Croatia in Closing

Given the amount of hype Croatia gets as a fantastic tourist destination, I must say I expected more and am not sure whether it would place anywhere near the top of my must see or must return to list.

First and foremost we found most Croatians that we encountered to be quite rude. A perfect example of it was the hostess in a highly recommended restaurant. We wanted to see the menu prior to deciding whether or not to stay. Since there was no one around and I saw the menus lying on a stool just inside the door, I stepped in and started looking for one in English. The hostess then came towards us, abruptly stated that she would give me one and then told me to get outside the restaurant and wait outside. When we finally decided that we did want to stay we asked her if she had room for three. She turns to us and says: “Does it look like there is room for three?” (All tables were full in the garden that we could see, but since we couldn’t go inside we didn’t know if there was more to the restaurant than that). Too stunned to respond to a comment like that we kept our silence and the hostess finally turned around and said: “But there is room inside across the street.”

The rudeness extended to store and bank clerks as well as some of our bus drivers. By no means am I saying that all Croatians are like that, but our general experience over the 11 days was that they were stuck up, thought themselves better than everyone else and considered it too much effort to have a smile on their face and to address others politely.

As for the beaches and towns along the coast: yes it is a beautiful coast, but so is the rest of the Adriatic and Mediterranean. Put together with the fact that many of the old towns look very similar Croatia seemed to be a nice enough place to visit if you have a chance to, but not necessarily a highlight, and especially not given that it is relatively pricey compared to its neighbours. If I had to choose, Slovenia would be much much much higher on my must-see list than Croatia.

read more...

The end of Croatia: From a pleasant jungle to a concrete jungle

After 8.5 hours, 16 lakes, 18 km and nearly 500 photos we can finally say that we saw Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was definitely one of the highlights of all of Croatia and a place not to be missed.

The Plitvice Lakes National Park lies between Zadar and Zagreb and is comprised of 16 lakes that are separated by natural dames of travertine. Encrusted plants and bacteria accumulate on top of each other forming travertine barriers which grow at a rate of about 1cm per year and thereby continuously change the landscape.

The lakes are separated into an upper and lower cluster from by runoff from the mountains, descending from an altitude of 636 to 503 meters. One of their greatest appeals is the distinctive colours which range from azure to green, turquoise, grey or blue.

As mentioned we spent the majority of the day wandering along the boardwalks and trails connecting these lakes loving every moment of it. It was a kind of cross between a miniature Iguacu Falls and Niagara Falls but different. So, as the Thai would say it, “Same same but different.” Every corner you poked your head around greeted you with yet another fantastic sight: a different color of the lake, a different kind of fish that you could spot swimming in its depths, a stunning waterfall or simply another cascade that meandered its way along and underneath the boardwalk you were walking on. We walked for well over 8 hours that day and did not feel the least bit tired. It was the most rejuvenating day I’ve had in all of Croatia.

What makes this park so much better is how easily accessible it is. I have traveled a lot through various parks both in Europe and in North America and quite often unless you have a vehicle and a tent they cannot be accessed or at least not easily. Here there are regular buses between Split and/or Zadar and Zagreb that drop you off right at the park’s entrance (although if coming from Split or Zadar you would want to be dropped off about 1km before the park entrance in Jezerce). Secondly, Jezerce contains an endless array of little alpine-like houses each offering rooms and apartments for rent and quite often at very reasonable prices (if you know how to bargain). As such, with both transporation and accommodation not being an issue, the park becomes an easy stop of point on any backpacking circuit. Furthermore, the park itself is incredibly well organized and maintained. The info desk provides you with various walking itineraries depending on how much time you want to spend in the park, there are little trains and boats that take you to various starting points along the trails and everything is incredibly well signposted. As such, Plitvice should be a stop for anyone traveling on this route.

Zagreb on the other hand has turned out to be a concrete jungle. Maybe our first impression is biased by the insanely oppressing heat and high humidity that have made walking amongst all the concrete simply unbearable. However, the city does not seem to have too much to offer. Its old town is desperately lacking, there seems to be a shortage of pleasant little cafes or restaurants, and an incredible shortage of trees (in the Old Town). The end result of this oppressing heat wave is that we’ve spent some of the time roaming the town, but mostly just trying to avoid the heat by going to the movies, visiting the museums and seeking any shade possible. Tonight it’s off to Ljubljana where hopefully it will not be this humid.

read more...

Split: Where modern meets traditional

Split is Croatia’s second-largest city with a population of over 180,000, yet when in the Old Town you feel as if it is a city of several thousand. It is free of the mass tourism that plagues places such as Dubrovnik, but it is nevertheless always buzzing: whether hosting fashion week with its runway shows (which we got to see), or open-air operas and concerts in the Old Town (which we unfortunately will not get to see). The Diocletian’s Palace is a Unesco World Heritage site and one of the world’s most impressive Roman monuments. It faces the harbor and was built as a strong rectangular fortress, with walls measuring 215m from east to west and 181m wide at the southernmost point. Situated in the heart of the Old Town it becomes one with it. The residences, mausoleum and temples are all sprinkled amidst these walls and the narrow alleys.

