The Zagreb Solar System Hunt—by Eliot

In Zagreb there is a to scale model of the solar system spread throughout the city. It includes 9 planets and the Sun. (Pluto got scratched off its plaque so you can’t see it anymore.) The Sun is a giant ball of bronze. While we were there it was removed, but pictures online proved that it was covered in graffiti and bumper stickers.

So I guess that they took it to clean off the paint, but the plaque was still there.

 

 

When I saw what happened to the Sun I thought that the other planets were removed too. I felt like all of the fun had been sucked out of the trip. Since we were doing a self-guided tour of the city the closest planet to our course was Venus. We got to the place where Venus was located. It was not in plain sight and we could not find it at first. I was freaking out and thinking that the solar system was gone, until I found it on the back of a pillar at the entrance to a bank.

Next was Mercury. As we approach it my Dad said, “Look around.” I became more alert and my eyes started darting around until I found it. It was on a concrete wall and about the size of a pea. Like Venus it was made out of a shiny silver looking metal.

After that we used the map again to walk to where Earth was located. My sister found it before I did. It was the size of a marble and, like Venus, it was on a column of a bank, next to an ATM.

After a couple kilometers on our walk after seeing a lot of historical places we located Mars. We accidentally took a wrong turn and ended back at Venus first. After we walked back we found the red planet on the wall of a residential building and it was a little smaller than Earth.

Jupiter was so far out that we had to drive. It was on a wall next to a sidewalk and about the size of a bowling ball. It was in the middle of a neighborhood. When I found it I felt really happy to actually locate one of the planets so far out from the grounded Sun.

 After that we drove to Saturn. Unlike the other planets it was on top of a wall instead of welded to the side.  It did not have its rings and was about the size of a grapefruit.

 Finding the other planets had taken so long it was time for lunch.  We stopped at a near by McDonalds before finding Neptune.  We looked for Neptune before Uranus because it was closer to the restaurant but still very far out.  We drove into a neighborhood and got lost more than once.  After making several U-turns we found Neptune on a metal light post.

The last planet was Uranus.  I was really excited to have only one more planet left.  It was a short drive from Neptune and on the wall of a garage.  After taking some pictures we headed out of Zagreb.  The Zagreb solar system hunt was complete!  It was really really cool and made it to my top three things we did on Spring Break.

Special thanks to my mom and dad for making this trip possible and my aunt and uncle for suggesting the idea.