The Last Days in Croatia

So I became immediately slack at blog posts upon my return to real life. I’ve managed to sort through the majority of my thousand photos, do three weeks of washing, say goodbye to Nana and hello to Sophie, wince through English summer, and get a HEAD COLD. gAH. So I’m at home sick today, Sophie is home too – because of teacher’s strikes across the UK, and we’re watching good-bad tv and I have the time to tell you about Hvar and Dubrovnik! And maybe Venice. And hopefully Athens when I find my photos I’ve lost (might be on Nana’s computer) while watching the unfolding Grecian meltdown re austerity measures.

   

So Hvar was very pretty, very touristy, very hot, and very relaxing. We spent most of our time wandering around, drinking coffee and wine and people-watching. We climbed up to the fort which had a view over the town and all the stone buildings and terracotta roofs. I think Hvar would be great to go to with friends for a week or so, hang out on the beach and explore the tiny island. Two days wasn’t enough to REALLY relax, but it was nice to see the island side of Croatia. We discovered once we got there that you have to organise in advance so that you know when the ferries go to Dubrovnik. Or you’ll discover, like us, that you have to return to Split to get down to the tip of Croatia!

 

We headed back to Split on the catamaran, jumped on a bus down the Dalmatia coast, and stopped in Bosnia along the way! There wasn’t much to tell the difference except the border crossing and passport check. It was equally beautiful. But as we drove closer to the border the conflict from previous decades was more noticeable. Bombed out and abandoned houses dotted the landscape – or buildings that had been half repaired. The Dalmatia coastline was badly hit in the conflict. Dubrovnik in particular suffered severe damage from a 7 month long siege by Serbian and Macedonian troops.

      

Dubrovnik was a beautiful little city, with an old town surrounded by city walls on the edge. We spent hours walking around and visiting the millions of churches and art galleries, peering into shops, escaping the hot sun and complaining about the bad service in cafes. I ate hundreds of garlic butter grilled prawns at this little restaurant at the bottom of the path we were staying on, and we discovered Croatian wine is not all good (and some is wine disguised as sherry…) We learnt a little bit about the town’s history (which is plentiful) and a little more about the direct attacks during the war. We discovered a small gallery of photographs in a tucked away cellar which displayed the damage that shelling caused to the city.

We were in Dubrovnik for two lovely days. I think it’d be great to go back and experience the beaches and some of the day trips to the surrounding countryside. Croatia was STUNNING, and I’d love to go back some day.

Pula–Istria Part III!

Pula was a surprise. Partly because we got up at 6am to drive there to catch a 8am ferry to Venice, which we managed to miss by minutes… Croatia’s cities are fairly easy to get lost in!

 

Since we arrived so early we decided to wander into the old town and find breakfast and a coffee. Remarkably difficult to do apparently! We ended up eating ham and cheese (fairly common breakfast food) which tasted like it had been sitting there for a few days. Oh well, it did let us discover the Temple of Augustus in the piazza (see above) a 2BC temple built to honour Caesar Augustus. It’s actually still in use – it houses a very small collection of ancient artefacts. The neighbouring building is made up of remnants of the identical Temple of Diana and a large main temple. The Temple of Diana is still visible, and has been incorporated into the back of the big building you can see in the above and below pictures on the left.

 

Second, absolutely amazing building, was the Pula Amphitheatre. It is the 6th largest built, and one of four in Croatia, the only one remaining of four originally built. It is about 2000 years old, and has withstood not only World War II, but Venetian takeover, and various attempts to deconstruct it or use the stones for building other buildings. It still gets used for concerts but was originally the site of gladiator fights, wild animal battles and Christians’ grizzly deaths.

  

Underneath are still some of the connecting tunnels and rooms where animals and those waiting execution were kept. Now they house a museum dedicated to the Roman production of olive oil and wine in the region. Dozens of broken amphorae line the walls.

And last but certainly not least, this huge (yet small) Roman theatre was at the back of the high school. Local kids were hanging out drinking on two thousand year old ruins, and Nana and I clambered up the top to have a view over the town from an old fort. Pula is definitely a must see.

Poreĉ–Istria Part II

Further up the coast is a small Roman town with a large Euprasian Basicila. The old part of Poreĉ is still structured as the original Roman plans, and a few Roman ruins are dotted around. I took very few photos, mainly because Nana bought me the BIGGEST gelati ever, and so I was a little preoccupied. There were lots of straight, flagged streets and colourfully-plastered buildings with souvenir shops galore.

  

The Basicila was gorgeous, and I guess it’s still a working church. It’s on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, and has been rebuilt and repaired in various centuries due to earthquake and fire damage.

Rovinj–Istria Part 1

So once we picked up our little green car and got thoroughly lost trying to navigate the one-way, tram-filled, streets of Zagreb, and then more lost discussing where we were on the map in relation to the motorway that we were on, we travelled the 200or so kilometres to the coast of Istria with no particular plan except that it might be a good place to go. The weather packed in and we didn’t see the sea until we were practically on top of it! Tested my driving skills to the max with fog so thick you couldn’t see 5 metres in front, torrential rain and nowhere to pull over, and I didn’t realise how stressed I was until I got to bed that night and fell promptly asleep. So in reply to your message Dad – No, driving in Croatia was not encouraging for the US road trip!

But I can drive on the left-hand side now.

