men meaning that the women had to compete harder in the glamour stakes?
Sixthly, Zagreb is a young, up and coming city. It is one of those cool aspirational places. And cool aspirational places beget cool aspirational people.
Finally, there was a lot of sport in and around Zagreb. Football, volleyball, basketball, water polo, rowing, kayaking, cycling, swimming, running ... the list goes on and on. We saw a lot of fit people, men and women.
Not having our bikes, and still wanting to retain our giant appetites for new foods, we took up walking. 15 kilometres seemed to be the right distance for a good walk. We walked around Lake Juran – the artificial lake hosting the rowing complex. We walked through the hills overlooking Zagreb. We walked through the shops. But mostly we walked just to find somewhere to eat. We walked to the art deco masterpiece that is the Astor Hotel for breakfast. One night we walked to a fabulous restaurant serving beautiful local fair and tasty wines where we were seated on our own private terrace. Until it started raining and we had to join the smokers inside.
There was nothing for it but for me to take the most beautiful girl in Zagreb and whisk her away to the most beautiful natural place in Croatia.
Lake Plevitce is sublime and listed on the UNESCO World Heritage register. It is one of those places where the natural beauty makes you want to stay there for days soaking in the sublimeness (or is it sublimity?). And everyone is taking photos of everything.
We stayed two nights in a little bed and breakfast inside the national park. The second day we walked down into the park. We walked past lakes and waterfalls until we were at a lakeside restaurant serving stodgy local fair. But we didn’t mind. We sat with hundreds of Croatian locals soaking up the atmosphere. We listened to a local marching band playing old and new favourites.
Then we boarded the electric boat for a short ride to the other side of the lake. And we walked through a hundred more waterfalls cascading the clearest water across rocks, underneath the boardwalks and through water plants of various shades of green. We walked past forests with trees leaning over with their boughs to touch the lake. The water was so clear you could see the whole length of 10 metre long trees that had fallen into the water. We walked and walked and still wanted to explore more. The next morning when I woke up I said to Cassy that I would happily spend another day walking along the same paths that we had the previous day.
Lake Plevitce is the busiest national park I have ever visited – but I can understand why. We will return there – hopefully in winter to see the snow blanketing the vivid palette of green and turning the water a different colour.
