Archive for the ‘Croatia’ Category

Come to Croatia!

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Friday morning, we left Zagreb for Plitvice Lakes National Park. A quick two and a half hour bus ride got us there, although we got off at the wrong stop. The park has two entrances, and we disembarked at the second; unfortunately, our guesthouse was located at the first. The park is really the only thing in the area besides a post office, a few restaurants closed for the winter, and the main road, so we had to walk three kilometers to our destination. There was a whole neighborhood of little guesthouses near the first entrance which provide rooms for park visitors. We had selected one such house online, and it proved to be a wonderfully cozy place with a very friendly family. When they realized we didn’t have a car, they drove us ten kilometers to the nearest market and let us use their kitchen to make some dinner. They even shared some Croatian vodka with us while we cooked.

The next day, we went to the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Despite the alarming number of student and retiree groups who entered at the same time as us, we had a wonderful time there. The park is gorgeous. It is long and narrow, centering on a series of lakes and waterfalls. The day was a little overcast, so I doubt our pictures will do the park justice, but it was lovely. The water was unbelievably clear up close, and turned amazing shades of blue and green in the darker middles of the lakes. There were some immense waterfalls near the park entrance, and further back there was a series of small ones with winding wooden boardwalks which took us above and below them for some spectacular views. We had a great day exploring the park.

The next day our goal was to arrive in Dubrovnik, our final Croatian destination. Since Plitvice is so isolated, we didn’t really know when busses might come. We asked at park information, and they told us one should stop at 12:15. We waited until 1:00 before one finally picked us up. A quick look at our map told us we had drastically underestimated the distance to Dubrovnik. It is at Croatia’s very southernmost tip–not extraordinarily close to Plitvice. We had also underestimated how many Croatian kuna we would need to get there, and had to pay the bus driver in some Euros as well. Our bus terminated in Split at 8:00 pm, where we were dismayed to find that the next bus to Dubrovnik was not until 1:30 am. We killed time in the station until we could climb on board the bus and collapse. Our slumber was interrupted only twice: once during a brief cross of the Bosnian border, where our passports were checked, and again when our bus broke down and we were forced to wait for another and switch. These difficulties, along with the gorgeous scenery and adorable seaside towns we passed, convinced us that Croatia is a country where a rental car is essential.

We finally arrived in Dubrovnik around 7 am. Our guesthouse was in walking distance of the bus station, and is absolutely charming. We slept until about noon, and then ventured to old town Dubrovnik. This walled-in city is situated on the coast, and is breathtakingly lovely. You enter the walls on a drawbridge over what used to be a moat, and is now a garden filled with playgrounds and orange trees. The entire town is made out of the same white-gray stone, from the streets to the buildings. It’s spectacularly clean and beautiful, abounding with flowers and fountains. The harbor and seaside are spectacular; the views of the rocky coastline and the vividly blue sea are amazing. We spent the afternoon just wandering around the winding alleys of the old town, and had dinner at a highly recommended seafood restaurant right on the water, where stray cats begged for bits of our fried sardines and grilled squid.

This morning, we ventured back to the old town, but walked beyond it down the curving coastal peninsula. The land slants steeply up into bare hills which we were warned against venturing into, because there may still be landmines from the 1990’s Yugoslav wars. However, the lower parts are filled with houses and are of course completely safe. We walked through winding roads, steep stairways, and lovely split-level gardens to reach the very tip of the peninsula, where there was a big hotel called Hotel Belvedere. To our surprise, it was completely ruined and abandoned. We later asked our host about this, and he explained that the hotel was at the front lines of the invasion of Dubrovnik, and the Croatian army was there being bombed by the Serbians.

We walked back to town where we wandered the streets a while longer. After a cheap dinner of pizza slices (our kuna were running out) we headed back to our hostel. We quickly posted this blog before hopping on a ferry to Italy!

We would just like to say that Croatia has been one of our favorite destinations by far. It is a treasure trove of natural and cultural beauty, and practically free of tourists. We would highly recommend it as a vacation spot, especially if one could rent a car and do a driving tour. We suggest discovering it before the rest of the world does!

Thumbs up for Zagreb

Friday, March 14th, 2008

When we were booking our hostels on hostelworld, the one we chose for Budapest apparently fell through our filter. We unfortunately found ourselves staying at one of the wildest party hostels in Eastern Europe, where everyone goes out around 1:00 AM and returns around 6:00, and sleeps till well into the afternoon. Though I unscrewed the room’s only lightbulb on the second night to prevent it from being turned on in the middle of the night when our roommates returned, I chose not to do so our third night, naively trusting that they had “learned their lesson.”

As futile as it is to explain, the result was that we got less than three hours of sleep our final night there so when we boarded our train to Zagreb at 5:40 AM, we peacefully slept until about 10:30 when we crossed the Croatian border.

I am utterly convinced that individuals choose to join their nation’s border security forces so that they can harass and intimidate others. After the immigration officers had given us a thoroughly menacing performance, a gruff blond-haired woman from customs probed through our souvenir Christmas ornaments for signs of….contraband? before finally getting bored and moving onto the next compartment.

When we finally arrived in Zagreb, however, we were awed at how beautiful the city is. It is likely one of the most beautiful cities we’ve yet visited on this trip. When one realizes that this city was under siege just a little more than 10 years ago, its beauty seems all the more surreal. While in Budapest, we felt as though all the buildings needed a good pressure washing. Though the former Yugoslavia was communist for nearly 45 years, it remained fairly independent and free from Soviet influence, and to a certain extent, free from heavy industry and so was spared the environmental problems which countries like Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic are now coping with.

Zagreb has been, in every sense of the phrase, a breath of fresh air. The architecture is just beautiful, the streets are clean, and most importantly….there are no tourists! Part of me wonders what exactly is financing this beautiful city. Between the brand new trams and the police force which seems to have an exclusive contract with BMW, this city and its people seem impressively strong willed, proud, and wealthy.

We spent the rest of our first day just wandering around. The chocolate croissants we ate for lunch held us over well into the evening so for dinner we just went to a small cafe and order glasses of wine with tapas.

Thursday morning began in the Dolac market. As in Budapest, this market was remarkably similar to many markets we had been to in South America or Africa, just more hygienic. The fish, meats, cheese, produce, and bakery sections of it all looked so fresh. From one vendor, we bought a liter of wine. She sold them in simple plastic bottles out of an enormous vat. We also bought some interesting bread and then later dried fruit for desert.

There is currently a Marc Chagall exhibit in Zagreb which is apparently the single largest collection of his works currently on display. We had a pleasant time spending some time viewing his paintings and lithographs.

A great part of Zagreb’s appeal has been the pleasant walks we have had while we have been here. We haven’t really “done” all that much as we have simply enjoyed walking around for hours on end. After a street-food filled dinner of grilled sausage, veggie pizza, chocolate crepes, and ice cream, we went to the cinema to go enjoy a movie, before we returned to our hostel for the night.

Finally, we would like to wish everyone a happy International Joey Day. Apparently, it is even being celebrated in Croatia.

Photos from Budapest

Photos from Zagreb