As many of you know, I just got back from an 11 day trip to Croatia, a country that definitely doesn't disappoint. I will be in Belgium for two more days before hitting the road again, this time for a month. On Monday, Rachel, Aaron, Bart, Joris, Rachel's friend Anj, and I will be departing on what promises to be the most epic trip in the history of mankind. The trip will be taking us from Belgium to Souther France, on through Spain to Portugal, back into Spain for a tour from the East to West Coast and Barcelona, before hopping on a plane bound for Palermo in Sicily and working our way up the coast and back to Belgium... but let's not get ahead of ourselves, Croatia provided plenty to talk about.
Day 1:
We landed in Zagreb to typical Belgian style weather with a twist of Sitka in there. If was pouring, the wind was howling and it was cold for a late June day. After finding our rental car, we headed for the hostel, Carpe Diem. With only vague directions of how to get there, it was trial by fire as I got used to driving a stick in a big European city right off the bat. After getting to the hostel (after about 30-40 minutes of searching), we put our stuff down and headed for the city center, braving the elements. While Zagreb definitely lacks some of the esthetic beauty of some of the other big European cities I have been to (Brussels, Barcelona, Prague), it certainly seems like it has a lot to offer in the way of things to do and see. With only a day there at each end of our trip, we hit the city in typical Ethan and Rachel traveling style... wandering aimlessly for hours. After seeing a good part of the city, we started the search for food. Just as we were about to eat each other (not for lack of options, but rather indecision), we happened upon a sign for a holistic restaurant. The food looked good and we entered the alley leading us to what looked like apartments. After standing at the door for a few minutes deciding whether to knock, let ourselves in, or just leave, Rachel courageously opened the door. It turns out that the restaurant was a Holistic Club, and in order to eat there you had to be members. So, what did we do? We signed up. The cook didn't speak English, but the 3 course meal spoke for itself. After soup, salad, a huge meal, and dessert... despite it being one of our more expensive meals (we had to pay for the membership), it was certainly an experience and we didn't leave hungry.
We ended the night at the hostel, chilling out over some salsa music in the common room and having a few drinks with two Columbian guys, a French guy biking from France to Budapest, a crazy hostel kitten that liked to attack me and the hostel hostess. A few Ojuzkos (Croatian Beer) later, it was time to call it a night.
Day 2:
We woke up, I finished my CV and job application that I had been working on for a position as an admissions counselor at Carleton, filled up on snacks from a grocery store, and hit the road headed for Plivicka National Park. After a few hours of scenic driving, we landed in Rastoke, a town that literally lies on top of waterfalls. The town was nothing short of amazing, and a good teaser for what lied ahead. This area of Croatia, like some areas of Southeast Alaska, is shaped by water that carves away the limestone into Karst caves, waterfalls, and streams that you can marvel at for hours. I won't get into the scientific aspects of it, but the product is very beautiful. Look here for more details on the town (http://cikloturizam.tzkz.hr/en/routes/slunj_rastoke/description/). After a lunch of stuffed trout, head, tail, skeleton, and eye ball still in tact, we finished off the drive to Plitvicka Lakes, getting in around 4. We settled into our room at Nicola's House, an old man who rented rooms, and got dinner and watched some world cup (Messi is go(o)d). When we got back and got ready for bed, we were about to hit the hay when we had our first encounter with bed bugs. Doing her due diligence, Rachel peeled back the sheet to uncover a heap of creatures crawling on the mattress. We went downstairs to notify Nicola, who claimed that they were "dead and from last year". When we pointed out that they were moving, he apologized and took us to a new room. Guess what awaited us in the mattress? You guessed it, more bed bugs. Again we packed up and were going to leave, when Nicola guaranteed the 3rd room had "100% no bed bugs". Since it was the middle of the night and didn't really have any alternatives, we agreed to check it out. 3rd time is the charm....NOT! We did our most thorough search and found nothing but clean sheets. Satisfied, we were about to hit the lights and go to bed when just then, our little buddy the bed bug poked its head out on the pillow. Thanks to its arrival a minute too early, our blood was saved. E+R 1, Bed Bugs 0. We got our money refunded, Nicola apologizing profusely and obviously upset (we felt really bad because he was a very nice old man and so apologetic), and searched for new accommodations. We splurged on a 2 star hotel and finally got to bed at around 3 am.
Day 3:
We woke up early despite our late night, looking forward to touring the Plitvicka Lakes National Park. After our complimentary breakfast (that we turned into complimentary breakfast and lunch), we headed for the park. Like its warm up, Rastoke, the lakes didn't disappoint. We walked the entire boardwalk, a 6 our trip, marveling in the beauty of the waterfalls, crystal clear lakes, and streams that covered miles. After our day on the lakes, we headed south towards Dubrovnik, planning to get as far down the coast as possible. (I should mention that before we left the parks we met two American travelers, one of which was a complete D-bag from the get go, telling me that Davis sucked and trashing me for wearing a Sox hat when not being from boston, it was an interesting conversation, as his traveling partner was super chill and nice) After driving over and through mountains, we took an exit towards the coastal town of Split. After some more indecision, we ended up exploring Split a bit and getting a dinner of the traditional fast food called cevapi, or beef fingers, served with a red sauce sandwiched between bread. As darkness set in, we took off down the coast again, winding south along the ocean and bluffs with a near full moon guiding the way. As tiredness set in, we unsuccessfully stopped at a few hotels looking for a room. On our last stop, despite not getting a room at the hotel, the front desk man pulled through for us. Calling "someone he knew" at 1 am to come take us to his house where we would stay (this may seem weird, but the roadside is littered with signs for rooms available in guest houses). The sketchy place actually turned out to be a flat on the 4th floor of a building overlooking the small coastal town of Makarska and the Adriatic. We awoke the next morning to the sun shinning on the sea and a beautiful view of both the ocean and the mountains that rose steeply behind us.
