Croatia

If someone asked me two months ago what I knew about Croatia, I imagine my response would have been something vague like: Croatia? Hmm yeah, sounds like a nice place to visit. When my head would have been scrambling for tidbits of information about the country, most likely coming up blank.  So when my friend Nicala mentioned after translation class one day that her and her friends (also mine) Carli and Ali were thinking about a trip there and would I be interested in joining I said "sure, sounds great! I'd love to go somewhere new" while I thought to myself I'm gonna need to go home and google Croatia, make sure you aren't in over your head.  Of course I already knew I was in over my head because the last trip Nicala and Carli took involved a 30 mile bike trip through a national park in the Netherlands. Sounds amazing, I know, but 30 miles?!? What I did know was that these three girls were excellent travellers, they plan well and spend wisely. They see more than just the monuments and they squeeze every last drop of energy they have for a full day. These facts both excited and terrified me, in the planning stages we went from camping to staying in trailers to hiking all day and swimming only one day when we were so close to the mediterranean. Fortunately the majority of those plans were swept aside to make the perfect trip. 6 days and 7 nights of great food, just enough sleep, and adventure. 

Saturday:

Woke up at 5 to make a 6:15 train to brussels, where we had an unexpected afternoon of touring the city.  We went to the grand place, the central square of Brussels home of the city hall and the kings house.  Every year it gets covered by a flower carpet, we weren't there for that, but it's still a cool fact. We walked away from the grand place and had our packed lunch of pasta salad on the edge of a fountain surrounded by vendors in tents selling various things to those who walk by.  After lunch I couldn't help but go get a waffle with chocolate ice cream on top. I thought my Mom and I had found the best recipe for waffles, but it seems the belgians have us. I'll give it to them, they are after all belgian waffles. (That was a very difficult sentence to write). We threw our bags back on our backs and trecked up a giant hill to a beautiful park where I was introduced to the "jump shot" Carli, Ali, and Nicala have perfected the art of the timing the self timer just right so the camera catches everyone mid jump in front of a beautiful or famous location. I will admit being the newest member of the travel group and knowing how uncoordinated I am I was concerned about ruining the jump shot, but I managed just fine, thank goodness! After taking a jump shot in front of a fountain and watching a guy fall in the fountain, with his bike we headed toward the train station to find out how on earth we would find the airport to fly to Croatia. 

Here I am looking glorious in the grand place. 

This is not the beautiful park I described we ran into it on our way to the park. 

After a smooth, but scary flight we landed in Croatia, Zadar to be exact, where we were greeted by the proprietor of our hostel and her daughter an adorable 13 year old, who turned into one of the girls by the end of the night. On our way to the hostel they offered to take us to a market or restaurant for dinner because it was getting close to closing time.  We all kindly refused, thinking there is no way she actually just offered to stop for us to get food.  By the time we arrived at the hostel we were all completely split between, this is incredible, and where are we? What are we getting ourselves into? After being showed our rooms in what could best be described as a giant ocean front beach house we had to tuck in our tails and ask to be taken to a market or restaurant.  Like she said, the markets were closed so we went in and got a pizza while she waited in the car for it to be finished. It was so refreshing to be treated with such hospitality, especially in what is described as a hostel.  The only things I can figure are a.) it's a part of the Croatian  culture to be extremely kind. and b.) Croatia is a developing country therefore they emphasize different values  c.) they know the importance of tourism to the country, and themselves so they go out of the way to make your stay nice in hopes that you or your friends visit again.  

Sunday:

