Mrkopalj

 

And what a great day it was!

The day was cool but the sun was shining, it was a perfect day for a drive to the mountains. Our driver picked us up at the hotel in the morning and we were on our way to Mrkopalj.

The trip took about an hour and a half on very good motor ways. The roads are wide, and there were cars passing us at 100 miles an hour, we were on the Croatian Autobahn.

There were a number of tunnels going through the mountains and bridges to go over before we got to the winding mountain road. It was a beautiful drive especially when we began to see snow.

There were very few people around once we got to the village, and we were surprised to find Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church was locked. On a Sunday! The pictures I took were from outside through the window. I’m so happy with how well they came out. There were no shops or stores at all just a few cabin homes. The population of Mrkopalj is 928 and all are Croatian.

 We walked through the cemetery and found lots of tombstones with the name Brozovic with a tilde over the c. All of the names were like this. No names on any tombstone had an “h” behind the "c" on the end had them.

 

Although the church was locked and there wasn’t anyone really to talk to I’m still so happy to have finally stepped foot on the small mountainous village of Mrkopalj ~ where my grandparents Frank and Pauline Brozovich were from.

When we got back to Zagreb we took the tram to Town Center and had lunch. The city was very much alive today, with the sun shining, much different than yesterday with the rain. The parks were filled with activity, music and people having lots of fun.

We found the grand Zagreb Cathedral built in 1217.  Inside we sat and had our own little private renewal of wedding vows. We both agreed that if we had it to do over again~ and we do~ we would~ so we did. We did the same thing in Killarney back in 2004.  It's been a great trip so far and still have so much to look forward to.