Dubrovnik – The Wheels Come Off the Wagon

Dubrovnik at Dusk From the Harbor

The low hum of the air conditioner; the weight of winter comforters pressing down against me; the ribbed wooden ceiling; the excruciating pain…those are my memories of Dubrovnik.  In a city that is easily one of the most beautiful and unique on the Dalmatian coast, it’s strange that these would be the things that I will remember most.  But that’s what happens when you wind up with food poisoning.

We arrived from Sarajevo without a place to stay (Clearly I’m anxious about it), but we located the perfect apartment.  It was on a street right outside the walls to the old city.  And it had air conditioning and, most importantly internet.  I’m being very cautious about getting places with internet right now as my bar exam results could come at any time (and should be here by now…again, anxious).  Our first afternoon we spent at a great “locals” beach with a very nice view of the fortressed town.  Then we walked around the old town and grabbed dinner at a seafood joint that had been recommended right in the harbor of the city.  I got the mussels and Kati had some grilled calamari.  Neither of them were very good.  That should have been my first warning.  They didn’t do a very good job cleaning the mussels--beards were rampant in the dish.  Yet, I continued eating.  After the disappointing meal, we decided to stop in D’Vino, a highly recommended wine bar in the old town.  I got a glass of a Croatian specialty red, Pošip.  It was exactly what I’d been looking for.  It was full-bodied, flavorful, and had the hints of nutmeg that I’d heard make Croatian wines so unique.  Afterwards, we drank some mediocre Bosnian wine we had brought with us back at the apartment and called it an early night.

1:13 a.m. – I wake up, not feeling my best, but I go back to sleep.

2:01 a.m. – I wake up again and in the process wake Kati up.  She asks me if everything’s ok.  In response, I could only dash to the bathroom.  It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this bad…definitely since I came down with the Swine Flu almost two years ago and thought I was dying.  I spent the night in complete misery wearing as many of my clothes as I could put on and using all of the blankets and sheets in the apartment, but I was still freezing.

In the morning, I took some Advil and was determined that I would not let food poisoning ruin our chances to explore Dubrovnik.  We started late—10:15—and went down to explore the town.  I forced down a little breakfast.  Then we stopped by the Franciscan Monastery and the third-oldest operating pharmacy in Europe.  Our next stop was at a really cool photo gallery that specializes in images of war.  While we were there, their emphasis was on the Middle East’s Jasmine/Facebook Revolution and Yugoslavia.  It was great.  About 30 minutes into walking around the gallery, I almost passed out.  Five minutes later it happened again.  We left immediately.  I tried to eat a sandwich, but it was no use.  Kati carefully walked me up the outrageous number of stairs to leave the fortressed old town and get to our apartment.  I spent the rest of the afternoon in even worse shape than the night before, but Kati took good care of me.

In a Moment of Feeling Ok at Café Buža 

At some point in the afternoon my fever finally broke.  I was still determined to explore the city a little more.  We walked back down to the old town and checked out a few more churches.  Along the way Kati and I were both feeling a little coastal (and really hot) so we picked up some sweet hats.  We also stopped by the one place that I really wanted to go: Café Buža.  In Croatian, buža essentially means a hole in the wall.  Café Buža is just that.  It doesn’t advertise, outside of a handwritten wooden sign for “cool drinks” and it’s not in any of the guidebooks.  But if you walk down the back alleys of the old town, you can find a hole in the wall, and, if you walk through, you escape the old town onto a rocky terrace overlooking the sea with the best view in the city.  If I was feeling a little better I would have joined the locals for some cliff diving right below the bar.  Sadly, I didn’t think that was a good idea so we grabbed a quick drink, stopped for dinner, and headed back for an early night.  Despite my terrible condition, we managed to see just about everything I had hoped, but we didn’t get to stroll along the city walls and battlements.  I guess that will have to wait until next time.

Split: Exploring the City

Center of Diocletian's Palace

After a relaxing evening in Split, we woke up prepared to tackle the city.  It was a crazy busy day!  Our day was broken up into three parts.  In the morning, we took a tour around Diocletian's Palace and the old town.  Then we took a bus out to Salona, the capital of the Roman province of Illyria.  Finally, we spent the late afternoon on a nearby rocky beach.

Diocletian's Palace was pretty neat.  We heard some "traditional" Dalmatian a capella singers in the vestibule of the palace and learned a lot about the history of the city and this area of the Roman empire.  The palace was created as a retirement home for one of the Roman emperors.  It's pretty impressive!

Our next stop was Salona.  It took us about 15 minutes to take a bus out to the ruins.  Salona was the capital of Illyria, so it was a pretty large city.  However, the weather was miserable.  It must have been 110 degrees and we were outside in fields of stone ruins with no semblance of shade anywhere around us.  The ruins were neat.  We got to see an old ampitheater, a forum, a theater, two basilicas, and more.  We only stayed out at the ruins for about an hour and a half because of the brutal heat.

To end the day we walked to a nice rock beach near town.  It took us about 45 minutes to find the beach because we (I) got turned around in the mass of unnecessary Croatian road construction and sidewalk-closings, but it was worth it.  After such a hot day, a dip in the cool ocean was exactly what we both needed. We spent about an hour and a half at the beach and then headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner.  At dinner I had some of the best grilled calamari I've had in my entire life and Kati had some pretty good Croatian-style tuna.  Finally, after dinner we grabbed a white wine made from an indigenous grape called the Debit.  It was alright, but definitely nothing to write home about.

Let's Make Like a Banana and Split!

