“We have some time this morning in Zagreb before we leave. What did you want to do?” My mother asked me. “I dunno. Let’s walk around and see what we can find? Maybe an English book store with the history of Croatia? I think I saw one in the main square,” I answered. I had been looking for a history of Croatia while wandering into book stores since the summer. It seems that Chapters, the Canadian book retailer, didn’t have what I was looking for. I was hoping that I would find something when I arrived in Croatia. So far, no luck. We walked over to the main square and entered the book shop. “Hello, I am looking for a book on the history of Croatia, written in English. Do you have one?” I asked. The shop girl looked sad and answered, “No.” It seems that I was not to be lucky today. Maybe another day. While I had been looking around the store for anything that could be construed as a Croatian story, written in English, my mother saw something. “Hey, J, come here!” She shouted in my direction. “Hmmm?” “There’s an illusion museum in Zagreb. Interested?” “Sure, why not? Nance?” “Sure.” And with that, we headed off to the Museum of Illusions in Zagreb. The museum was a little bit difficult to find, but soon we were walking around the museum learning about different types of illusions, and playing tricks on each other. There were a variety of different types of illusions that you could learn more about, and pranks that you could pull on each other. For example, there is an “illusion” where one person has their head on a plate. The mirrors make it seem that there is an empty space under the table. Since coming home I’ve learned that there is an Illusion Museum coming to Toronto. It is from the very same museum chain that is currently running their museums in Croatia. Now in the strictest sense, this is not a typical museum that you would be expecting. There are no old artifacts. There are, however, a variety of different types of illusions with short explanations on why your mind is being tricked. I’m not sure if museum is the correct title or this type of institution. If you are looking for some fun, this is the place to find it. I hope the one in Toronto is as much fun as the one in Zagreb. With a fun short trip to the museum completed, we headed off towards the airport. We had one more day to go before we were to start our tour. The flight turned out to be a short one hour flight, 2.5 hour affair, that left us in Dubrovnik. Getting around Croatia is really best when done by plane, car, or bus. It seems that the trains here aren’t a good idea because of the times that they run, the price that they are, and the speed at which they go. The flights are pretty frequent and not badly priced. If you are going to try to get around the country check out some of the budget flights. Also, it seems that, from personal experience, the flights are often fully booked. This means that you can ask at the counter if you can check your carry-on luggage for a hassle free flight. As soon as we landed in Dubrovnik we asked a local taxi how much it would cost to get to the Sun Gardens in Dubrovnik, and we were told a staggering 300 Kuna (approximately $60 CAD). We checked with Uber, and it was much less expensive. So we got an Uber, threw our stuff into the boot, and headed off to our hotel. “Wow, this place is so pretty!” I exclaimed, watching the landscape pass by. “Dubrovnik Old Town is down there,” the Uber driver explained. We nodded, and wondered when we would get out of the taxi. We wondered this while we continued to drive on, crossing a bridge, and for the next five minutes or so. “Ummmmm, Mom?” I asked. “Yeah, I’m not sure,” she answered my unasked question, which was “Where are we going?” Soon, we pulled into the Sun Gardens Hotel, Dubrovnik . This hotel was clearly not in Dubrovnik, but quite a bit away from it. “So I guess that we are staying in the hotel tonight?” I ask at the same that that we turn the corner of the amazingly long driveway. The sight which greeted me told me that this was not going to be a problem. The hotel was a luxury hotel, and it had beautiful gleaming white buildings, a whole host of staff dressed in white, luxury cars parked everywhere, and you could see the water from the main reception. This was clearly going to be a very nice hotel room. We were given our room key, our bags were all being taken by a porter to our rooms, and we were being driven down to our own room, located in the residences portion of the hotel. We were upgraded to a larger room with two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and three bathrooms. It was quite lavish. Soon, my stomach was rumbling. We were celebrating my mom’s birthday that night, and we set out to find which restaurant that she wanted to eat at. We walked around the resort, and took our time reading all of the menus, as the restaurants didn’t start serving until 7pm. When in Europe, one must eat on European time. “This place looks good, and it’s nearly 7pm. Let’s get a table here,” my mom said. “Hello,” my mother said to the hostess. “Can we get a table for three, please?” “Yes, do you have a reservation?” “No.” “Sorry, we are fully booked tonight.” “Errrr…” “Sorry, most of the restaurants require a reservation.” I looked at my mother, “So…” “Let’s go to reception,” she suggested. Off we went to the food reservation desk and found out that our only option was to eat at a place called the Butcher. Seeing that our choice was made for us, we headed over to the restaurant. The steaks on the menu started at 250 kuna! I hoped for some gold cooked into the steak for that price! We ended up ordering a round of steaks, which turned out to be the best steak that I’d ever have eaten, and we celebrated my mother’s birthday by ordering a bottle of Dingač. Cutting into the steak barely required a steak knife; the gentlest of pressure had the meat falling apart. