Croatia!

Ever since we moved to Germany, Deanna has wanted to go to Croatia. While not the typical vacation destination, this area is increasing in popularity and rightfully so. Croatia is best described as a mix between California and Italy. This led us to choose Croatia as our longest trip of the year, mixing in a road trip down the coast with a relaxing week at a resort.

Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, was a quick flight from Hannover. 2 hours and 15 minutes in the air with a layover in Stuttgart is a bargain to change cultures, language, and scenery in what feels like the blink of an eye. Upon arrival, we went to the local rental agency to pick up the automatic car we had reserved (automatics in Europe are scarce and much more expensive to rent). Unfortunately, it wasn’t there. We had the option of taking a manual car, or waiting around until the automatic was available.  After some discussion, we talked to the Hertz counter, which was directly next-door. By chance, they had an automatic car that would fit our one-way itinerary. In fact, it was a brand new Toyota Hybrid, which they needed in our destination city the next week, so we got a huge discount—our bad luck turned into good luck!

View from the coastal drive.

We set off south on the A1 from Zagreb to our first destination, Plitvice Lakes National Park.  After checking into our hotel and dropping our bags off, we headed into the national park.  Plitvice is a set of 16 cascading lakes with waterfalls inter-joining them.  The pictures can only begin to hint at its beauty, which is impressive both for several highlights as well as 360 degrees of beautiful sights seen while hiking through the park.

Plitvice also has a dark stain in its history; it was the sight of the first casualty in the Croatian War of Independence, part of the Breakup of Yugoslavia in the early to mid 1990s. This war is complicated due to the history of the region and the intermingling of ethnic groups and religions. The current split of the region has 6 countries holding 8 different ethnic groups. The war itself was brutal, with allegations of ethnic cleansing being performed by multiple sides. The people that we talked to seemed to miss the years of "Tito’s Yugoslavia." They were against the war and what happened, but seem content with how things are now, with notable exceptions.

We hiked that first afternoon and the next morning and then took off further south to the city of Split. One of the after-effects of the war which ended just 20 years ago is that some rebuilding work still exists, and there is still some catch-up being done for the years that were lost. Thus, the existence of “white roads” is somewhat common -- the upgrading of roads by stripping off the current road and building a new road in its place. However, this led to a stretch lasting several miles where our Toyota was essentially off-roading. That would have been a stressful drive for us in a manual car!

Our little Yaris made it!

Split is a wonderful coastal city that is the launching point to several of Croatia’s best-known islands. The main walkway is a lovely promenade on the seaside, which separates the water from the remains of the Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian. Finished in 305 AD as the retirement home for Diocletian, the remaining portions are now integrated into the city’s current architecture. We spent the day exploring the city, the church, and the ruins – where you can go underground and see the layout exactly as originally built, since the city required a supporting layer underneath. At night, we enjoyed dinner on the promenade and wandered again through the city, watching street performers and enjoying some ice cream, taking advantage of the perfect night-time weather.

The next morning we took off further south down the coast to Dubrovnik.  The coastline is absolutely stunning. Towering mountains collide with the stunning blue Adriatic Sea, which is littered with islands. Small coastal towns only add to the scenery, and we took a stop in the town of Makarska and walked along the beach and rocks. The biggest negative of Croatia is the lack of sandy beaches, along with an overly liberal use of the word beach. Most beaches are pebbly or rocky, and some “beaches” are nothing more than a concrete slab next to water. Near the end of our journey was a quick border trip through Bosnia & Herzegovina, which maintains water access and therefore splits Croatia into two parts.

We arrived in the city of Dubrovnik and drove straight to our hotel, the Dubrovnik Palace.  At the end of the Lapad peninsula, the hotel is designed like a cruise ship to ensure aesthetical appeal. Each room overlooks the beautiful Adriatic Sea scattered with islands.  Our days at the hotel were spent at the pool and “beach,” enjoying some precious relaxation time together. The weather was fantastic, sunny and hot every day we were there. By far the best part was the balcony and the view, where you would lose yourself in the beauty and simplicity of the sea moving with ships traveling along. Although, the “pirate” ships which offers dinner and festive music did add a little something different to the ambiance.

