Zagreb Vegan Scene: The Art of Rawby Randi / August 27, 2013 On Saturday night, I was expecting to enjoy a meal at Zrno, but when I arrived around 7:15pm, the sole staffer there told me they were closed. Cue tears (almost). Luckily, I had Green Point marked on my map, and luckily, it’s open pretty late.
Green Point offers vegetarian fast food, which is always necessary to have in a city. It’s a small space, with only a counter behind which the one worker heats up the frozen patties, makes smoothies, and easily prepares whatever else they offer. Obviously, and sadly, there is no bathroom.
Green Point offers vegetarian fast food, which is always necessary to have in a city. It’s a small space, with only a counter behind which the one worker heats up the frozen patties, makes smoothies, and easily prepares whatever else they offer. Obviously, and sadly, there is no bathroom.
On one of the main drags, a tiny cutout of a place houses the vegetarian fast food joint Green Point. It’s easy, quick, and decent. And, thankfully, it’s open past 7pm – a rarity in Zagreb. A lot of the items looked and sounded really interesting, but unfortunately the majority were not vegan. I ordered a hemp burger without cheese (only regular cheese here).
The burger was pretty good. It tasted like slightly more interesting Boca burger, and had bit of spicy salsa, along with tomato and lettuce on a big bun. It needed more sauce to counter all the breading, but there were few vegan options.
The burger was pretty good. It tasted like slightly more interesting Boca burger, and had bit of spicy salsa, along with tomato and lettuce on a big bun. It needed more sauce to counter all the breading, but there were few vegan options.
I also ordered a banana hemp soy milk shake. It was decent, but not as thick or cold as I wanted it to be.
I wouldn’t go out of the way to come here if you are vegan. Vegetarians would have tons more options that looked more interesting. But hey if you are hungry and it’s past 7pm, it’s a great option to have.
I wouldn’t go out of the way to come here if you are vegan. Vegetarians would have tons more options that looked more interesting. But hey if you are hungry and it’s past 7pm, it’s a great option to have.
Green Point, Zagreb
Varšavska ulica 10
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Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina: The Bridge to Beat All Bridges
Early one morning after several days in Sarajevo, we took a rickety, smoke-filled train (again!) to the tiny town of Mostar, down in the Herzegovina region of the country. This route had even more beautiful views.
I know!
This is the reason for going to Mostar
Mostar is most famous because of its devastatingly beautiful bridge, Stari Most. Because of it, and because it’s a pleasant (now) little town, it is a very popular tourist stop. In the old city section and of course on the bridge, you’ll be caught in throngs of tourists, most of whom are over from Dubrovnik for the day. (It makes an easy day trip from there, which all the tour companies can seduce you with, but I recommend coming down from Sarajevo so you can see more of the country.)
I didn’t care about the crowds, because this site is so lovely and so historically interesting. Stari Most, or the Old Bridge, was built in the 16th century and was a marvel for its time, “the longest only single-span stone arch in the world” (so says my Rick Steves guidebook in an unattributed quote). The strong bridge stood up during the World Wars, becoming a lasting symbol of Herzegovina.
Despite having withstood so many foes, the 1990s war proved too much for the bridge. As bombing hit Mostar in 1993, the bridge suffered direct hits. Then one final shell hit, and the people watched as the symbol of their history and home collapsed into the Neretva River.
I didn’t care about the crowds, because this site is so lovely and so historically interesting. Stari Most, or the Old Bridge, was built in the 16th century and was a marvel for its time, “the longest only single-span stone arch in the world” (so says my Rick Steves guidebook in an unattributed quote). The strong bridge stood up during the World Wars, becoming a lasting symbol of Herzegovina.
Despite having withstood so many foes, the 1990s war proved too much for the bridge. As bombing hit Mostar in 1993, the bridge suffered direct hits. Then one final shell hit, and the people watched as the symbol of their history and home collapsed into the Neretva River.
The view from the bridge in Mostar (not to be confused with the play Scarlett Johansson won a Tony for #trivia)
Although the destruction of the bridge was strategic, as it cut off supplies for those living in the city, it really was a brutal symbolic devastation.
Thankfully, the bridge was reconstructed after the war. Stones from the original bridge were salvaged from the water (by divers from the Hungarian army) and used in the rebuilding. The rest was cut from the original quarry, and workers rebuilt using the same technology as used in the 16th century, to guarantee authenticity. It’s one of those rare cases where the reconstructed monument is just as impressive as the original would have been, but perhaps even more meaningful.
