A FEW GREEN VIEWS OF CROATIA

 My first few days in Croatia were in the capital city of Zagreb, after a scenic train ride from Ljubljana, Slovenia.  Zagreb city center area is mainly made up of Vienna style buildings built over 200 years ago and is showing its age.  Still, it is obvious that money from the growing tourist trade is being used to upgrade the city which is still recovering from an earthquake in 2020 as well.  A big plus in the city are its many parks in which the locals were enjoying the last warm days of a long summer.  I just loved the Zagreb Botanical Park which is over 100 years old and very much the early style of botanical parks where there is a huge collection of different labeled plants as a resource to university students.  From Zagreb I took a day tour to Plitvice Lakes National Park.  I had never heard of this park before going to Croatia, but the beauty of the place is just mind blowing.  Plus, it was Autumn, so all the fall colors of the trees made it even better.  Word must be getting out about the beauty of the place as the park is resorting to online reservations now to limit the numbers of people hiking each day in the park. 

From Zagreb it was a 5-hour bus ride down to the coast.  In the last hour of the trip, we changed from green farmlands to a very Mediterranean coastal landscape below rocky mountains.  It seemed every garden there had olive and mandarin trees in them.  The mandarin trees were loaded with gold fruit, and it was harvest time for the olives so you could see a few people concentrating on harvesting from one tree at a time with a net spread out on the ground under the tree.  Cabbages and Swiss chard seemed popular in vegetable gardens. I wish I had photos of these gardens, but I was viewing them from a moving bus. Newly picked Mandarins were cheap in the markets. Shelled walnuts and dried small figs were also cheap and seasonal, so I bought an ongoing supply of them for my snacks while on the move. Something to balance all the goodies I was buying at their wonderful bakeries.

Zagreb Botanical Park

Zagreb Flower Market

Zagreb Produce Market
The red umbrellas are traditional and symbolic of the city.

One tiny corner of the Plitvice Lakes National Park

House and outbuildings at Rastoke village

House entrance in the alleyways of Split

A roof garden in the old city of Dubrovnik as seen
 from the top of the city walls.

Harvest time at a Mandarin orchard.

Aloha

A FEW GREEN VIEWS OF ITALY

 I recently had five weeks in Europe and the first and last week of my trip was in Italy.  I have been to Italy before, so this was a chance to go visit areas there that I had missed out on before. Places like Ravenna with its early Christian mosaics and the ancient port of Rome, Ostia Antica.   In Rome, I wanted to visit Borghese Park, a big green space on the map of Rome that I had not seen on the last trip.  I must say I was a bit disappointed with the place.  Wonderful big old trees and it may have been very grand once, but now it looked worn and dusty with lots of litter not picked up.  Visiting the street markets is a pleasure in any Italian town and I am always happy to just explore down lanes and alleys without knowing where I am going and wonder what it would be like to live there.  I was impressed by the farmland around Ravenna.  Miles and miles of flat fields in concentrated use.  Lots of apple orchards and packing sheds for preparing the apples for market.  Here a few, sort of garden related, photos.

Entrance avenue at Borghese Park, Rome

The Hippodrome in Rome where they used to hold chariot races.
These days it is a popular space for large crowds of Roman citizens
to gather on important occasions. 

My favorite tree in Italy....the flat-topped Italian pines.
They are shown here in front of the Vittoriano monument in Rome.

A plant filled balcony in Rome.

The ruins of Ostia Antica are in a lovely park like setting 
out on the coast from Rome.

Hot peppers for sale in the Venice market.

Endives waiting to be sold at the Venice market.

A garden in Ravenna

Aloha

FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS FOR ALL SAINTS DAY IN SLOVENIA AND CROATIA

 

Last month I spent three weeks in Slovenia and Croatia and was there to see the run up to All Saints Day.   All Saints Day is on the first day of November and a national holiday in these two Roman Catholic countries.  It is of course the day after Halloween, but I saw no evidence of Halloween away from tourist hangouts. All Saints Day was definitely observed by all even if you were not religious.  It originally was a day of recognizing early Christian saints and martyrs, known and unknown, but now has become a day to remember all those who have passed away, especially in your family.  You may go to church for a special service but the main thing everybody does is make a visit to the graves of their family.  I visited the large historic Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb, Croatia and many people were there cleaning graves and setting out new memorial candles and flower arrangements in preparation for the holiday.  The street markets in the towns and cities all over had vendors selling flower arrangements for the graves.  It was all very interesting to check out and I am putting a few of my photos here.  There were some very creative and beautiful arrangements.

As an extras sideline to this story, I asked one of the vendors where all the flowers came from.  Were they grown locally or imported?  She thumped her chest to tell me she had grown them herself on her farm and then showed me her blackened and cracked thumb from all her work tending and cutting the flowers.  The term "green thumb" really has meaning to me now!

Remember you can click on the photos to make them bigger.

10 years ago, I was in Tahiti for All Saints Day.  You might find it interesting to compare the flower arrangements of the two parts of the world.  See my blog post for April 2012.

Flower arrangements for sale in Split, Croatia

Dried flower arrangements in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Moss covered wreaths in Zagreb flower market.  Croatia

Wreaths, the red fruit on them is rose hips.  Zagreb, Croatia

Autumn harvest arrangements, Zagreb, Croatia

A very tropical flower arrangement on one of the graves
at Mirogoj Cemetery, Zagreb, Croatia

Aloha