On every New Year’s Day, the media end up recounting what went wrong (or not so wrong) during the craziest night of the year, the one night when most people feel like they can do anything (however untrue that may be).
In Croatia, we were often shown dramatic images of stuff going horribly wrong during the New Year’s celebrations in the previous year, but this year it seems that everything was quite toned down. The first baby born in Croatia came into the world while the fireworks were still going on, at one minute after midnight, in Split hospital. Split firefighters reported that they had a lot of work to do with the fires that were mostly started by the fireworks and other pyrotechnics (which are still very popular in Croatia, especially during New Year’s Eve). In Zagreb, the emergency services reported that they had more interventions than usual, 25 of them just after midnight, but nothing really extraordinary happened in the capital during the craziest night.
Well, one thing did: a young driver managed to get down Schlosserove Stube, the steps that go from the centre of the city to Šalata hill, 162 of them to be precise (source) sometime during the night. The details of the event are not quite known, but eyewitnesses say that the driver didn’t seem sober, and nor did the passengers – however, at that time of the night, can one really trust the eyewitnesses’ accounts, either?
In Zadar, one driver did exactly what you’d expect after reading this last paragraph if you know where Zadar is located: his car ended up in the sea. He got out on his own and called the authorities to help him, some time around 4 am.
In Varaždin, the traditional New Year’s 5 km race was held, which starts at midnight. Over 500 runners participated, and Jan Kokalj from Slovenia and Olivera Jevtić from Serbia won the race in their categories.
The US Ambassador to Croatia tweeted from the Zagreb 360° Observation deck, showing the atmosphere in Zagreb at midnight:
Happy New Year. Zagreb celebrates the start of 2020 in grand fashion on the main square and throughout the city. pic.twitter.com/Mdb6m14J6t
— U.S. Ambassador Zagreb (@USAmbCroatia) January 1, 2020
