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Zagreb, Croatia
Due to the late departure from Budapest, and the delay at the border, Zagreb would become a brief stopover, before we catch a flight to Dubrovnik with Croatia Airlines. Our train would arrive after 11:00pm (that's 23:00 in Europe), luckily we had a reservation at the hotel directly across the street from the train station.
We sleep in and enjoy our free breakfast before leaving our bags with the front desk and exploring the city. The center of the city is split in two by a row of nice Parks with fountains and statues, all leading to the historic square
There is several nice churches and Cathedrals as you wander through the streets of the old town area, all snuggled around historic shops and public market areas.
It's another scorcher of a day, so I pop into a store that has a fridge full of pop and Iced Tea, and am chased out by an old man... flapping his arms and yelling at me because he just washed his floor. I flip him the bird, and tell him he should close his door if he doesn't want customers. It seems Zagreb may still be too close to the Hungary border.
One of the strangest sights we see before picking up our bags and walking to the bus station, is this 3 wheeled motorcycle, not a trike... I think it's supposed to be like training wheels.
At the bus station there is a Croatia Airlines bus, and it takes us directly to the airport. We stand in line at the check-In only to be told the flight is full, and our internet purchased reservations were not in the system. "You should go to the Croatia Air help desk", oh great, another screw-up! But after briefly explaining the situation to the girl at that desk, she says "No problem, it's all ok" and hands us proper tickets for the flight. WHEW!!! We go back to the check-in, drop our bags, and after a piss-poor plate of Spaghetti, we are boarding our 1 hour flight to Dubrovnik on the Southern Croatian coast.
Dubrovnik, Croatia
When we arrive at the airport we have the taxi driver phone the owner of the place we are staying at for directions. It's a 19km winding cliffside drive to Pero's apartment, a top floor cliffside room with a balcony overlooking the bay. From our balcony we overlook a cruise ship and have a great view of the old town.
Pero gives us the overview of everything Dubrovnik, where to go, how to get there, things to see, things to do. We ask him about where to get bottled water, and he tells us that the tap water is better than whatever mystery water you might get in a bottle, in fact, fill up your bottle at any fountain in the town, they have the freshest water anywhere... sure enough we see people drinking from and filling their water bottles at almost every fountain we see. This is not common in the rest of Europe, usually you are hesitant to get your feet wet.
Of course it's in the high 30's (100+ Fahrenheit), so water is a necessity. Once Pero wraps up, we take the 10 minute walk past the beach and the old port, and head into the old town.
Our first stop is the Tourist Information to book the ferry to take us up the coast, the girl at the TI is adamant that the Ferries only sail on Thursdays and Sundays, I knew different and tried to point that out on her schedule, but she wouldn't budge, so we wandered around the corner to a travel agency and bought tickets for a cabin on the Saturday ferry to Split.
The best way to get a feel for the old city is from above, so we walked the town walls that circle the town. A couple hours later we have circled the entire city and seen amazing viewpoints of an amazing city.
From the walls we can see the red tiled roofs of the city, what is sad to realize is the new shiny red roofs are a result of the war. Anywhere there's a new roof means the old one had been damaged or destroyed by bombs from Yugoslavian warships. In pockets throughout the city there is still just piles of rubble from buildings completely destroyed... historic UNESCO buildings.
We have dinner in a historic courtyard that used to be a monastery, and I eat a seafood special that uses every imaginable part of the Octopus, yet the menu calls it Calamari. After a stop at a store called 'Conzum' Grocery to load up on drinks, bread, cheese and ham, we are walking up the road to our apartment when a truck drives by spraying something into the air. We are engulfed in a fog that I can only guess is mosquito repellant, after a brief rest on our balcony, we crash hard...hmmm.
In the morning we have breakfast on the balcony overlooking the city and watching the tender boats take passengers from the cruise ship into the shore, and watch a modern yacht and old pirate ship maneuver the bay, a true contrast.
Since our room was only available for 1 night, Pero comes to take us to another room... Tonight we would stay inside the walls of the old town. It is the top apartment on a narrow cobblestone street, the stairway to our room, strangely named Bruno, is like a bell tower. The view from this room is considerably different from our last room, we are the rooftops, and tourists are looking at our room, have to make sure that we keep the shutters closed.