Interspersed into the seven days at the hotel were three different day trips. The first of these day trips was a small group wine trip into Bosnia & Herzegovina.  Paired with 6 Norwegians (one of which got his masters in English and wrote his dissertation about east coast rap), our tour leader was a middle-aged Croatian who fled the region right before the war. He ended up with friends in the UK, where he attended sommelier school. After working for many years in the industry, he now spends his summers back in Croatia where he is setting up the first sommelier school in the country.  During this trip, we visited several local wineries in the southern region of B&H, while also visiting the ancient city of Mostar. The wine itself was very good, and the tastings also included locally produced olive oil, along with bread and cheese. While driving around in these regions, you could easily believe you were in California. We ended up taking several bottles of wine back with us, which we drank on our balcony watching the sunsets.

The other advantage of this personalized tour was the ability to ask a variety of questions to a local, and having someone with that spoke the local language. The border crossing to B&H was very easy with him there, and would have been more daunting without him (especially with us having US passports). We learned about the southern area of B&H, which is very poor, and we saw several Croatian flags hanging—although in some areas these have been burnt in retaliation. Additionally, in this area, road signs are written both in the Latin alphabet and in the Cyrillic alphabet (think Russian). In certain areas, the signs are vandalized to cross out one of the two alphabets, essentially marking the territory of which group is dominant. We also passed a graffiti sign in Croatia that translates to “kill Serbs”—our guide expressed surprise that this had been there for several months without being removed.

Cyrillic name spray-painted off on the bottom of the sign.

Croatia flag in B&H.

Montenegro was the destination of our second day trip, and is only an hour drive from Dubrovnik. This trip was with a large coach bus rather than a smaller van like the trip before. Crossing the border was surprisingly smooth for having so many people.  The main destination was the Bay of Kotor. The central piece is the walled city of Kotor, which is beautiful. The highlight of this trip was the switchback climb up the mountain to an absolutely stunning view from the top. Equally as impressive was the driving—the coach bus going up the seemingly 1-lane switchback road, making 180 degree turns—we were glad not to be driving ourselves.

Out last day trip was to the island of Korčula. A bus drove us to the end of the Pelješac peninsula, where we took a ferry to the small walled city of Korčula.  The tour was offered in English, French, and German. The woman who gave the English and German section spoke much better German than English, and gave more details in German, so we listened to that most of the time. Korčula was more leisurely and less touristy than other cities. We enjoyed a nice tour of the city followed by lunch on a restaurant balcony directly overlooking the sea. On the way back, we stopped at a winery on the peninsula. A rustic looking tasting room and 500 years of history seemed great, although the wine was not our favorite. We did have some nice company from some German tourists, and a Frenchman who also spoke German. Out last stop was in the city of Ston. Once its own republic, it was very wealthy due to its salt mine. It was so lucrative that they built a wall around both the city and the salt mine.

Our “home” city of Dubrovnik was definitely our favorite, but always the most crowded. We even avoided it during the day when cruise ships dropped off five to ten thousand people. One of the fun things to do is the city wall walk, where you get on top of the city wall and encounter gorgeous views of the city and surrounding areas. For our last dinner in town, we went up to the top of the nearby mountain by gondola and had a fantastic dinner, taking in the natural beauty combined with the enchanting city. That night was also the first game of the World Cup, which happened to be Croatia v. Brazil. After we came down from the gondola, we went to a beach club where we watched the game with a mix of locals and other tourists. The place was hopping after Croatia led 1-0, and although disappointed with the final score, they were nonetheless happy to see their team play.

All in all, this was our favorite trip so far. The beauty of Plitvice lakes, the coastline, and the ancient cities, combined with the interesting history, recent conflict, and accommodating people, make this truly a unique place. Before our trip to Croatia, everything that we had visited was starting to blur together due to their similarities, but Croatia will always be something unique and different for us to look back on.