Ljubljana and Home

Yesterday morning we finally backed away from the buffet, checked out of our hotel and caught the local bus to Porec at 10 am. We were there before 11 and got our tickets to Ljubljana. The bus didn't leave until 2:30 pm so we lounged in the park by the bus station and just behind the marina. Since we didn't want to carry our packs we took turns walking around the marina and seaside promenade, which is very nice. The time actually passed fairly well.

Our bus stopped in quite a few towns up the coast to Koper, in Slovenia. Crossing the border only took a few minutes. Since it was a hot, sunny August Sunday, every little beach looked busy. Some, like Portorusz, made us glad we hadn't stayed there, they were so packed with people. The traffic on the little coastal road was heavy as well.

Once we got on the main highway to Ljubljana, the trip went much faster. We arrived in Ljubljana a little after 6 pm and walked less than 10 minutes to the hotel we had used here before, which we had already reserved.

Since we were really tired from the trip, we had a quick shower and walked down to the old town for a light dinner. We went to a restaurant we had been at before for pizza, which was good once again. Then we were home shortly after 9 for a good night's sleep. We have a room facing the street this time so it's a little noisy but it didn't really bother us.

Today, after some fruit and nuts in our room, we set off to find a bank, of which there are many, to change our leftover Croatian kuna into euros. It seemed awfully quiet for a Monday morning. Finally, we learned that today is the Assumption of Mary national holiday in Slovenia. We had read that before but forgotten about it. Anyway, the currency exchange at the train station was open so we were okay.

After about 11 or so, things started to open up. All of the offices and many stores are closed but there are lots of restaurants and a few grocery stores open.

We had coffee and ice cream on an outdoor patio overlooking the river and then wandered around a bit. After a brief stop back at our hotel to pay the bill in euros, we bought a beer and a burek around the corner and ate lunch in a park. Then we went along the main street of the old town to find a suitable restaurant for dinner. We have two possibilities, both of them specializing in traditional Slovenian food.

It's a fairly hot day so we're just cooling off in our room before dinner. Tonight we'll pack up and be ready to go out the door before 5 in the morning. We'll catch the 5:20 shuttle to the airport from the bus/train station. Our Adria Airways flight to Zurich leaves at 7:45 arriving there at 9:00. It's a small plane and if the weather is clear like it was when we arrived, we'll be able to look down on the Alps pretty well all the way.

Then we have almost 4 hours before our Swiss Air flight leaves at 12:50. It's an 8 hour and 10 minute flight to Montreal arriving at 3 pm. By the time we get our luggage and get through customs we'll either get a 4 or 5 pm bus arriving in Ottawa at 6 or 7 pm. Dylan will pick us up so we should be home by 9:30. Altogether it will be about 23 hours devoted to getting home. Wednesday might be a slow day.

We've had lots of adventures and had a good taste of Slovenia and Croatia. We're very happy with the trip but home won't be so bad either.

Vacation in Istria

Monday August 8th 2011, Istria
On Saturday night we had a really nice anniversary rehearsal dinner at the Penzion Mayer Restaurant in Bled. It’s a beautiful sort of Bavarian style place with an outdoor patio under a post and beam roof. We got a good picture of us but we can’t send it because the internet here is too slow.
Sunday morning, we got up before 5:00. The day before our host had given us yogurt, muesli and fruit to keep in our room fridge because he knew we were leaving before he could make breakfast. After breakfast in our room, we walked the 5 minutes or so back to the bus stop and caught the 6:26 bus for Ljubljana.
We arrived in Ljubljana shortly before 8:00 and bought our tickets for the 9:30 bus to Istria. Altogether our bus tickets cost 58 euros (about $83 Cdn) which, again, is a cheap way to travel.
Having taken the bus through Istria before, we knew where to get off, as long as the bus took the same route. Luckily it did and the driver stopped where we asked and left us at a crossroads, a few kilometres from our hotel.
Anita held out our sign that we had made; I stood behind her and we set our big packs behind a concrete highway divider so it wouldn’t look like we had too much stuff to fit in the car. In less than 5 minutes, a young guy who worked at a hotel near the one we were going to, stopped and gave us a ride. He even drove a bit out of his way to drop us at the reception building for our hotel. So, our plan worked perfectly. Hitch-hiking is like riding a bicycle, you never forget how.
At check-in, the desk manager got our names and found our reservation. Then he said, “We have a problem. The hotel is fully booked…….I’ll have to give you a suite.” So we have an upper floor suite in a building with 5 other suites in it. We have a nice bedroom, big living room and big bathroom. There are French doors from both the bedroom and living room out to our private balcony which is over 20 feet long (I counted the floor tiles). This won’t be hard to take for a week.
Last night we had a great meal at the buffet with complimentary beer and wine. Since it was our anniversary, one of us (not me) indulged a little too much and has a slight headache today. After dinner, we sat down by the water, listened to a guitar/bass duo play some good music and even danced a bit on the grass. A really nice anniversary.
This morning after our buffet breakfast, we went for a long walk along the shore. We’ll soon go up to the reception building to post this and check our email. Then we’ve got some serious relaxing to do.

