Baylor Family Croatia, Slovenia and Trieste 2019, Chapter 2: The amazing public market in Zagreb.

Previously, we arrived belatedly into Zagreb to begin our vacation.

Tuesday 26 November
A few morning hours in Zagreb before departing for Ljubljana, Slovenia. 

I spent a day in Zagreb in the spring of 1987, and as we strolled into the center in the winter of 2019, I realized with sadness that after 32 years very few firm memories remained. In fact the only solid recollection of my previous visit to be conjured here and now is a stint drinking draft beer outside the train station restaurant. It's possible I ate food there, too.

That train station eatery no longer exists, but the vacant space inside can be easily spotted. I'd have been seated outdoors behind the protective bus canopy to the right in this photo.

Two hours isn't enough time to learn very much, although in the sense of atmospherics, Zagreb's central zone made a deep impression. Architectural styles range from a handful of pre-19th century icons to 19th-century standard Central European, and from Slumlord Bauhaus in the Yugoslav period, right up to new construction of the past 25 years.

Our biggest memory of downtown Zagreb on a winter's morning in 2019 almost surely will be the market, outdoors as well as indoors, and vibrant to the point of pulsating. Combined with the decorative preparations for Christmas occurring on and near the main square, it's indelible.

By noon on Tuesday we were at the train station, having bid farewell to the Hotel Esplanade ...

... and ready for the two-hour ride to Ljubljana.

More about that in the next installment.

Tesco, cheap food and farmers markets.

Tesco is ubiquitous in the UK. On our recent visit, there was one located two hundred yards away from Jennie's house in Plymouth, and immediately behind the Brook Green Hotel in London. Eyebrows arched just a bit when we identified Plymouth's older public market building downtown as a destination; even though our hosts lamented the British public's proclivity to buy only what is least expensive and on special at supermarkets, obviously it would be a much longer commute from the northside to the market than merely walking to the Tesco. We enjoyed the market, nonetheless: Butchers, bakers, green grocers and pasty makers were there, alongside the usual ephemera. As an aside, we visited the New Albany Farmers Market on Saturday before heading to Indianapolis, and I've never seen it more crowded. Is it time to commence Saturday morning block parties?

Tesco boss says cheap food era is over; Philip Clarke admits prices will rise as poll finds UK shoppers would pay more to back farmers, by Jay Rayner (Guardian)

Major food price rises are all but inevitable, the chief executive of Britain's biggest supermarket chain has admitted. Speaking exclusively to the Observer, Philip Clarke of Tesco, which was heavily implicated in the horsemeat scandal, said that rising global demand means the historic low prices to which British consumers have become used are now unsustainable.

"Over the long run I think food prices and the proportion of income spent on food may well be going up," he said. "Because of growing demand it is going to change. It is the basic law of supply and demand."

The fate of the public market space.

(From the photo archive at the library's Indiana Room)

But could they sell local beer at the farmers market way back then?

The 10 Greatest US Public Markets That Met the Wrecking Ball, by David K. O'Neil (Project for Public Spaces)

It is no secret that market halls, market sheds, and market districts were once more prevalent in American cities than they are today. Hundreds of markets burned down, were demolished, were removed for “higher and better uses” (oh, how I hate that term), or were replaced with empty “market squares”. Most towns, large and small, had at least one market that usually served as one of the most important, centrally located institutions in a growing city. Local economies were built around markets, which offered affordable opportunities to people who were looking to start a small business and vital lifelines connecting consumers and producers.