Zagreb

Our last full day in Croatia we spent in the capital city of Zagreb. It's a really cool town - old buildings, beautiful architecture, badass statues (some with very powerful mustaches), crazy gothic cathedrals, art galleries on every street, and lots and lots of cafes. As we travelled throughout the country I kept thinking "well, surely that had to be the most awesome part of Croatia" and then we would arrive at our next destination and it would be just as spectacular! Zagreb was different from the other places we'd been - more of an Austrian/Slavic/Russian feel to it - but still fantastic! A lovely way to end our trip, for sure.

Zagreb

The city of Zagreb has free wifi! All over the city. It's awesome.

Bambi, the dumbest GPS on earth

Did I mention that we named the GPS Bambi? Bambi is an asshole.

The whole trip people have told us it would take X amount of time to get to our next location, but for some reason it takes us at least twice as long. We've been able to see the countryside, which is nice, and we haven't been in a hurry or anything, but we couldn't figure out why it was taking so much longer to get around than everyone said it would.

Turns out that Bambi was programmed to avoid all toll roads and the main highway that goes through the entire country is one giant toll road!!  She was taking us on these country roads through small towns but we didn't know any better because we are in Croatia, for gods sake!

About 30 minutes until the end of our last leg of the road trip, Shannon decided to check the settings and figured out what was going on.  Fuck you, Bambi!!

Shannon was so angry that she said to Bambi "I can't even look at you I'm so pissed off" and flipped her to face the other direction.  Then we were both laughing so hard that I couldn't drive straight.

We made it to Zagreb, our final destination, three hours later than necessary.  

Plitvice Lakes

OH.

MY.

GOD.

This has to be the most beautiful place on earth.

We hiked for 5.5 hours and didn't even see all of it.  I want to stay here forever and ever!

A short video of one of the babbling brooks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zelh-2NbvfY

The water is crystal clear - you can see to the bottom of all the lakes.

Look at the tree trunks in this water!

This guy was just walking down the path without a care in the world:

You can see the ducks' feet while they swim!

We climbed all the way through and to the top of this cave. Shannon was so proud, while I was mostly just grumpy. See those people waaaaaayyyyyy down at the bottom?

This was the Big Waterfall - quite amazing.

And some parting shots:

Definitely one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Zadar

The town Zadar is a couple hours north of Trogir (well, with normal people driving it would be, but it took us 4 hours) and the main attraction is this thing called the Sea Organ (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_organ ). The sound was so captivating, hypnotic and indescribable.  I recorded it on my phone, but can't figure out how to upload a sound file to this blog - maybe after I get home I'll figure out how to do it. But it was really, really cool.  Totally worth the somewhat-out-of-the-way drive, just to have this surreal musical experience.  Even with the crazy crowds, the Sea Organ was truly worth the visit.

Near the Sea Organ is another art installation called Salutation to the Sun, made of hundreds of solar panels that light up after dark for a fun disco-like experience. 

Other than our fantastic hotel, the rest of Zadar wasn't much different from Trogir - very heavy Italian influence, old Roman ruins, etc. 

Krka, Biljane Donje

After Trogir, we began the journey towards Zadar, our next destination.  Have I mentioned that my friend Shannon lied about being able to drive a stick shift and I've had to do all the driving on this trip?  :-)  Yep, she did.  And for the entire trip our driving has taken us at least TWICE as long as it's supposed to.  Sometimes it's our own doing, like when we stopped to have lunch in a castle, or when we made a detour to the beautiful Krka National Park to go swimming in the lake!

