Annnnd, we're back! At least for today, in an attempt to continue to catch up on our life throughout Summer, Autumn and now, Winter. It's been a crazy busy year, with trip after trip for both me and Brian. If we weren't heading somewhere for a weekend for fun, we were getting on a plane for work. And as 2013 is quickly coming to a close, the exhaustion is catching up with us. When we're home, we just want to sit back and relax.
But, I'm sure all you faithful readers are dying to know all about our 1st trip to Croatia (we took 2 trips to Croatia this year).
Our first trip to Croatia was in mid-June (yikes). We debated wether we should go to the popular Dubrovnik - or opt for the less popular, Zadar. The draw, and ultimate deciding factor on heading to Zadar was the proximity to Plitvice Lakes, a National Park that looked too cool to miss.
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| The main boardwalk during the day |
Zadar was a great town. A small, but lively city center, a great central square, and a nice, long boardwalk along the sea.
A few things really surprised us about Croatia. Croatia is famous for it's beautiful coastline, islands and clear water, so we assumed there would be beautiful beaches to go along with this. Wrong. It's true, it's stunning, but there weren't any sandy beaches. We walked a pretty long way our first day, looking for a beach so we could take our first dip in the Adriatic Sea. We ended up at a pavement slab, that provided access to the water. And it was a busy piece of pavement, people were everywhere.
We quickly realized that laying out on concrete was what you do. People lay out their camping (to them, "beaching") mats, and that's that. Once you realize this, you then start to notice all the ladders along the boardwalk and any other place along the coast.
The other thing that really surprised us about Croatia was the amount of Pizza they consumed. Seriously, we ate pizza at least once a day. Literally every other shop/restaurant had pizza. Croatia is close to Italy, but we really didn't expect it at all.
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| Pizza (and ice cream) places were everywhere |
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| This is what we spent most of our time doing |
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| Gate into the Old Town |
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| Along the City Wall |
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| One of the squares, this one had Roman ruins in the middle of it |
We spent our first day checking out Zadar, and enjoying an amazing sunset on the boardwalk.
It sounded simple, so when we felt like we needed a break from the sun, we walked up a huge, winding hill to find the bus stop. It was hot, we were out of water, and the bus stop didn't have shelter from the sun. The bus didn't arrive when we were told. We waited, and waited. Still no bus. We waited longer. We were getting hungry, and crabby. Finally, we gave up on the bus and retreated down the hill for some food. We walked by a pizza place, of course, earlier that we thought looked good.
When we got there, we had missed their lunch hours, and they had stopped serving food, we could only get coffee and drinks. Wasn't going to work. In desperation, we decided to eat at the next place we found that would serve food. Just across the way, there was another pizza place (see a trend here), and there were people outside with food. It was literally the only other food place nearby. Jackpot.
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| Happy again, after some pizza, beer and water |
It hit the spot, and was delicious. Once fueled and thinking straight, we decided it would be best to take a taxi down south. We tried ringing the taxi number on our tourist brochure - no answer. So, we asked our waiter if they could call us a taxi. They said there weren't any taxis on the island. At this point, we realized we should have rented a scooter, as the other table dining next to us had. One thing led to another, and the next thing we knew, we were in the chef's delivery car, with the chef, on our way south. Turns out it was a family run restaurant, and apparently the chef had some extra time to get us where we wanted to go.
His name was Bobby (debatable. Brian swears it was, but I am unsure. Nonetheless, it was something simple and very American, like Bobby). He was Croatian, but had lived for 12 years on a freighter, sailing around the world, then in Switzerland for a long time, before his family convinced him they should move back to Croatia and open the pizza place. Good move, Bobby. Happy you were around to serve us delicious Pizza and give us a lift.
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| "Bobby" driving away - we were very thankful for him |
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| Where we were dropped off - doesn't that water look nice |
When we got dropped off, we spent some time swimming here, then heading along the coast to see what else was out there.
And ended up in another beautiful cove for the remainder of the afternoon. The bus actually showed up for the trip back, and we took it back to where we were to catch the ferry.
Before getting on the Ferry, we stopped for a little snack. This is where Brian discovered his love for Octopus. We grabbed a seat along a pedestrian pathway, overlooking the water and ordered an Octopus Salad to share. One bite and Brian was in heaven. Seriously, he is obsessed with the stuff now.
Our ferry ride back ended up being perfect timing to see the sunset.
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| The sun starting to set |
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| From the Ferry |
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| Beautiful ride back |
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| We caught the very end from the shore |
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| Last shot with sunlight |
After some dinner, we cruised the boardwalk again. At the very far end, there is a Sea Organ, an art feature designed to make noise as the waves hit, as well as the "Offering to the Sun", a solar paneled light feature.
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This is the solar panel light thing. The lights changed colors and moved around.
It was a big hit with the kids, and I thought it was pretty cool too. |
Our last day in Croatia, we rented a car and drove to Plitvice Lakes. It was an hour and a half drive down a valley, then over some mountains, back into the woods. The park was incredible. The water was perfectly clear, and brilliant blue/green. Waterfalls, fish and fireflies were everywhere. It was hard to capture it all on the camera.
The layout of the park was quite easy, different paths for different distances and abilities. Most of them were nicely built wood trails. Of course, I decided that we should hike "up" even though everyone was going down. I thought we would get incredible, secret views that everyone else was missing. You would do the same, right? Well, turns out, I took us on a proper hike, with lot's of uphill, and limited scenic views, through woods that could be in Oregon or California. When we finally were able to get off the trail, we were all the way to end of the first half of the park. Fail. The only happy part of the story is we packed snacks, so we took a break, refueled, and headed back up the park to see the stuff we missed.
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The 1 photo I got from my ridiculous off-trail hike.
I bet most people didn't see this ;) |
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| See how clear the water is - and all the fish! |
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| Just starting out |
After we circled back on the first half of the park, we took a ferry over to the second half. It was actually really tough to be so close to the water and not be able to get in. It was hot, especially when you're used to Dublin weather. And the water was beautiful, inviting and so close.
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| Our ride across the lake |
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| The other side of the lake |
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| I was trying to get the color of the water here. |
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| Waterfalls and water. It was hard to get us, the water and the waterfalls all in good light |
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| You can see the waterfalls in the background |
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| Birds eye view of one of the paths |
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| Another angle - this is what the whole park was like |
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| Horrible shot of me, I am overheating and really tired |
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My favorite photo from the day. This one captures the water and the trees
very well. Oh, and my favorite person. |
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| Criss crossing the water |
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| We attempted to follow a path, but kept getting distracted and going different directions |
Piltvice was an incredible place, and a day that we will remember for a lifetime. It was a great day trip, and we even made it back to Zadar in time for one last swim in the Adriatic before we had to head back to Dublin, and the real world.
Our Croatian weekend was amazing, and as I already mentioned, we went back a second time, in September. So stay tuned for that trip - it might have been even better than this one.
What a lovely adventure! Thanks for sharing it!
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