You know how every once in a while I tell you to get a drink before you start reading, because this is gonna be a long one? You might want to go ahead and get a couple lined up, and grab a snack while you're in there - this one's gonna be a doozy!
While you're getting situated, I'm going to take care of a little bit of general housekeeping before I get into the meat and potatoes:
- This was a trip where we met up with another couple, so you may see references to Todd & Brenda - or the Specks - our friends from Austin. Depending on the situation, there may be references to a secondary boss - in that case, I'm referring to Brenda. The ladies will (of course) occupy the management positions, while I will consider Todd & myself as worker bees of equal (but lesser) status;
- There was a specific portion of this trip in which I didn't participate, but it's significant enough to need something written up about it. Brenda has generously offered to write something up for that portion - I'll let you know when it comes by, and make it visually different from the rest of the entry;
- It's come to my attention that some of you (truly, one person in particular) may be sharing these blog entries beyond immediate friends and family: for the sake of inclusivity, I'd like to give a warm German(ish) welcome to my (Great) Aunt Cindy and her book club!
I mentioned meat and potatoes - here they come! You've got your drinks lined up, right?
We've known Todd & Brenda for over 20 years, getting to know them when we lived in Austin. We met up with them last summer in Munich, and we spent a week or so with them in Salzburg and Rothenberg before bringing them back to Frankfurt; our little foursome worked out so well, they decided to come back for more. Their original itinerary would start in Vienna, continuing to Prague and Ljubljana before heading down into Croatia; since we'd already done those cities and the boss' schedule would dictate only being able to take specific vacation days, they graciously agreed to reverse their destinations so that we could accompany them to places we hadn't visited before.
We took the metro to the airport. As an aside, as many times as we've taken public transportation to and from the airport, you'd think we have it down by now. Nope. I think that just about every time we've taken transit to or from the airport, we've done things a little differently, and this trip was no exception. We eventually made it, and had a bit of difficulty checking in. The big board at the entry to the airport sent us to a specific counter to check in, but the people at that counter didn't handle our airline. I'm not certain if they'd ever even heard of our airline.
Turns out that Croatian Airlines is a tiny airline - they have a grand total of 13 planes. They're part of the "Star Alliance," which includes airlines such as Lufthansa and United. We didn't end up flying on either of those airlines though. Evidently, Lufthansa has a budget airline called Discover Airlines that we were codeshared onto. Unfortunately, there was no notation on our tickets telling us this, so we spent a little while wandering around the airport asking everyone with a name tag about Croatian Airlines and receiving only blank looks in response.
We arrived in Dubrovnik about 2 hours later and took an Uber to the apartment, meeting up with Todd & Brenda, who had arrived a couple of hours earlier. The apartment was conveniently located across the street from a local supermarket, so we took a field trip over for some drinks and snacks for the apartment. We picked up some local meats and cheeses for dinner, to give us all a chance to relax before tackling the town. We had brought some card games, so we played one of them that night. We made it a bit of an early night, to try and help them with their jet lag.
Spoiler alert: it didn't work.
When booking the rooms, Brenda had made a point to only book places with air conditioning, since we're all spoiled Americans... and all of our lodging did indeed have air conditioning. But... this was one of two locations that only had air conditioning in the main room, causing various levels of mild discomfort a couple of times throughout the trip. We soldiered on - I only mention the A/C situation for the sake of completeness, and as a warning to other Americans who might want to travel over here.
The next morning, we walked down to the old city to explore. One of the things on our list was taking advantage of the islands in the region, so we hopped on a boat to the island of Lokrum.
Lokrum is a 200 acre island about a half mile off the coast of Dubrovnik. There's a Benedictine abbey on the island that was founded in 1023 A.D., but the last monk left the island in 1808. There are some interesting stories surrounding the island, including that it was supposedly cursed by the last monks to depart the island. When the last monks left, they supposedly walked a circuit of the island, dripping a stream of candlewax the entire way, chanting “Whosoever claims Lokrum for his own personal pleasure shall be damned!” Rolls right off the tongue, right? I'm certain it's more lyrical in Latin.
Construction on the fort at the top of the hill on the island began while Napoleon was the Emperor of Croatia, in 1806, and finished during the period of Hapsburg rule.
There's a lake on the island called the Dead Sea which is connected underground to the Adriatic. We think the salinity level in the lake is a little bit higher than in the open sea, but we don't have any evidence one way or the other. We swam in the lake for a while.
We caught the ferry back and wandered around the old city in the waning sunlight, eventually stumbling upon (what I shall call) the Shame Stairs.
I must break for a moment and mention the pop-culture elephant (or more correctly, dragon) in the room: Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones made extensive use of the historical and natural beauty of Croatia, with notable scenes being filmed in different locations around the country. In our little foursome, we had a quite interesting mix: One person who's watched the entire series a couple of times, two people who have seen parts of it (and enjoyed what they've seen, but just haven't watched the whole thing), and one person who has no interest in Game of Thrones, whose eyes glaze over whenever the subject comes up. I'll let you decide for yourselves which one of us is which.
On the island of Lokrum, parts of the Benedictine Monastery were used for the filming of the garden party in Qarth; indeed, the peacocks on Lokrum inspired the decorations for the city of Qarth in the show.
We picked up some sandwiches as we left the city, took an Uber back to the apartment, and had dinner there.
Dubrovnik is a walled city which dates back to at least the 7th century, with artifacts dating back to the 3rd century BCE being found at the site. As one of the older cities in the Med, it's been part of just about every empire in that area of the world at one point or another (including at least one surprise - to me at least - the Second Mexican Empire). Usually I'll try to give you at least an overview of the history of the city, but honestly, I'm not even going to attempt to cover the history of this city - there are just too much to even start.
The walls around the city though, were used several times in filming. Since the walls are one of the most recognizable features of the city, those were on our list of 'things to do.'
The next morning, we walked to the Old City, passing through one of the main gates, Pile Gate - featured a few times in the show.
It's possible to walk all the way around the city on the top of the walls, but it's recommended to do it earlier in the day to avoid the hottest part of the day... so that's when we started. Something that might be occurring to you... those walls are high - and that means stairs. A lot of stairs.