We woke up next to the ocean which always ensures a good mood, were picked up at 8:30 once again by the owner and were taken to the port where our ferry to the island of Dugi Otok left.  We purchased our tickets and worried about having a repeat of dinner the night before with no solution of a place to purchase food we ran into Zadar to get sustenance for the next few days. The market was really neat they had permanent stalls set up most of which were empty, but at first glance you wondered how people had room to move in there.  Once we had purchased our groceries we were off to catch the ferry.  We munched on the pastries Nicala and I got while we did the valiant job of guarding the bags while the other two shopped.  Once off the ferry we got on the only bus that was waiting made sure we were going to Bozava and looked out mouths agape.  The island was absolutely beautiful, much different than anything I'd seen before. It was thick with shrubs, much drier than I am accustomed to being around as the bus wound around the curves we'd get new views of surrounding islands across the Mediterranean. When we reached the town we were staying in, Bozava, the driver informed us just to go down, so we did.  On our way I felt almost as though I was at Disney world, the gardens outside of the homes were impeccable full of various colorful flowers that I had never seen. We walked for a total of 3 minutes when Ali went into a tiny shop (the only one in the town) she showed the woman behind the counter her sheet with the address and the woman walked out of the store and yelled up "NICOLA, YOUR GUESTS ARE HERE." or I assume that's what she said because it was in Croatian. At this a kind looking man walked out of his home across the path and welcomed us shook our hands and took us upstairs to our new home for the next two nights.  After throwing our stuff on the beds we packed a bag with our bathingsuits and went out to discover the town.  We took a path that hugged the coast and every  few steps we'd stop to put our feet in the water, which was absolutely freezing. Once we got out of view of the town, we stripped down and threw on our bathing suits. Ali jumped right into the water followed by Nicala who is from a town in Australia on a beach, I think she's had a hard time being so far from water these past few months.  Carli quickly hopped in next and it took me about ten minutes to warm up to the idea of getting my whole body in.  Regardless we were in. we were swimming in the mediterranean. It was exhilarating! Once we were all nice and blue we continued on our walk/hike for about an hour longer and then returned back for lunch. After lunch the girls went to discover the town and I went off on my own to find a reading place in the sun. The rest of the day remained absolutely perfect, Carli made one of her delicious dinners, took an after dinner walk where we had to dodge the biggest slugs I've ever seen and we were asleep by 11.

This is our view from the deck of our room in the hostel. The sun was hiding, but he came out later!

This is the market in Zadar, from this angle they aren't so close together, but if you were walking by with a backpack like I was you would have been befuddled as well.

This is from left to right Nicala, Carli, and Ali. I thought it was appropriate to give you a close up so you know who I'm talking about.

When I walked past here I thought of Monaco and how the boats are worlds apart from one another.

The stillness of the water really helps emphasize the quietness of the town.

The solar powered light house.

This is what we were looking at as we swam.

Monday:

I think it's safe to say that Monday was everyones favorite day. We walked an hour and a half to Sakarun the only sandy beach on the island and we found it completely deserted. We jumped out of our walking clothes and into our bathing suits and very quickly into the water. After our swim we had a little lunch and took a walk around the corner where the sand ended and the rocks began, we should have put on shoes for this expedition, but the sand in tennis shoe idea did not appeal to anyone so we had a different kind of punishment.  After realizing that my feet couldn't go much further I sat myself down and took in the scenery.  Once we made our way back the girls took a page out of my book, laid down in the sand and relaxed.  Around 3 we started the long walk back to Bozava. It was filled with a lot of singing and we discovered that Australian children sing songs like miss. suzie had a steamboat...but they are much more scandalous! I also forgot how fun it was to sing songs in a round, needless to say the trip home was much quicker than the one there.  We got back, took showers and had dinner. Once it was dark enough we walked over to the "resort" laid on the pool chairs under blankets and looked up at the stars, when we tired of that we rolled over and there was the ocean, like everything else, it was great.

Wow!

A town we saw on our walk.

Sakarun

view from where I sat on the rocks, see what I mean, they're no joke!

The road we walked on to get to and from Sakarun.

the girls walking

I became quite the little horticulturalist, as in I was always saying "guys look at this flower!" this was my favorite plant. The blooms look like they are the same material as the stems.

