Blast from the past: the street where I grew up

While browsing the web, I usually find tons of pictures where citizens of Zagreb affectionately praise the city and claim usual nonsense that is "prettiest city in the world" and "we could never live anywhere else". Now, I always take these bombastic statements with a pinch of salt, because I was simply born with a natural reserve when it comes to putting something above everything else - it all comes down to perspective, experience and subjectivity. Even as a kid in a primary school I refused to believe our sea is the prettiest/bluest/clearest which was the official line fed to us kids - surely people on the other side of the world think their sea is the best sea in the world. Same for Zagreb - it has interesting Gothic architecture and occasional pretty, forgotten corner (that somehow escaped commercialisation) but to proclaim it prettiest city in the world sounds a bit far-fetched - sorry folks, even though I was born in Zagreb, I have seen many other prettiest places and during my 15 years of work on cruise ships I have been all over the world. As a capitol it naturally towers above everything else in Croatia but if you are looking for the similar style of architecture & culture, Vienna and Prague are far more fascinating. 

The busiest pedestrian street is nowadays ultra-commercialised Tkalčićeva street which is now completely occupied by cafe bars, terraces and night life. It seems that people find it very romantic because it still preserves old houses from centuries ago - however, dear reader, I grew up there, in fact this is where I started walking. And believe me, there was nothing romantic about living in a shabby, creaking & derelict houses without proper bath and shared WC in a corridor. It would be wonderful if I could say yes, it was poor but full of heart - no, it was poor, dirty and full of prostitution, alcoholism and theft. Neighbours stole from each other and on one occasion someone even stole our WC seat. For the life of me I don't understand how can anybody romanticise about living here, when people lacked central heating and used wood for heat, everybody washed in basins and hardly anybody had even a washing machine. These photographs shows the street exactly the way I remember it - it was not pedestrian yet, there were some occasional cars parked, houses were falling apart and there was not a trace of future cafe terraces that eventually swallowed the whole area. Somehow I lived on three different addresses here so I know the street very well and was a witness when in the late 1980s cafe bars started to mushroom everywhere - I lived my solitary student life with windows closed to block the noise from outside, because drunkards were yelling deep into the night. I left the place as fast as I could once I got the opportunity and believe me, I never went back - even when I visit Zagreb, I stay away from this place because it brings back bad memories and find it very amusing that this - previously one of the dirtiest and poorest neighbourhoods - is now considered trendy and fun. Sorry but I lived there and find nothing romantic about it. And from the safe distance now, I can tell you that there are many, many cities far prettiest than Zagreb. To people who could "never live anywhere else" I suggest, go and travel, see the world. Places like picturesque Samobor and Varaždin are far prettier.