I'll admit, I made a smart decision at this point. My compatriots, not so much. I acknowledged that discretion was the better part of valor, and threw in the towel halfway around. The other three members of our group continued all the way around, while I waited in a coffee bar in the main square, enjoying a cup of coffee and a pleasant breeze under an expansive awning. From what I understand, they might have managed to find more stairs. Beautiful views, from what I saw of the pictures, but at what cost?!? Stairs. Yep - hundreds of stairs.
(Here's the pic I sent them to show them EXACTLY where I was sitting)
The boss and I went to the airport to pick up a rental car; our itinerary would have us leaving Dubrovnik the next day, but we didn't want to be harnessed to tour buses, so we decided to drive for the middle part of our trip. We ended up renting a Ford Tourneo, a model that's not available in the states. I think the US equivalent would be a Ford Transit Passenger van. A little bigger than a standard car, but we all agreed that it was just about the right size for 4 adult Americans and our luggage. The size of the vehicle comes into play later in our journey - we didn't know it at the time though!
We got onto the boat at around 7:00, and visited a couple of swimming spots, including a cave on the back side of Lokrum. We'd heard of and seen pictures of a "blue cave," but wouldn't have time to get over there on our cruise. We putzed around a while and swam again before finding a good spot to capture some pictures of the sun setting over the Adriatic.
Walking back through Old Town at night, the vibe was much different - more of a party atmosphere. We stopped a few times to listen to bands, but weren't able to get a table near any of them, so we just kept wandering. We ended the night by taking a bus back to the apartment.
The next morning, we packed up and left Dubrovnik at around 9. We'd heard horror stories about wait times at the border into Montenegro, so I had researched a different border crossing that wasn't as well known, and that the tour buses didn't hit first thing in the morning. We breezed through customs/immigration leaving Croatia and entering Montenegro. Our destination was the town of Kotor, located on the backside of the Bay of Kotor. The bay isn't really that long - only extending 17 miles into Montenegro, but passing through all of the little towns, it took quite a while to get there. Google Maps says that it's only a 30 mile drive from the border crossing we used to the city, but it took close to two and a half hours. There were so many little towns with 30kph speed limits (that's 18 Freedom Units per hour for my stateside readers), that it seemed like we spent most of our drive just crawling along. Quite picturesque and pretty, but not the most fun drive with a manual transmission. We found out afterward that there's a ferry that goes across the bay, and would have taken quite a bit off of our journey, but it was a pretty drive anyway.
Driving along the picturesque shoreline, we saw all kinds of buoys floating offshore, and surmised that they were beds for oysters and mussels. We did a bit of research, and it appears that's what they were, but we passed one specific area where they were aging wine underwater. Yes, there's a company that bottles wines and ages them 20 meters under the bay for a year, and they absolutely swear by their technique. We didn't have the opportunity to try any of their wines - I just pass it along for the sake of entertainment.
We eventually got to the town of Kotor, yet another walled city of around 13,000 people. Written references to the city date back to 168BC, but according to some scholars, the area was first settled in the 9th century BC. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site... but let's talk about that for a moment.
Because of the area of the world we were in, we encountered a few different World Heritage Sites. Interestingly enough, people from those areas are quite proud of that label - proud enough that they're willing to fabricate additional sites. For instance, we were told by one boat captain that a specific building was a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Later research told us that it wasn't an actual site, but the captain sounded quite knowledgeable at the time. It became a bit of a running joke among our little group, as we referred to all sorts of things as UNESCO World Heritage Sites from then on. But... all that comes later.
We found our apartments and met our host. He was... a character. He's evidently led quite an interesting life, visiting the US a few times, traveling all over Europe. Just an older guy (probably late 70's, early 80's), quite talkative, in your face personality. Mostly fluent in English.
We got settled, booked a private boat tour (since that had worked out so well in Dubrovnik, and we were feeling a bit bougie!), then starting talking about food. Turns out, there's a barbecue place in Kotor - and y'all know how I love to visit barbecue restaurants when we travel! We walked down to the restaurant, but the line was too long. We ended up eating in a local place around the corner instead.
The boat company contacted me and asked if we could push our trip back by half an hour. I told them it was no problem - but we did have a little difficulty finding the boat, and barely made it. They ended up giving us an additional half hour for our trouble.
Our boat tour took us to a little man made island called Gospa od Škrpjela... at least that's its real name. The church on the island is called Our Lady of the Rocks, and the island is usually referred to by the same name. According to the story, there was an icon of Madonna and Child found on the rocks off the coast of Perast, in the Bay of Kotor, in July of 1452. Some fishermen found it and took it to a church in Perast, and it kept disappearing from the church and returning to the rocks in the middle of the bay. The people of the town decided to make an island, to build a church on, for the icon to live in. Every July, members of the town go out to the island and add more rocks. Over the last 573 years, the church has been renovated once (in 1722), and they've added on a museum connected to the church, and a little souvenir shop has been put on the island as well.
According to our boat captain, it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to UNESCO, it's not. This is the same boat captain who told us that a specific building was a UNESCO World Heritage Site as well.
We continued on to the Blue Cave. The water in the Adriatic is so brilliantly azure shaded that there are several different caves referred to as "The Blue Cave" or "The Blue Grotto." I'm pretty sure that there's at least one in each country; there was one in near Dubrovnik that we didn't have a chance to get to, and we got to see the one in Montenegro - also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to our captain. Again, not according to UNESCO.
We didn't get to swim in the Blue Cave, as there were too many boats moving in and out of the cave, but the water was indeed quite brilliantly blue, and it was indeed a cave. This is supposedly also the only Blue Cave that's located on the mainland, rather than an island, but I got that information from Captain UNESCO, so I consider it a bit suspect.
We did get to swim at least once in the brilliantly blue water, near (and into) a cave... just not THE Blue Cave!
On the way back to Kotor, we stopped to see a submarine tunnel. Evidently, the Yugoslavian military constructed an underground base in the 1950s, and three of the tunnels (used by their submarines and ships) still exist, in some state of disrepair. The tunnels used to all connect, but time has taken its toll on the underground base, and only limited parts are still accessible. The mouths of the tunnels still have some of their coverings attached; metal folding umbrella like structures which swung out of the way for access. There are still plastic rocks scattered around the mouths of the tunnels and on the umbrella structures - evidently those were used to camouflage the openings to the tunnels. When the openings were covered, the tunnels couldn't be seen from the air or water because of the camouflage. Now, they're just lonely hundred meter long cement piers burrowed into the mountain, with locals sitting in lawn chairs around the openings drinking. The one we went into, there was someone all the way at the end, playing some sort of lonely song on a boom box, taking advantage of the phenomenal acoustics of the deserted tunnel.