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare, with beautiful browning on the outside and a beautiful deep pink on the inside of the steak. Biting into the steak allowed all of the wonderful savoury flavours to envelop my mouth. Taking a bite of this steak was simply divine. I’d like to take a moment to describe how much I love Dingač. It is a Croatian wine which is a speciality of the region. Like a Champagne, it is a type of wine that can only be produced in one region of the world. It is a red wine with a bold and peppery taste. It is a delightful wine which we continued to drink for the duration of our trip. Unfortunately, it seems that it is difficult to find it on our side of the ocean. If you are in Croatia, and like wine, make sure to check this gem out. With full bellies, we headed back to our hotel at the end of our meal and rested up for the next day. *********************************** “TIME FOR OUR BOAT TOUR!” My mother shouted at me in the morning; it seemed that she was a little excited about our tour. We had booked a boating tour with Dubrovnik Boat Tours a few weeks before our trip. I read up that the city was packed during the day because of all of the cruise ship guests in the city. It was being compared with Venice. I had no interest in being shoulder-to-shoulder with other people. We decided that it sounded much nicer to be on our own boat. “We got upgraded to a bigger boat for the same price,” she informed me, with a big smile on her face. For $400 we were on a medium sized boat (enough for five to six people) for a private tour around the Elefiti Islands. We arranged for our suitcases to be dropped off at our next hotel, and headed off for our boat tour. Our guide met us at the marina, and we asked him, “So, where are we going today?” “The Elefiti Islands. That is where you booked the tour to, no?” He responded, looking worried. “Sure! We are going snorkeling, right?” “Yes, yes of course.” “Did you have anywhere you would like to go for lunch?” He asked. “Errr...no.” “I can make a reservation for you. During the summer it can get busy.” We thanked him, and with that we flopped our day things on the back bench, put on sun screen and proceeded to tour around the islands. The islands take around 40 minutes to get to on a private boat, and there are three main islands: Šipan, Lopud, and Koločep. We started our tour by walking around the island Koločep. It was a nice spot to start, get warmed up with a walk, before going for a swim. The island had a marina, lots of walking trails, a small beach, and a small fort. We didn’t spend too long walking around because we were most excited for going for a swim. Back on the boat, we headed off to the Blue Cave. The water in Croatia is pristine, and you can easily see to the bottom of the sea. The Blue Cave here is smaller than the famous cave in Capri, but it is much less crowded. There was no line-up to go into the cave, and the light in the cave was a brilliant blue. Getting into the cave is a little daunting because the entrance to the cave is low, and you need to keep your head down. Once you are in the cave, though, there is a lot of room to swim around. When we were in the cave there were three other people in the cave with us. After some swimming around and taking too many pictures with our water cameras, we headed off to the next set of caves. These caves are known as the Three Sisters caves. There are three caves close together. The first cave is very shallow and you can stand up in this cave. We stopped here and took a lot of pictures of us swimming in the cave. The next two caves are more of an open type of cave, and the last cave has access to the other side of the rock formation, if you are brave enough to take a short dive into the cave. I was not so brave without my scuba diving equipment, so I swam around to see the cave and then exited. Next, we went off to our lunch spot on Lopud. “Hey! Look at those paintings!” My mother said excitedly. It was at this point that I knew that the packable duffel bag was coming out of the suitcase for good. We were bringing paintings back to Canada. I had to admit that the paintings were very beautiful. I find that art makes wonderful souvenirs from my travels because they are something that doesn’t go out of fashion, like clothing does. Before we could buy our paintings, we had to find our lunch spot. We walked past several restaurants and eventually found the restaurant where our reservation was. It was a beautiful restaurant on the main walkway. As soon as we sat down the waiter brought over a large tray of seafood, still alive in some instances. Fresh fish and shellfish were being showcased as the freshest bounty of the day. We chose our appropriate meals and enjoyed a lovely lunch, while watching the sea rolling gently. After lunch we strolled down to the artist’s stall and purchased some paintings to take home with us.
