8 - 17 August 2015:
On Saturday afternoon we headed across to
Gatwick Airport for our flight to Croatia. Unfortunately our flight departure
was delayed, we were told firstly due to a faulty PA system, then while that was
being fixed the boarding crew were assigned to another flight, and finally
after all that time the pilots had run out of their allowed flying hours and so
replacements had to be sought.
Eventually,
we landed at Dubrovnik Airport around midnight and boarded a shuttle bus into
the City. We arrived at Pile Gate, the entrance to Old Town, around 12.30am and
were surprised by how many people were still around. Polished marble streets
and the numerous sandstone buildings dazzled us with their golden glow, fully
illuminated in evening light.
After
lugging our 20kg suitcase up a lot of stairs to the hostel reception which was
positioned a few blocks back from the main street, we frustratingly had to
carry it all the way back down and across to the other side of the main street
as our room wasn’t actually in that building… The receptionist at the hostel
told us that there are approximately 5,500 stairs in total in Dubrovnik!
The Old
Town is completely encased by walls and fortresses that were historically used
for defence, and the one thing that everyone had told us we had to do was
walk atop the walls. And so on Sunday
we did. Although probably not the most leisurely experience to undertake during
temperatures of mid 30s°C, the views across the terracotta rooftops to the
Adriatic Sea beyond were quite spectacular. We had to board our cruise sailboat around
lunchtime, so our limited time in Dubrovnik was a shame because it is truly a
beautiful place.
On board
the MS Lav, a pirate ship themed sailboat, we set off for our first day of
sailing towards Slano, with a Croatian crew and our Australian “leader” (in
Croatia, you have to actually be Croatian to be a tour guide…) Damian. Despite being the scene of war as recently as the 1990's, Croatia is growing in popularity as a holiday destination, although neither of us knew
much about it. We didn’t expect the water to be so clear and such a perfect
aqua colour, nor did we expect this all to be against a backdrop of lush
forests and rugged mountains. We were also not expecting there to be so many similarities to Italy, both with the food and people's behaviours.
We knew
Croatia would be hot, but we were simply not prepared for this type of humid
heat where sweat was literally dripping from us. Some of the other travellers
compared it to Bali or Thailand, although neither of us has experienced those
destinations.
Monday morning, and we departed Slano for the ‘Pearl
of the Adriatic’, Mljet. Home to around 1,000 people, the majority of the
island is National Park. Our boat anchored at sea and a group of about 10 of us
were loaded into a precarious looking inflatable boat and taken to shore. From
here, we were essentially given free time to explore the island.
While some of
the other travellers hired bikes unaware of how steep the hills were, we
boarded a shuttle bus in order to catch the ferry across to the former
Monastery of Saint Mary, hidden away on the Isle of Saint Mary. That evening,
we had a Pirate Party on board the boat, which went rapidly downhill for most
and became more rowdy and raunchy as the night went on.
Roslyn’s
birthday was on Tuesday, and we were
bound for Korčula. Home to around 3,000 people, Korčula is famous for being the
birthplace of Marco Polo. Once docked, we had a fair hike into the Old Town. We
weren't adequately prepared for the heat by not bringing our swimmers, but Brendan
was undeterred and still managed to get into the water. Even if the only
“beach” we could find was behind a heap of dumpsters in a car park, with cats
rummaging through the rubbish…
We went
into Massimo Bar, which runs out of a 15th century tower. To access the
rooftop terrace, you must first climb a flight of stairs to reach the front
door and main bar area. Once inside, climb another flight of stairs to the lounge area. From there, the only way to and from the rooftop terrace is via a near-vertical ladder. Yikes. You
certainly wouldn’t want to come here for a big session! Waiters took
our drink orders and then used a pulley to send our order down and bring other
drinks up from the bar. Dinner was at Tramonto Restaurant and Cocktail Bar on
their large open terrace, perfect for taking in views of the dazzling pink
sunset which is definitely one of this venue’s major draw cards. Other than the
long group of tables down the centre of the terrace, the remaining seats are
mostly arranged in a theatre style. More and more people arrived to fill the
seats as the sun further descended into the horizon, which was a little awkward
for us given that we positioned facing them all with our backs to the sunset.