Kotor, over the years, has been affiliated with almost 30 different countries (empires, states, etc.), but that includes several different affiliations where the name of the ruling empire changed. Of those 29 different ruling entities, 10 of them were affiliated with Italy. Between that and their location immediately across the Adriatic from Italy - and there are a LOT of Italian restaurants in Kotor.
Captain UNESCO had earlier showed us a picture of the walls of the city after dark; evidently, they light the walls up once the sun goes down. The picture he showed us must have been enhanced; before we went to bed, we drove over to the far side of the bay and tried to capture an image something like his. While the pictures we took were fine, they weren't as colorful as his, so I'm pretty sure his colors were adjusted somehow. The picture he showed us showed the walls of the city on the mountainside, reflected against the glass smooth bay to create a sideways heart around the city. Ours looked.... well, you can just judge for yourself. I've attempted to enhance the colors, but I'm no wizard with photoshop.
Turns out that the walls supposedly have the shape of a lion (not half a heart, Captain UNESCO)... he probably said something about how the reflection was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site too.
The next morning, we packed up and hit the road, leaving beautiful Montenegro for Bosnia & Herzegovina. We backtracked most of the way around the Bay of Kotor, then turned into the mountains. We ended up having to wait at the border, probably close to an hour. Just a couple of questions, but this was our first time crossing the border between two non-EU countries... so we added a couple of stamps to our passports.
Driving through Bosnia & Herzegovina... let's make a quick little rule, shall we? I'm not gonna type "& Herzegovina" any more. I'd like to offer my most sincere apologies to any of my dear readers from Bosnia & Herzegovina... but I'm just going to call it Bosnia from here on out.
Anyway, Bosnia. Bosnia had a different feel than either of the other countries so far. Croatia is known for its coastline and islands, and I'm not sure what Montenegro is known for, but 90% of our time in Montenegro had been within sight of either the Adriatic Sea or the Bay of Kotor, and there was no coastline (that we saw) in Bosnia for us to appreciate. Honestly, what we saw of the country reminded me of some relatively flat western states, covered with scrub. Parts of New Mexico, or the High Desert in California. Quite pretty, but not in a 'take your breath away' way, like some of the coastline that we'd seen previously.
(Boss snapped this selfie as we said goodbye to the Bay of Kotor and turned into the mountains. In the middle of the three arms of the bay, you can barely see two islands; the one on the right is Our Lady of the Rocks, the one to the left is a monastery. A couple of miles around the corner to the left is the city of Kotor, while through the opening in the middle, you can see the entrance to the Adriatic Sea.)
A random church we found overlooking a random valley in Bosnia:
The Chinese construction site (putting pics in after it's all written... turns out, I talk about this in a couple of paragraphs - sorry!):
Around every corner we found remainders of the brutal war waged in the 90s; indeed, we'd been warned not to explore any decrepit buildings, or walk off of established paths, due to the danger of unexploded ordnance and hidden land mines.
Traveling through backwoods Bosnia, the road turned into a gravel road, and we drove a few miles through a Chinese construction site, with signs posted all over about it being an active blasting zone. I personally think that those signs should have read "Road Closed," but what I don't know about Chinese blasting sites in Bosnia could probably fill several volumes of books.
We had originally planned on heading straight to the hotel when we arrived in Mostar, but we were all a bit hungry when we rolled into town, so we changed the GPS over to a barbecue restaurant instead. Interestingly enough the time remaining in our drive didn't change, but it didn't occur to me to wonder why until later.
I'll be honest, driving into Mostar, I didn't know what to expect - I'm not sure any of us did. All the way in, it just felt like a normal small city, nothing special. We parked in a conveniently located city lot (more about that later), and walked through what again felt like a normal city... until we got into Old Town.
With my rudimentary journaling style, I won't be able to succinctly tell you how much I loved this town.
As much wonderful stuff as I've heard about Dubrovnik, and how much I enjoyed it... I honestly liked Mostar more. There was just something about it... it felt like a depressing cold war town that time forgot, until we got into the old city, and it transformed into a magical cross between east and west.
Half of the city was Christian, and half was Muslim, with the river in the middle of the city being the dividing line between the two. The shopping area of the old town stretches on both sides of the river, with one of the old bridges (a UNESCO World Heritage Site - a real one this time!) connecting the two parts. You can see influences of both the Christian and Muslim heritage as you walk through the old town, with vibrant colors and geometric designs in every direction you look.
Spoiler alert: It wasn't.
Additional spoiler alert: we had one of the best meals there that I've ever had.
I will never stop singing the praises of this restaurant, but I can't tell you its name for certain. It was either "Irma-Tima" or "Tima-Irma" - we saw both names in use in multiple places. Evidently, it's a family run restaurant, and Irma was our waitress. Just in case you find yourself there, her name is pronounced "Ear-ma." She seated us upstairs (in the A/C), and brought us menus, then chatted with us off and on while we were deciding what to eat. As we were deciding, she seated another couple at the next table down from us; turns out they were an American couple from Austin, visiting Europe on their honeymoon!
UPDATE: When searching for more information about the restaurant, I encountered this YouTube video of a couple wandering through Mostar and eating at Tima-Irma. They are in the upstairs dining room - the lady in the video is sitting where the couple from Austin was sitting. The boss and I were sitting on the same bench that she's sitting on, but all the way to the left (her right), by the railing overlooking the downstairs area. Brenda and Todd were sitting across from us. I have no affiliation with the couple in the video, and REALLY hope I don't get in trouble by sending a handful of people to their video!
When we ordered from Irma, she leaned over the railing and shouted our orders to the kitchen below - it was just that kind of restaurant. She got us our food, and told us that if we needed anything, just to holler her name, and she'd come take care of us. Our only complaint about the meal was a minor one, and hardly worth mentioning unless you're just bound and determined to hear some sort of criticism: the tables were a little too small for the amount of food that Irma brought to us!
After eating way too much food, we went downstairs to pay, breaking the bill up between our two couples. When Irma was ringing us up, we told her that we wanted to pay for the Texan couple upstairs, as they were on their honeymoon. Irma really got into the spirit of it, thanked us for telling her, and told us that she'd do something special for them too.