We worked our way down from our room and wandered the maze of streets that make up the city. From the shiny marble streets of the central Placa (Stradun), to the narrow walkways that connect the squares and homes of Dubrovnik, even the homes of those crazy cat ladies that every town has.
One more area we haven't seen is Fort Lovrijenac, a large fort outside the town walls, it takes us a while in the hot sun to figure out how to get up there, but eventually we wind our way past the secret doorways into the rock face, and climb the stairways that lead up to a fort complete with Cannons and cannonballs ready to defend the city.
From the fort we have amazing views back on to the city, and can see another "beach" area, including an enclosed water polo area, and a nice soft cement and rock beach.
As we get back into the old city it is smoking hot... so we check out their unique beaches and Cafes serving Ice Cold drinks. The beaches and Cafes are outside the walls, and consist of cement docks, and rocky outcrops with stairs leading to the water. Soft and Sandy beaches are a rarity all along the Croatian coast, but the waters are an amazing blue and a bathtub like 24 celsius (75 Fahrenheit).
As the sun starts to come down, we wander the city taking in local sights, like little old ladies selling handmade lace tablecloths, and nuns heading into St. Ignatius church. We decide against having dinner at the Vegetarian Kitchen that offers "MEAT-MEAT", and have dinner near our room, maybe we should have tried the vegetarian Fish, Lasagna or Tagliatelle.
After sweat drips down your back and into the crack of your butt all day long, a nice shower before bed is refreshing. In our new room all we can get from the shower is Ice cold water, but we can only get warm water from the kitchen tap... weird. The next morning we are up early for our Ferry along the Croatian Coastline.
Croatia's Jadrolinija Ferry
We get up early and take the bus to the port to catch our ferry, it will work it's way up the Croatian Coast, from Dubrovnik to Split with a couple of stops in between. It is a large ferry much like the BC Ferries with cars and passengers, immediately after boarding we are separated from the rest of the passengers and shown to our cabin. It's a small cabin with bunk beds, a small desk, and a bathroom that consists of a toilet, sink and shower... all in one. Nothing fancy, but a good place to keep our stuff, and relax along the way.
The kitchen doesn't open until 12:00 so we enjoy our Conzum grocery purchases and tear off bread, to eat with our cheese and ham... "breakfast of Champions (champion travelers)". It would have been way better if we had butter! We wandered the deck, and snoozed in the room, making sure we were outside to see the quaint town of Korcula, another medieval walled city, on a much smaller scale.
It's a nice hot and lazy day as we watch the shoreline go past, seagulls are hitching rides on the wind, and sailboats and windsurfers ply the waters of every small town we pass
We are kicked out of our room 1/2 hour before we arrive in the ancient town of Split, so we watch from the deck as we enter the harbour of our next Croatian stop.
Split, Croatia
As you some into the harbour you notice the city of Split all seems to be enclosed, in fact it is, the old town of Split is actually all enclosed inside the walls of Diocletian's Palace.
I bought a Phone card and started calling hotels from the dock... after a bunch of "all full" calls, I find an available room, inside the old city, we'll take it. A short walk through Diocletians Palace entrance and into the center square, and the TI gives us direction straight to our room. It's a large room on the 3rd floor with AC, perfect! After a quick change of shoes we're headed out to explore the town of Split using a walking tour map, it only took about 1.5 hours. Maybe they want it to feel ancient, or maybe they haven't raised the funds to restore it, but this town feels like it has been let go.
I think maybe the cats are looked after, more than their buildings are.
After another free breakfast, we picked up our rental car and started driving to Zadar.
Our nice little Croatian rental car, an Opel Astra
Zadar, Croatia
As we zip along in our Opel Astra, we pass several cute beach towns, Primosten and Biograd. Primosten is the most unique, an old town on a peninsula, a medieval walled city, isolated like an island. Biograd's water is an amazing assortment of blues and greens.
We see water bombers filling up, and pass through a lot of smoke. We never see the fires but we do see ground and trees scorched from forest fire around the coastal town of Brodarica.
