Croatia

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 15^th 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