We decided to check into the hotel before we explored the town any more, and it turns out that the lot we'd parked in was one of the lots that the hotel had suggested for us. Indeed, while walking back to the car, we passed a sign for our hotel - we'd walked right by our hotel on the way to Irma's place! The boss ladies went to check into the hotel, while Todd waited in the street out front, while I drove the car around the block to drop off the luggage closer to the door. Once the car was unloaded, I moved it back into the lot and then walked back to the hotel, discovering a kind of oasis after opening the door to the facility.
Picture a small apartment building with a courtyard that's attached to the street - with the courtyard big enough for 10 cars or so. Now, instead of it being a parking area, picture it being filled with gravel, with pavers leading across the courtyard and around the edges, and a crystal clear pool on the far side. That's what I opened the door to see. On my left after walking through the door was a little outdoor seating area with a sofa, two chairs, and a coffee table, an indoor/outdoor seating area with some couches, and behind both of those (inside the building) a common kitchen.
The ladies had chosen which couple would be in which room by flipping a coin (or each of them choosing a random key), and we ended up on the ground floor, with the Specks being one floor up.
After we checked in and unpacked, we walked back over to the old part of the city to continue exploring. As we entered the old city, Irma's place was at the first corner, across the street from three different artist's studios. The boss ladies were poking around in one of the studios when Irma came around the corner drinking some coffee, and thanked us for telling her about the honeymooning couple. She said that she'd had her daughter talk to them - she said her daughter's English was better, which we disagreed with! - and take them up a bottle of wine on the house, telling them that we'd already taken care of their meal. Irma said that the bride was in tears of thankfulness. That warmed our hearts a little.
Irma recommended a specific one of the artists, and told us that he'd done all of the painted signage for her restaurant, so of course we had to buy a watercolor from him. If you're keeping track at home, the wife now officially has.... way too many watercolors. I kid, but only because I don't want her to start counting any of my collections of random things!
We wandered through the town, stimulating the local economy. The bridge over the river was interesting... that's the actual UNESCO World Heritage Site. The material that it's paved with is travertine, and was slippery even when dry - I can't imagine what it'd be like to walk over it when it's wet!
The bridge was originally commissioned in 1557 by Suleiman the Magnificent - you may remember him from such blog entries as "What better place for 4/20 than..... Amsterdam?!?" An ambassador for Ferdinand I to Sulieman the Magnificent supposedly brought the tulip from the Ottoman Empire to the Netherlands.
The bridge was destroyed in November of 1993 during the Croat-Bosniak war, and by the end of December, a temporary bridge had been constructed on the site while a replacement could be planned and built. In June of 2001, construction began on a permanent replacement for the bridge, being completed in July of 2004, using what original material could be salvaged from the river below (added to limestone quarried from the same places as the original stone), using the same construction methods that were used for the original bridge.
The railing of the bridge is around 80 feet above the surface of the river below, and is used as a diving platform for local divers, and some carefully vetted tourists. There's a gantry a little ways down the river where, for a fee, you can dive/jump off of the gantry to demonstrate your prowess to an "instructor" before being allowed to jump off of the bridge itself.
The day we were there, one of the locals was pretending he would jump off of the bridge, but I guess enough people weren't giving him money, as he kept pretending that he was going to do it, then he'd get back down onto the bridge. One of the tourists next to us on the bridge had jumped off of the bridge the day before, and talked with the diver when he came by. Evidently, the divers wait until people have given them about €50 before they'll jump off.
Since 2015, the bridge has been a stop on the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.
We found a terrace bar overlooking the bridge to relax, cool down, and have some drinks.
Afterward, we wandered across the bridge to discover more of the old city, and stimulated the economy a bit more.
After making our way most of the way through town, we encountered the Museum of War and Genocide Victims - doesn't that sound quaint? Todd and I decided that we'd prefer to be doing *anything else*, so we wandered back in the direction of the hotel, while the boss ladies decided that War and Genocide Victims were just what their day had been missing. You'll have to ask them about the museum. Todd and I found a shortcut back to the hotel that didn't take us over the treacherous bridge. I texted the boss a little annotated map, telling her the easy way to get back to the hotel. Todd and I sat in the courtyard chatting until the ladies came back.
We hung out poolside, planning the next couple of days, then headed to bed.
The next morning, we packed up the suitcases and loaded the car, then walked back into old town to try another restaurant for an early lunch (stimulating the local economy again, of course!). We had high hopes for this restaurant, Hindin Han, but it wasn't nearly as good as Irma-Tima/Tima-Irma.
We walked back to the car and headed for our next stop, returning to Croatia and the beautiful town of Split. After getting settled in our apartment, we decided to visit a couple of stores to (a) look for a travel fan for Brenda (I travel with my own battery powered fan), and (b) get some snacks and supplies for the room. We went to the same kind of store I'd bought my fan from, but didn't find one for Brenda. We bought food and drinks, and headed back to the room.
After we unloaded everything, we decided to walk into the old city for some tourist time. Our "host" (the lady we'd rented the apartment from) had given us instructions on how to get into town, but the boss / group photographer had a different idea. She wanted to try to capture a pic of the sunset by walking a different direction.
Spoiler alert: She wasn't able to get the picture she wanted.
Additional spoiler alert: It was supposed to take us 10 minutes to walk into the old city. That first night, it took over half an hour, and we got lost twice on the way. She's not allowed to navigate any more.
We eventually made our way to the old town, and walked along the waterfront, quite a picturesque town. We stopped at a pizza restaurant for dinner, and then eventually headed back to the apartment - the right way, this time.
A bunch of cruise ships were supposed to be in town the next day, so we got up, loaded up the car, and headed out to do touristy stuff outside of town (and away from the throngs of people). I'd read an article talking about places you absolutely had to visit while you were in Split, so I brought it up to the group, and one of the places was also on Brenda's list. Additionally, there was a mountain fortress that was (almost) on the way there, so... that's where we headed.
Klis Fortress stands about 360 meters (1180 Freedom Units) above the city of Split, and has been an important strategic site for about 2,300 years. The history of Klis bounces back and forth several different times, through several different empires and regimes (including being awarded to the Knights Templar in 1217, being attacked by the Mongols in the 1220s, and being occupied by Axis powers in the second world war).
