Croatian Fun

Our last country on our trip was Croatia. We both didn’t know what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised when we stepped off the overnight ferry in Dubrovnik to a beautiful port city. We found our villa without a problem and were greeted with fresh plums and melon from the garden and the friendliest hosts we had met yet. We spent our day in Dubrovnik exploring the old city where most of the bombings took place several years ago. It is surprising how fast they have recovered, at least on the surface. There was not a bullet hole or derelict building in site. The old city is surrounded by a thick wall which you can walk around, with gorgeous views of the Adriatic Sea and town. The rest of the afternoon we spent at an awesome beach, complete with swim in cave and rock jumping!

After Dubrovnik we took a bus up to Split, passing through Bosnia for breakfast and a brief stop. Unfortunately for us, the bus broke down on the top of a rather remote Croatian mountaintop, so we were left for two hours to explore and admire the views of the valley below. Once we finally arrived in Split we were disappointed to find our grungiest overnight spot yet. Our room, painted bubblegum pink and green had a dirty old mattress in the corner, stains all around the sink, and an irregular shaped sofa- which they called a bed. We tried to spend all of our time away from the room, and checked out Diocletian’s Palace instead.

The following day we were off to Plitvice Lakes, which turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. Sixteen different coloured lakes flow into one another with thousands of cascades and waterfalls, and even some caves and rock formations. We spent two days hiking around the magnificent area, taking way too many pictures and uttering threats of never returning home. However, time wore down and it was finally our last day in Croatia, so we caught a bus for the capital city of Zagreb, near Budapest, where we spent an lovely evening wandering the Eastern European city and enjoying the far less touristy part of the Slavic region. Before we knew it, we had to say good-bye and return to England for the last days of our trip!