Zagreb, Croatia: Beautiful City with a City Center Full of Options

The New Zagreb Airport Terminal

We arrived in Zagreb, Croatia to a brand new airport. Our hosts from the company "GIS Cloud" told us even they were surprised at how nice it was. They took us to our hotel where we quickly checked in and then headed for the town center where the evening temperature was 40 degrees and dropping.

There is something magical when the air is cold, Christmas decorations are going up in the city, and Chestnuts are literally being roasted on an open fire. When we arrived we thought we'd be visiting a small town square, but we were surprised by a massive, bustling city center that must have stretched over a square mile.

The was a small farmers market loaded with local goods like honey, salami, bacon, produce, eggs, lavender, flowers, and what looked like local essential oils. There were endless retail shopping stores and lots of heated street-style restaurants with a variety of food ranging from burgers and pizza to coffee and gelato. We ended up going with a burger which was delicious and some apple cake for dessert. It was a beautiful evening, but we knew we'd need to return the next day to cover the rest of the square.

The next afternoon, we decided to try the local tram. After about a 15-minute wait, we caught the tram right into the city center for about 30 cents each. For comparison, an Uber ride from our hotel was about $3.

We arrived at about 1pm and the temperature was again about 40 degrees. The low that night would be 28. Wearing our heavy jackets, beanies, and gloves, we walked the streets of the center. Since it was Sunday afternoon, many of the shops were closed but there were a few open for business. 

Most of the restaurants were open and at about 3pm, a hot coffee sounded really good. We found a nice cafe and ordered the "large" coffee which was quite a bit smaller than a Starbucks tall. It was really good though and it was nice to get out of the cold for a few minutes. 

We found the vendor who was selling chestnuts that were roasted on an open fire and decided to try some. Sheri put the first one in her mouth and immediately made a face. She said she was going to need a drink of water because they were kind of pasty. She offered me one and I could see what she meant. The chestnut was warm and soft, but it felt like it was swelling inside my mouth with a dry, pasty texture. One was enough for me until we could find some water.

We decided to head back to the hotel and got a workout in at the gym, and then caught Newbreak's video sermon online before heading back to the square for dinner. It was way cheaper to eat dinner in the square than to eat at the hotel, plus the vibe was way better. We ate at a restaurant called Submarina, but it was really more of a burger joint. We carefully picked our table outside so we could sit near a heater. We ordered and split the Smokehouse burger along with some cheese fries that were really tasty. It was a nice day in the city center and if you are ever in Zagreb, you should definitely check it out!

Tomorrow we meet with the GIS software company we use to track and map all of our clean drinking water projects around the world. For me, that is one of my favorite parts of what I do as we get to map and quantify the life changes that take place when people receive clean drinking water systems. We are able to eliminate nearly all of their stomach sickness, keep kids in school more days, keep adults working more days, eliminate the need to purchase purified water, and cut their medical expenses way down! I'm looking forward to finally meeting the Croatian team in person!

Although Zagreb is a really nice, clean city in Croatia, the people that live here tell us that we should come to Croatia in the Summer to experience some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Maybe next time. For now, it was a nice break from the warmth of the Southern California weather to experience the brisk temperatures of Europe in the Fall. I'm hoping Fall will be in full force when we return home to San Diego on Tuesday. I'll be home for 2 1/2 weeks, then off to Liberia, Africa for more clean water adventures in the bush!

Brussels - So much to see. A day is not enough.

What could possibly be better than a beautiful evening in Brussels? Answer: A full day! But that would prove to be "not enough."

Our day began with another brisk walk to the Metro station. The tram was a new adventure last night but now it was the obvious choice for the most affordable and accessible way to get around Brussels. The first thing I noticed in the daylight was that Fall was in full force with beautiful colors throughout the city! 

Photo by Sheri Larson

We were at the end of the tram line and 15 stops later, we reached the heart of the city. The tram line gave us a good look at what I would call "purposeful graffiti." I've seen many city tram lines with random graffiti that is riddled with attempts to grab power or determine territory. In Brussels, graffiti was more of a giving display of artistic expression. There were miles of extensive, beautiful murals. None of them seemed to overlap, but rather shared in a collaborative expression of the diverse gift of life. I found it very refreshing and wished other cities would borrow this idea.

Photo by Sheri Larson

As we exited the tram, the city was just as bustling as the night before. The air was cold enough to see your breath, but still enough that a medium jacket kept us warm. We were excited to see that many more businesses were open in the day. I thought Brussels would be more of a night town, but many businesses close around 7 or 8pm. The chocolate stores were in full force and we went back into a few of them to take care of a few holiday requests.

As we made our way into the Royal Place square, the architecture was even more stunning. I don't think I noticed all of the gold trimmed buildings the night before. It was beautiful in the daylight! 

I found myself wishing we were here two weeks later as we could see all of the Christmas decorations being hung throughout the city and we could tell that Christmas time in Brussels would be a beautiful sight to behold!

Leaving the heart of the city we walked up a large hill to what would turn out to be the museum district. There were majestic buildings with ornate courtyards and scenic lookouts. We were definitely at the highest part of the city which gave us an incredible view back towards the Royal Place. It was worth the walk!

We ventured into one of the museums that featured a collection of rare books. There were 15th century Bibles on display as well as original era "Romeo and Juliet" copies. Even though I couldn't understand much of the placard descriptions, I felt the richness of history on display. The museum was free and I'm so glad we went in.

