Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/201279
But many here hope to put the past far behind them. Croatia, for one, joined the European Union this past July. "The first decade of the new millennium let people settle down with their past and look forward," Beata tells us. She has travelled these roads for more than two decades and seen the region's transformation first-hand. That transformation has brought visitors. The New Yorker called 2011 Croatia's "best year for tourism," and the number of foreign visitors is up four per cent in 2013. In recent years, the coastal city of Dubrovnik, where we're headed in a few days, and its environs have become known as a sort of Dalmatian Riviera (Dalmatia being the historical name for the region of Croatia that runs along the Adriatic Coast). Despite these changes, you can't miss the past in Zagreb, which we approach under a p38-43_Adriatic.indd 39 light rain that lifts to sunshine. With a population of around 800,000, Zagreb is the largest city in Croatia and was an economic centre in the former Yugoslavia. The humourless facades of Communist-era buildings sit alongside the pale yellow of restored structures from the Hapsburg era. This juxtaposition of Communist severity and classical grandeur repeats itself through the city. On our way to dinner, we pass the Regent Esplanade, a palatial art nouveau hotel built in 1925 for guests of the Orient Express. Walking back to our hotel (a Sheraton in central Zagreb that is basic but comfortable – like most of the accommodations included in this tour package), I wander under plane trees through King Tomislav Square and catch a glimpse of the city's neoclassical railway station, lit up at night. A few blocks along, I take photos of art graffiti. In the morning, we walk 15 minutes to the Upper Town to see the Stone Gate, in the medieval heart of the city. In the 13th century, King Béla IV granted special rights to the community of Gradec to build fortifications as protection against the Mongols. This included four gates connecting the upper and lower towns. The Stone Gate is the only one that remains. The gate holds special meaning for the city's faithful (close to 90 per cent of Croatians are Catholic) because, as legend has it, a 1731 fire destroyed the wooden parts of the gate, but not, miraculously, a painting of the Virgin and Child. Now it's a shrine where locals come to pray. Someone tells me today is the Day of the Virgin Mary of Stone Gate. As I walk through the gate, singing rises from the crowd that has gathered to light candles. GOING PL ACES >> w i n t e r 2 0 1 3 39 13-10-16 9:31 AM