On our walk
home, we witnessed some strange kind of water sports called Jadranske Igre
(translated to Adriatic Games). Given that all commentary was in Croatian, we
couldn’t figure out what was happening, other than that there were a lot of
inflatables, a set of goals, and the logo looked like a worm in sunglasses
smoking something you get in Amsterdam. The particular game we witnessed appeared
to be some variation on water polo, where players had to jump
off a diving block and throw a ball into the goals whilst mid-air.
Wednesday morning we sailed to Hvar, one of the more
popular tourist destinations and well known as a party town. Countless super
yachts lined the marina, making our wooden pirate ship look archaic,
substandard and a bit like we were on a poverty holiday. The Spanjola Fortress
sits atop a mountain overlooking the main town, and while some of the other
travellers braved the hike, the blistering heat reclused us to the
shade for gelato and a drink. Once the others had made it back down they were all
fairly keen for a stiff drink, and so our “leader” guided us around the coastline to Hula Hula Bar. This is an outdoor beach bar
perched on the rocky edges of the sea where the waves lap over and splash onto the
floor. Keen to escape the sun, we abandoned the rest of the group for a shadier position along the
coastline where we spent an hour or so just laying on sun
loungers.
When it
came time for dinner, the similarities to Italy became even more obvious, with chaos and a lack of organisation at
its best. Damian had made suggestions and reservations at 2 restaurants – a
seafood restaurant, where those with a more discerning taste were keen to enjoy
a freshly caught seafood meal; and then there was a place that sold burgers. We
had walked past both venues earlier in the day and Damian had told us what time
we needed to be there. Eager to yet again escape from the sun, the 2 of us
headed across to the restaurant, which went something like this.
Around
6.30pm, we arrive and say we are with the group booked for 7 and ask would it
be ok for us to take a seat now. Waiter says they have no bookings for any
groups tonight. Now confused as to where we should be, we ask if we can have a
table for the 2 of us anyway. Waiter seats us and takes our order. Around 10
minutes later, same waiter returns and wants to move us to another table
because they have to set up for a group. We are now thinking to ourselves “this is
just like Italy, these people have no idea what they are doing”, and move several rows away. Another 10 minutes later, waiter returns to us in our
new position and asks if anyone has taken our orders yet. We respond “errrr,
yeah you did before…?” to which the waiter has a blank look on his face.
Something triggers in his head, and then off he goes again. Shortly before 7pm,
our fellow travellers arrive and are seated on a row of tables that includes the one we were originally sitting at. Waiter, as he is walking by, asks us if
that is our group. Yep. It sure was. Eventually our food arrives; Roslyn
decides chips would accompany this fresh fish nicely. We place an order with a
different waitress standing nearby. 15 or so minutes pass and with no fish now left on the plate, we ask the waitress if the chips are still coming. She has a
blank look on her face, then something triggers in her head, and off to
the kitchen she goes, returning almost immediately with a bowl of chips.
Admittedly,
the food was really good and the poor service pretty comedic. Reviews of the
burger joint made it sound like this sort of poor organisation and lacklustre service are
commonplace.
On Thursday morning we departed for Brač,
famous for its stone. Other than that, we don’t know very much about Brač
because Damian was too hungover this day, so he didn’t bother to get out of bed
to give us a spiel about the destination. With the pirate ship anchored at sea,
we boarded a sea ferry to the smooth pebbled shore, where we remained for most
of the day. The eventual docking point of the boat was also a decent stroll
from the beach; the heat forced us to have 3 gelatos along the walk (there
really was just no other solution :) ). If the heat wasn’t enough to make
you love gelato, the price was – most of the places throughout Croatia that we visited sold it
for 7 kuna a scoop = £0.66 = AUD$1.42!
That
evening, we had a Trash Bag party which; put simply, just meant that for no particular reason we made
costumes out of garbage bags. The nightlife of the town was
vibrant, even at midnight families were roaming the streets and restaurants and
bars were still busy. And we were docked in the middle of it all, which proved a
little problematic trying to get to sleep.