The Julian Alps

Friday July 5th, 2011, Bled Slovenia
Last night we went out to Gostilna Pri Planincu (which means “By the Mountaineers”), an informal bar and restaurant that has good Slovenian pub food. We had a wiener shnitzel and a veal with roasted potatoes. Not fancy but good. After dinner we walked up the street to Smon Slascicarna, a dessert place, for the Bled specialty, a layer of cream and a layer of vanilla custard in a crispy crust, called kremna rezina. Excellent dessert.
Last night was the start of the Okarina Etno Festival Bled in a park right by the lake. Solar System, an electronic funk/dance band from Colombia played. They do a really good live show meant to get everyone dancing but the music just isn’t for me. Anita liked it better than I did.
This morning we got up, had breakfast and caught our tour bus down the street at 9 am. There were 15 of us, mostly Brits, on a big luxury tour bus, plus the tour guide and the driver. We did a sort of clockwise tour of the Julian Alps from Kranskja Gora, a ski town northwest of here, over the Vrsic summit and around through Triglau National Park. Then we went northwest into Italy and back into Slovenia and home.
Our first stop on the way up to the pass was at the Russian Chapel. During WWI, the Austro-Hungarians used Russian prisoners of war to build the road up the mountains and the fortifications to defend against the Italians who were on the Allied side. Ten thousand Russian prisoners died from the cold, harsh conditions, overwork and avalanches. This chapel commemorates them.
Of course, the Russian dead were just a drop in the bucket. The Italians tried to invade Austria-Hungary, which included Slovenia, through the Soca River Valley and up the mountains. Austria-Hungary, with the high ground, defended against 11 major Italian offensives over 2 ½ years from 1916. Some of the mountainside bunkers are still visible. With the help of Germany, Austria-Hungary finally launched their own offensive against Italy and pushed them back. Soon after, Austria-Hungary and Germany were defeated by the Allies anyway and Italy was awarded this region, which they held until after WWII. So the whole Soca Valley war was for nothing. However, 22 nationalities fought here, 300,000 soldiers died, 700,000 were wounded and 100,000 were declared missing in action. Sixty thousand died in avalanches in one winter alone.
Our tour guide told us that a recent forest fire could only be fought by dropping water from helicopters. It was too dangerous to send in firefighters on the ground because the fire kept exploding bombs that were left in WWI.
This is known as the Isonzo Front in Italy. Not long after he got out of high school, Ernest Hemingway was an ambulance driver for the Italians here. Those experiences were the basis for his later novel “A Farewell to Arms”.
We stopped at the summit of the Vrsic Pass for coffee. It’s very beautiful. Then we started back down toward the Triglau Park Information Centre to the south. There isn’t 100 metres that’s straight on this whole road. Most of it is still the same road the Russian prisoners built, with modern maintenance. The whole narrow 2 lane road snakes around the mountains and it‘s all really steep. It’s only open in the summer due to snow and avalanches. There are 24 switchback or hairpin turns on the way up and 26 on the way down. On each one, our tour bus had to use the whole road. If anyone was coming the other way, they had to back up because the front of our bus would either be almost touching the retaining wall on one side or the little guardrail over the steep mountainside on the other. This went on and on. Once again, I took the window seat. We had beautiful weather and the scenery was spectacular.
The Park Centre was okay but not that interesting. Then we went down to the town of Bovec for lunch. Bovec is a small town with at least 4 or 5 whitewater rafting companies.
After Bovec we stopped at an old Austro-Hungarian fortress, the Kluze Fort that Napoleon’s troops managed to conquer. There’s a really deep gorge right beside the fort and iron rungs and tunnels built into the cliffs.
After that we crossed into Italy and stopped briefly at Lago del Predil, a mountain lake resort. It wasn’t that interesting and by that time the sky had clouded over a bit.
On the way back we stopped just west of Kranskja Gora to see the 2nd largest ski jump in the world. It used to be the largest but was eclipsed by one in Norway so now the Slovenians are building a 2nd one on the same site to regain their title. They have had many world championships here. There have also been lots of World Cup ski races in Kranskja Gora.
We didn’t get back to Bled until after 5:30 but we had a great day, saw lots of stunning alpine scenery and learned a bit about the history of the region. Well worth it.
Saturday August 6th, 2011, Bled
Last night we went to Pizzeria Rustika in the old town for a great pizza. Then we walked down the hill to the music festival in the park. By the time we got there, “The Men They Couldn’t Hang”, a sort of electric folk/pub music band from England had already started. They were really good and had the crowd right into it. We stayed out past 10 o’clock (unusual for us) even after our long day of touring.
This morning we had the breakfast buffet here and, while we had a chance, asked our host for some cardboard and a marker. When we got back to our room I made a sign for tomorrow’s destination since we might have to hitchhike the last few kilometres to save time. It’s either that or take one bus into the big bus station where we’re going and then another one back to where we’re staying out on the Istrian coast. So, for our 35th anniversary we’ll likely be hitchhiking, just like we both did when we were teenagers. At least this time we have some money.
After we got organized, since it was a little overcast and we didn’t feel like doing any major touristing, so we went for a brisk walk around the lake. On our way, we found the Mayer Penzion Restaurant, where we want to have our anniversary rehearsal dinner tonight. It looks really nice and the menu looked good with at least reasonable prices, so we made reservations.
After our walk, we came back to our room for lunch on our balcony and then walked back to the old town for a decaf coffee and a “Grmada”. That’s a mixture of cake, rum, custard and raisins, topped with whipped cream and drizzled chocolate. Really, really good.
We’ve just waddled back to our room and are getting some stuff together for the morning. We have to leave here at 6:00. We’ll be in Ljubljana by 8:00 and should be able to get the bus to Istria at 9:30, arriving on the coast around 12:30.
We’ve decided that we’ve seen all the sights that we set out to see so we’re going to spend a week at the beach in Istria in a resort hotel with breakfast and dinner included. We probably won’t blog much because we know the internet will be very slow. However, we do have lots of pictures for today of yesterday’s trip through the Julian Alps.