The Old Town is in essence a vast open-air museum. But it is not a museum that you would ever think of. Rather, around every corner, tucked into every ancient corner, amongst the crumbling buildings and the cobblestone streets are a myriad of cafes, bars and restaurants. The old and the new intermingle with absolutely no dissonance. The harmony is what adds character and atmosphere to the old walls and you truly see that life in Split has gone on in similar fashion for thousands of years.

And if we thought that the marble streets of Durbovnik were slippery, we quickly reconsidered that assertion upon our arrival in Split. The cobblestone here is polished to such an extent that walking down stairs and stepping onto slightly slanted stones will immediately result in you sitting on your ass and trying to figure out what happened, and it hasn’t even rained. I cannot imagine what kind of safety hazard these stones are when they are wet. I wonder if you can hold the city liable if something were to happen to you.

Unsurprisingly we love Split. We love the atmosphere and the architecture, and in Julita’s case the endless designer stores as well as the pasticada (a traditional Croatian gulash like dish served with gnocchi). The only downsides of our stay here have been the insanely stifling temperatures (it must have been well over 35 degrees today) and the fact that our little apartment with a kitchen has a malfunctioning stove which means that it is merely a little apartment, minus kitchen.

Tomorrow morning Paulina will be splitting from us (forgive the bad pun) and heading up to Poland. Julita and I will be continuing on to Plitvice Lakes National Park with the hopes of cooling off in 16 supposedly very picturesque lakes.

read more...

The Croatian Coast

Over the recent years, Croatia has become a massive tourist destination and deservedly so. With over 1700km of coastline and over a thousand islands dotting the turquoise waters of the Adriatic, there truly aren’t many places that can compete with it.

We started our last day in Dubrovnik with a 4:30am wakeup and were greeted by a gorgeous morning. The streets of the Old Town were deserted. Seagulls and pigeons were fighting over various crumbs and leftovers that had been dropped from the numerous cafes and restaurants lining the main street the night before. They had to make quick work of it as by 7am everything was cleaned up and polished by the garbage man that came out in force. The swallows danced in the hundreds in the sky above us, chasing one another between the buildings and along the red shingled rooftops. Aside for their chatter the city was quite, all its inhabitants still asleep and all the tourists still safely cuddled up in their beds.

At 6am a few of the café staff began to appear and slowly begin to open up their premises, pulling out the tables and chairs. By 7am the garbage man were wrapping up their work and some of the local market vendors were beginning to haul in their goods. By 8am a few adventurous tourists began to appear, some with suitcases, clearly just having arrived, others with their cameras, hoping to get some early morning shots.

At 8am we were the first to get our tickets for the fortification walls and to climb to the top of them. These walls are deservedly Dubrovnik’s main claim to fame. Overall they are over 2km in length and offer stunning views into the city as well as over the water. They hug the cliff’s edge then proceed inland with giant defense towers encircling the entire town. We spent over an hour exploring their length snapping endless shots in every direction.

From Dubrovnik we caught a 3 hour bus to the Island of Korcula (via a short ferry ride). Korcula is a relatively small town with an even smaller Old Town. We found accommodations in the heart of the Old Town in a little three story apartment. From here there are endless options in terms of occupying your time: you can rent a sail boat, you can go kayaking, you can head on an excursion to one of the nearby islands, there are mountain biking trails, vineyards to visits, cafes to sit in or beaches to lounge around. If you want something more extreme they can arrange diving trips, donkey safaris or trekking excursions. We opted for a semi relaxed combination of beach bumming and hiking (or rather walking along the coast to the beach where the rest of the day was spent alternating between cooling oneself off in the amazing waters of the Adriatic and lying on the beach like a pancake that is slowly being melted away).

Tomorrow morning will hopefully entail some more beach bumming followed by a 4 ½ hour ferry ride to Split.

read more...

Dubrovnik: Croatia’s southern-most gem

It’s Thursday evening and the sun is about to set. I’m sitting on the windowsill of our little room looking west. If not for one house in front of me I would have a clear view of the Adriatic and the setting sun. But life is not perfect so I won’t complain if the tip of its roof covers the last bit of the setting sun. To my left I have Dubrovnik’s harbor below me. The sunlight is playing off of the white and cream facades of all the buildings and shimmering in the water as the clouds progressively become more yellow, than orange and finally achieve a shade of purple. Just behind the harbor are more green mountains as the land loops in on itself creating a little bay in which all the little boats can calmly dock. When the mountain slopes descend a bit the Adriatic Sea and some nearby islands are revealed. If I poke my head out and look behind me (East), the Old Town should be visible, but my position on the windowsill is a little too precarious to attempt such a maneuver.

