Day 11: Saturday in Osijek

A day off from classifying books.  Hurray!

The first Saturday of the month is the antiques fair in the tvrda, the "old city" inside the Austo-Hungarian fortress between here and downtown. We were there last time, and I bought crystal fobs from antique chandeliers that I put on our Christmas tree. Today there was lots of beautiful stuff to see, but nothing I couldn't live without. The thing that tempted me was sweater/jackets in dark red, navy or gray with an ethnic border. Some were hooded or there were matching berets. My New Zealand "sheepskin" jacket broke the zipper in Dubrovnik. I have replaced zippers before, but not on something as heavy as this. I'm planning to abandon it. Replacing New Zealand with Croatia was attractive to me, but Steve thought these looked too folk costumey. Admitedly the cape in the same style made me want to sing, "The hills are alive with the sound of music." Looked like what Maria wore when they escaped.

The fair is in the main square of the Tvrda. One side is lined with outdoor coffee shops. So we took a break. In this panorama shot, you can see the back of Steve's head slightly to the right of center as you look over the coffee tables to the booths around the square. The spot of green is the brightest of the fleeces offered to keep coffee drinkers warm at this time of year.

I ordered hot chocolate, which the Croatians thicken slightly with corn starch so it's like hot runny chocolate pudding with lots of whipped cream on top.

We visited the Osijek Museum, which is on the right of the square in the pano shot. The school where we are staying is just outside the bounds of the ancient Roman fort that occupied the site of Osijek. Second to third centuries if I understood the museum labels properly. That was a challenge since they were all in Croatian, but there are certain expectations as to what information will be provided in the labels. The museum covered various local industries. We recognized part of the huge leather factory as the derelict building on a square near the river that we sometimes pass on our walks. What we had heard was that the factory owner was Serbian and left in the early 1990s. Whether it was still shoes and leather jackets at that time, I don't know. 

I tried to take a panorama shot from this point in the town two years ago, but under the old system of stitching separate photos, I couldn't get the exposures right with sun on part and shadow on the rest. Also vertical kept changing as I moved the camera around in the semi-circle and the corners of the buildings weren't necessarily in the center of the shots. My iphone does a much better job. The antique market and our coffee spot are up the street to the right.

Our ultimate destination was the zoo, up stream from downtown on the far side of the river. We reached it by a pedestrian bridge significantly downstream from the zoo. It was lunch time by the time we arrived, following the bike/pedestrian path on the river's edge, so we had lunch at the Zoo Hotel. In warmer weather they have tables outside along the path. Even now we ate in a sort of pavilion with clear plastic walls to keep out the wind. Comfortable with jackets on. Reminds me of eating on the deck at home in spring when it isn't quite warm enough but we are too eager to be content inside. I ordered something never on the menu in Minnesota or Wisconsin--carp. Not the greatest. I don't regret ordering it, but I probably won't order it again.

We had hoped to cross back over the river on the ferry we used last time. It runs on along a cable, propelled by the current like a sailboat sailing upwind. But evidentally it doesn't run at this time of year. Sigh. We walked back to the pedestrian bridge and up into the city to the street where the trolleys run. Just missed one, but didn't have to wait too long for the next, and got a ride home. According to the pedometer on my phone we had walked almost eight miles, so I guess we got enough exercise even with the trolly.

No plans for the evening beyond cup-a-soup in the room. We stopped at the bakery for bread on our way in. It is supposed to be rainy most of the rest of our time here, so we made it a point to spend today out. There is a concert we would like to get to tomorrow IF it isn't raining too badly.