Thankfully, the bridge was reconstructed after the war. Stones from the original bridge were salvaged from the water (by divers from the Hungarian army) and used in the rebuilding. The rest was cut from the original quarry, and workers rebuilt using the same technology as used in the 16th century, to guarantee authenticity. It’s one of those rare cases where the reconstructed monument is just as impressive as the original would have been, but perhaps even more meaningful.
Walking around the old town, you’ll probably feel like you do in most heavily touristed European city centers, with vendors trying to hock whatever goods they can sell you with the town name written on them, and at least one gelato cart on every corner. (The good news – several of the carts had accidentally vegan fruit flavors! One English-speaking vendor even answered my “Does this flavor have milk in it?” with “No, all of our fruit flavors are made with water.” Pretty awesome. Just ask, though, because just a few yards away another vendor told me, “All ice cream has milk!” with a dumb look on her dumb face.)
As in Sarajevo, it’s worth paying for a short tour, because odds are your guide lived here during the war. I called Alma Elezovic (aelezovic@gmail.com), recommended in the Rick Steves guide, but she was busy so she sent her son Yaz. He was fantastic. He seriously spoke English better than I do, and spoke it with a perfect (and east coast?) American accent. I asked where he spent his time in America and he said he’s never been. Linguists, go study him. It was only 20 euro per person for more than 2 hours (which is all it takes to get around the old town), and included entry into a mosque.
As in Sarajevo, it’s worth paying for a short tour, because odds are your guide lived here during the war. I called Alma Elezovic (aelezovic@gmail.com), recommended in the Rick Steves guide, but she was busy so she sent her son Yaz. He was fantastic. He seriously spoke English better than I do, and spoke it with a perfect (and east coast?) American accent. I asked where he spent his time in America and he said he’s never been. Linguists, go study him. It was only 20 euro per person for more than 2 hours (which is all it takes to get around the old town), and included entry into a mosque.
The former front line of Mostar
This street was the front line during the war. Yaz said that on any day, bodies would fill the streets. Relatives were too scared of being gunned down by snipers to retrieve the bodies.
The future site of the Mostar Synagogue, on the former front line
This lot is the future home of the Mostar Synagogue. During the war, Jews acted as intermediaries, crossing the front line to transport supplies and information. As thanks for their heroism, the city offered to donate any piece of land the Jewish community wanted, and they chose this symbolic spot right on the former front line.
Doesn’t get old
Don’t try this!
You’ll probably see young men in bathing suits (*cough* Speedos *cough*) on Stari Most hustling tourists for money. They are soliciting donations to jump into the river, which is dangerous not only because of the height but because the temperature drops about 50 degrees from the bridge to the water. The divers will wet themselves first to reset their body temperature (and probably will again after they jump heyoooo!).
Outside the old town, you’ll see what is so prevalent around Bosnia-Herzegovina – the juxtaposition of the new, modern rebuilding and the decrepit, destroyed buildings from the war. It’s quite shocking to see such buildings next to each other, isn’t it?
The food isn’t great for vegans, but here’s a recap of what I ate.
It’s worth spending a night here so you can take your time, walk outside of the touristy center, and enjoy Mostar in the evening. We stayed at a lovely pension just a few minutes from the bridge, called Pansion Cardak. The woman who runs it, Suzana, is the nicest ever. The rooms (four in total) are clean, simple, and affordable.
I highly recommend that you fit a trip to Mostar into your itinerary. Stari Most is really so beautiful, and the interesting history of the small town is worth learning about. Mostar makes a great day trip from Dubrovnik, or better yet a stopover from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik or Montenegro.
It’s worth spending a night here so you can take your time, walk outside of the touristy center, and enjoy Mostar in the evening. We stayed at a lovely pension just a few minutes from the bridge, called Pansion Cardak. The woman who runs it, Suzana, is the nicest ever. The rooms (four in total) are clean, simple, and affordable.
I highly recommend that you fit a trip to Mostar into your itinerary. Stari Most is really so beautiful, and the interesting history of the small town is worth learning about. Mostar makes a great day trip from Dubrovnik, or better yet a stopover from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik or Montenegro.
One last view of Mostar, taken at dawn
The Yucatan Adventure Continues: Vegan Food, Hotels, Beaches, & More Merida
Last week, we were finishing up some wonderful sightseeing in Merida, seeing Uxmal, the Choco-Story chocolate museum, the Museo del Mundo Maya, and of course our favorite thing: cenotes. You may have noticed/I told you we were saving the most important aspects of that part of our adventure – vegan food, hotel, pools, beaches, you know, the fun parts – for today. We went to Mexico almost entirely for the food (I’d say 70% food, 60% sights, 40% non-food cultural experiences, 50% cenotes…math checks out) and our culinary adventures through Merida and the Yucatan post-Valladolid supported our decisions.
