City Tour of Zagreb

After what was a late night for many (afterall, it was our first night in Croatia!), we had a good breakfast at the hotel and were met by a tour guide. Jelena, the guide, took us on a 3 hour walking tour of downtown Zagreb. We all enjoyed it immensely.

Downtown Zagreb is divided geographically into the lower part and the upper old town. The lower town is made up of mostly late nineteenth-century neoclassical buildings. Zagreb suffered a horrendous earthquake in the 1880s, so this is all "new" construction. Our favorite building was the National Theater (the yellow building in the group photo).

Upper Zagreb has an older feel and contains little cobblestone streets and older buildings. It's where one finds the Parliament building, the old palace of former kings, and the cathedral. It is Sunday and masses prohibited us from entering the cathedral, but I think many of us will return to visit tomorrow.


Jelena told us about famous Croatians, inventions from the region (including the necktie and the pen), and lots of intersting history. We heard about everything from the persecution of witches to the more recent torture of an archbishop who helped Jews and gypsies escape Nazi encampment only to suffer at the hands of the Communists.

After our tour, we all decided to eat lunch together - an indication of our group's strong cohesion. We ate pizza and pasta at a neat restaurant, and it was warm enough to sit outdoors. Now, I think many are napping and I plan to join them!

We made it!

After a very long journey, we finally made it to Zagreb. We had a long layover in Washington, DC and passed the time playing games (see photo below). Our next flight took us to Frankfort, Germany, and it took about 8 hours. Some slept better than others. The Frankfort airport was a nightmare! There were no clear instructions and no one was around to help us. We were lost for a while, but we finally got checked in at the correct location and took a bumpy ride to Zagreb. Our plane had another group of Americans - 43 of them making a pilgrimmage to Croatia.


Zagreb is surprisingly beautiful and we're all excited to be here. I think most of us went out for a walk right away. Our hotel is in a convenient location and there are lots of parks and boulevards for walking safely. We even ran into a St. Patrick's Day festival and saw men in kilts and heard live Irish rock music. Getting to the historic city center is an easy walk, and we're looking forward to a tour with a guide tomorrow morning. It will be nice to see more and to learn more about this city.

Getting ready for departure

We leave for Croatia this Friday! We are all getting really excited. Since the beginning of the semester we've been sitting in class learning about the Croatian language, customs and culture. Finally we'll get to say "bog" and "hvala" to people by the end of the week.

Tonight our class is meeting for dinner to relax and get to know each other. All of the chaperones should be there, too, which will be fun. We're supposed to eat some food that resembles Croatian food. It should be interesting considering that the Union - where we're eating - doesn't serve Croation food. If they give us pizza or fish, that should be close enough!

Twenty-three people will travel together on this trip. We'll first visit Zagreb and spend a lot of time with the International Graduate Business School there. IGBS is planning lots of business visits with companies such as Coca Cola and Ericsson. After Zagreb we drive toward Split. On the way, we'll make a stop at Plitvice National Park, reputed to be one of the prettiest places on the planet. After a day and night in Split we head to Dubrovnik. A prime destination for European tourists, we'll learn about the hotel and restaurant industries there. We'll also get to relax a bit before our long journey home.

Depending on the availability of an internet connection, we'll try to make regular posts during our travels.