Alright so as promised I am back to discuss our time in Croatia. We spent about a week in Croatia in three different places. We started in Zagreb, the capital, then moved to Split, a beautiful coastal city, then finally on down to Dubrovnik on the southern coast. Explaining Croatia in words is an impossible task, yet I will attempt it anyways so that maybe you can at least get a glimpse of how amazing it is.
Drazen Petrovic's grave in Mirogoj
So, as I mentioned our first stop was Zagreb. We arrived by train and met our couchsurfing host, a 22-year-old student named Sanja and her roommate Tamara. They were both incredibly kind and helpful and we ended up spending a lot of time with them (and getting helpful pointers, such as don’t ever pay for the public transportation there). We grabbed lunch and then went to the huge park in the city and explored. After that, we headed over to Mirogoj Cemetery, mainly to see the resting place of Drazen Petrovic, a former NBA player for the New Jersey Nets and subject of the ESPN 30 for 30 Documentary “Once Brothers.”
The cemetery was one of the nicer ones I have seen and is mostly enclosed in a walled in area. The tombstones and graves are really interesting to walk around and look at and Eric and I both got separated and lost at one point but eventually met at a war memorial. We probably searched and explored Mirogoj for about an hour before finally stumbling upon Petrovic’ grave. It might seem weird to some to want to go see a former NBA players’ grave, but I am a huge NBA fan and wanted to see it while I was there.
After exploring the town center for a while, we met up with Sanja and Tamara who took us to the “Upper Town” which we failed to find earlier. It is basically the old town of Zagreb and is really fun and nice. You keep going up and up until you are overlooking most of the city, at which point you find the incredible summer festival area. It is a long trail through the woods with a stage, bars, seats and trees hanging over. In addition, there are lights hanging down from the trees and it gives the feel of an enchanted woods (really odd thing to describe something as but it’s all I could think of). After drinking some beer and laughing for a couple of hours we went to a salsa bar, then got fruit flavored shots and went back to get some rest (on their floor of course).
The incredible Plitvice Lakes
The next day we barely made our 8:40 bus to Plitvice Lakes, the beautiful National Park we wanted to stop at on the way to Split. After a quick 2 hour bus journey we arrived and bought our tickets. Plitvice is one of the most well-known and popular tourist attractions of Croatia and after seeing it the reason is pretty clear. The water in the lakes is a color that’s hard to explain other than to say it looks like the most refreshing water on earth…seriously.
After wandering around Plitvice for about 3 hours we made our way to the bus stop to catch the 5 hour bus to Split. This may have been the most beautiful ride of any kind I have ever been on and put the train ride from Austria to Slovenia to shame. It’s really not worth trying to explain because you just have to go on that ride to know how beautiful it is. The whole time we were going through the Dalmacion Mountains weaving in and out of the peaks and valleys and all that. There were also incredible lakes along the way and Eric and I really couldn’t believe what we were seeing. As beautiful as Plitvice and Zagreb were, I think it’s safe to say that this ride was when I fell in love with Croatia.
As we arrived in Split, the bus drove through a tunnel under a mountain and came out on the other side high up on that mountain with Split below us and the Adriatic Sea behind it….again, truly a sight everyone needs to see.
The Dalmacion Mountains behind the railroad tracks in Split
Split was easily one of my favorite cities on the trip, possibly even my favorite. It is not touristy, which is important when you look at the places we have been so far. There is a gorgeous restaurant and walking area with benches all along it on the coast, as well as beautiful beaches and old buildings. There is an amazing “Green Market” down a set of stairs where you can buy all kinds of fruits and veggies for wicked cheap (plus the best apple danish in the world!). Also, they have a bunch of little flea market time shopping areas where I managed to buy a Borussia Dortmund (Lucas Barrios) jersey for 100 Kunas (about 18 USD) which is ridiculously cheap.
There are tons of places to grab good food all around and in the center near the coastline is an old palace that has winding alleyways and expensive shopping throughout. It is the castle that originally made up the grand palace for the city however was partially destroyed and is now the main attraction of the city. It is really neat and exciting to walk around inside it. We also got some drinks on the water with our 3 British roommates and our other Canadian friends one night which was a lot of fun.
Oh, and I forgot the beach. Clearest water I have ever seen. I walked in all the way until my head was barely above water and could still make out the details of my feet and legs. While chilling and relaxing in the amazing clear water of the Adriatic (really cold water by the way) I turned to face the shore and see the astounding Dalmacion Mountains towering above the city. I felt like I was in heaven for the whole time I was in the water, and I am really not overstating the beauty at all.
After a few amazing days in Split, we regretfully had to leave and head for Dubrovnik on a 4-hour long bus ride. But, we were excited to take the bus ride along the coast and see Dubrovnik. The bus ride was pretty much just as beautiful as the one from Plitvice to Split so I won’t go into too much detail. I’ll just say that we were driving high up in the mountains with the peaks on one side and the Adriatic coastline on the other.
Dubrovnik is a very cool place as well, although we didn’t have a ton of time to explore before our ferry to Italy. The “Old City” is located on a peninsula
Bus ride from Split to Dubrovnik
along the water and is basically all inside an ancient fortress with crazy stairs and turns and alleys in every direction. It’s like a medievil place out of a story book for kids. A place I would definitely love to return to at some point!
Oh, I almost forgot the most important thing about the bus ride there; we passed through Bosnia & Herzegovina for about 10 minutes along the coast! It was a magical experience. No but seriously, I really want to go to Bosnia we just ran out of time to do more than go through it on our bus.
I hope I have convinced many of you to go to Croatia at some point; I certainly know I will be going back sometime in the very near future! All I can say is that Croatia get’s in your bones!
Thanks,
Josh
From Bobby Orr to Bobby Cremins 