Hip, Hip Hrvatska! (Hurray for Croatia)

Hello! Mitchell here, to tell you about rally racing in Croatia.

Okay, we were not really racing, but it seemed that everyone else on the road was! Speed limit signs are merely suggestions, speed camera warnings are only bluffs, and solid lines don’t mean a thing.  We started our 10-day Volkswagen Up! rental in the capital, Zagreb.  (Surprising side note: we saw more snakes in our first few days in Croatia than we had in all of our time spent in Australia and Southeast Asia combined! Vipers, mostly.)

Fortunately for us, everything worth checking out in Croatia’s capital city was confined to a 3 block radius around the main square.  The highlight was definitely visiting the illusion museum, with dozens of eye-boggling photo ops and difficult puzzles (Speden would’ve loved it).

We took our time south, into the mountains that boasted Plitvice Lakes National Park. We were more than a little unimpressed when it started to torrential downpour and there was no sign of clearing up for 24hours.  The next morning, it only drizzled but the fog seemed to hide some of the gorgeous views.  The fog began to lift as we concluded the 9km hike, so we did it again! Well, just the upper lakes.. we wanted to see if the we missed anything, on account of the morning fog.  In the end, it was beautiful and the only thing we really missed on our first loop was the crowds! We were happy to get in the car and head to Zadar—“best sunset in the world.”

First vs. Second time through

 

It apparently isn’t even the “busy” season yet

It was a beautiful little city and old town, and though we watched a world class sunset near the sea organ, I think the one we would see on Brac in a few days was better. We did make the most of our short time in Zadar and enjoyed walking within the old city walls, squeezed in a visit to the beach, and had some of the best (gluten free) pizza ever! The pizza is superb and very popular, probably due to the proximity with Italy, it is just a ferry ride away.

We drove an hour to Sibenik for the night for easy access to Krka National Park.  Maybe some of the most famous picture of Croatia can be found in this historical park with original water mills plants amongst beautiful cascades. We thoroughly enjoyed the walk through.  Despite the swimming not officially being allowed for 4 more days, I was very determined to go for a dip.  I did have the whistle blown at me by the authorities (a very intimidating young kid playing games on his phone), but Bryn was able to capture a great picture.  Contrary to what it looks like, this park was also quite busy.

Our quick pace was about to slow down. After checking out a couple more sights of the long canyon, we headed to Split—the second largest city of Croatia.  From there we headed to Brac for a couple days to relax and enjoy my Birthday splurge:  We had a sea view apartment on the water, equipped with what turned out to be our private pool. Though the place had 3 apartments, we were the only ones there for the midweek.  

The island is quite large and very windy, but we were able rally race our way to Zlatni Rat (Golden Horn), a stunning beach on the southwest coast of Brac.  It is interesting to note that the water here is actually much warmer than it was in Greece.  Despite Croatia being more northern, the Adriatic Sea (Croatia) is much calmer and isolated from the Mediterranean, whereas the Aegean Sea (Greece) is more exposed and therefore more prone to turbulent water.

Zlatni Rat Beach

The island was a perfect way to say “so long!” to another year. Our next stop was Dubrovnik and we were able to catch another ferry from Santourin to Makarska.  We were greeted into the Makarska port by towering cliffs and blue skies, perfect for a scenic drive down he mountainous coast.  The coast is broken up by a 10km stretch through Bosnia and Herzegovina, but without incident we were in Dubrovnik in no time.

On the City Wall in Dubrovnik

For those of you who may not know the popular HBO series Game of Thrones, many of the  scenes are filmed throughout Croatia, while the King’s Landing scenes are filmed almost exclusively in Dubrovnik. King’s Landing in the first season was primarily captured in Malta, but apparently the authorities became greedy and asked too much compensation from HBO, so season 2 and beyond is from Dubrovnik. 

I know this because Bryn and I took a GoT walking tour on one of the afternoons with a hilarious guide.  Not only was he funny, but also “famous,” as he appeared in several GoT scenes as an extra, from P44 (peasant) to G153 (guard), so had some insider facts on the filming. For fear of his life, he couldn’t disclose anything about season 8, which will be released next spring.  Some of the filming locations visited:

• Red Keep
• Brothel
• Purple wedding
• Walk of shame
• Dock where Myrcella Baratheon left and returned to King’s Landing 

Shame shame, but different. Bryn had to do the walk of shame as she had watched the least amount of episode of anyone on the tour.

While Bryn managed to endure it, I learned lots and loved the tour, even with all of the stairs!  To cap off the city tour, we walked all the way around the top of the outer city wall. Great views and few crowds made it worthwhile, even though it’s more than double the price it was in 2017. 

Dubrovnik is definitely the coolest of the old cities we’ve been.  Before it became part of Yugoslavia, it was the independent nation of Ragusa, which was very successful in seafare trading. The city fell under attack many times, most recently in 1991, during the Siege of Dubrovnik.  It was estimated that 56% of the buildings were damaged but it did not fall and has since been repaired.

Bellevue Beach, Dubrovnik. 

Our favourite swimming spot.

We wrapped up our Croatia road trip with our final night back in Split, before flying to Amsterdam (which is where we are, currently).  Our friends, Chris and Kate Von Schellwitz were to arrive 2 hours before we were to take off but unfortunately we screwed up and weren’t able to meet up for a wee visit... so close yet so far...

Two hours is what it took to fly over Central Europe to Amsterdam, where we found ourself a brand new apartment for three nights.. I think I will let Bryn fill you in on that, though.

Until then, thanks for checking in and checking it out!