Bled, Slovenia

Thursday, August 4th 2011, Bled Slovenia
Yesterday morning, after breakfast and a sauna, we caught the 12:30 train from Zagreb to Ljubljana. The land was fairly flat through western Croatia and then got more mountainous as we followed a fairly narrow river valley in Slovenia. At the border, the Croatian and then the Slovenian police who came on the train didn’t take long to check our passports. Passports from some countries, like Turkey for instance, are checked very thoroughly and the passport numbers called in to somewhere. The Russian visa in my passport always gets a 2nd look but there’s never any comment. There’s nothing like a Canadian passport.
The Slovenian scenery in the river valley was really nice until we were within a few minutes of the Ljubljana station. We arrived at the station at 2:49, intending to take the 3:15 bus to Bled, which we had seen listed on the bus company web site timetable. It was a fairly long walk from the platform to the bus station out front so we were getting tickets at 2:57 when the ticket agent told us there was no 3:15 bus, only a 3:00 and a 4:00. Anita ran to the right platform to stop the bus and I followed as soon as I had the tickets and my change. Luckily we had 20 euros (since we had been using Croatian kuna for weeks) because they only took cash. But it cost only 14 euros for our tickets so we were okay. We just made the bus and got to the Bled Union bus stop about 4:15.
The B&B Mlinar Bled Pension we had reserved had interesting directions posted on their Hostelworld web page. They said (literally):
“Get off bus at Union bus stop (remind driver). There is ribno crossing. Follow the ribno road sign but in the very cross road immediately (after 10 metres) to the right. Then follow the banners “Pension Mlinar” as long as you see the house.”
Oddly enough, all this made some kind of sense when we got off the bus and we found our pension without much trouble. We’re in a fairly new, large house just on the outskirts of Bled. The owner lives on the first floor and has six rooms for rent on the second floor, and a breakfast room in the basement. We have an ensuite room, WIFI, TV, fridge and private balcony. It’s all very nice.
We scouted around a bit last night and ate dinner at some restaurant in the town commercial centre. This centre is built from a design for a town in Libya. When that deal fell through, the town of Bled bought the plans cheap. It’s known to the locals as the “Gaddafi”. After buying some supplies at the Mercator grocery store (of which there are many in Slovenia) we came back to our room.
This morning we had the breakfast here. It was not too bad. We’re only paying about $70 Cdn per night so this is a good deal. It’s only a 5 or 10 minute walk down to the lake and the centre of town.
After breakfast we walked all the way around Lake Bled, about 5 km in total. It took us the whole morning because we stopped a lot and looked around. We saw Bled Castle up on a peak overlooking the lake, the Church on the island in the lake, the Villa Bled hotel and the big rowing centre.
The Villa Bled used to be a royal residence (Habsburgs maybe) but after WWII became Tito’s summer place where he entertained visiting dignitaries from Communist countries during the Cold War. Nikita Krushchev, Raul Castro and others were here.
The rowing centre is a big deal. There are permanent buoys in place from one end of the lake to the other marking off standard 2 km racing lanes. There’s a big rowing club building and dock. In the sidewalk in front of the rowing centre are stainless steel strips engraved with the years that Bled rowers won medals at the Olympics. They’ve won a lot of medals. The world championships have been held here twice and will be held here again at the end of this month.
We also saw a couple of guys fishing. They each had an aluminum tripod stand that holds up to 4 rods. They set that up with a couple of rods and some kind of bait out in the water, just still fishing, then they lay down in a lawn chair nearby and fall asleep. I thought Canadian fishermen were lazy.
After lunch on our balcony overlooking the mountain peaks, we went out and found a couple of restaurants recommended in our guide books. We’ll try one tonight. After that there’s a band from Colombia playing in the park starting at 8:30. There’s a free summer music festival with different groups for the next few nights at least.
Tomorrow we have tickets for a bus tour of Mount Triglav (highest in Slovenia) National Park, the Slovenian portion of the Julian Alps, the Soca River Valley and as far as some mountain lake in Italy. It takes all day but should be very beautiful scenery.