We clamoured onto the boat after lunch. “So where are we headed next?” I asked. “To a very nice beach,” was our guide’s response. My mother and I looked at each other. “Did you want to go to a beach?” I asked her. She shrugged in response. “Want to do some more snorkeling instead?” I asked again. “Oh yeah, let’s do that,” she responded. “Is there somewhere that we can go for more snorkeling?” I asked. “Of course.” Have I mentioned that I really enjoy having a private boat tour? We ended up in an area where you can easily spot octopus walking around. We spent the afternoon looking for our eight legged friends. We saw a few and followed them around. At the end of the day we were dropped off at the marina and took at taxi to our hotel. It was a beautiful day, and I would highly recommend it for anyone who is heading out to Dubrovnik. If you are going with a group of people the boat is not very expensive to split among travel partners. We would later find out that that day in Dubrovnik was a hot, stuffy day with no breeze. It seems like we made the right choice for our day excursion. This ended our trip in Dubrovnik on our own. That evening we were to meet our tour group, through Exodus Tours.
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Beep, beep, beep
“Huh?” “What?” “What’s happening?” “Oh it’s my phone and also an unnatural time for either time zone that I’m used to. It’s midnight for me at home. Ughhh.” Can you tell that I’m such a morning person? Anyone who knows me well can attest to that fact. My mother practically jumps out of bed, somehow already ready for the day. “We’re going to Plitvice National Park today!” She exclaimed excitedly. How does she do that? After a quick breakfast and a short walk over to the meeting point, waiting for our bus to arrive.
Soon, the minivan showed up, and we were headed off to the park. Our group was small - 8 in total. We took a tour through Viatour. The tour was around $250 total, and I was nervous to see if the tour was worth the price.
As we all piled into the vehicle we were told that it would be around a 3 hour drive out to the park. Three hours?! How are we going to pass all of that time. Our guide started a story with, “Let me tell you a little bit about the history of Croatia.” And with that, we passed the three hour driving time quickly.
From what I can remember the history went roughly something like this:
The History of Croatia According to Our Guide Note: please excuse biases, glossing over of terrible tragedies, and any errors. This is the history as far as I can accurately recall from our guide. Take this all with a grain of salt. If you would like a comprehensive history of Croatia check out this book. I am currently working my way through it; it's very well written. Lots of people live here. Byzantine empire take over! Bye-bye, hello Romans. Bye-bye Romans. Lots of groups of people joining together and separating, with Croatia staying mostly with Austria (because of the Hapsburg Empire). They don’t want to be part of the Ottoman Empire. Enter World War I. Side? Austro-Hungarian Empire. Lose the war. Groups of people join together, name Croatia and Serbia. What? Greater Serbia, we didn’t sign up for this! Croatia joins with Germany because they both lost the war. They’re both bummed about it. Break out of World War II. The Croatians don’t like who they joined up with - Serbia. Nazis come to take over Croatia and the Croatians see this as a time to use the Nazis to free themselves from greater Serbia. Looks like they joined up with the Nazis. Hmmm… Insert war crimes. WWII ends. Power vacuum? Tito is here to solve that. A good-bad country emerges: Yugoslavia. Good points about the country: stable economy, people are working and living generally good lives, on average, as long as you like Tito and Yugoslavia. Bad points: don’t like it? You’re in prison or dead. It’s also a dictatorship. Tito dies and a power vacuum emerges. Lots of fighting over who will run Yugoslavia. Another war. Croatia, as we know it today, is born. Ta-da! You’re welcome - it’s very difficult to find a history of Croatia in English. Trust me, I’ve tried. “We’re here,” our guide says. “We’re here?” We all ask. “Yes,” he answers.
We wait for our guide to get our tickets all ready, and we head into the park. By some miracle, there wasn’t a line to get into the park. Our guide told us that it is typical to wait for nearly two hours to get a ticket just to enter the park. According to our guide, next year the park will only be letting in timed entries into the park so that there won’t be crowds inside the park. If you’re thinking about going in the future, keep this in mind!
As soon as we got in the beautiful sights greeted us.
The entire park was jaw-droppingly beautiful. There are 16 terraced lakes and there are waterfalls everywhere. The entire park is a 13km loop that you can walk around quite easily.
“Ummm, can we go swimming?” I ask our guide, as beads of sweat start to form on my forehead. “No,” he explained, “this would disturb the ecological balance of the park. You can go swimming in Krka National Park. It’s very similar to here.” “So, how many tourists accidentally ‘fall’ into the water?” I asked. Our guide chuckled and said, “I wouldn’t advise it.” He clearly knew what I had on my mind. I started to look forward to visiting Krka on our tour, coming up shortly. For now, I’d have to put up with the heat, and day dream about going into the water. We slowly walked around the park taking in the views.