This photo (below) was (ironically enough) being within a few seconds of the dragon photo that I share in a couple of paragraphs. If you visually follow down the stairs that Brenda is on, they end at that patch of dirt and gravel. If you follow up the wall that's located on the left of that patch, lined up right at the corner of the level above, you'll see a camera tower with a solar panel on top of it. When this picture was being taken, I was (evidently) just out of sight behind that wall, connecting with the camera or taking my picture. Brenda may very well be looking at me with concern, trying to figure out if I need medical attention at this point.
Klis was used during the filming of Game of Thrones, being used as the setting for several shots in the city of Mereen. There was a camera spot that was quite inventive; you'd walk up to the camera and connect to it with your phone, and your screen would update with what the camera was seeing. You'd pose and then press a button on your phone screen and a timer would count down and camera would take a picture, superimposing dragons into the background of your photo. They'd email your photo to you for free... that was the most surprising part for me, that they'd give you the picture for free. We had payed €12 to get in, but honestly, they could charge a couple of euros for the pics and make more money.
The Assistant Manager hadn't seen the photo setup yet - you can see her walking down the stairs in the background. If you were able to zoom in on her face, you'd see a look of bewilderment bordering on concern; she thought I might be having a seizure of some sort, and was quite relieved that I was just "posing" for a picture.
We crossed the bridge onto the island, and while it was pretty... and I hate to do it... there's absolutely no way I can cover 2,300 years of history in such a short (?) blog entry. Same basic story as all of the other little towns. Lots of changing allegiances, conquered by tons of different cultures, got heavily involved in the war between Venice and Genoa, claimed by those pesky Habsburgs... it sucks to get to this point, but all of the history of all of these towns and cities starts to look generally the same after reading up on all of them.
We split up in Trogir, with each couple going their separate ways. The boss and I stopped and got a bite to eat, then made a circuit of the town, with each of us buying a hat - the boss got a baseball cap with "Croatia" on it, while I chose a straw hat that would keep my dome from getting burned while letting some air get through.
We met back up with the Specks at one of the bars on the waterside and plotted out the rest of the day. We walked back to the car and headed to Ðelfin Beach; I was able to find parking, and we walked back a hundred yards or so to the swimming area, swimming and hanging out with all of the locals for a while.
Those who know me well know that I can be a bit prissy about all of the sand at the the beach, and know that I'm not generally the biggest fan. You might be thinking "Boy, our narrator seems to have had a change of heart about the beach!"
You'd be wrong. Horribly wrong. I played along. Everyone on the trip knew I was just playing along, but I was determined that my aversion to finding sand EVERYWHERE wouldn't impact the others on the trip. When I'd had enough sand, I simply found other nearby things to do.
On this day, I left the three gluttons for punishment out in the gentle waves, and headed for a bar which overlooked the beach, letting them play for as long as they wanted. Eventually, they trickled over to the bar, Todd first, with management following behind a little while later.
Since we just had some drinks, you might be getting a little thirsty - do you need a refill?
That day (Tuesday, the 24th) was Brenda & Todd's 25th Anniversary, and despite our protestations, they insisted that we go to dinner with them to celebrate. Our host had given us a few different suggestions for meals, and one of them was fairly close to the touristy area. We walked there for dinner after returning to the apartment to clean from our adventures during the day.
It was a barbecue restaurant - a real one this time, and quite good too! The name of the place was Bakra - I'd highly recommend it if you find yourself wanting decent barbecue while in Split, Croatia while avoiding most of the tourists - it seemed to be mostly locals at this joint.
On the way back to the room, we diverted through town (rather than walking along the water then heading directly back to the apartment).
We passed through an underground area, turned out to be the cellar for the palace. Now, I must share a weird phenomenon: Walking through the cellar, everything looked normal - a little dark, but well lit. Taking pictures, though... now that was weird. All of the pictures of the cellar, everything looked green. Not "Oh, does the color look a little weird?" green - much closer to "What the hell is that? Did a leprechaun throw up in here?" green.
Turns out, there's a rational explanation - I'm going to skip forward a bit in my narrative (because it's MY narrative!) to give you the explanation. You know when you're walking through Lowes (or Home Depot - I won't judge!) and they have all of the different displays of white light bulbs, in their own little display rooms? It demonstrates the "temperature" of different white lights - how some can be more blue tinged (cooler), some can be more yellowish (warmer), etc.? Turns out, there's something about the "temperature" of the lights in the cellar that make them appear to have a green tinge through a camera. When you're just looking at them with your eyes, you'd never know it, but the (visual) temperature of the lights appears like you're viewing everything through a green filter when you take a picture.
Anyway, we proceeded through (what shall now be known as) the Leprechaun Cellar to find a square filled with partying revelers - just locals out enjoying the mild evening, dancing to some music that was being performed by a local musician.
We continued through the back streets of the town and found the main road leading to our apartment. Turns out, it's much quicker, when you follow the host's instructions, just so you know!
When we returned to the room, we booked a walking tour of Diocletian's Palace, scheduled for 10:30 the next morning.
So, the next morning, we took our time getting out, and met with the guide at the upper entrance to Diocletian's Palace.
Lemme give you a quick data dump on Diocletian: He was a Roman Emperor from the year 284 until he abdicated in the year 305. He worked his way up through the military ranks, eventually becoming a cavalry commander under the emperor Carus. Upon Carus' death, Diocletian's troops proclaimed him emperor - a title also claimed by Carus' surviving son. Diocletian defeated Carinus (Carus' son) in the Battle of the Margus, claiming the title solely for himself.
Diocletian is fairly widely accepted as being one of the best emperors, recognizing that the empire was too large for one person to govern, and appointing a co-emperor to rule the western part of the empire, and appointing a junior colleague for himself and his co-emperor to assist with the duties of ruling.
He built his palace in Split at the end of the third century, and today it covers about half of the old town of Split. Construction continued through the years, and the palace is in the unique position of having several different eras of construction, all being considered part of the palace - almost as a living place, rather than preserving something static from days gone by. Diocletian's Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (surprising, I know), but it's not a "palace" in the traditional sense, like Buckingham Palace; it forms the center of the town with streets and alleys, shopping areas, restaurants - indeed, the Leprechaun Cellar (from earlier in our story) is part of the palace, as is the square that we found all of the people dancing in.