When we arrive in Zadar it is very hot, close to 40 celsius (104 Fahrenheit). We wandered around Zadar, did I mention it was very hot, there is some interesting churches and squares, such as the square of 5 wells. But we missed the ancient ruins at Solin outside of Split, and should probably have gone there instead.
Most of their buildings are made of the same stone and marble, so the churches are nearly identical to the monasteries and courtyards. Trying to remember which building is which is a challenge.
One of the most interesting sights in Zadar was something they called the "Sea Organ". Seaside steps layered with air vents that capture the blowing wind into holes, and play a mysterious musical sound like a spaced out church organist. Very cool and ethereal.
From Zadar we drove towards Plitvice Lakes, heading inland, we have to go through Paktenica Summit... some very interesting mountains and long tunnels, some over 5000 meters long.
After clearing the summit we get on a Toll highway, and fly along a very modern highway at top speed. The train system in Croatia may not have recovered yet from the war, but the highways sure have. But, due to poor signs we missed the first turnoff to the lakes, and had to go further North and backtrack through the countryside. This gave us a great opportunity to see the true Croatia, the same way we saw the true Czech Republic. We wind through small towns, and farmland, and are shocked to see abandoned homes with bullet holes, and the remains of houses missing their roofs and windows... a grim reminder of the people that fled, or died.
The further we get from the coast the more the clouds rolled in. You know you are in the real countryside when you have to slow down or stop for sheep, we knew we must be getting close to Plitvice (Plitt-Vitt-Zah) Lakes National Park.
Nacionalni Park Plitvicka Jezera
We found the main area of the park, and there is three hotels at the lakes, we chose the first one, Hotel Plitvice. As it turns out, it was the nicest one, and luckily we got the only room left, as someone had cancelled their reservations. A Superior Deluxe room, huge room with a sitting area, full bar, and a King size bed, but it smelled like bug spray. At least we weren't worried about their being bugs in this forested area.
It's a bit chillier here in the mountain lake area, so we put on a light coat and walk down to the closest lake, Kozjak Lake. Even at dusk the water is an amazing azure blue, and full of trout. The boats are tied up for the night, so we stroll the shore a bit and wander through a hayfield, and back to the room. We still aren't sure what the hay is for, there was no livestock anywhere.
The Plitvice Hotel lobby, and halls are a throwback to the 70's... the colors, the lights, the carpets, the drapes, it looks like the Brady Bunch house. So we have a nice dinner in the Brady Bunch's restaurant. I plan a map for wandering the lakes in the morning, there is only one english channel and it's showing The Pelican Brief... very quickly...zzzzzzzzzz
We get up early so we can get on the lakes before the tour buses arrive and the crowds show up. We quickly eat our free breakfast and head down to the lakes and the ticket booth. It is supposed to open at seven, but the rangers inside, don't open the window until 7:30... weird. We need to take the boat across the lake, but no-one is around so I had to find a Ranger, and show him our ticket. Then he took us (just Norine and I) to the boat and ferried us across Lake Kozjak to the start of the trail that takes us on the hike around the upper lakes.
The trails consist mostly of Boardwalks around brilliant blue lakes and waterfalls, in a lot of sections the boardwalk passes right over streams, creeks and waterfalls.
All of the lakes are full of trout, and they aren't afraid of people. Apparently it is illegal to fish in these lakes, but strangely, all the local menus have trout on them.
We never passed or saw another person until we completed the circle route of the upper lakes, our early arrival made it very worthwhile. We thought we had seen the most amazing parts of the lakes, until we catch the trolley to the Lower lakes and hiked down to the big falls (80 metres). By this time the tourists are starting to show up, and the temperatures are starting to rise, but the lower lakes are well worth it.
After finishing the lower lakes circle at 11:00, we take the 20 minute ferry back to our starting point. We can't continue without grabbing some Iced Teas and Strudel, and then rush back to our room for a quick shower before heading off. Before we can leave the room, reception phones to remind us that we have to leave... it is 11:59, and checkout time is 12:00 after all.
Pula, Croatia
The drive from Plitvice Lakes to Pula is a much longer drive than I expected... after 4 hours we stop at a huge Highway gas station for a pee break and get some sandwiches, snacks and drinks to tide us by. Why the long drive? Pula has a Coliseum much like in Rome, it seemed to me a 'Must See'.
