New City, New Adventures

While I still have some pretty cool pics on my SD card from Dubai (indoor ski slope, anyone?), I would lag behind forever what with my, erm, jet-setting-lifestyle at the moment, so I recommend that you take a peek at the instagram pics in the sidebar if you feel so included.

So now I'm in Zagreb, Croatia's pretty capital. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but this is my first visit. Interestingly enough, most Austrians probably have been to the Croatian seaside at some stage, but very few of them have ever been to Zagreb on a private visit as opposed to a business trip. Well, I guess I live up to the cliché, but I'm happy to have the opportunity to see the city on business anyway. It is a place with quite a few things to discover, including the Museum of Broken Relationships, which I'd like to pay a visit to next time.

I'm staying in the stately Regent Esplanade hotel in the city centre, which couldn't be more different from last week's 5* hotel. K&K splendour from outside:

...and inside. So much stone (marble, granite, etc.) has been used for interior decoration, they must have chopped up whole quarries. The same holds true for expensive woods of which whole forests seem to have been put to good use: 

Bathroom floors and sinks are also made of stone. Oh, and L'Occitane goodies are among my favourites in hotels. I hate it when they give you cheap quality products in fancy looking packaging:

My "royal" bed and grandfather chair below. I wish they'd added a kettle, too, but probably they couldn't find a gilded one so decided to leave it out...

Yesterday, I got a guided city tour by two of my Croatian colleagues and we were lucky with the weather and excellent views as well.  Being me, I took dozens of pictures and here are some highlights:

entrance to the Cathedral

paricipants of the "Zagreb Time Machine" programme, where people enact local legends from the past and tell their stories to tourists, handing out free maps and brochures and posing for pictures with them: great idea!

The roof of St. Mark's Church

...once more, seen from Lotrščak Tower

Graffitti, same tower

You didn't seriously think I wouldn't find any shopportunities in Zagreb, now did you? My shopaholic radar sniffed out an Illamsqua flagship store and it would have been rude not to grab up something, so I settled for a pretty eyeshadow in "Slink". For the uninitiated: Illamasqua is a cult make-up brand that is not sold in Vienna. I don't like its packaging (reminds me of Anna Sui's a bit, which I don't really like either) but have heard good things about its quality and colour pay-off, so have high hopes on this purchase, which I got to replace a shimmery champagne-coloured eyeshadow that I had in an LE Bobbi Brown palette and couldn't repurchase.

Tomorrow, I'll get a lift to Ljubljana with a Slovenian colleague. A friend of mine recently remarked that I didn't really need to go on vacation any more what with all my business travels. Well, he has a point as I'm really enjoying the fact that I get to see new places on company money and am not one of those poor bastards who never get to see more than the airport, taxi and conference room. In fact I feel really privileged to get to stay in nice hotels in the city centre with the added benefit of local colleagues who take time to show me the hotspots and take me out to nice restaurants. There's also time for plenty of retail therapy so I really get to tick all boxes that equal "quality time" in my book.