Down the rabbit hole - desserts festival in Zagreb
Ever since I was little, Alice in Wonderland was my favorite story. There is something magical about that book. I have read every version and seen every movie (cartoons too). Even today, when I am an adult, Alice is still an endless source of inspiration for my art whether it is in paintings, writings or sculpture. This year's theme for the desserts festival that is taking place in Zagreb, Croatia (from 17th to 27th June) is Alice in Wonderland. Can you imagine the joy I felt when I visited the festival today?
It was a nice sunny Saturday and a friend asked us to take a stroll with him in the center of our city. I was not expecting to end up in my favorite story. Everyone came for desserts and everyone took pictures of desserts since all the major cake stores were presenting and selling their products, competing with each other in a way. For the first time in my life, I was not interested in desserts, only Alice.
The festival is taking place at park Zrinjevac in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb. This park is one of the best natural places in the city. It is right in the middle of it, has big tall trees and a lot of shade in the summer. All year long it is loved by native people and tourists alike because it looks gorgeous. Here is its normal, usual look:
The park is constructed as a boardwalk through an alley of tall trees with a gazebo-like music pavilion in the middle. It is positioned in a north-south direction with grassy fields on the sides that have flowers and big fountains. Here is one of those fountains:
This park has 200 ancient-plane trees and was built in 1873. It is a part of our "Green" or "Lenuci's" horseshoe. This is the name of a horseshoe-shaped part of Zagreb that has seven parks right in the middle of the city. The south part of the park has seven busts of historical Croatians. This is how that entrance to the park looks like:
When you are walking through this park, you lose the feeling of being in a city with a million people. There are no cars there and everything is more quiet, more natural, and calmer. Of course, there is always something happening there, especially in the summer, from concerts to festivals, but the park never loses its charm.
Zrinjevac park is one of those places that you think cannot get any better. I thought so too and oh, how wrong I was. They surprised me and delighted me at the same time. The park got transformed into Wonderland and while everyone else was running around taking photos of desserts, I was feeling like a happy little child that found its way back home. I was in my Wonderland. Here is how the entrance looks:
Surrounded by two long white curtains, there is a white sign that says: Welcome to the land of sweet delight. When you enter the park, there are sales booths on left and right that offer a variety of desserts. Everything is there; ice cream, cakes, macaroons, pies, cookies, chocolates etc. I was more interested in clocks hanging from the trees...
There were a lot of things hanging from the trees actually. Clocks, cards, lanterns, pictures, tea kettles, coffee cups, mad hatter hats and other Alice in Wonderland memorabilia. There is even a large archway made of playing cards but I could not get a clear picture of it. I could not get a clear picture of a lot things since I took them all by my phone but I hope you can sense the atmosphere there. Everything was fantasy-like, magical, positive and happy.
We were lucky to get there early before all the crowd so I managed to take some shots of the cute little tables. When we were done, there was not a single vacant seat. This is where people are sitting while at the festival, isn't it just lovely?
When we were done with our walk, we went to get some pancakes and coffee from a chocolate bar. It was a delicious end of a great day. Oh, and, I did take one photo of one of the desserts...
Since I did say how Alice in Wonderland is an endless source of inspiration for me and how there are some amazing quotes from there that really get a person thinking, here are some of my favorite ones...
“Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
“Curiouser and curiouser!”
“Alice: How long is forever?
White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second.”
“We're all mad here.”
“If you don't know where you are going any road can take you there”
“Have I gone mad? I'm afraid so.
You're entirely Bonkers.
But I will tell you a secret,
All the best people are.”
“People who don't think shouldn't talk”
“Alice: Where Should I go?
Cheshire Cat: That depends, where do you want to end up?”
They are majestic, all of them. Lewis Carroll was a genius. Do you have a favorite quote from Alice in Wonderland? I would love to hear it.
Have a great night,
see you in Wonderland!
Image sources:
- cover image is from www.pexels.com/ and the little rabbit used is from Free Clip Art Library. They are both free to use.
- photos are mine, taken by a really bad phone and then tried to be saved by editing, you can not use them without my permission
- the bitmoji is well... my bitmoji. Get yours at https://www.bitmoji.com/
- cover image is from www.pexels.com/ and the little rabbit used is from Free Clip Art Library. They are both free to use.
- photos are mine, taken by a really bad phone and then tried to be saved by editing, you can not use them without my permission
- the bitmoji is well... my bitmoji. Get yours at https://www.bitmoji.com/
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oh wow! now thats my kind of festival! what a cute and heart warming adventure you had! ;-))
I was like a little child pointing fingers at everything cute I saw, like a squirrel that had coffee, running around smiling and not believing where I am :D
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Omg my kind of festival!!!
Should have kidnapped me, my lady 😉
You would have loved it honey, it really is your kind of festival 💚
I to loved that story since i was young and still to today and those are all cool quotes from it
I love two of them particularly
love the whimsical edits of these shots, I remember enjoying visits to that park a couple of times
I ordered a mask for my cell phone with the "We're all mad here" and can't wait for it to arrive :)
@zen-art ohhh that would be so cool
Such a beautiful park and such a perfect theme for a festival. I adore all versions of alice as well!
Alice is the best and yes, I think it is just a perfect theme 💚
Nice Picture zen-art ! :D
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I love alice in wonderland. It was one of my favorite stories growing up.
I like the mad hatter cake and the rabbits timepiece cake!
That cake looks amazing, I am not sure how long it took them to make it, it is huge, almost half of my size :D
What a beautiful park! The event planners certainly did their job, as it has a magical touch. That cake looks amazing! It's so beauyiful that l would be tempted not to touch it, in order to preserve it!
I was very tempted to touch it too but the lady was giving me the mean look so I did not :D :D :D
Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorites as well. It brings you to a whole new different world. I love your place. It has grace and very sophisticated. We have parks as well but just the parks with ancient trees is pretty cool.
The Alice themed park is also wonderful to look at. Thanks for sharing this with us.
My favorite quote from Alice is “Curiouser and curiouser!” ^^
That world is so much like this one and we do not realize it with some great advice :) Thank you for your lovely comment darling 💚
@zen-art What a wonderful thematic festival! I would like to be there, because I also love Alice in Wonderland :)
It was really a wonderful experience to be there 💚