Friday, we sailed to Makarska. It was one of the
larger stops, with a population of approximately 13,000. Apart from that fact,
Damian proved fairly useless on any knowledge of the place apart from which bar
sold the cheapest vodka Red Bull. While some travellers went cliff jumping, and
others we assume to get cheap vodka Red Bull’s, we made our way to the beach.
Due to the heat, the beaches were packed and you have to claim a spot wherever
you can. We set up our piece of single towel real estate on an area of concrete
in between 2 sun loungers adjacent to the water. After a swim, we returned and
sat on our towel for around 5 minutes before a woman on the neighbouring sun
lounger started waving her arms at us and speaking in a language we
didn’t understand. Although the content of her speech is unknown, we got the
general idea that she wasn’t happy and for whatever reason didn’t want us to
sit there. We strolled further along the seaside promenade lined with market
stalls, and found gelato for the bargain price of only 5 kuna = £0.47 =
AUD$1.01, and ended up back in the water again.
After
dinner, we returned to the boat which was docked 3 deep and so had to
walk through a luxurious, stunning white Sail Croatia cruise liner, providing
an insight into what could have been if we’d had more money… Meanwhile, the
Jadranske Igre (Adriatic Games) had now made their way to Makarska and were
being played out in the water nearby. Another boozy night ensued for the
majority of our fellow travellers but at around 11pm they left the boat bound
for a bar. At 12.30am, the remaining lot of us followed Damian’s vague
directions and managed to meet up with them at Deep nightclub, a “rave in a
cave”. Located on the cliff beside a hotel, the main bar and dancefloor is set
within a cave in the cliff face, while the “beer garden” is essentially comprised of the
beach and ocean beyond. A second, more secluded bar and seating area is located higher up on the cliff edge. There seemed to be a trend emerging
here, Croatians like creating bars in places that are not really safe to be
when drinking… The cliff edge has no balustrading or safety rails, and the cave
dancefloor seamlessly extends onto the beach. As amazing as it is,
there is no way something like this could ever exist in Australia!
Onto our
last day of sailing, Saturday, and
we were headed back to the mainland to the second largest city in Croatia,
Split. Definitely not as nice as the other stops on our cruise, Split looked
(and smelt…) tired and run down. The run of perfect weather was broken on our
final night on board with light rainfall, and as a result this was the only
night where we actually slept in our cabin, in our bed.
Because our
housemates, Nathan and Michelle, had been to Croatia only a few weeks prior, we
had already been told that a visit to Krka National Park was a must see. Early Sunday morning, we departed the boat
for the final time and wandered across to the tour booking office, luggage and
all. We waited around for a while and another couple also arrived, we assumed
for the same tour. Shortly after this, staff from the tour company arrived and some
comedic lunacy in the form of more Croatian lack of organisation followed. Firstly a lady that
looked like the guide came up to us and said that the bus would be here
shortly. We asked her whether our luggage would be an issue, and she told us
there would be plenty of room on board. Next, a man was telling us (but not the
other couple) to follow him to somewhere where we could securely store our
luggage. Around the corner and through a car park, we were introduced to
another guy referred to as the driver, Tonko. The 2 men then escorted us across
to a mini-van, opened the rear door and loaded our bags in. Apparently this was
both the secure luggage facility and our “bus”. We were then ushered into the van, along with another lady traveller (who had seemingly appeared out of
nowhere), the first man disappeared and we made an exit for the car park, back
past the booking office. We then pulled up at the front of the booking office,
and the couple who we’d been standing next to only several minutes prior were
sent across to join us in the van. Why the whole group wasn’t told to board in
the car park we don’t know. Why the van didn’t just pick the whole group up
from the booking office was also a mystery. Why neither the first lady nor the
first man from the tour company made another appearance is also baffling. But
hey, this is Croatia and they seem to just make it up as they go.
A bit over
an hour outside of Split we stopped in at Šibenik, the oldest Croatian town
actually built by Croatians. Apparently this was once a populous town but since
a plague wiped most of the people out, it is now a relatively small village.