Zagreb

August 1, 2011 Zagreb
Dinner last night was better than the night before, which was a pleasant surprise. The Hotel Plitvice has such a nice dining room, we’re glad the food wasn’t as bland as we originally thought.
After breakfast this morning, we packed up and left at 10 to catch the 10:45 bus. Luckily we were at the bus stop on the highway by 10:15 because a bus for Zagreb stopped and picked us up at 10:20. There are several different bus companies. I didn’t have the timetables for all of them so we were lucky not to have to wait another half hour.
As we travelled through the little towns toward Zagreb, most of them looked pretty good but there are a few houses here and there that are pock-marked from bullets and some houses are abandoned. The fighting was apparently fairly heavy south of Zagreb although not in the city itself. We’ve read that the abandoned houses were probably owned by Serbs who lived here before the war, had to leave and will likely never come back.
It’s pretty country but not as dramatic as the coast. As we got closer to Zagreb the land got flatter and more populated.
We had reserved a hotel only a few blocks from the bus station (and train station) and not too far from the old downtown. We’re staying in the 5 star Sheraton Zagreb in a deluxe room with king bed and with free entrance to the spa. It’s costing us only $113 Cdn per night. It’s a business conference hotel and there aren’t many business conferences in August so it’s cheap. Plus we’re on the “preferred” floor, whatever that means, since I’m a Starwood hotel chain member (a leftover from my years on the road delivering training). Anyway it’s a really nice room. We always check a couple of booking web sites to see if deals like this pop up and every once in a while they do.
We went down to the Konzum grocery store (the local joke is “we konzum the food and they konzum our money”) and picked up some beer and wine. Then we hit the spa. The sauna and steam room are really nice, spacious and clean. After Anita’s finished soaking in the big bathtub in our room (usually we only get a shower), we’ll head downtown for the first time to find a restaurant that we’ve picked from one of our guidebooks.
So far Zagreb itself hasn’t been too impressive but the hotel sure is nice.
Tuesday, August 2nd 2011, Zagreb
Last night we walked about 10 minutes up to Jelacic Square. It’s quite a big square with a huge statue of Josip Jelacic, a Croatian nationalist hero who fought the Hungarians for Croatian independence. The statue was taken down during the Tito years so as not to inflame Croatian nationalism in Yugoslavia but was put back up when Croatia became independent in the 90s. The statue is of Jelacic brandishing a sword while astride his horse. It used to face north toward the Hungarians but when it was put back up they turned it around to face south toward the Serbs.
From the square, we walked up Tkalciceva street. It’s a pedestrian street with lots of restaurants and bars. We had seen one brew pub, the Pivnica Medvedgrad, listed in a travel guide that promised hearty pub food at reasonable prices. We found the place without much trouble. It was the one full of students and younger travellers enjoying .5 litre beers during the long happy hour for only 9 kuna per beer (about $1.80). Anyway, we ordered one plate of “pub sausages with overdone beans” and one plate of cicevapi (little rolled spiced meat sausages), all served with a basket of heavy bread. None of this looked very appetizing (I’d hate to say what it really looked like) but it sure was good. And cheap - with 2 big beers, wine and tip only 140 kuna ($28 Cdn). We liked it so much we’re going back tonight. It was a good change from the seafood and gnocchi and stuff we’ve been eating.
After our usual breakfast this morning, we wandered down to the spa and steam room again. Then it was off to the train station, less than 15 minutes walking, to get tickets to Ljubljana tomorrow. We’ll travel by bus from Ljubljana to Bled tomorrow afternoon.
We walked up through a long park and ultimately back to Jelacic Square. From there we followed a guidebook self-guided walking tour of the old town. It’s quite pretty in spots but there’s not a lot of it. Since our 35th anniversary is coming up soon, we couldn't resist a picture in the doorway of the Museum of Broken Relationships. Anita also got a picture with a statue at the market. There is a huge market here in a parking lot with lots of meat shops, a fish market and everything else food related in a building underneath. After an hour or so we stopped for lunch in a little café, walked over to the big cathedral and then home. Soon we’ll go back to the sauna for awhile and then out to dinner. Our train doesn’t leave until 12:30 tomorrow so we have lots of time in the morning to get packed.
We wanted to see Zagreb since it’s the capital and biggest city in the country. A few things are impressive but there’s really not a whole lot to see. We’ve pretty much covered it today. Tomorrow Lake Bled in the Julian Alps.

