Maksimir Park

The snow was pretty deep!

 Erin and I decided to pass some more of the time in the snow by going to see the huge park in Zagreb, called Maksimir.  It's like Zagreb's own Central Park and it's got to be over 500 acres, it's huge!  There are paths that go all over it, and several buildings, monuments, a church, lakes, and even a zoo!




We ate at the restaurant at the park too and it was the best chicken and croquettes, so yummy! They also had these awesome paintings on the wall that incorporated little pictures of the park in them but had a main scene painted over the top uniting all the little pictures into one, hard to explain but it was very fabulous art.

The first building we came across was a gazebo like place called the Echo Pavilion.  It is aptly named, and we had fun playing with the echo sounds and busting out some of our old tap moves while hanging out in there :)




The river that runs through the park was frozen over and you could barely tell what it was! Coming from Phoenix this was a sight to be seen!  We were like little kids seeing snow for the first time and were ooohing and awwwing at everything we came across. 




Soon we found an unfrozen part of a pond and lots of birds along with it!  Tons of ducks, a few swans and even some herons were enjoying the water and we had fun watching them, especially when the ducks got into a little brawl at one point. I'll just say there was some hostility and chasing. At one point the swan stepped in and made this big gesture with it's wings and a sound I've never heard before and definitely wouldn't picture coming from a swan, which pretty much got the pond back under control again.

the duck brawl

  

The snow was pretty deep and it was a challenge making our way through it at some points, and when we stopped to hang out on the benches it was pretty much like we were sitting on the ground because the snow came up to the seat of the bench!

There is an old church in the park and it was so tiny you could walk around the outside of the whole thing in a minute flat.  In fact it was apparently a popular exercise spot for doing just that because as we were looking at it a whole herd of what I can only assume to have been a high school track team came running by us, around the church and down the hill, and then passed us again twice as we were walking away from it.  It was very odd.  A whole huge park at their disposal and they run around and around one little area over and over again. 


By the time we got back down to the main path of the park it was starting to get dark so we decided to head home but we stopped and enjoyed the sunset for a while.  The snow covered trees were so gorgeous and made beautiful silhouettes against the sky as the sun was going down, it was really wonderful.


On our way out we caught a glimpse of the zoo and saw an emu!  He was just visible though the fence and we decided the zoo is definitely worth a visit sometime when the weather is a little warmer.