The house in which we managed to secure a “Sobe” (a room), is situated on a relatively steep hillside overlooking Dubrovnik. Like in Veliko Tarnovo the two main directions seem to be up and down and there is no shortage of stairs.

This will now be our third night in Dubrovnik and our wish for nicer weather was only partially fulfilled. When we left Kotor the prior night’s storm had all but disappeared and we were greated by a gorgeous blue sky and a shimmering bay. Our drive north-west along the Adriatic coast was simply mesmerizing and this weather kept up on our first day in Dubrovnik.

After securing our accommodations we headed to the Stari Grad (Old Town). It was much larger than Kotor’s and in a way much more pretentious, but deservedly so. The light glistened off of its marble-like pavement that was so polished by the thousands of feet that crossed it daily, that one could organize sliding competitions on it. The glorious cathedrals and churches appeared around every corner and all of this was encompassed by the magnificent fortification walls that surrounded the entire city. Sitting on the patio of a restaurant in one of Dubrovnik’s many squares, the city reminded me a little of Venice, minus the canals. It had the same grandness to it, an ageless quality that takes your breath away.

Maybe Dubrovnik would not have made the same first impression if the weather had not been so perfect. But the white stones of the old city, its grand clock towers and walls all set against the crisp deep blue sky dotted with little white fluffy clouds made the city appear fairytale-like. The sun reflected off of the turquoise water and the buildings and at times was bright enough that you almost forgot the thousands of tourists jostling in the streets alongside you. I think that was Dubrovnik’s main drawback: the endless busloads of tourists that inundate nearly every corner of the Old Town’s little streets (and it’s not even high season yet).

We decided that we had to see the city without the crowds and planned on waking up before sunrise and making our way down to the Old Town to see it empty and then to explore the fortification walls before the arrival of the crowds (since they charge 10 Euro to climb them, we figured we’d better be the first ones there).

Unfortunately on the following morning the weather was not very cooperative. Rather than heading into the Old Town we decided to catch a ferry to the nearby island of Mljet famous for its Salt Lakes, National Park and the numerous hiking and biking trails. Without the sunshine the Adriatic lost most of its appeal but the weather seemed to be good enough for a bike ride along the island.

So once there we rented ourselves some mountain bikes and proceeded up hill and towards the lakes. Once there the water proved enticing enough to warrant a swim, although I was the only one to do so, and as per the warning sign, I made sure not to do this in a “natural” fashion since no naturalism was allowed. After the swim we continued biking along the lake shore, past the little lake and along the large lake, only to come to the edge of the Adriatic. Apparently their name is only partially accurate. Yes, the lakes are indeed salty, since they are connected to the sea, but given this connection, it seems a little bit inappropriate to call them lakes. But semantics aside, it started raining, and not just a little drizzle. We managed to wait the worst of it off under some bushes and then proceeded to make our return journey as quickly as possible. Once back in the port we returned the bikes and warmed up over a delicious lunch in a little restaurant overlooking the tiny harbor.

Four our third day in Dubrovnik the alarm was set for 4:30am, yet the unrelenting splish-splash of the pouring rain outside of our window resulted in its resetting to 6:30am. By that time the rain had eased up to a drizzle and we began to entertain thoughts that it might indeed clear up.
We headed out around 8:30 arriving in the Old Town when there still weren’t too many tourists and roamed its streets for a while. However, in the colder and grayer weather the town had lost some of its charm. The rest of the day was spent exploring the less touristy corners of Dubrovnik and visiting a fantastic photo exhibition entitled Troubled Islam and Ex-Jugoslavija 1991-1999. The photos of Ziyah Gafic were essentially short stories from the aftermath to recent conflicts in Bosnia (tales from the dark valley), Palestine (land without people for people without land), Lebanon (against all odds), Iraq (Saddam city), Afghanistan (damaged people, damaged landscape), Pakistan (short notice), Chechnya (the scariest place on earth), and Northern Ossetia (love thy neighbor). As powerful as these photos were, they provided a sad reminder of the ongoing struggle for daily life, whether it be a struggle to stay alive, for food, electricity, a home or the security from prosecution.

Tomorrow we’re off to the Island of Korcula but first will make yet another attempt to see Durbovnik at sunrise. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and for now I’m optimistic. Although the sky behind me is dark with clouds, but in front of me the setting sun had just turned entire patches of it an amazing purple color. The benefits of traveling in off-season are lesser crowds and no need to book accommodations in advance. The downside of it is the unpredictable weather.

PS: I'm posting this post at just after 6:00am while sitting on a terrace patio in a yet to be opened cafe and watching Dubrovnik slowly wake up as the birds still have the rule over the streets and the sky. We could not have wished for a nicer morning.

read more...