Plitvice Lakes National Park

Saturday July 30th, 2011 Plitvice Lakes National Park
Last night we had another great dinner at Sperun in Split - tortellini in a cream sauce and calamari. Afterwards we took one last evening stroll along the Riva and got some gelato at Ivona, a recommended spot.
This morning, after breakfast in our apartment, we were out the door at 7:30 and walked down the Riva to the bus station. Of course we were 45 minutes early for our bus which left at 8:30 but I tend to be conservative on the what ifs of travel scheduling. Anyway there was time for Anita to have a coffee before we set off for Plitvice Lakes National Park.
The trip here took about 5 hours but it was, once again, very scenic. We’re starting to wonder if there’s anywhere in Croatia that doesn’t look good.
As we got closer to the park, the mixed forest actually started to look a lot like home. We stopped at a rest stop / restaurant not too far from here and there was definitely a hunting theme with some kind of animal roasting over a wood-fired spit, and lots of stuffed bears, boar, deer, foxes and other animals displayed. There were even 2 live bears in a small fenced compound at the end of the parking lot. It was so sad looking I couldn’t even take a picture. I really don’t understand stuffing dead animals to display as trophies (especially when arranged as if they’re having a tea party) and imprisoning live wild animals in a small, dirty compound. I’ve got no problem with hunting and I love to fish but there should be some respect.
It didn’t take long after we were dropped off literally in the bush on the side of the road, to find our hotel. They’ve done a good job of maintaining the natural environment here despite the hordes of tourists.
Sunday July 31st, 2011, Plitvice Lakes
The Hotel Plitvice is fine. It’s not fancy but the rooms, halls and dining room are all big. We have our room, buffet breakfast and dinner for 122 euros per night. It’s a little more than usual but it’s not bad since there are few alternatives. We’re right in the national park.
Sadly, the first person killed in the former Yugoslavia civil war was a park policeman killed here. The Serb army took over for 4 years and used this hotel as a barracks before wrecking it when they were finally pushed out. It’s been completely renovated and looks fine.
Yesterday afternoon we bought our park admission tickets (110 kuna each) at an information office. The tickets are good for as many days as we want since we’re staying in a park hotel. We just get them stamped at the front desk in the morning. There are little buses and electric boats on the biggest lake that are all free with a park pass. So we took the bus down to the other park entrance and bought some supplies at the little store there. There are hordes of tourists but we mostly avoided the trails for the time being and just came back to our hotel.
The hotel dining room is very nice but the food is quite plain. It’s adequate but nothing to write home about (that’s a blog joke). We went to bed early last night because we were tired and wanted to get an early start this morning. It’s best to get out early to avoid the mid-day tour buses coming in.
This morning we were in the dining room shortly after 7 and down to the dock before 8:30. We took the electric boat down the lake so we could start touring the lower lakes area first. It was very scenic with lots of waterfalls between the lakes in the chain. The water dissolves calcium carbonate from the rock and then it re-deposits it as it tumbles down from lake to lake. So the waterfalls are always changing. (That’s the short version). The lakes are all very clear and turquoise coloured. There are lots of fish and ducks.
There are fairly narrow wooden boardwalks that snake all around the lakes and waterfalls. There are also narrow paths below and above the cliffs.
It was a nice sunny morning and we had a great tour of the lower lakes. Then we took the boat back up to the upper lakes section and toured it. Unfortunately it started to sprinkle rain but it was still really beautiful.
After about 4 hours of wandering, we took the bus back from the upper section to our hotel. We’ve just had lunch and may go our for another short walk, now that the sun is shining again. Tonight and tomorrow morning it’s back to the dining room. Then we’ll check out, walk back up the trail to the highway and hopefully catch the 10:45 bus to Zagreb.

