This month Claudia from Portugal shared her experience of Zagreb and what she got to see during her weekend stay in our town.

The first question I asked Claudia is one I'm always interested to know. Why Zagreb?

Weekend break

Imagine that, when people think about Croatia, the first thing that comes to their minds are the beaches and the countryside, and the country's big cities come after that. In my case, it was the opposite.

I'm Portuguese, and I live in Italy, in Genova. I had a friend from Portugal coming over, and we decided to go to Croatia, to spend a different weekend: 2 days discovering Zagreb. Why not?

Image credit: Claudia Coelho

Chilling in the city gardens

So where did you stay and what did you do?

We stayed at an airbnb, not that far away from the city center. Maybe 15 minutes walk from the center. The first day was dedicated to the discovery of the true essence of Zagreb. We started walking around the city center,  just following a little map and our own instincts. Zagreb is such an easy city to walk around, with so many colors, organized streets and lovely views! Oh, and the gardens... To be honest, I've never expected to go to Zagreb to chill and relax, although that was what I needed the most after such a difficult week, with an exam and then partying with my friend. But the thing is, I finally got what I wanted - sit down, relax, breath in and simply enjoy a lovely Saturday afternoon, and this was due to Zagreb's colorful gradens around the city. I even took a nap among the flowers!

The second day was, for this reason, dedicated to walking around the big parks of the city. We visited, at first, the big Jarun lake. As it was Sunday, many families were just enjoying a good sunny day in Zagreb. After that, we went to the Maksimir park, which is lovely. Having grown up in Portugal, I've hardly ever walked around such green areas, like the ones we saw at that park. So I was really impressed by the beautiful nature!

Image credit: Claudia Coelho

What did you like the most about Zagreb?

To end up, let's juts say that my absolute favorite in Zagreb were colors and the food! It was delicious! But I still have to figure out the reason why we were given raw onions as a side dish at the restaurants.

But we could not have asked for a better weekend. Thank you, Zagreb! Or better said, ''Hvala''!

Header image credit: J. Duval, TZGZ

Author: Darija Ilić