Day 4: After spending the morning in Makarska, we headed south for Dubrovnik. At lunchtime, we detoured off the main road and stopped for lunch in Bosnia, by far the coolest country I can say I have been to. Bosnia was extremely nice and cheap. For the equivalence of 5 euro, we had a three course meal of soup, fish (me)/Muscles (Rachel), and dessert (ice cream and crepes)while eating along the water. We would stop at Laguna restaurant in Neum, Bosnia on the way back as well to take advantage of a cheap and delicious meal.
For lack of time, I will now chunk the rest of the trip into places we went and cool happenings. I think I could write about this forever but I will just hit the main points and hopefully throw in some pictures.
Dubrovnik: Before reaching Dubrovnik, we stopped at one of the many roadside stands and stocked up on fresh fruit. Most of the stands also sold various types of home made liquors (which we bought leaving Dubrovnik... an orange liquor and bottle of wine), dried and honey covered figs, and a host of other goodies. After finding our guest house in Dubrovnik, we made the walk down numerous stairs and explored the old city. Some highlights from our 2 nights in Dubrovnik are:
A benefit dinner in the old city on the first day we arrived. Tickets were 30 Kuna ($5 US) and featured food from all the best chefs/restaurants of the Area. The spread was incredible and went on forever. Sprinkled between the tables of food were wine tables. We feasted on fine finger foods, oysters, eel, wraps, meat skewers, and plenty of other things and managed to come up with about 4 glasses of wine each thanks to the guys who worked the booth filling the glasses all the way up, not taking tickets, and keeping the wine flowing. A great intro to Dubrovnik.
Exploring the old city and spending a day on the beach.
Sneaking into the Hilton hotel to use the bathroom for free. This included posing as a guest and taking a tour of the pool and workout room.
Trying on various ridiculous hats for potential candidates for the crazy hat trip.
Buying wine/cheese/crackers and heading to the coast to watch the sunset. Rachel wanted to kill me, but the wild goose chase up stairs and through woods proved to be worth it (I think). It did cost us some major bug bites.
Indecision so bad we had a door man flip a coin for which restaurant we should eat at.
Drive from Dubrovnik to Split: Stopped in Mali Ston to look at the "Great wall of Europe". Stopped in Neum for our second Bosnian luncheon.
Split:
Wild goose chase to a guest house that was different from the one we booked. Watching USA's painful world cup loss. Huge morning market with everything you could imagine. Diocletian's Palace. Got a Kebab that gets my award for best Kebab of the year (no small accomplishment). Dropping off rental car (Def had some interesting driving moments... luckily managed to get us back to Belgium in one piece). Catching Ferry to Hvar.
Hvar:
Arrived in Hvar and immediately got a good vibe from the place. The hostel was really nice (pre bed bug attack) and first thing we did was head to the beach and took a nice little nap. After showering up, we walked down to the center by the marina and ate at Azino, a suggested restaurant. The food was great and we ate the traditional beef stew of Croatia called Pasticada. We walked out of the restaurant to the sun setting over the mountains and a full moon in the sky. After drinks and some world cup watching, we walked around for a bit, watching the Citadel glow above the busy center and enjoying the music provided by a yacht bumping good beats. We stopped in a crowded bar for a drink and ended up meeting an Australian guy living in London and working at a hospital. He ended up buying us drinks and we had a good chat with him for quite some time. It was a nice end to our first day on the Island and we decided that we would stay there for a day longer than originally planned. It was also funny that I bumped into a kid who was on IES Barcelona with me.. small world. This first day set the pace for our next few days which included a lot of good food and relaxing on the beach.
One day, we rented a boat for the day and took it out on the Adriatic. We did some island hopping and driving around before finding a nice cove on Parmizana Island and settling in on a beach overlooking the bluest of blue water.
Hvar was amazing and would have been perfect had we not had our second episode of bed bugs. This time, the suckers got the best of us, as I popped up in bed after feeling something bite me. We looked around to find those POS crawling on the bed and walls. Again at 1 am we were forced to leave our accommodations bound for new ones. It also caused us to have to pay 50 dollars to have all our stuff washed. It was a big inconvenience but everyone again was very helpful and understanding. It was just a shame that our last two nights were marred by bed bug paranoia and phantom bites and crawling. The mind is a powerful thing.
Back to Zagreb: After taking the ferry to Split, we caught a bus to Zagreb where we toured the city again and hung out for a night before catching our flight back the next day.
I probably spent way too much time talking about this for anyones interest and missed the most exciting parts of the trip but it was a trip well worth it. Thank you Drobny for putting Croatia on my mind a few years back. I will post some pics to follow...
In a day I hit the road again, this time for a month. Posting will be few and far between but keep checking and I will do my best to keep in touch. If you don't hear from me in a while... enjoy your July and shoot me messages when you can.
Peace!
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