It wasn't quite the same as the Coliseum in Rome, but it was a very impressive structure sitting on the bay of the Adriatic Sea. A small historic church peaking over the top of the walls is the only other clue of the history in this town. You try to imagine what it must have been like back in the days of the Roman Empire.
Back in it's heyday this Colisuem was full of Gladiators, today it is used for concerts. Hidden below the arena is catacombs full of historic objects including hundreds of clay vessels.
Unfortunately or fortunately, the Coliseum is the only thing worth seeing in Pula, so we wandered around for a good look, and prepared to leave. What should just be a quick bathroom stop, takes a turn when the WC has just a hole in the ground, so Norine asks for her $2 kuna back. At the Park outside the Coliseum a lady charges $3 kuna, but it had a real toilet, so it was worth the extra $1 kuna.
Rovinj, Croatia
After our brief visit to Pula we head a little further North on the coast, and arrive outside of Rovinj (Rove-een-ee). Large signs indicate a tourist office, so we stop, reality is, it's just someone selling off private room rentals. We learn about how Croatia is "THE" destination for the ITALIANS, and the first 2 weeks of August are the standard vacation weeks in Italy, so hotels are a scarcity, and there isn't much available.
Miraculously though, she finds us a room in a house nearby, and the owner comes and leads us there to check it out (but not until he slips her some money). He speaks no English, so sends his kids out to show us the room, it's a room with a bed, on the top floor of a house. There is a bathroom, Living room, terrace and Kitchen area, but they are shared with 2 other rooms, we never knew if someone else would be coming to stay with us, luckily no-one else showed up, I guess there was other places to stay after all.
It was still over 30 degrees at 5:30... and luckily I found an A.C. unit in the kitchen area, cranked it up, and we left our room door open to cool off while we wandered the town. The supposed TI person had told us that due to so many ITALIANS being here, whatever we do, leave our car at the house and walk. She told us it was only a 10 minute walk into the old town... more like double that, oh well.
Rovinj has a unique historic old town, a medieval style peninsula surrounded by the waters between Italy and Croatia. It's a circle of houses, shops and old buildings, topped with a big church in the raised hill at the center of town. The postcard above is the best we could find to show what the town really looked like.
We wandered into town, checked out the church, and wandered the waterfront, before exploring the network (ok, maze) of narrow sidewalks and alleyways, the whole town was packed with tourists, apparently it was packed with ITALIAN tourists, every one of which parks just outside the old city.
We watched the sunset... and some strange guy cut a paper silhouette of Norine's head, my negotiating skills were simply terrible (non-existent) and we ended up paying over 1 dollar for a piece of paper. We had a nice dinner at the only table available in all the outdoor restaurants we passed, you'll never guess what type of food was being served... ITALIAN!
It didn't take long to see everything we wanted to see, so we headed back to the room, killed some bugs, and crashed, so we can leave early to drop our car off and head for Slovenia.
No free breakfast this morning, so we drive from Rovinj to Rijeka to drop off our rental car. After finally finding the Avis office, there's nowhere to park, so I let Norine out and circle the block. The Avis office is closed, even though the hours on the door say it should be open. Norine notes down the phone #, and we find somewhere to park across the street, but of course the parking ticket machines don't work. We try several and tell the meter maids standing around not to give us a ticket, they finally agree. We try all variations of the phone # (1, 10, 00, 01), none of them work. We feel bad but ask a Hertz rep, and she tells tells us how to call (just press 0 before the #).
The Avis rep on the phone is surprised we are dropping off the car today, "No-one told me... Just park in the Riva parking and give the keys to a guy in a bar beside our office." She wants us to call back and confirm... screw that, I told her to call the guy in the bar. We find the Riva parking lot, it's pay when you leave, so I stick the ticket on the dash, and we walk away from our rental car... very odd.
From the car, we walk to the train station, enjoy an omelet and continental breakfast outside, this may be the first breakfast we paid for on the trip. There is a slight breeze to cool the 30+ degree temperature. Our train is already at the station, so we board early and have our first class cabin to ourselves. After showing our passports at the border, the train arrives in Ljubljana at 3:30, right on time.