Touching on the cellar again: If you've seen Game of Thrones, do you remember when Daenerys locked two of her dragons in the "crypt" (for lack of a better term)? The cellar was actually used for filming that scene (although the stairs she comes down are either from another filming location, are part of a purpose built set, or are CGI).
Diocletian was the first Roman Emperor to abdicate his position voluntarily. He "retired" from the position, and took up full time residence at the palace. During the turmoil created by his resignation, his former subjects begged him to take the office again, to bring order back to their society. He replied: "If you could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn't dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed."
We found a place for lunch after the tour, then the couples split up again, but a bit differently this time. The Assistant Boss and I wanted to go through the Game of Thrones Museum, while the Boss-boss took the other worker bee to the port to arrange a boat tour for the next day.
Brenda and I enjoyed the museum... there were 4 rooms, each with a different theme. There were costumes and props in there, but in speaking with one of the ladies who worked there, she told us that the costumes and props were never used in filming, and were created as backups for the ones used in the show. Whether or not that's truly the case, I'll never actually know.
After we made our way back to the apartment, we hopped in the car and took a road trip to the nearby town of Omiš. Another beach afternoon, yay! We rented loungers and umbrellas on the beach and I tolerated it for just about as long as I could, then I made myself scarce and wandered through the town, discovering all sorts of touristy things I couldn't possibly live without. I ended up with a cold drink and another tube of sunscreen (that I'd been directed to find).
We all met back up at the car, and we had dinner back at the room... eventually. There was a traffic jam, and it took us over an hour to go about a mile and a half. We eventually made it back though.
When they'd booked the boat, they'd booked us for an 8:30 departure, but they initially told us that we'd be heading out at 6:30, just to get a reaction from us. Really nice folks that Brenda and I were traveling with, huh?
So we showed up for the boat ride, not knowing what kind of boat to expect. We'd been in all kinds of boats:
- Our first boat ride, to the island of Lokrum was on a ferry with probably a hundred other tourists.
- Our second boat ride, out of Dubrovnik, was on a pretty big, slow boat. It was just the four of us and our captain. Quite gentle and low key.
- Our third boat ride with Captain UNESCO, out of Kotor, was on a 28 foot bowrider speedboat with a bimini top over the stern (for just a little bit of shade). Todd & Brenda had ridden in the bow on the way out, and the boss and I rode in the bow on the way back. Parts of that ride were pretty rough, with Todd and Brenda definitely getting the worse part of the deal.
This boat was close to 40 feet long, with a large cabin in the middle, and an open sundeck area on the stern. There were twelve passengers, the captain, and one crewman, with twelve quite cushy seats arranged in six rows with an aisle in the middle. The captain and the crewman had their own benches to sit on. This boat was probably close to as fast as Captain UNESCO's speedboat, but much smoother, and much quieter.
Our first stop was at the town of Bol, on the island of Brač. If you've seen the "Golden Horn" in pictures or videos from Croatia, this is what they were sharing. It was still a bit early for me to subject myself to all that sand, so I wandered around the town and had a couple of cups of coffee and a snack while the other three took off for the beach for an hour or so. They took a little tourist train back, and made it back in time to board our boat for the next destination: Carpe Diem beach.
This was a little island directly on the Adriatic with a private swimming area. There was a beach club on the other side of the island, but they weren't very friendly, and wouldn't let us in to even look around unless we committed to buying drinks at their club. We just swam in the beach area next to where the boat had dropped us off instead.
An hour or so later, the boat came back to pick us up and took us over to the town of Hvar, on the island of the same name. Hvar is evidently well known for their lavender fields, with all kinds of vendors selling all sorts of lavender based products. The boss and I wandered around the town visiting all of the merchants, then had a quick bite to eat at one of the restaurants on the water's edge. The Specks wandered further down the island, exploring quite a ways down before meeting back up with us before we all got back on the boat.
The next stop was the island of Šolta, the town of Stomorska - a little town with a population of 245. There wasn't much here, but for some reason, there wasn't a lot of room for the boat to dock - there was only one space left, and it looked like it was a pretty tight fit. The captain told us where the beach was, and sent us on our way. There didn't appear to be any tourist shops, but perhaps we just didn't look in the right places. We swam for a few minutes, then I wandered up the road looking for (and thankfully finding!) a gelato vendor. It was just a cart, with a lady sitting in the garage behind the cart, waiting for a tourist to come by and ring the little bell. I don't remember anything special about the gelato, except that I was overheated, and it helped me cool down a little.
Here are a bunch of pics from that boat trip.
Upon returning to Split, we wandered back to the room and snacked on the supplies we'd previously picked up, played some games, and got to bed way too late.
We packed up and left Split the next morning, driving up the coast to the town of Zadar. Honestly, we were just trying to burn some time, and it looked interesting.
We found a parking spot toward the end of the peninsula and walked around the end, looking for our real destination: The Sea Organ.
During World War II, Zadar was devastated by allied bombings... I've glossed over Yugoslavia's part in the war, so I might as well share a bit here.
Yugoslavia, fearing an invasion by the Axis powers, signed the Tripartite Act with Nazi Germany, and all parties agreed that the Axis powers would respect Yugoslav sovereignty and territorial integrity. Two days later, the Yugoslavian government (which had signed the agreement) was overthrown amid anti-government demonstrations in Belgrade.
Less than two weeks after that, Axis forces invaded the country. In less than 12 days, Axis powers conquered and occupied the country, breaking it up between Germany and Italy.
From November of 1943 to October of 1944, the Allies heavily bombed Zadar (among other cities).
During the frenzy of reconstruction after the war, the waterfront was a monotonous concrete wall. In an effort to help revitalize the area, in 2005, an artist constructed a system of pipes and a resonating cavity which play harmonic tones by using the natural movement of the waves. A set of marble steps has been constructed down to the waterline to protect the pipes, and the area has been turned into a place for locals and tourists alike to visit and just hang out, listening to the sea playing its tune.
Doesn't listening to music make you wanna sit back with a cool drink? Do you need a refill?
We stayed for a few minutes, then headed into the old city to find some food. We had some lunch, then hit the road again. Next stop: Plitvice Lakes National Park.