At the top of this section of the city was a collection of very nice hotels like the Hilton and Marriot. I looked them up on Trip Advisor and found out that they were only 2/3 the price of the hotel we stayed at near the convention center, and WAY nicer. In hindsight, I think I still would have picked the convention center hotel due to its proximity to the EXPO. I can't imagine hauling all our convention gear from the city square area. That said if you come to Brussels and are not here for a convention, consider staying up the hill from the Royal Place. It's about a 1/4 to 1/2 mile walk, but the area is safe and the walk will help your Fitbit. 

Photo by Sheri Larson

We spent a couple of hours at the top of the hill and by now the sun was starting to set. It's amazing the difference in temperature between 2pm and 3:30pm. A slight breeze made us wish we had our heavier jackets instead of the medium ones. As we walked down the hill I could feel my face starting to freeze, not my favorite feeling in the world. 

We really wanted to see a bit more of Brussels so we decided to take the Hop on Hop off bus around the city. Both levels were heated which was nice. Sheri and I have loved this tour in all of the cities we've visited and this one was worth it too. I'd recommend it if you ever come here.

After our bus tour, we made our way back to the square for a hot beverage. Starbucks was the choice and it hit the spot. Our day in Brussels was drawing to a close and we wished we had one more day to explore the Atomium and Mini Europe. Maybe next time. There is so much to see in Europe and one of these days we'd like to see it by train.

Next stop Croatia.

Brussels, Belgium - Beautiful City, Chocolate, Waffles and Tiny Coffee

Brussels is a city full of history, beautiful architecture, and the smell of waffles, chocolate, and tiny coffees. It is also the home of NATO and the capital of Europe. Brussels Expo is home to many worldwide conferences and that is where I would start my week. Welcome to the North where in November, it is dark until 7:30am and the sun sets before 5pm. A 43 degree high makes for some cold weather for a Southern California boy who is used to traveling in hot and humid places with lots of mosquitos. 

Our first morning started with a brisk walk to the AIDex Brussels conference where we finished setting up our booth before the crowds arrived at 9:30am. AIDex is the largest relief conference in Europe and Sawyer was a featured clean water company amongst a sea of Government and Non-Profit organizations from Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, African nations, and European agencies focusing on the Syrian refugee crisis. 

A highlight for me was getting to talk about Fiji and Liberia which both have border-to-border clean water efforts going on, and are the only 2 countries in the world where 100,000 Sawyer water filters are being deployed as part of the clean water solution! Getting to be a part of these clean water projects, plus many others around the world is a great thrill! 

Thursday morning before we headed to the convention, I was eating breakfast and felt a little tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see my wife's smiling face and I was so happy! She had just flown in from San Diego and I knew this trip was going to be extra special with her there! 

As the convention wound up on Thursday, we decided to head to downtown Brussels for the evening. It was cold outside, but not as bad as I thought it would be. From our hotel, we walked about a half mile to the local metro which is an awesome trolly system in Brussels. You can take a train just about anywhere in Europe! We took the metro right into the heart of the city. The night skyline was lit up and very beautiful. The cobblestone streets and historic buildings made for a picturesque setting.

One of the first things we noticed was there were tons of Chocolate shops! Brussels is home to some of the world's best Chocolatiers and their artistic crafts were on display in the storefront windows. Of course, we had to go into a few and try some samples. Some shops were very affordable and others were quite pricey, but they all smelled yummy!

After our chocolate appetizers, we decided to find somewhere for dinner. There was one particular street that was lined with restaurants and reminded me a bit of Little Italy in New York City. Outside every restaurant, there was someone recruiting customers. They all had a good sales pitch and we listened to each one, only to find ourselves back at the very first restaurant we saw. 

Now I'm a pretty boring foodie when I'm at home, although I do like trying new things. When I'm traveling I do try to branch out every once in a while and try something new, if I can ID it and it's not still moving! This time, I went for the steamed mussels and fries. I had never tried mussels before because they reminded me of my childhood days when my dad, brother and I would go down to the beach and surf fish. The bait of choice many times was mussels. The thought of eating that for dinner was never very appetizing, but I figured I would try it out when they told me that mussels were like clams and I like those.

They brought me a bucket of mussels, one so big, you would definitely have to "believe in yourself" in order to eat it all. So let's just say I really believed in myself that night. Eating a bucket of mussels was a bit like drinking a gallon of milk with a swizzle stick. There was a lot of work with small amounts of progress along the way. They were good though as they were cooked in a nice broth with celery.

After dinner, we took a walk to the Grand Place square which was beautiful! The architecture was stunning in this 360 view of Belgium royalty! There were many chocolate shops that lined the bottom floor, and to my surprise, a Starbucks. I refrained from Starbucks that night, but I have to admit, the thought of it sounded great as the normal cups of coffee in Europe are so tiny! I felt so American in that moment and realized how we have really grown to like our large cups of coffee! After all, we all drink it for the anti-oxidants right?!

For dessert, we had to try a Belgium waffle place. There are many waffle shops to choose from but we found one that served them with ice cream, fruit, and whipped cream. Mine came with fresh strawberries, pistachio ice cream, whipped cream, and a drizzle of Speculoos...aka cookie butter. WINNER! Sheri went a little more simple with a plain waffle with Nutella. 

After our dessert, we were stuffed and I looked for a place to throw away my trash. I looked across the street and saw what looked like a fancy trash bin. As I opened it I got an eerie feeling that this might be a mail delivery bin. My hunches were right and I'm so glad I didn't throw my trash in there! Funny moment! 

If you are ever in Brussels, you have to see it at night, especially the Royal Place! Knowing that we'd be back tomorrow in the day, I wondered what the daytime would be like. Stay tuned.