Catch up on the Yucatan adventure!
Part 1:
Part 2:
A long, hot drive to Merida led us to our hotel for three nights (absurdly long for us) called Casa Lucia, a lovely little boutique hotel with a giant, clean bed, a good shower, and most importantly, a lovely pool area. When in Mexico in the summer, you need to find lodging that has a pool, that’s just the rule and we don’t support rule-breakers here.
Although the poolside bar service didn’t really work (where did that phone actually call??), the pool area was just what we needed after our long days of tourism. It was empty a few times, but mostly there were just 3-4 other guests using it, the benefit of a rather small hotel. I loved attempting to relax in the hammock even though I never trust them.
The rooms were spread around this courtyard on 2-3 levels, and everything felt really spacious and private. Here’s my standard hotel bed picture!
i love bed
Since we were staying at Casa Lucia 3 nights, and when we travel we normally don’t have that much time at one hotel, I like to make the most of longer stays by unpacking COMPLETELY. Every sock, every extra ziplock bag, everything gets unpacked if I’m in a place longer than 2 nights. It’s honestly one of my top travel tips because it brings me some weird sort of peace, like feeling at home.
For our first night in Merida, we had a decent list of all the vegan-friendly restaurants we wanted to try, but guess what – it was Monday, and like Dave says in the movie “Dave” but the exact opposite, “Everything is closed on Mondays!” Ughhh. Well what would be our favorite restaurant in the Yucatan, Distrito Vegano (infra!) (I’ve never been so excited about an infra before but I am! it’s a good one! (it means below/later in this writing)), was open but it’s outside the city center and we didn’t feel like driving any more. So our only real option was the chain restaurant 100% Natural, which I obviously called Mr. Natural. It has easy-for-tourist menus with pictures, English versions, and vegan options clearly marked, and since we were beat (BEAT!) it was a good simple option. The food was whatever but it was exactly what we were after – quick, easy, no-thinking. I got a bowl of kale soup that was Not Good, but I also got mushroom tacos that were Very Good, so it averaged out to be a fine dinner.
After dinner, we walked through the main square, saw the requisite dancing in the square as one does throughout the Yucatan and as one learned in previous posts, and…went to church. No but our hotel was on the same block as this cute lil church so we took a picture and crossed ourselves? and went on our merry way.
Our merry way included some stops in other cute lil places, namely cute lil shops, including one where I got THE FUNNIEST coin purse I’ve EVER seen and will post in my instagram stories for you to enjoy, and one where I found mamey flavored bolis! Bolis are like bags of flavored water ice – you just bite the corner off the plastic bag and it’s like a big ice…bar…kinda jawn. I’m so glad I got to try something mamey flavored. So good!
lol that hand is twice lifesize on my desktop
The next day, we went to Uxmal and the ChocolateLand (Choco-Story museum), which you already read about. What you didn’t already read about was that, there’s not really any food out there. Luckily, we brought sufficient snacks (bananas, Justin’s peanut butter packs (ALWAYS when traveling!), lime nuts, chips/salty things of all shapes and sizes) to get us through the day, but that’s a big day, and in this heat, oof, we were pretty hungry. Luckily, we had made a reservation for that evening for dinner at Lo Que Hay, the vegan restaurant inside Merida’s Hotel MedioMundo.
The owners of Lo Que Hay were very helpful and friendly (and fluent in English). I believe one is originally from Lebanon, and so the set menu varies between Lebanese and Mexican food. The night we booked was Lebanese night, which is fine, but we really were after Mexican food all day err day. If you’ve been in Mexico for a while and need a break from Mexican food, this would be absolutely perfect because it was delicious, but we were the tiniest bit disappointed to miss an opportunity for MOAR MEXICAN FOOD.
It was good though, and it was outside in a lovely setting. For 200 pesos, or $10, we got a nice spread (though not as much food as we expected/hoped, it was probably a normal amount for normal people).
We started with a mezze plate with hummus, babaghanoush, tabouli made with quinoa, falafel, and pita.
All the components were great! The falafel reminded us more of kibbeh, not that it mattered since it was all good. We just like…wanted more. And we wanted it to be Mexican food. Lol that’s OUR BAD. It was really good though, truly.
Next was mjadara, or lentils with basmati rice, plus a purple cabbage and lemon salad.