Dubrovnik Split Cruise

Thursday, July 28th, 2011, on the ferry between Mljet and Korcula
Last night as we were on our way to dinner, we stopped and chatted with our host, Marko and his helper Luka as we passed their little office down the street from our room. Marko has 6 properties with rooms and apartments that he rents so it’s a full-time job (and probably a pretty good living). He said he was having a relaxing day because all his tenants were good and there were no problems.
The day before we had heard him coming up the stairs in our building with a Japanese woman following. We could hear her whining, “Oh Marko, not more stairs” (we were on the 3rd storey). When she saw that 3 rooms shared one bathroom, she said, “Oh Marko, this just won’t do”. We’ve been mocking her ever since. Actually, this will probably be the only 4 nights of our 6 week trip that we don’t have an ensuite bathroom. Anyway, not every day is relaxing for Marko.
When we told him that we were going back to Mea Culpa (which Luka had recommended) to celebrate my 60th birthday, they congratulated me and then he said “Wait right here, I have something for you,” and he went into the office and brought out a bottle of wine as a gift. A nice gesture that is very typical of the friendly Croatian people. You’ll always run into one or two people anywhere who are a pain, but in general our impression of Slovenians and Croatians is very favourable, They’re very polite and considerate even when they’re not selling you something. If we ask anyone on the street for directions or anything else, they always try their best to help and make sure that we know what we’re doing. With the number of tourists they see, that must require quite a bit of patience, more than a lot of us have by the end of a summer in Combermere.
We had another great meal at Mea Culpa: one plate of pasta with cream and walnut sauce and one dish of cheese and mushroom lasagna. With beer, wine and tip it cost 158 kuna, or a little less than $32. Even in the old walled town, if you know where to go you don’t have to pay a fortune for a really good meal.
Our room was great except for the street noise at night. We had air conditioning but it was really loud and to run it you have to open the window and set the end of the flexible plastic duct outside, which is a bit of a contradiction in terms of energy use. So, with or without AC you still need the window open. Just when the people walking back from the bars slows down the clatter of the suitcases over the cobblestones starts. People have to get early flights or boats.
We got up before 5 to catch the local bus at the Pile Gate just after 6 to get in line at the Jadrolinja ferry ticket office which opened at 7 to get on the ferry that left at 8:30. We had breakfast in our room (oranges and yogurt with muesli and bananas). Access to a fridge is always handy and we carry light plastic containers, spoons and my Swiss army knife. Anita always has something good for us to eat so we’re never caught going into some overpriced restaurant or eating fast food because we’re starving.
We caught the correct bus with no problem and found the correct ticket office within a few minutes of arrival at the pier. We exchanged our receipt bought in Split for 2 tickets and boarded the ferry just after 7. At 8:30 all the cars and deck passengers were loaded and we set sail for Mljet. We got there about 10, unloaded and reloaded and now we’re on our way to Korcula. The scenery is very beautiful. We just went through some relatively open sea but now we’re getting closer to Korcula so it’s time to look at the scenery and take some pictures.
Friday, July 29th, 2011, Split
Korcula town and island were both very beautiful as were Hvar Town and island. However, all of the islands look very much like the mainland coast except that the water is all the way around instead of just on one side. It’s all very steep, rocky and rugged. There are lots of islands of all sizes.
We were on a Jadrolinja ferry called the Liburnija. An American woman originally from Croatia told us that she had cried on this very same ship when she and her husband left Yugoslavia in 1969. They took this ship from Zadar to Ancona, Italy and then went on to New York. They lived there for 20 years before they saw home again, partly because after 8 years they got their US citizenship and then still waited for the Yugoslavian authorities to forget about them. Her husband said he couldn’t go back before that because he wasn’t sure if they’d throw him in jail or not.
Now the ship, built in 1964, is only used as a coastal ferry because it doesn’t meet international safety standards anymore. Good to know halfway through the trip. The ship is about to be retired in 2 months. However old it is, it seemed perfectly adequate and there were no problems.
We arrived in Split about 6:45 and we waited for the first crush to get down the steps before we went down. We’d seen a lot of fantastic coastline but 12 hours on the boat is just about long enough. We walked back to the reception office for the hostel group we’d used before. We already had a reservation. This time they escorted us to a 2 bedroom apartment in the old town which we have all to ourselves - 3 beds, kitchen and full bathroom - about 5 minutes from Diocletian’s Palace. They gave us this for the same price ($100 Cdn per night) because the room we had before was “occupated”.
We had a quick shower and tried a different restaurant but unfortunately only one of the dishes was good. Oh, well.
This morning it’s raining so we’ve gone shopping for supplies, had breakfast in our apartment and will soon go out for a coffee and to post this at the reception office. Our umbrellas are very handy.
Tomorrow it’s off to Plitvice Lakes National Park and the Hotel Plitvice on the 8:30 bus.

Lokrum Island

July 27, 2011 Dubrovnik
Today, we packed a picnic lunch and took the taxi boat out to Lokrum Island, about 10 or 15 minutes across the water from the old town pier. We had planned to just tour around the old monastery on the island and then lounge at the beach but naturally, when we got there, we hiked up the hill to old Fort Royal, the highest point.
It was a little warm but luckily it’s only 25 and totally clear here today so it’s beautiful weather and not unbearably hot. In fact we haven’t faced any unbearably hot weather yet this summer.
The fort needs some restoration but the view was great. We got another tourist to take a picture of us. There were a couple of cruise ships in the bay below us. They drop off passengers at the other end of the city and then apparently just anchor in the bay to wait for them. The cruise ship pier can only accommodate a couple of ships at a time. Yesterday, we learned that sometimes 7 cruise ships per day unload passengers in Dubrovnik. That’s why from about 10:30am to 4:30pm or so can be very busy in the old town. Then it quietens down a bit when they all get on their buses and head back to the dock.
Lokrum Island is very lush and beautiful. The monastery and fort need some restoration but there is an olive grove, a beautiful botanical garden, lots of trees and lots of places to swim. It’s apparently a favourite spot for the locals to easily get out of town and enjoy the park and sea.
We eventually meandered down to spend a couple of hours on the beach (that is, rocks). We swam in the sea, which is beautiful and clean, relaxed in the sun, ate our picnic lunch and celebrated my 60th birthday with a beer and wine. Just what I always wanted.
Around 2:30 we went back to the dock and caught the taxi boat home. It only costs about $10 each for the return trip. We picked up some lunch supplies for our 10 hours on the ship tomorrow back to Split.
Tonight we’re going back to “Mea Culpa”, a great pizza and pasta place, for my birthday dinner. Celebrating a birthday in Dubrovnik with my sweetie is pretty nice.

