Zagreb

Zagreb, Croatia

The next morning, Karen, Ben and I headed for the main cemetery of Mirogji, which is located out of the city centre. It was worth the effort to get there. It was everything a big cemetery should be – restful, peaceful. There was a lot of impressive, ornate gravestones and tombs. We had a walk around the grounds, admiring the gravestones, speculating about the lives of the people buried there, and commiserating about the early deaths of the children.

When we left, we became aware of something happening – there were policemen everywhere and a growing stream of people heading towards the cemetery. We stopped someone, who spoke English and asked him what was happening. He explained it was the funeral of Zvonko Busic. Depending on your view point Busic is either a freedom fighter or a terrorist – he was fighting for Croatian independence in 1976 when he hi-jacked a plane and threatened to blow it up, and a bomb he’d planted in New York City exploded, killing a policeman. He had recently killed himself, and that day was his funeral. To the people of Croatia he is a hero and a freedom fighter, and they were flocking to the cemetery to pay their respects.
When we returned to the city centre, we had a walk round, seeing the sights and buildings. We also went to the Botanical Gardens. Karen and I also had a wander around the shops. Zagreb sadly is another place I didn’t really take to. Again, I’m not sure why – the architecture was generally impressive, I’ve been to bigger cities and liked them. But a number of the group didn’t like Zagreb. Dinner that night was good though, a group dinner at a restaurant that Louise has been to before. So, Zagreb isn’t all bad.