Postcards from Kristen: Trip 25: Croatia

Trip date:April 6-9, 2012

Croatia is in the Balkans but close neighbors to central Europe. In my opinion, the country (which has a population of under 5 million) lucked out in a large way because of their fantastic stretch of coastline and sublime waterfalls.

All in attendance:Gordon, Jason, Kiyomi, Trevor and Kristen

This trip was planned for months and months - or at least the idea of it was. The idea was born even before I came to Switzerland because of a fierce desire to see the glorious waterfalls that you can find in Croatia. I can't remember when Easter weekend began to be referred to as "Croatia weekend" but it was surely before 2012 even started.

But in no way does that mean we had our wits about us. Who forgot to book train tickets early and got stuck with tickets for a 14 hour train ride on a seat instead of a couchette? - oops. Who spent 180CHF on these shitty seats? - oops

The train ride consisted of playing Durak, a nice new visa stamp in my passport, hardly sleeping and weird smelly men.

We arrived in Zagreb at around 10:30 Friday and rented a car. We decided to drive to our furthest destination, Split, and work North towards Zagreb. Kiyomi was the brave one to drive and I was commander in chief of navigation. We stopped in Karlovac for some roadtrip snacks at Plodine (which in Croatia include delicious yogurt drinks, black olive bread and deli counter calamari all for extremely cheap). This place has special appeal to Jason and I since our company, ALSTOM, has many offices in Karlovac.

We took a detour route that had us on minor roads. These roads were some of the most twisty and turny roads I have ever seen. Croatian highways are tolled so it's not always easy to find an entrance to the main highways. No worries, we were armed with plenty of "hvala", "molim" as well as exaggerated hand gestures.

Highlights here included me asking a fruit stand man in a small town for directions and then being surrounded by over zealous old Croatian men who are so excited to help the "asian" tourist.

Split

If you are familiar with the Rush Hour board game, then you will be able to perfectly understand what it is like driving in Split. Croatian highways are extremely well maintained and beautiful houses dot the rolling hills along the road but as soon as you reach a city, everything becomes very condensed and people become very impatient. We stayed at Tchaikovsky Hostel Split for 12€ a night. Inside was super posh and clean. The cons? Parking was frightening (and I wasn't even the driver).

The first night, upon the hostel's recommendation, we ate at this very busy (with equal amounts of tourist and locals) restaurant by the water. Cue: seafood risotto that was sub par compared to the one I got in Cinque Terre. Afterwards, we shared a bottle of wine while sitting along the water where surrounded by all the Split citizens that are from the age of 15-30. Cue: lots of pointing at the group with 3 Asians.

The next day we got some croissants at the bakery and set out for some sight seeing. Split was once under the rule of the Romans and you can really see this in its buildings, squares and city walls. We saw the Diocletian palace which was a palace built for a retiring Roman emperor. We saw the Cathedral of Saint Domnius who's bell tower is probably the most iconic thing in the town. Wandering the old winding pedestrian streets was also really fun. We all agreed that the place had that "Roman" feel to it. We were lounging by the water, looking at all the mussels stuck to the walls when we decided it might be time to head to Zadar.

Zadar

Zadar is an even smaller town where the old town is walled within the city. We stayed at Hostel Elena for 15.30€ a night which was right within the walls of the city. In the late afternoon, we walked around the city, along the water and saw the main sights. The Zadar church looks especially reminiscent of the big Duomo in Florence.

Zadar also has these sea organs which use the motion of the ocean to play different notes. Nearby is this giant circle which lights up at random during sunset. I really enjoyed the overall atmosphere in Zadar which was much more peaceful than Split.

Plitvička jezera

The next day we drove to Plitvice Lakes National Park/Plitvička jezera. In a chain of unfortunate climate circumstances, this was also the day the weather gods decided it would be nice to send a snowfall to Croatia. The past few days were rich with warm sunlgiht weather and slight misty rainfalls at night. This day, however, was full of thick snow, icy rain and chilly winds.

If you don't know, there is an unwritten rule in Canada which is "bad weather is never an excuse". So we set out for a 7 hour day in the cold. If you''re thinking I'm making a big fuss since it can go to -38°C in Calgary and it was a mere -2°C that day, please just trust me that it was cold all the same. The humidity, being in damp clothes (which were later freezing clothes), and the sheer amount of time we were outside was enough to make us feel as bitterly cold as we do in Canadian winter. It was also off season and Easter weekend so many indoor places were closed.

But the is a large silver lining

Although the lakes and waterfalls weren't the rich deep sapphire blue that you always see in photos, they were still vibrant enough to illuminate the scenery and awe us. Also, because of the cold temperature, many people seem to call it quits after 2pm. In fact, if you look it up, this park is usually bursting with people shuffling along the path but on this bleak snowy day, we felt as though we had most of the park to ourselves. No need for acrobatic reaching acts to take photos sans other tourist in it - we were the only ones there!

The park has trains, buses and boats that you can use to transport you around. Often times we were alone in a place built for at least 100 people. Unheated bus rides when you're freezing your toes off? That's nothing more than a daily routine in Canada during Winter.

And the paths are right there in between all the waterfalls too. There are also other ones that give you a great aerial view. There was also a really nice path along the water that we walked and a cave that we explored.

We stayed at House Sara for 16.10€ a night for private rooms. Dinner consisted of a lot of olives, sandwiches/crostinis, and wine. We watched Secondhand Lions on Trevor's laptop, took a lukewarm shower and snoozed.

Zagreb

A stop for more grocery store snack (little fried fish included this time) and we were now in Zagreb - captial city of Croatia. We went to the Museum of Broken Relationships where all installations are donated items from that reminisce a old relationship. We also saw the colourful St. Mark's Church. We passed Ban Jelačić Square and the old town gate, which was just a small close roof gate with a candle light shrine inside. We had enough time to wander the streets, stop in the cutest shop for some cake before Jason and I had to take the night train home to Zurich (thankfully with a couchette this time)