Mostar

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 Dubrovnik
We just got back from a mini-van trip to Mostar. We left from a Hilton parking lot about 5 minutes walk from here. We noticed that parking at the Hilton is 400 kuna for 24 hours. That’s $80 Cdn. Another good reason not to be driving. The van showed up at 7:45. It was an English speaking tour and there were 12 tourists and the driver/guide. Four of the tourists were girls from Turkey, 2 were a couple our age from Sweden and the others were young couples.
To get to Mostar, we had to drive northwest along the coast through the little bit of Bosnia Herzegovina , stopping for a break at Neum, and back into Croatia. Along the way we saw oyster farming that was begun in the middle ages and is still going on. There are hundreds of buoys anchored in 2 to 10 metres of water in the protected bays, with oysters clustered around the ropes below them.
Then we left the coast and drove along the Neretva river valley towards Mostar. There’s a huge farming area, about 100 sq. km., that was a swamp that was drained. It supplies a lot of food for this part of Croatia. After a while we went through the border again into Bosnia Hercegovina. The customs stops didn’t take long.
Our first scenic stop was at a little village called Pocitelj, which means resting place. It was an old fort above the river and has a very old Islamic mosque and school. The mosque and minaret tower were destroyed in the recent war but have been rebuilt exactly as before. The little school was unharmed but doesn’t look used any more. The steep little street up to the mosque was made of round stones about the size of baseballs., set in mortar. Not a smooth surface, but we’re used to that. Pocitelj was interesting but it didn’t take long to see it.
After another ½ hour, we arrived in Mostar at noon. It was a cool cloudy day, about 25 degrees. That’s probably a good thing because Mostar is the 2nd hottest city in Europe, after Athens, and temperatures at this time of year are often 45 degrees. Our driver showed us a few sites, including the famous old bridge that was originally built about 400 years ago. Then he gave us maps and left us on our own until 3 pm.
There was quite a thunderstorm so we decided that lunch in an outdoor restaurant overlooking the bridge was a good idea. We sat with the Swedish couple from our group and had a good lunch conversation with them while Anita and I shared a huge plate of the “mixed grill”. We’re still stuffed. Apparently it’s only a 2 ½ hour direct flight from Sweden to Dubrovnik. It’s easy to get here from almost anywhere in Europe. We’ve been seeing lots of Brits both here and in Split, who probably just take direct flights for short vacations.
After the thunderstorm while we were just finishing lunch, the bridge jumpers started work again. There are apparently less than 10 guys in Mostar with the nerve to jump off this high bridge into the fairly shallow, cold water. They climb up on the rail, get tourists to gather up at least 25 euros for them and then they jump. If they think they’ll hit bottom, on the way down they curl into a ball and hit the water that way. If they’re confident, they jump straight in and do the “needle”, not making much splash. It’s quite a tourist draw.
The current bridge is an exact replica of the original, which was shelled in the war and destroyed. According to our driver, Mostar is about ½ Moslem and ½ Catholic. They’re all Slavic people, (the only difference being their religion), who co-existed and intermingled for many years without problems. Most of the Moslems lived on one side of the main street around the river and most of the Catholics lived on the other side. They allied to successfully defend Mostar from the Serbs during the war.
Then they bickered more and more with each other until they started fighting in 1993, the battle line being the main street. By the time NATO intervened and stopped them they had killed about 1,200 on one side and 800 on the other, destroyed many buildings and the old bridge. There is obviously still some very hard feelings. We were mainly in the Moslem section where there are lots of little signs saying, “1993, Never Forget”.
International aid has poured in to rebuild the bridge and the town but there are still quite a few pock-marked buildings from shells and bullets. It’s frightening to see how people in the same community can turn on each other. It’s apparently true that the veneer of civilization is exceedingly thin.
Bosnia Hercegovina is composed of 3 different groups or faiths: Serbs who are Serbian Orthodox, Moslems and Croatian Catholics. (Again, this is a simple version of a complex issue that we don’t understand, so some of the details may be wrong.) Because the Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet, all road signs along the highway are in both alphabets. All the way from the border to Mostar, we could see that the Cyrillic lettering was painted over with yellow or black spray paints, like taggers use for graffiti. The fighting was very heavy in this area and clearly the Serbs are not popular.
Oddly enough, one aspect of the tourism in Mostar is to see all the destruction that the inhabitants wrought upon themselves. It’s more than a little unsettling.
Anyway, it was worth seeing but only once. We’re glad we decided to go there on a tour rather than take the bus and stay a couple of nights. Tomorrow it’s off to Lokrum Island just across the bay from Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik

