I'm Heading Home in a Couple of Days.....Maybe.....

.....I'm getting conflicting reports--the embassy says all flights are still on hold but the travel agency in Texas says my reservations are confirmed so it's day-to-day right now.

The sunny weather has held since last Sunday and it starting to even get a little warm now. Finally!!! Because of the travel problems, I only had one student for today and tomorrow. His name is Vytautas Petravicihs and he drove down from Lithuania--a twenty hour drive. Do you have any idea what his name does to my spell checker?

Anyway, with just one person we got finished early and with the beautiful weather I decided to go back to Maksimir Park when we got back to the hotel. I had gone there briefly Saturday morning but wanted to do some walking around in a new area so I took the trolleys (I'm getting very comfortable making trolley transfers without even checking the maps now) out to the park.

It's a beautiful old park--built in 1862 and named after Emperor Maximilian--and shows its age but is still a real pleasure to walk around in. There are literally miles and miles of trails with occasional pavilions, obelisks and monuments. This obelisk commemorates the establishment of the park and was dedicated in 1863.

.

Another monument of a large falcon is the Mogila--created in 1925 to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the founding the the first Croatian Kingdom.

.

Modern Croatia dates back only to 1995 and independence from Yugoslavia but the Croatian nation has survived the Ottoman Turks, World War I (which started in the Balkans), Nazi Occupation, and Communist rule. Croatian nationalism is resilient and very obvious around Zagreb today. I also stumbled across an old chapel on one of the trails--build in the late 1800s. Croatia is abut 85% Catholic and they don't hesitate to mix the church with the state here.

.

I walked around for probably two hours admiring the trees, lakes and scenery. One thing I seem to remember from my early travels is that Europeans know how to design parks. Or maybe its just that they know how to use them. Although it was a mid-week afternoon, there were people everywhere--young couples, older retires, families with children, joggers and bicyclists. What I didn't see were drug dealers, graffiti, hookers, panhandlers or homeless sleeping on the benches. It was really refreshing just seeing a park being enjoyed by everybody.


I caught a trolley back to the main square and walked up into the Old City and ate at an outdoor restaurant called Leonardo's. It's build on a steep cobblestone alley and the seating looks a lot like a cable car. I had a table about half-way up with a nice view of the cathedral spires as the sun was going down. Had a Greek salad and a small pizza. Life is good......
.