We pulled into a rest stop for some coffee on the drive to Zadar.  While there we checked just to see how far we were from Krka, and it turns out we were really close!  So we made a detour and managed to jump into the lake for a quick cool down. It was really breathtaking. Since we were swimming we didn't bring our cameras, but just do a Google image search for Krka National Park and you'll get the idea.  :-)

Feeling a little more refreshed after our lake dip (have I mentioned that Croatia is in the middle of a brutal heatwave for the past couple weeks?), we got back on the road, driving through the countryside to Zadar. We passed this lady and her goats and stopped to take a photo:

As we drove further we started passing buildings that looked like they were falling apart...old bombed out buildings left from the war in the early '90's. One little town in particular was really sad (Biljane Donje) - there is a mass grave there from the Croatian War for independence from Yugoslavia. More than one person has brought up the war to us - it's still fairly fresh in the minds of many Croats.

We didn't take a ton of pictures along this leg, but here are a few. The student driver cracked us up.

Trogir

We've moved much further north in Croatia, out of the Dalmatian region and into Central Croatia.  There is definitely a different vibe here. In the south, there is more of a relaxed Mediterranean feel to life. Where we are now feels more like Rome - busier, slightly less welcoming, but still fascinating.  

Yesterday morning we left Split and drove about 1 hour to a small seaside town called Trogir. The towns in this region center around old Roman ruins, and this one was no different.  But Trogir has restored and preserved many of the ruins, and there are some very old churches still standing in the town.  If you've ever traveled to Italy, this place will give you a little déjà vu. Beautiful, nonetheless!

An Adventurous Day, Indeed

Dubrovnik was absolutely amazing - every where I turned was just incredibly beautiful. We walked along the old city walls, took a boat out to an island and hiked around, rode the cable car up above the city, and sweat our asses off. It was awesome!  

Today we started our morning with a delicious chocolate croissant and cappuccinos before we began (what should have been) a 4-hour drive to Split.  The drive out of Dubrovnik was just as breathtaking as the city, but we soon realized that we needed gas for the car and we were in the middle of nowhere.  We have a GPS in the rental car, but in trying to find gas she almost made us do a Thelma and Louise off the side of a mountain. We ended up waaaaaayyyyyy high up on a mountain-top dirt road, pretty terrified. Here is a view from the front seat:

And a reaction shot  :-)

Eventually we found our way back to the main road, no thanks to the GPS, and made it to a gas station just in time to avoid having to hitchhike the rest of the way.

New Rule: when you see a castle off in the distance, always go to it!  We took a detour to a place called Ston and Mali Ston, these little towns made in an old fortress, connected by a 5 km wall. We had the most wonderful lunch by the water, in an old turret or guard tower. It was very cool!

The waiter talked us into a local dessert, a chocolate "cake" made out of pasta noodles! It was weird and delicious.

Back on the road, we drove for a while and came upon an elaborate toll booth. There were two booths to stop at, and at each the guard just waved us through without speaking to us or taking our money.  After driving a bit, we realized that what we had passed through was not a toll booth, but actually a BORDER CROSSING into Bosnia Herzegovina. We drove around a bit in Neum until we found our way to the next "toll booth" and at this one the guard lady said "passports" but by the time we pulled them out of our purses she was waving us through.  Strangest border crossing I've ever seen!

A couple hours later we found our way to Split, but again the GPS gave us crappy directions.  We drove around for at least 30 minutes in the vicinity of our hotel, trying to find it. Some old men yelled at us, we drove around in circles past them at least 4 times. Finally we stopped and called the hotel and they sent a nice man named Carlos to rescue us! He found us and jumped in the car, but as my husband can attest I am incapable of parallel parking a vehicle. Carlos tried really hard to guide me into a spot, but the three of us were all laughing so hard (at me) that we all finally gave up and drove around until I found a spot to park ON THE SIDEWALK. I parked that car on a sidewalk like a boss!!!

Split is pretty cool, but both Shannon and I agree that we prefer Dubrovnik and the countryside. In Split, the Old Town is a UNESCO heritage site and it's really neat - an old palace built by Diocletian that's 2000 years old is what the entire city is built inside and around. Inside the walls of the palace are hundreds of shops and restaurants and promenades where people hang out and walk around. Very cool.