Monday July 25th 2011, Dubrovnik
On our last night in Split on Saturday, we went out to a good, sort of traditional restaurant called “Sperun” that was recommended in one of our guidebooks. Good food and not too expensive. After dinner we walked up the main pedestrian street in the old town to a gelato place for our 2nd of the day. The Hajduk - Barcelona game was starting at 8 and was on big screens on the Riva and in a lot of bars. It looked like there would be a pretty rowdy street party. We were tired and weren’t that interested in participating so we went back to our room for a good sleep before the next day’s travel.
On Sunday morning we bought some breakfast stuff, ate in our room and were at the bus station by 8:45. Our bus left as planned at 9:15. We had another good trip down here - very scenic and interesting. A lone traveller from Seattle on a 6 month tour sat behind us and beside him was a young woman from Dubrovnik who had just finished university in Zagreb. She told us lots of interesting things as we travelled.
One part of the trip that she didn’t like was having to pass through a few kilometres of Bosnia and Hercegovina in order to continue into the southern part of Croatia. There are still some unresolved feelings about the war.
She told us that although she was a small child, she still remembers having to leave Dubrovnik during the siege that started in October 1991 and lasted 8 months. The Serbian-Montenegrin army shelled Dubrovnik for that long from the mountains above the city, the worst night being December 6th. Her grandfather refused to leave and lived without power and water for a long time. He’d immerse his meat in olive oil to keep it from spoiling and found other old-fashioned ways to survive. Her cousins south of Dubrovnik had to flee and their houses were looted and burned. When we mentioned that we planned to visit Mostar in Bosnia and Hercegovina, she said she would never go there.
Naturally, this is only one point of view and the situation is far too complex for us to grasp in a few days. However, Dubrovnik has had a history of freedom and autonomy, which they often paid for to whoever threatened to swallow them up, whether it was the Hungarians, the Austrians, the Venetians or others. At one time Dubrovnik had one of the biggest navies on the Mediterranean. They were among the first nations to recognize the United States in 1776. There are “Libertas” signs or flags all over the place.
The guy from Seattle was also interesting - a software developer who had travelled widely. We talked about lots of different places in the world.
When we got to the main bus station in Dubrovnik, near the ferry terminal, it only took us a few minutes to find the local bus that would take us to the Pile Gate of the old walled town. That took only 10 or 15 minutes travel and after a few minutes we found our room. We’re in a great location, about 100 metres from the walls of the old town and about 50 metres from the sea. We can see both out our window. We’re just below one of the outlying forts used to protect the town. The reception guys were very helpful and gave us some tips on sights, restaurants to try and to avoid, which grocery store was cheapest and so on.
After we got settled we wandered in the Pile Gate and took a stroll down the Stradun or main pedestrian street. There are no cars inside the old walled city; it’s all pedestrian streets. They’re more or less at right angles to each other so navigating around is easy compared to what we’re used to.
Last night, we tried a pizza and pasta restaurant in the old town that had been recommended. It was great and not too expensive. The places right around the Stradun are tourist traps but if you know where to go in the back streets, it’s pretty reasonable, although everything here is a bit higher than in some of the last towns we’ve been to.
This morning we got up early, had breakfast in our room (there’s a fridge in the hall) and were at the ticket booth for the main wall walk at 8:10. If you start early there’s hardly anyone else on the walls. After about 10:30 the tour groups start arriving at the Pile Gate by bus. Many of them are from cruise ships. At least 3 cruise ships a day dock in Dubrovnik. (We’re sitting on our bed sipping wine and beer and out our window can see the steady stream of people walking the top of the walls right now.)
It cost 70 kuna each ($14) but was well worth it. We walked all the way around the top of the old town walls. It took us about 2 ½ hours but we could look down on the town on one side and onto the sea, for half of it anyway, on the other side. On the landward side, the back half of the old town is right at the foot of the mountain range. During the siege, the Dubrovnik people only held one small part of the mountain ridge top which is how the other army had a good place from which to shell the town.
It was unbelievably scenic. There are a few roofs in the old town that are the old faded brown but most of the roofs are orange, indicating that they’re new. Most of the roofs in the old town were hit by shells during the siege. People sought shelter in the old battlements. We’ve read that the Serb-Montenegrin army lost the battle for world opinion by shelling such a beautiful city, the “Pearl of the Adriatic”. We can see why. This is one of the most beautiful old towns that we’ve seen.
This afternoon we climbed up to the top of the old fort just above our room. We also got some great views of the old walled town from there.
Tonight we have reservations at another recommended restaurant on a back street of the old town. Tomorrow we have booked a daylong mini-bus tour to Mostar and another little town in Bosnia and Hercegovina. This seemed like the most efficient way to see them.
All of the guide books are right when they say that Dubrovnik is the one place in Croatia that you must see. It’s great.