Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik is the biggest tourist destination in Croatia so we had to visit. Like Venice, it was teeming with tourists, but of course it was popular for a reason. 

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the old town is gorgeous. Street after street of pearl-white walls and red-tiled roofs made the Stari Grad the most beautiful old town we have seen on our trip so far.

The only thing we missed out on was a walk around the city walls because of the heat: around 100 degrees. To cool off, we made a quick fifteen-minute boat trip to tiny Lokrum Island. After some small cliff jumping into the locals’ favorite lake, BH and I made our way to an FKK beach on the southern shore. Beaches in Croatia tend to be rocky, but they make up for it with the crystalline water and breath-taking scenery.  

We made our way back to Dubrovnik after our swim and explored the streets again. As dinner approached, we searched for a restaurant that our campground had recommended. If you are in Dubrovnik, you must try Nishta. Located on Prijeko Street, this vegetarian restaurant is perfect after eating Balkan meat everyday. The serve-yourself salad is especially delicious, but they also have Thai curries, Chinese egg rolls, and falafel. Delicious.

On the boat to Lokrum Island

The lake on Locrum Island

Food without meat!

Loving Hvar

Better than the city, Hvar is a must visit if you are in Split. Doable in a day-trip, we left in the morning and took the two-hour ferry to Stari Grad. Our goal, however, was Hvar town. We took a quick bus and then immediately headed for one of the many beaches. The water is crystal-clear and amazingly refreshing. These days are getting hotter and hotter, and hitting the beach is practically a necessity.

After a couple of hours of swimming, we explored Hvar town. Idyllic.

Hvar Town

Boy fishing

Split, Croatia

Of all the towns on the Adriatic Coast, I was looking forward to Split the most. Sometimes, you look into these guidebooks and there is a great picture or a particularly well-written sentence and it makes you want to visit a specific place. The way Lonely Planet described Split, specifically Diocletian’s Palace, gave me pretty high expectations. Don’t get me wrong— Split is beautiful and the Diocletian’s Palace is gorgeous. It just didn’t live up to its hype. The city itself, outside the Roman palace, was pretty industrial, big, and lacking some of the Adriatic charm we saw in Zadar. However, it is definitely worth a day or two to see the old town and soak up some of the city’s character.

Diocletian's Palace

The money was pretty funny

Our campsite in Stobrich, however, was great. Although seven kilometers from the old town, it was right on the beach. The water wasn’t as clear as in Zadar, but there was a high dive and a big bouncy inflatable. Katy and I swam out to jump around, but some punk was charging a dollar to jump on the trampoline. Who swims with kuna in their pockets?!? Luckily, Katy and I are ninjas and we swam out late at night to silently and secretly jump around. BH even got a sweet shot of me diving into the Adriatic. 

You can see me smiling

Zadar in my pants

Thursday afternoon we boarded a bus, no more hitchhiking, and spent our first evening on the Adriatic Coast. Our campsite, Burik Camping, is three kilometers from the Old Town and just meters to the beach. Although less known than Split or Dubrovnik, Zadar has a beautiful Old Town and a great coastline. We didn’t do much sightseeing, but did spend some time on the beach and enjoyed a wonderful meal in the Old Town. Squid ink pasta is my new favorite meal! 

Yum

Submarine?

Entrance at night

Getting back to our campsite, we had slightly a terrifying experience. A guy drives this mini-train from the historic center to Burik (where all the hotels and camps are). It's this itty-bitty thing that you would see in a mall and not to be used for public transportation. When it pulled up, there was a mad rush to get on—people were pushing and shoving and wanted to be the first person cramped into this train. Lucky me, I was seated by this sweaty German boy who couldn't keep his knees to himself. After buying our 10 kuna ticket, the conductor finished a beer at a nearby cafe and proceeded to swerve through traffic for the next fifteen minutes. He wasn't belligerently drunk, but don't be surprised if you hear a news story in the future about some 100 tourists dying in a horrific baby train accident. 

Plitvice: the Lower Lakes

On Thursday morning we explored the Lower Lakes. These lakes were formed from the water in the Upper Lakes and are also continuously changing. After taking a boat across the three-kilometer long Kozjak lake, we hiked around the lower lakes and ended up at Veliko Slap (the big waterfall). Compared to the surrounding lakes, Veliko Slap wasn’t entirely impressive, but on our hike back to the entrance, the aerial views were spectacular. 

BH does this dance for all the places that he visits. It is the same dance as the “Where the Hell is Matt?” dance, but with a Deaf spin. Katy joined him for the Plitvice dance, but with a less-than-happy ending:

Hi-larious

Plitvice: the Upper Lakes

I’m not the biggest nature person, but when I read about this park I knew I had to see it. Located in the center of Croatia, Plitvice was a two-and-a-half bus ride from Zagreb. We read in our Lonely Planet Guide that there was a campsite at the park, but beware! The campsite must have shut down sometime after 2006, so we stayed on the bus some 17 kilometers west of the park to Borje camping. If you have a car, this is the ideal place to stay when visiting Plitvice Lakes Park. Situated at the foot of a mountain range, the campground is serene. But it is 17 kilometers to the park and we were backpacking without a car. So we tried this:

We weren’t sure what the hitchhiking rules were in Croatia, but we figured what we were doing was pretty obvious. Hitchhiking is hard. It took us an hour before an Italian couple picked us up and brought us to the park. It was worth the wait though. After paying twenty dollars for a two-day visit, we explored the beauty of the Upper Lakes of Plitvice.

The lakes have apparently been around since the last ice age and are ever changing. The calcium carbonate that is found in the water encrusts plants in the lake system and these plants create ‘travertine barriers’ which then form various lakes and waterfalls. The landscape continuously changes as these travertine barriers breakdown and reform. Pretty pretty.

Zagreb is surprisingly cool

I expected Zagreb to be like Sofia, but was pleasantly mistaken. Although it is about the same size, it has a distinct appeal. BH described it as a mix of Prague and Sofia; while it had some ugly Yugoslav-era structures, there was also a beautiful old town and, my favorite, a large pedestrian-only area.

The tourist brochure for Zagreb states that “(t)here are very few places where the present and the past coexist as harmoniously as in Gornji grad- Zagreb’s Upper Town.” To support this argument, the pictures in the brochure show people dressed up in Victorian era costume as if it is the daily routine. Of course, we didn’t run into anyone in military regalia or a layered dress (it was very hot) but the city did have a special feel.

We started out our tour near the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We wandered through some allies, passed a bar named after JRR Tolkien, and ended up on Tkalciceva; a wonderful street full of bars and restaurants. Since we didn’t know precisely where to go, we headed up a stairwell and found ourselves in Markov Trg. ‘Trg’ means ‘square’ in Serbo-Croatian, and is really fun to say. The square is dominated by St. Mark’s Church, with its patriotic roof decoration, but is also home to the parliament. At around 8 pm on a Tuesday, the upper town was empty and pleasant­— it felt similar to an October evening in the castle district of Prague.

St. Mark's Church

The Main Square

Before heading home, we went back to Tkalciceva Street for a drink, but then ran into a group of Deaf people from Croatia, Italy and France. They were all in Zagreb for the World Deaf Poker Championship and were happy to invite us for a drink.

We sat, chatted, and drank maybe a bit too much for a Tuesday night. When you drink on a Tuesday, of course you need to have one of these for a late-night snack.

Deep-fried Hamburger

It is unfortunate that we only spent one evening in Zagreb, because I think there is a lot more to explore. Like most tourists, we are jetting off to the coast. But we have one stop first: Plitvice Lakes Park.