Rovinj is a very pretty little fishing town with strong ties to Venice. We stayed here for 4 nights in total, and made day trips to Venice, Pula and Porec. We didn’t actually do much here other than wander around, and I seem to have a dozen photos of the church on the hill surrounding the old town, so will have to do a proper cull when I get home and have my computer. (I’m up to 1000 photos and counting – it’s making it difficult to choose what photos to put up on here!)

     

Zagreb - Capital of Croatia

We spent our first two nights in Croatia in the outskirts of the capital in Hotel Jarun – a rather pleasant little hotel with a HUGE SHOWER. Very much loved after the rather epic day in Athens and 3 hour flight. Big breakfast in the morning then a tram (the trams are excellent!) into the city to have a wee explore and book a rental car for the next day.

We hadn’t heard much about Zagreb – it isn’t on most people’s to-do list, and isn’t as famous as the tourist areas of Croatia, but it was a great little city with lots of young people around and LOADS of museums and galleries.

BUT. It turns out that nothing really opens on a Monday… We didn’t realise this, and with only a half-day on the Tuesday, we ended up with a fairly relaxed day wandering the city. We discovered the market (above) and bought a kilogram of cherries for 17 kuna  - that’s like, NZ$4, or 2 pounds! INSANITY.

I LOVE CHERRIES.

Ok, enough of that. So something that was open was Zagreb Cathedral. It turned out the pope had just visited the country the day before, and his face is EVERYwhere. Croatia has a strong Roman Catholic tradition. Yell out if you want to receive a postcard with his face on it.

It’s an impressive church, and rather ostentatious as I’ve discovered churches can be! parts of it date back to 1093 when building began, but most of it is in the neo-gothic style of the 19th century. One of the turrets was being restored when we were there (hence the photo at the top) but it is a beautiful building.

   

I hope you’ve all discovered that you can click on these photos to make them bigger…

The far left photo was of a kinda creepy wax cast of an archbishop. This was the first time I’d come across veneration of the saints in person (though after two weeks of visiting Croatian churches, I’m more used to it) and I found it intriguing to see people weeping and praying in front of his figure. Aloysius Stepinac was the archbishop of Zagreb who was accused of war crimes after WWII by the Yugoslav government. There seems to be debate about the legitimacy of the charges, and the wikipedia page wasn’t much help, so investigate and decide for yourselves!

Oh! I almost forgot, we made it to the Museum of Arts and Crafts which had an art deco exhibition on. Sooooo many pretty things.

  

Driving in Croatia

I forgot to say how we got around! We hired the dinkiest little car ever. I named her Kermit.

Because I am that original.

She was the smallest car you ever did see, maybe almost as small as a Smart car (which aren’t real cars – this one had four doors and back seats!) We drove from Zagreb to Rovinj, up to porec, down to Pula, back to Rovinj and then to Split in her along the super-duper highways that Croatia’s private companies have built (think 3-lane, smooth, 130km/h highways,) a grand total of approximately 1000km driving, and now I am a whizz at driving fast. Ha…. Also at driving through tunnels. So many!

Croatia, A Love Story

So about a week ago we hopped on a plane from Santorini to Croatia(with a quick detour to Athens for a whizz round the city) and landed Monday night in Zagreb, Northern Croatia.

We managed to meet a New Zealander at Athens’ Airport who was WONDERFUL. She was married to a Croatian, and they gave us a lift to our hotel on the outskirts of Zagreb and helped with the weird mix-up with our bags at the airport. (Note to all: Croatia Airlines are in their own little world where nothing is as straightforward as it seems…)

Now Croatia is a small country of roughly 4 million people, similar to New Zealand. It turns out that it is also absolutely stunning like New Zealand and is my new potential home-away-from-home. It is much, much older though, and we’ve wandered through medieval towns, Roman ruins, Byzantine churches, monasteries and Venetian fishing villages in our quick tour of the country so far. We’ve driven through mountain ranges, open plains, green forest filled viaducts, five-kilometer long tunnels, along beautiful coastlines, and through areas that look as dry as Greece.

    

Croatia has a rather mixed history. There is a massive German and Italian influence throughout the country - from food, language, architecture to everyday life. Before the violent 1991 separation from Yugoslovia Croatia had been ruled by Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Hungarians, Venetians and controlled by Nazi Germany in World War II. While this has created a strong national pride amongst the Croat people, these have all left an indelible mark on the country.

I remember taking a university paper that focused on politics in conflict-torn countries, and Yugoslavia’s fall being a key topic. Like everything else I learnt at uni, it seems to have left my brain once I finished, and like every other country I’ve travelled to, I want to learn it all again! I feel a round of Croat/Yugoslav history books coming on when I get home, but while here, there seems to be very little sign of the violence of the early 90’s. Croatia seems to be booming in the tourism industry, though I am yet to work out what the main industry is here.

Anyway, I think I’ll write about the towns separately – Porec, Rovinj, Pula and Zagreb deserve their own posts! We’re staying on the island of Hvar tonight, and head to Dubrovnik ‘Pearl of the Adriatic Sea’ on Monday. Athens on Thursday, and hopefully a post on our lunch trip to Venice – OH THE EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE EUROPE!!!!!! AND EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!!!!! AND TRAVELLING!!!!!!!!!!!

Love y’all, peace out and big hugs from a befreckled me.

x