After our tour was over we headed back into Zagreb, went for dinner, and happened upon one of the best ice cream places that I’ve ever been to. Yes, one of the best. If you are ever in Zagreb, check out Vincek for ice cream. The ice cream had the most intense chocolate orange flavour that I’ve ever had. It tasted like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange.
I skipped through the streets of Zagreb, excited that the next day we would be leaving to go to Dubrovnik.
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-Ding dong- “Can you get that?” My mother shouted as she tried for the last time to open and close her suitcase, packing another forgotten item. We were getting ready to leave for our trip to Croatia, or Hrvatska as it's known in Croatian. Don't ask me how you get the word Croatia from Hrvatska. I never did find the answer to that question. “Hey Nancy,” I say, opening the door. “Nance is here!” I scream to my mother. “Oh goodie! Our t-shirts arrived,” she yelled down the hall, running to greet Nance. “Ohhhh!” Another exclamation arose from my mother’s throat. Our cousin had made us all matching t-shirts. Our extended family is represented on the t-shirt and Polish designs are placed in the background. We had excitedly decided to wear matching shirts during our trip. My mother held up two matching shirts, except one was much larger than the other. “Which do you want?” She asked before taking a good look at them. I used my quick reaction to choose the smaller shirt. “This one!” I said, sashaying down the hallway with my new shirt. “Wait, this one is giant!” My mother asked, looking at Nancy incredulously. “Why is it so giant?!” “You said you wanted 42 inches!” My cousin retorted. “I think this is 42 across each way. I meant 42 allllll the way around,” my mother refuted. After a moment, a smile crossed her lips, “But they are so cute!” She gushed. And off we were to the airport to catch our flight. As soon as we boarded the flight we heard the elusive announcement, “Once the airplane is in the air and the captain has turned the seatbelt sign off, you are free to chance seats. We have undersold the flight. Enjoy.” These magical words have only sparsely been heard around the magical kingdom of travellers. As soon as the captain turned off the seatbelt sign I darted off to the free row of three chairs. I sat in the middle and slowly spread out over the entire row, feeling less and less guilty as the time went on. To be fair, other people had rows and extra chairs to themselves as well, but not so many were lucky to have a row of three to themselves. My mother had two chairs to herself, close to the window. She decided that she needed to defend her territory at any cost, so she found extra blankets and fashioned herself some armour to scare off scavengers. So with a row of three do you think I was able to sleep on the plane? Nope! It turns out that I cannot sleep on planes. Ugh, well good thing I brought a face mask. Last 40 minutes of the flight I popped on my face mask and made my skin look refreshed for the next day, despite only having had slept for one hour. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have begun our descent into Zagreb International Airport…” And just like that, I stopped listening and started planning what we would do once we landed. Oh, look it’s the Air B&B. Oh look, there’s the bed. My head hit the pillow and bam, I was asleep. Two hours later my cousin knocked on the door, “Ready to head out?” Groggy, but feeling a bit better, we headed out to see the city. We headed off to see the Museum of Broken Relationships. This was a must see on both my mother’s and my must see list of Croatia. This sounded like such an interesting museum. There were objects that people had donated to the museum which told a story of their heartbreak. Some stories were cute. For example, there was a modem with the simple story of “We tried. Not comparable.” There were stories which broke our hearts reading, such as stories of rape. However, all of the stories told a truth about a loss of some kind. Each story told a truth about love and/or loss which most people could connect with. It was a very moving museum, and I would recommend it to anyone who is passing through Zagreb.
Towards the end of the museum visit, I noticed my mother squinting and droopy eyed. “Tired too, eh?” I asked her. “Mmmmugh,” she responded. I could tell that she was hungry, as we all were. We headed off for dinner. For our first night we chose a typical southern Croatian restaurant for seafood. While the different regions in Croatia have different types of cuisine, seafood seems to be on constant offer everywhere we visited. There is a Croatian saying: Fish should swim three times: once in the sea, once in wine (while cooking), and once in your stomach. It's safe to say that seafood is a way of life in Croatia. We feasted on tuna carpaccio, a large plate of calamari, a fish (sea bream), and black risotto with cuttlefish. After a delectable dinner, we started our long walk home, made longer by getting slightly lost. |