Tuesday:

Our last day on the island. Curiosity got the best of us and we had to go see what the sea cave was. It was about a 20 minute walk past the town gardens. We took a detour between two stone walls which we found out were called "old walls" and they are literally just stone on top of stone, no type of cement or glue holding them up. They mark property on the island that way there's no confusion between Joe and Jim's olive trees. When we reached a dead end at another beautiful view of the sea we knew the cave couldn't be far.  Then we looked to our left and knew that we made it. We walked through the cave, which turns out might just be a place for big ships? it was kind of creepy toward the back and as if that wasn't frightening enough Ali and Nicala got it into their minds that they wanted to jump from the top, which was far too high for my liking so as they were standing there trying to decide Carli and I almost had heart attacks.  I think we freaked them out so they compromised and jumped from the side, everyone was fine and afterward we all swam in the beautiful blue water. That afternoon we caught the bus and ferry to Zadar where we had to find an internet cafe because we failed to bring the address to the hostel with us, once that was squared away we walked 15 minutes to find out we were staying in a very nice apartment with another nice Croatian there to greet us.  We went grocery shopping and planned the next day and went to sleep early again. 

the girls between the "old walls"

currently my wallpaper

the sea cave. Please note how bad of an idea it is to jump off the top of that.

The compromise.

Wednesday:

We woke up bright and early (6:30) to catch a 7:30 bus to Krka national park there was a bit of traffic that led us to miss our next bus to Krka so we spent two hours in Sibenick a surprisingly wonderful town.  We walked through the old part of town to an old fort where we climbed around and saw great views. The bus dropped us off in a tiny town, the name of which has completely left me, where we caught a ferry to Krka home of the most beautiful waterfall I've ever seen.  They built a boardwalk that goes over and around the falls and corresponding rivers. At points we could hear and see all of the frogs as well as all of the different species of birds.  The water was clear enough to show all of the sad fish that had nothing to do in their tiny ponds but swim against the current pushing them toward the falls.  After walking through the whole boardwalk we turned around to go swim. We swam under the waterfall and into the tiny amount of space between the rock and the falls, what a place! That night we were exhausted, so we once again went to bed early.

Carli, Ali and half of Nicala in Sibenick

the old fort.

Krka

Krka- the girls standing on a rock in the middle. It takes me a second to warm up to the idea of getting in.

Thursday:

Our first actual day in Zadar where we had technically been based the entire trip.  Because of the recent wars in Croatia a lot of the buildings had been fixed up, but you would never know that unless someone told you (like what happened for me) The town had so much character, we spent the majority of the afternoon lounging by the water, we found the sea organ which is an organ that is played by the ocean. It was so soothing to sit and listen to the water and the music it could make.  We ran across a jewelry shop that was inside the oldest church in Zadar, I can't remember how old she said it was, but I was impressed. From there we had to eat lunch and head to the airport to land in Brussels and get to our hostel at 12:30 where we collapsed into the beds.

The sea organ

close up

Here's a video so you can hear the sea organ

Friday:

Ali and Carli left at 7:30 to take different trains to different places leaving Nicala and I to fend for ourselves in Brussels, we managed fine until we were running to the train station with 7 minutes until our train departed. the train men with the whistles told us to get on the second compartment, but we couldn't because there were boxes in our way so we ran to the third just in time for the door to literally close on me and take off.  When we went to ask what to do we were told to go talk to the train manager who was an extremely unhappy woman who yelled from the very beginning. Nicala and I calmly tried to explain our situation, but she was having none of it so we were told to go buy new tickets. When we got to the ticket counter the nice woman was outraged got us situated on a direct train and assured us we could get refunds once we were back in France, which we did. I am not one to handle confrontation well, but I must say that Nicala and I held our own pretty well with the mean lady from Brussels. In fact it was kind of fun to prove to myself once again that I can handle any situation put in front of me. When we got back to St. Etienne Nicala and I turned to one another and expressed our deep wishes to return to Croatia. We still have our memories. perfection does not even begin to describe this entire trip I'm so glad that I got the chance to go, it is the farthest east I've ever been, quite a far way from Atlanta.

I wasn't sure where to place this series of photos, but I really loved these flowers as well. Mostly, I liked how they changed at night.  Perhaps I'm not observant at home, or we don't have flowers like these.

Afternoon

Evening

Night

 *So sorry for the organization of this, I have so many pictures that it was hard to choose, I'm also still recovering from the go go go of the trip, and this one was so long that it has been hard to organize my thoughts. If you want to see more, I've loaded a lot more pictures onto my facebook.