We stopped first in the hilltop town of Motuvan which truthfully was a long ride for a beer on top of a hill with a wall but it was on our way to Rovinj, it's all good! Good timing on our part, we hit the town of Rovinj at the start of a four day holiday weekend, who knew. The guy at the Tourist Information hooked us up with a lady who ran a Sobe a few minutes out of town and that worked out (better than sleeping in the car again). The place was very nice, like a little Italian villa. We checked in and went for a walk on the beach promenade outside of town alongside the Adriatic and Tom fell asleep on the rocks remarkably resembling a fur seal in New Zealand! We went back to the room and headed out for our night on the town. Rovinj is a crumbly little seaside town which has made its nitch in tourism.
Small fishing boats in the harbor and the wash hanging out the windows all adds to its charm. The narrow cobblestone streets led us to a tiny spot up an alley where we sat outside with a carafe of wine and had wood fired pizza. We tried to order it with pepperoni and after much discussion and interpeting, we ended up with a pizza with tomatoes and red chilli peppers. Cheap wine, strange pizza sitting outside in a dark, cobblestone alley, it's all good! There was actually a concert going on that night in the square and we got to see the local Croatian diva. The place was hopping.
After breakfast at the villa we were on our way to Plitvice Lakes National Park and stopped on the way in the town of Puma for a quick look at their ancient Roman ampitheatre, one of the most well preserved ancient Roman ruins in the area. It actually took us longer to find a parking spot then it did to tour the theatre but it was pretty interesting. The countryside in north central Croatia, on the way to the lakes, is amazingly scenic and idyllic. It is all rolling hills with panaromic views and the drive was very enjoyable. On the way we stumbled on a little village called Slunjcica which had streams and waterfalls pouring out of virtually every crack and crevice there was in the town. The water even seemed to be pouring out from under the houses. There was just water and waterfalls everywhere you looked.
We went and sat at a cafe, which was tucked in the middle of this, and had a cup of coffee just watching the water flowing. They actually had a mill house where they were using the waterfall to make flour and you could stand there and watch the flour coming off the wheel. You were not really supposed to be there but Tom made friends with the two little old ladies that were working the mill! A little further up the road we checked into a sobe, where we were charmed by this cute little Croatian girl, AnnaMarie, who showed us the available rooms. We had a 10 minute unsuccesfull conversation with her and her father about where we could get ice for the chilly bag. Once they understood what we wanted, they just laughed at us!
Plitvice National Park is a waterfall and lakes wonderland made up of 16 cascading lakes and waterfalls to numberous to count, in a beautiful valley. The water is all extremely clear and a very vibrant blue. You walk along these wooden planks that are set up as a path around the various lakes and in the center, where the largest lake is, there is a ferry that takes you from the "lower lakes" to the "upper lakes". Lets just say there were a lot of pictures taken at Plitvice Lakes National Park!
Leaving Plitvice we started our drive to Split and the coastal road to Dubrovnik. Split is another seaport town nestled on the Adriatic built around the Roman emporor Diocletian's retirement Palace.
We pulled up outside the old town and Madelina, a room hawker, was all over us. The tour books warn you about the room hawkers but we looked at it as a quick way to find a room without driving all over. It turned out she was a real character but one with a lot of good information and she gave us a room, a very old room, in the old town inside the palace gates. We even had shutters that opened up on one of the alleyways to the square. Pretty cool! Split also happened to be the home of the only laundromat in all of Croatia. Every other town where we asked, they had people who would tell you to leave it and pick it up in two or three days (if it didn't rain....then it would take longer!) So the next day, we did laundry in a laundromat where there was also an internet hook up, we blogged and then we started for Dubrovnik.
The coast road from Split to Dubrovink is known as the Croatian Riviera. The standard timeframe to drive is 3-4 hours depending on how many pictures you take. It took us 2 days!
We stopped in almost every town, walking around the harbors, taking pictures and just enjoying the scenery of the water and the towns themselves.
These guys have an awesome deal here and it is only going to get better! It is remarkable how well they have recovered and grown since the war. There are still a few signs of buildings with blown out roofs, abandoned or not yet completely renovated but with the location they have here it is only a matter of time before everything is better than 100%. We got to camp one night alongside the Adriatic. We do think we were the only non Croatians in the camp, it was all good, what a site, what a view!
And then there was Dubrovnik,
everything the pictures say and more.
Slightly too touristy when the cruise ships are in but after they leave the town settles down to a pretty nice pace, at least at this time of year. One of the waitresses was telling us there are times in season when there are 10 cruise ships docked in port with over 10,000 tourists. We can't begin to imagine, definitely not us. We stayed in the old town in what amounts to an old town house where Pero met us and before we even checked in he had us sample his Mama's grappa, a nice greeting!
We had a room on the upper floor with a great view over the old town. Tom took too many pictures of the same things and we had about at least a 50% deletion rate to get it to just a ridiculous amount of pictures!
The next day we unpacked our beach chairs and hiked to the beach where we got to take our first dip in the Adriatic. It was freaking cold! but a nice place to hang out and read our books for some time.
That afternoon we took a bottle of wine and some cheese and went to a place outside the old port which we thought we would have all to ourselves. After a short time of enjoying the view, the Chilean brothers showed up! One set of twins, their sidekick brother and the poor unfortunate wife to one of the twins! Pat challenged them to jump off the rocks into the Adriatic and we would share our bottle of wine with them (we did have a large bottle!). Next thing you know, somehow they unashamedly changed into their suits and Hugo and Yugo, the two twins took the plunge. The third brother just kept saying they were crazy, the wife kept taking pictures and we kept laughing. After passing around the bottle and taking group shots, we parted company!
We thought we were hanging out with the Giaccio brothers...
The following day we took the ferry to the island of Lokum and hiked the island for a few hours until we found the perfect rock boulder beach where we could sit and watch the fisherman and tourist boats go by.
Time for dinner, to get packed up and get ready for our 5:00 am pickup for our flight to Paris.
Bog and Zivjeli, Croatia
Things Croatian;
Pork and Lamb cooking on spits in front of the restaurants
Smoking in restaurants, in airports, smoking everywhere
Great people
Great roads
STILL no pretzels
NO ice
Lasagna.....
Beautiful country
Wash hanging from windows
Kunas
Cheap croatian wine but good Grasevina (like riesling)
More smoking
Ozujsko beer
Picturesque houses and churches
The Adriatic
1 comment:
It was great hearing from you two and it was about time what were you doing traveling around (just kidding) I guess at this time you must be in Italy and hope your have a good time. I cannot believe, hugo and Yugo only u2 could run into those 2. You two are always running into a Holiday/party. well hope to hear about italy and keep sending those picture.
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