The weekend is almost here! I hope you get plenty of opportunity to relax, have coffee with friends, go for a stroll, laugh, and buy yourself a little treat! If you were in Zagreb, here are some good places where you could do that… :)
Start off at the Hobby Art shop near the meridian… It’s a kind of warehouse-y space into which every imaginable craft has been crammed. Silk painting, ceramics, jewlery making, scrapbooking… You name it – you’ll find it here! They’re not really focused on the textile crafts (hm, don’t know what else to call them) such as sewing, knitting and crochet, but you can find some accessories for that too. Such as lovely ribbons to adorn your cardigans with, for example…
Most of the stuff is imported from Germany and sometimes you need to know what it is in order to, well, know what it is. :) While the shop assistants try to stay abreast of developments in various crafts, the shop gets extremely busy, and there are so many knick-knacks that they just can’t possibly understand it all perfectly. The other day, I bought some stuffing to put in toys, but when inquiring as to whether that was really what I thought it was and whether it would handle machine washing, all I got were apologies and shrugs… Well, it was still at a good price and I haven’t been able to find anything that had looked like it anywhere else, so I took my chances! On the other hand, I didn’t need anyone to tell me what this was:
Adorable, that’s that it was! :)
After you get your craft supplies, you might want to think about doing some grocery shopping too. If you’re of the strictly-organic type, bio&bio is a good choice. (Though you might be reminded at the entrance that not everyone can afford to make such choices…)
Their shops are relatively small, but well stocked with various things that may be difficult to get in ‘regular’ shops. It’s also a good place to try if you need some exotic spices or herbs…
If all that food-shopping makes you hungry, grab a snack at this house on wheels (? :D) selling home-made pies (the sign says “Grandma’s pies“).
After that, snack in hand, you can do some window-shopping for replicas of old Croatian jewlery (this is most likely from the Dubrovnik region).
While you may not feel ready to indulge in such a treat for yourself or for anyone else, do remember that a certain cheesy date is coming up… Cheesy or not, I’m sure no lady in your life (including yourself) would say no to a nice bunch of flowers. Luckily for you, there’s “a flower square” in Zagreb with about 6 little florists all crammed together. You can’t go wrong there!
And if you did pick up a gift for someone, you might need to send it off quickly. It won’t be a problem, as long as you remember – the colour of post in Croatia is yellow.
Finally, after all that hard work – you deserve a proper reward. Zagreb doesn’t have a cupcake shop (yet), but that doesn’t mean we don’t like our sweets. The drug of choice here is definitely icecream, and for that, there is no rival to Vincek. Conveniently located at the beginning of the main shopping street, this place is always overflowing with people, and fighting for a seat is quite normal. Not because of the location though. The icecream is magnificent, the scoops are huge (you can get mixed scoops if you like), and if you prefer to avoid the chill there’s cakes too. Vincek is a family business, which is perhaps why it sits in a little house crammed between two buildings full of shops… If you ask me, that just adds to the charm!
No photo of the icecream I had, though. Sorry, I got a little distracted by it… :)
Enjoy your weekend, everyone! :)
fridica 
Love the sheep and the cheerful yellow mailboxes. What a beautiful city!
What a nice tour of Zagreb! I’m quite envious of that big craft store there, we must be the only country not to have any!
Oh the adorable sheep!
I would like to see yarn shops too :))))
Haha, I’m not a big fan of yarn shops here, and more importantly, I think the ladies who work at them would not be big fans of me taking photos… I’ll see what I can do, though! :)
Damn, you need spy camera ;) Speaking of, I hope you’ve bought some of those 007 gadgets in London.
Lovely post! So nice to get an insider’s view of a famous place.
my husband and i went to croatia in fall 2009 and totally loved zagreb. i’d go back in a heartbeat. :)
Love your walks around Zagreb. What a quaint city! :)
Ozbiljno voliš Vinceka? Na inzistiranje moga muža lani smo navratili, iako sam ga upozoravala da se kvaliteta srozala (pratim što vele klijenti na forumu) i da to nije isti lokal kao prije 15 godina. Što reći? Više ne spominje Vinceka kada smo u Zagrebu, kolači prepuni margarina i biljnog vrhnja, masno do bola i neukusno, ta novac koji traže postoji i bolje.
Ja skoro nikad ne jedem kolae u slastiarnicama, jer sam previe naviknuta na domae kolae moje mame i sve to vani pojedem (bar u hrvatskim slastiarnicama) mi je premargarinasto i preslatko, tako da govorim prvenstveno o sladoledu. A to se sladoleda tie – da, oboavam vincek!
I see now that my next visit to Zagreb is going to be a loooong one :)
Je taj dućan onaj neki novi u Savskoj? Mislim da sam vidjela natpis iz tramvaja kad sam zadnji put bila u Zagrebu. Nažalost, nisam imala dovoljno vremena da uđem unutra.
A što se tiče stuffinga – dekorativni jastuci iz dućana tipa Plodine, Konzum. Popipaj malo da su baš punjeni onim nečim što izgleda kao predivo (neki od tih jastuka su punjeni sjeckanom spužvom, što nije baš dobro za igračke) i za 19,99 ili 29,99 kn ;) imaš materijala za masu igračkica, pogotovo ako se radi o nečemu sitnom tipa amigurumi.
Ovaj duan je u Vukovarskoj, zove se Hobby Art Chemaco, zapravo imaju i pristojnu stranicu: http://www.hobbyart-chemaco.hr/
Ovaj stuffing koji sam kupila e sad biti dovoljan za jedno poprilino dugo vrijeme… :D
znači onaj meridian je na vukovarskoj? moram ići jednom to vidjeti.
a kad smo baš kod šopinga, imam jedan prijedlog – a da “društvo” dovedeš na hrelič? ; DDDD
Da, na krianju Vukovarske i Drieve, kraj supermarketa Diona. Pao mi je ve Hreli na pamet, nisam ni sama tamo bila ve sto godina… Samo mislim da u ipak priekati malo toplije vrijeme ;)