Evidently, there's a famous national park in Croatia with a bunch of waterfalls, and three of the members of our ragtag band of merry misfits expressed a lot of interest in wandering around in there (I'll let you guess which three - you get bonus points if you guess correctly before the end of the next paragraph!).
Evidently, there are several different well marked paths that you can take through the park, each with a general amount of time that it should take you to trek through. As we were walking down the path leading back and forth across the mountain down to the lakes, there were several different overlook areas, looking down on a big lake with waterfalls coming down from the mountains. It was at this point that it occurred to me that if I were to walk all the way down there, I'd have to walk all the way back up the same hill.
Actually, that's a bold-faced lie.
I'd known about all of the mountain climbing before we even stopped at the park, and... with discretion being the better part of valor (and all that), had preemptively put my foot down, and decided that when we left, I would be driving our rental car, and not being medically evacuated in a helicopter.
I walked a little ways down the path - far enough to say I'd been there, and take some cool pictures as proof! - then tearfully bid adieu to my fearless companions, and promised that I'd visit them in the hospital.
Since I didn't participate in the death march, I must turn you over to the next most qualified writer, our resident librarian... that's right, our Assistant Manager... for this next section, here's Brenda Speck!
After being in sweltering temperatures for a week, Plitvice Lakes National Park was a refreshing and cool reprieve. The park is an oasis of cascading waterfalls, turquoise lakes, and dense forests - truly a nature lover’s paradise. During the hot, crowded summer months, you will be advised to arrive right when the park opens to avoid all the day trippers and tour buses. That is great advice unless you are driving 2.5 hours and are not early morning people. Instead, we opted to go in the late afternoon with hopes that the tour buses had left. An added bonus was that we paid a reduced rate for our tickets. Well, our plan paid off! It wasn’t overly crowded at all.
We chose route B for its scenic highlights and 3-4 hour time limit. Immediately upon entering the park, we were hit with a spectacular sight.
We continued down the steps and onto the boardwalk trail to the Veliki Slap (The Big Waterfall). We wandered back on the trail through the lower lakes canyon which delighted us with a dramatic limestone gorge with turquoise lakes linked by rushing waterfalls. Finally, we made it to Lake Kozjak and took a beer break at shaded picnic table. This was a new experience for us, as parks in the U.S. typically don’t sell beer.After our brief break, we waited for the electric boat to take us across Lake Kozjak. It was during this time, we met three football players from the Regensberg (American) football team. Todd’s Packers ball cap started a pleasant discussion about The Packers and the upcoming NFL season. Next, we boarded the boat and took a quick cruise across Lake Kozjak. The water was so turquoise that it looked fake, like Berry Blue Kool Aid.
Next, we went on a panoramic tram ride through a heavily forested area. And then it was a short hike back to the entrance. What an amazing day we had!
And now, back to your normally scheduled narrator!
While the adventurers were out, I moved the car twice, just to give them more of a sense of adventure and accomplishment after a long hike! No, I'm kidding. I moved the car up to a closer spot about halfway through, then moved it up again when an even closer spot became available, so they wouldn't have to walk as far. Ain't I thoughtful? They messaged me when they were walking toward the parking area, and at that point I moved the car up to right in front of the pay station, so they'd immediately be able to get in when they hit the lot.
As an added bonus, we had the same number of people in the car when we left as when we arrived!
We continued driving to our next destination, but it was getting toward dinnertime, so we stopped in a little town for dinner. The town's name was Karlovac. We might have been the only Americans to have stopped in the town in its entire history, but the guy at the doner restaurant spoke enough English to take our order.
We ended up getting to our hotel in Zagreb at around 10:00 that night - a long day on the road.
There was parking at the hotel we stayed in, but it was a little... challenging to get into. One of the things in Europe is little courtyards behind the building that you get to by driving through an internal hallway (if you're driving a tiny European size auto). The door to the street can be a normal size door, within a larger (almost) garage door sized door. You have to open both doors (at both ends of the hallway), and then you can park in a secure area behind the building.
The equivalent US model for our rental car would have been a Ford Transit Passenger Van. The hallway that I had to pull through was so tiny... we had to pull the passenger mirror in, and every proximity sensor in this car was constantly chirping as I navigated the tiny passageway. There was less than 2 inches of space on each side for me to squeeze through. The parking area was quite spacious, though!
Luckily, we wouldn't be driving much while we were in town.
The next morning, we had nothing until our free walking tour at 11:00, so we'd arranged with Todd & Brenda to meet up with them just before the tour. The boss and I started slow, wandering toward the town and finding a cafe for coffee and pastries. At a couple of different points throughout our exploring we encountered groups of performers singing and dancing, while wearing what I choose to assume were native Croatian costumes. We watched for a few minutes until they started pulling in spectators to teach them how to dance. I made myself scarce - the wife quickly followed closely behind. She gives me a lot of guff about not dancing, but you'll notice that she didn't immediately volunteer to participate! Turns out Todd & Brenda encountered either that group or another group, and Brenda was selected as a sacrifice. I don't know if Todd joined in out of solidarity, or if he was strong-armed into it as well, but no video exists of their adventure, since they were both dancing at the time.
Our initial tour group was close to 40 people, but the company had provided two guides who split the group roughly in half.
We ended up with Ivana as a guide, and she was quite knowledgeable. She was a history teacher who had transitioned into being a tour guide so she could travel more. I only had one complaint with her... she might have been a pathological liar.
She'd tell us something, and then every time, she'd say "Allright, we're going to make our way slowly up this street, and we'll meet at the foot of the big statue." And then she'd take off like a damn mountain goat. To the best of my knowledge, that was the extent of her deception, but it was enough for me to consider her a liar (in a playful good-natured way).
She was kind enough to wait for the slower members among us, so it wasn't *that* bad.
Let's talk about Zagreb for a moment. Some of my readers might know that the name of the city of Budapest was formed by combining the names of the two different cities which unified into one, Buda and Pest. Similarly, the city of Zagreb is actually a portmanteau of "Kaptol" and "Gradec" - I guess they're pronounced differently in Croatian.
One of the things that we learned about Croatia was that neckties were invented there. The story that we heard was that the mothers sent nice pieces of fabric off with their sons who were going off to war, to remind them of home. I can't testify to the veracity of that particular story, but the 'cravat' is widely accepted to be a Croatian invention, with the name changing to "tie" sometime around Napoleon's Empire.