There is also a church significant for being the only one of its kind in the
world, although we had a little trouble understanding Tonko to know exactly
why. We had a half hour of free time to explore the village, and went for a
coffee at The Medieval Garden of St Lowrence Monastery.
Back on the road, we arrived at Krka National Park about 20 minutes later. The National Park
takes in a total area of 109 sq km, and its amazing waterfalls have been formed
as the result of Travertine stone. Tonko guided us along the boardwalk in the
Skradinski buk area, through the lush forest and over the clear river, where
fish could easily be seen trying to swim against the current. Skradinski buk is
the longest waterfall on the Krka River, and it is easy to see why it is
regarded as one of the best natural beauties of Croatia.
Tonko then
left us for free time, and so we wandered over to the bridge that crosses the
Krka River, to further explore the sights of the park. After lunch and with a
storm looming overhead, Brendan was keen for a quick swim. The rain became quite heavy and for the next hour we had to invest in plastic ponchos and huddle at
a picnic table beneath an umbrella. We ended our day at Krka National Park with
a river cruise.
Back in
Split for the evening we met up with Tanya, who Roslyn had previously travelled
around Europe with in 2012.
Monday morning and after a moment of panic where we seemed
to be locked inside our first floor hostel room, we made our way to the airport
shuttle bus to return home.
General highlights:
- Sailed
from Dubrovnik > Slano > Mljet > Korčula > Hvar > Brac >
Makarska > Split
- Clear
water
- Lush
forests
- Rugged
mountains
- Many
similarities to Italy, both food and the lack of organisation
- Croatian
money is Kuna
- While we
were there, rough conversion was 1 Kuna = £0.09 = AUD$0.20
- 32-38°C humid
heat throughout the week
- Perfect
weather right through until the final evening
- No
working air conditioning in the cabins on board the boat, we slept outside on
the deck most nights
- War zone
as recently as the 1990’s
Dubrovnik:
- Stayed in
Old Town
- Old Town
is fully surrounded by walls and fortresses
- Polished
marble paved streets
- Sandstone
buildings
- Approx
5,500 stairs in total according to our hostel receptionist
- Walked
the full perimeter of Old Town along the Walls of Dubrovnik
Slano:
- Small
coastal community
- Fresh
mussels and squid for dinner
Mljet:
-
Population of 1,000 approx
- Known as
the Pearl of the Adriatic
- Majority
of island is National Park
- Ferry
across the lake to the former Monastery of Saint Mary,
secluded on the Isle of Saint Mary
- Pirate
Party on board the boat
Korčula:
- Roslyn’s
birthday
-
Population of 3,000 approx
-
Birthplace of Marco Polo
- Strolled
around the markets and stores of Old Town
- Drinks at
Massimo Bar, based in a 15th-century Tower
- Dinner
against a dazzling pink sunset
- Seafood
gnocchi and squid for dinner
Hvar:
-
Well-renowned party destination
- Extensive
stone paving
- Countless
super yachts
- Spanjola
Fortress sitting atop the mountain
- Bars
perched on the rocky edges of the ocean
- Hilariously disorganised dinner
Brač:
- Famous
for it’s stone
- Smooth
pebbled beaches
- Trash Bag
party
- Vibrant
nightlife
Makarska:
-
Population of 13,000 approx
- Strolled
through the market stalls
- Spent
most of the day at the beach
- Got told
off by a crazy Croatian woman
- Found
gelato for only 5 kuna = £0.47 = AUD$1.01
- Deep
Nightclub, set within a cave and extending out onto the cliff edge
Split:
- 2nd
largest city in Croatia
- Oldest
city
-
Significant amount of the city looks tired and run down
- Graffiti
everywhere
- Pretty
gross beach
- Majority
of the city smelt like piss
- Only rain
the entire trip
- Peristil
Square, former entrance hall to the Diocletian Palace
- Day trip
to Krka National Park via Šibenik, oldest Croatian town built by Croatians
- Swam
beneath the Skradinski buk waterfall
- Saw ruins
of Krka Hydropower Plant
- River
cruise
- Back in
Split, dinner with Tanya, Roslyn’s fellow 2012 Contiki traveller
