96. A New Chapter

Mom took the best title for today’s blog with “We’re breaking up” so I went with a more cliché one.  I couldn’t have asked for a better last day with my family in Europe. There was no fighting, and everyone enjoyed every place we went. Maybe it was the promise of goodies along the way, but I choose to believe we just sometimes enjoy each others company. As today was the last day the entire Friend family would be together, it was very fitting that our first stop was the “Museum of Broken Relationships.” It is exactly what it sounds like. People take mementos from their old relationships and add them to this collection. The random collection of stuff is accompanied with the story behind the relationship. These stories ranged from long distance love love that just wasn’t meant to be, to cheating husbands and wives. Here are a few of my favorite pieces.

 "He was a player"

 "She loved antiques - as long as things were old and didn't work. That is precisely the reason why we are not together anymore"

 "When I moved out and across the country, I took the toaster. That'll show you, how are you going to toast anything now?"

 "Not compatible"

 The story behind this one was fantastic. The girlfriend went on a trip for work, "fell in love" with someone else, then went on a vacation with them. This person took an axe to every single piece of furniture the girl left in the apartment. When she came to get her stuff back, she got a pile of broken stuff.

They started drug dealing together. One would think this would lead to a healthy relationship and lifestyle, right? I guess not.

Although we are in Zagreb, right down the street there was an authentic Belgian waffle shop. We had to stop by. There was even wifi and a chess board! I was able to show my dominance over Scarlet by beating her in a game.

After, we had a quick lunch at the apartment, and trying to get Arden to take some of my stuff home in her bag when she goes home.  Scarlet and I are going to need the extra space for our shopping spree finds with Grandma and Grandpa! They arrived in Zagreb this afternoon and we didn’t give them a moment of rest before showing up on their doorstep ready for some people watching and museum hopping. I don’t even remember the name of the first museum we visited, but after walking through a few rooms of old garments, we stumbled upon my favorite kind of art, modern art! Modern art museums never ever fail to be entertaining. This one might have been the best yet. We saw the typical creepy mannequins and Barbie dolls that every modern art museum has, and then walked by some super sexist and racist exhibits. This stuff was prime! I can’t post all of the pictures I took because mom said they were too racy, but ask me in person and I’ll whip out my camera on the spot.

As you might be thinking, these museums might be hard to follow, but we managed to enjoy just one more. The Museum of Naïve Art. The pieces were created in the early 1900’s to portray a time when most of Croatia was illiterate and living medieval lifestyles. The artists were all uneducated, most with only 5 years of schooling, and definitely no art training. They painted on glass, but did everything backwards. So they would paint the foreground first and finish with the background. What we were looking at was the glass flipped over, which is different than what we have seen in the past. The collection was impressive and small, so it kept our attention throughout and we didn’t get bored.

It was dinner time, and we were with Grandma and Grandpa, so that means we were eating out! We found some nice seats between some space heaters and everyone ate way too much. The favorite plate was Zagreb style steak. I call it Weiner schnitzel stuffed with cheese. As if this wasn’t enough, we also stopped at the famous ice cream place before heading home! I’m not sure if I’ll be okay with going back to America where there isn’t a nice ice cream place on every corner.

We took Grandma and grandpa back to our lair to force them into looking at everything we had bought, all of our pictures, and my new postcard collection. Once they started falling asleep on our couch, we called it a night.

Scarlet and I are staying in the hotel right now. We are weaning ourselves from the family slowly. We know they are going to have a hard time going on without us in Europe for the next few days before they fly home. It is odd sitting in the lobby of a hotel room typing this blog instead of a living room surrounded by Brody playing clash of clans, Arden watching One Direction videos, Scarlet cramming in schoolwork, and Mom and Dad figuring out our schedule. Tomorrow, we will see them for breakfast and then see them off on their train ride to Budapest, Scarlet and I have a couple more days here in Zagreb with Grandma and Grandpa before we board the boat that will take us along the Dalmatian Coast for the next two weeks.