The two cities which combined to form Zagreb were inhabited by different classes of people; the aristocrats lived in one city, while the peasants lived in the other, with the church being located in the higher class of the two cities. Because of this, the peasants had to send their money to the nicer city, causing strife between the two cities. There was one specific bridge which ran between the two cities, Krvavi Most, "Bloody Bridge." This bridge was best known as being the spot for most of the clashes between the two cities, as the blue collar city was understandably a little bitter about having to send all of their money to the high rent district.
The river which flowed under the bridge has since been enclosed in a tunnel, with the bridge being converted to a standard street, with buildings on either side - you'd never know that it used to be a bridge, without it having the word "Most" in the name. Our guide made sure to stop there, to try to give us a full perspective of the relationship between the two cities.
One of the stops on our tour was the "Lego Church" (more correctly called St. Mark's Church"). People call it the Lego Church, because... well, just look at the roof!
Our tour guide had plenty to say about the crests on the roof of the church. Of note, you'll see the 4 animals on the crest below: What do you think they are? Go ahead and guess, I'll wait.
The three sunshine looking faces in the upper right are... lions. Lions have no connection with Croatia, and the guy who designed the roof had never seen a lion, so... I guess he just wanted some "lions" on there. The long skinny guy across the bottom is supposed to be a mink. At least minks are found in that part of the world, but she didn't have any explanation for why he's part of the crest on top of the church.
There's a part of the tour where you stand at the foot of a four story tall tower (Lotrščak Tower) a few minutes before noon, and a cannon is fired. The tower itself dates to the 13th century, it was erected to protect the southern wall of one of the old cities. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, churches were springing up all over town, and each church had its own bell tower, with the associated bell. The bell towers weren't automated, with the bells being rung by attendants to mark the passing of the hours. The bad thing about individuals being responsible for ringing the bells is that some of the individuals had a more lackadical sense of time than others. Some of the bells would ring right at noon, some would ring at 12:04, some would ring at 12:20, some overachievers would even ring the bells a few minutes before noon. This irritated someone in city management, so the city mounted a cannon in the top of the tower, and starting on January 1st 1877, the cannon has been fired each day at noon, to keep the church bells on the same schedule.
Indeed, the cannon fired at noon on that day (to the second, according to our cell phones!), and within a few seconds, church bells all over the city started ringing in response.
There's a massive Farmer's Market in the center of town where the locals shop. After our tour, we perused the markets, but didn't buy anything.
It was time for lunch, so we headed over to check out a place the guide had recommended... oddly enough, a barbecue restaurant! Unfortunately, the kitchen didn't open until 5:00 so we had to find another place to eat, pretty good local food.
One of the fun things we'd discovered to do in Zagreb was the Hangover Museum, and it seemed oddball enough that four accomplished drinkers would enjoy it... we did. They had rooms of items contributed by visitors to the museum as mementos of drunken adventures... signs stolen from random streets, a road cone or two, in one case, a couch that had been stolen from somewhere, all accompanied by printouts of the associated stories. Additionally, they had a few interactive exhibits where you'd put on a set of "drunk goggles" which would impair your vision, then be tasked with some random thing: there was a driving simulator (which was hard enough to figure out how to drive even without the goggles on), there was a line on the floor you had to try to heel-to-toe on, there was one area where an air filled platform was covered by thin wooden planks, surrounded by warped mirrored walls - when you put the goggles on and tried to walk on the platform, between the floor physically moving underneath you and the walls giving you weird reflections, it was a pretty good simulator for trying to walk while completely plastered. Very well done (and quite quirky) museum - at the end, we all were given a shot of the famous local brandy, Rakija - 40% ABV. Tasted a bit like moonshine, but not quite as sweet.
After discussing hangovers, does anyone else need a drink? Just me?
Afterward, the couples split up again, with Todd & Brenda doing their own thing. Our flight left fairly early the next morning, so we decided to take the car and get it filled up beforehand, so we wouldn't have to deal with it the next day. We also decided to check out a local shopping mall - because you know how much I love shopping malls!
Now, I must step back for a moment. Captain UNESCO in Kotor had been wearing a simple shirt with a logo on the front that said "Good people drink good beer." Todd mentioned that he appreciated the sentiment on the shirt, the captain said that he'd purchased it at a store called Sinsay. This mall had a location for that store, so we popped in to see if we could find one of the shirts for Todd.
Turns out they had them, and they were amazingly cheap. €4 cheap. We got one for Todd, one for the boss, one for me, and one for Palmer back home. Don't tell him though, it'll be a surprise - he never reads my blog. The wife got a few other things too, spending €22 total for a big bag full of clothes.
After getting gas, we headed back to the hotel and squeezed the car back into the parking area - holding our breath the whole time. Todd & Brenda were taking a break from the heat, so we coordinated dinner.
We walked down to the aforementioned barbecue restaurant (Barbeerian BBQ - with actual barbecue!) and had a tasty final meal in Zagreb on their rooftop terrace, wandering around the city before turning in for the night.
We said goodbye to the Specks before we parted ways; their journey continued after we returned home, taking a bus to Ljubljana, then Vienna, then Prague. Our journey though... ended with dropping the keys into the after-hours box for Europcar the next morning, and catching our flight back to Frankfurt, then taking the subway home - back to our everyday life after this wonderful, beach filled, picturesque, adventurous, sand covered, multi-boat riding, NEARLY exhausting vacation.
If you've actually made it through this whole thing, congratulations... I'm guessing you'll be needing a bathroom break after all those drinks! We've got a couple more trips planned in the future, but no more Homeric Odysseys planned, so the next few posts should be of a more normal length. This was truly a once in a lifetime adventure, and we're looking forward to traveling with Todd & Brenda again - I've requested a cooler climate next time!
Since y'all have been so accommodating (and since some of the pictures are otherworldly beautiful, thanks to our family photographer), I've decided to do a photo dump at the end of the post - you can thank me later...
Bok for now!
(Bok means goodbye in Croatian... I originally had written "Ciao for now," which is a rhyming phrase our family and friends have used for years... the boss suggested that I change it to Croatian, even though it doesn't rhyme nearly as well - or at all. It amused me to keep the phrasing like that. My blog, my rules!)
Me, petting random cats I found around Dubrovnik... I guess I should stop wondering where Cori gets it from, huh?