The fried onions were amazing with the lentils and rice, and like everything else it was really good. Just unexpectedly not Mexican food. Okay okay you get it!
Dessert was lemon sorbet, which was fine (you know how I feel about sorbet but when it’s a hot destination like this it’s fine, I’m fine) and not pictured because guys it was hot out and it was melting!
I definitely recommend going to Lo Que Hay for a lovely dinner, but make sure you are cool with whatever menu they have going on your night because you might not get the tacos your body desperately needs.
Our third day in Merida was a doozy. We decided to enjoy a beach day at Progreso beach, about a half hour from Merida, after we visited the Mundo Maya museo. Progreso is a very normal-life beach – not really built for tourists (good!) but for locals and people who generally can figure shit out on their own. We can figure shit out on our own and don’t need luxury or anything, but Progreso still wasn’t my favorite because…it was windy. I know you’re like oh boo hoo the beach was windy? the Mexican beach you got to visit? But guys, it was like, RULL windy. Like glasses and beer bottles (not mine) and silverware and menus blowing off the tables of beachside restaurants and cafes windy. Like Arabian nights sandstorm looking jawn windy. And most importantly, like ohh this is how people get swept out to sea in harsh rip currents windy. We went in the ocean but it was rough, and it was kinda scary. Yeah there are lifeguards but they’re not like, life guarantors. And it was kind of too windy to enjoy ourselves. We tried to swim, we tried to sit at a little cafe table and enjoy horchata, we tried to really do anything but all we could do was fight the wind (with eyes closed). It was too windy to take our phones out and take pictures! This is literally the only photo we took the entire time!
So, our day at Progreso was a bust. It might have just been an off day, but I figure if you are going to Mexico for the beaches, you got off the bus long before you reached this point in the Yucatan, so stay in Tulum or whatever, or commit to having a non-beachy holiday.
The saddest part was that we went out here in large part to eat at vegan-friendly restaurant Milk Bar, which has amazing reviews. SO EXCITED! SO WORTH THE WIND! We did not expect that Milk Bar’s closed day of choice would be Wednesdays. Yup you guessed it, this was a Wednesday. Dammit! We had a heck of a time walking around the little streets trying to find a restaurant with vegan food. We finally find one called La Antigua and the entire staff was so nice in trying to feed us enough, and they definitely did. I don’t even know if they ever had to deal with a vegan before but they really tried to make me happy and succeeded, which given the rest of the experience in Progreso was a g-d miracle.
Of course, we got guacamole, which was great. They also made this gigantic pear and pecan salad (it seemed like a salad-trustworthy place, and I did not get sick), grilled mushrooms, and black bean dip.
So it worked out well, food wise. It seemed like they felt bad about not having vegan stuff on the menu so they made and brought out everything they could think of! It was so much, and all really good. I just wish the beachy part of the day had worked out as well!
Luckily, that night, our final night in Merida, was The Time.
The Time for Distrito Vegano, the best restaurant in Merida. AND IT’S ALL VEGAN! I’m so excited just remembering how great this place was.
WE GOT SO MUCH FOOD. OK not really we got a normal amount of food but I have a lot of pictures. The special El Xolo hot dog, made with lentils and seitan, was great. The tacos, of any variety, were great. But the torta, MY GOD THE TORTA. It might be because it was my first torta (ever!) (baby’s first torta!) but it was AMAZING. Everything honestly was amazing. I wish I could go to DV every single week. The place was cute, the service was great, and the food was sensational. I LOVED it. I may have just been overexcited at the idea of the first all-vegan Mexican restaurant of our trip (not the last!!) but man alive this was all epic.
Distrito Vegano is a bit annoying to drive to – it’s outside the city and you have to drive on the highway to find it, and it’s like in a random spot, but it’s SO worth it. We finished dinner with peanut ice cream that was just as impressive as the rest. I really want a torta now!
Back in the main/old part of town, we strolled along the enormous fancy boulevard Paseo de Montejo, home to palace museums, rich people, and a well known cafe with a Chevy Impala just like perched on top.
This boulevard at night is also PRIMO DOGGO SPOTTINGO land. We met an older lady leaving her super-gated compound with THREE count em THREE good boys and we chatted and got to meet them. But then we like kept running into her on our walk and I think she thought we were following her and got scared and I SWEAR I wasn’t following I just get like magnetized towards dogs, I think? We mean no harm.
Anyway, we had such a great time in Merida and the Yucatan, and that brings this particular adventure to an end. The next morning, we would fly to Mexico City for even more amazing sights, vegan food, and good dog sightings (in increasing order of importance).