Split at Night

August 22 -- Today was a full day of traveling.  We woke up in Plitvice to catch the 9:45 bus to Split.  Luckily, after securing our typical European breakfast, some kind of pastry or strudel, we went to the bus station only to find that there was an 8:45 bus to Zadar that was running late and hadn't yet arrived.  We quickly changed our plans and hopped on the bus, hoping to catch a connecting bus to Split in Zadar.  We were joined by a 56-year-old retired teacher from "Tazy" (Tasmania).  He was really strange.  We left Plitvice at 9:15 and we finally arrived in Split at 3:45.  Unlike Zagreb, our hostel in Split is fantastic...and air conditioned!

Split is the second largest city in Croatia, home to 350,000 people.  It's right on the coast and part of the region of Dalmatia.  To get to Split, we had to cross the mountains and went through the longest tunnel I've ever been in.  We were legitimately underground for 10 minutes straight!  Coming out of that tunnel was like entering a different world.  The architecture changed.  The plant life changed.  Even the look of the people changed.

Our first night in Split we didn't do too much.  The hallmark of the city is the Diocletian Palace, a large fortified Roman palace built by one of its emperors as a retirement home.  We checked into our hostel and then walked inside the Palace walls as well as walked down the Riva, or main promenade in the city.  We stopped for a great seafood dinner at a real dive.  It came highly recommended but doesn't even have a sign outside and only has a handwritten menu.  I had some mussels and Kati had some shrimp/prawns with risotto...with the heads still on (She sucked them out), both of which were fantastic.

Split is an incredible place.  It's completely different from anywhere we've been to date.  After a nice night of walking around the town for a while, we decided to pick up a Dalmatian bottle of wine and relax.

Interesting Fact: research shows that the Zinfandel grape originated in Croatia.  While there is no Zinfandel grape here, the "grandfather" of the California Zin is still a very popular Dalmatian wine.  Zinfandel is said to be the descendant of the Plavac Mali grape, so we decided to see how it compared.  The Plavac Mali is a very nice, smooth, and tempered wine.  It definitely lacks a full body (kind of like a Zin) and tastes a little watered down, but it's definitely a nice summer red.  I'll write more about Dalmatian wines as we try them.

Plitvice Lakes National Park

Kati and I at an Overlook of the Lowest Lakes

They say it's one of the most amazing places in all of Europe and yet somehow I had never heard of it until a few years ago.

Plitvice Lakes National Park is in the center of Croatia.  The park itself is something like 18 hectares large, but the highlight is a series of 27 or so pristine blue lakes, connected by more waterfalls than you could ever imagine.

Plitvice was really the reason that we came to Croatia in the first place.  After seeing pictures I couldn't believe such a place existed.  And after having seen the park in person, I still have trouble believing it.

There is surprisingly little information online about accommodations in the park.  There are four hotels in the park and campgrounds in a nearby town, but those are the only accommodations discussed on the National Park's website.  There are also limited other options floating around the internet, none of which are very helpful for backpackers without access to a car.  These situations--going to a new and isolated place without a set place to sleep--always make me a little nervous.  To ease my anxiety, we booked a cheap "apartman" that looked like it was close to the park.  Yet, when we arrived, we found out that the description of the place as being less than 1 km from the park was quite an exaggeration.  It was between 2 or 3 km and going to the park it was straight uphill.  Luckily, before even stopping off at the place we reserved, we went to the tourist information center and they set us up with an even cheaper private place to stay significantly closer to the park entrance.  While we had to stomach the cost of the first night we had reserved, our lodging already came in under budget and it was totally worth it.

We arrived at Plitvice on a Saturday...in August.  Mistake #2.  When planning a trip this long with so many interlocking details, you don't really think about things in terms of days of the week, but only in sequence of what comes after what.  We got our 2-day pass to the park and walked in.  Thirty minutes later we were about 30 feet from where we started!  (Ok, that may be quite an exaggeration, but it was crowded!)  We followed the "C" trail, which takes you past all of the best waterfalls and lakes and is supposed to take 4-6 hours.  The trail would have been very nice had it not been for the crowds.  Most of the park is very public-friendly with fairly flat wooden walkways traversing the lakes and passing by the waterfalls.  The only problem is these walkways are very narrow and people of certain nationalities (I won't be so rude as to name them) do not understand that they can't just stop wherever they want and make everyone move out of the way to take pictures.  At one of the waterfalls a very rotund and burly-looking woman even went so far as to physically shove Kati out of the way so she could get a picture!  While the crowds were obnoxious and detracted from the sublime surroundings, it was still an amazing sight and a great day.

It wasn't until the very end of the day that we realized that we were captive in regards to the food situation.  There was only one restaurant open: Licka Kuca.  We resolved to go there anyway and had some amazing homemade sausages.

Our second day in the park was wonderful!  We started early in the morning on the "K" hike which is a 6-8 hour hike that wraps through the park for 21 km (13 miles).  It was one of the best hikes I've ever been on.  We hiked up into the hills surrounding the lakes for some great views and then back down to skirt the very edges of the largest lakes.  Best of all, there were hardly any people!  We saw some waterfalls that we hadn't gotten to see the first day along with parts of the lakes that were just stunning and apparently untouched by humans.  Needless to say, by the end of the day Kati and I were both exhausted.  We capped off the evening with another dinner at Licka Kuca--braised lamb shank and veal on the spit.  Fantastic.

I only had one disappointment with Plitvice.  There is an iconic waterfall that's in all the brochures, online, and on all the postcards.  It was this particular waterfall that really drew me to the park.  Actually, it was this image that's been the background on my computer for almost three years and has been the real motivating force I used to push myself through the misery of law school.  Unfortunately, and for some inexplicable reason, the only trail providing you with a view of this waterfall was closed, and from the looks of it had been closed for some time with no real plans to re-open it.  I caught a few glimpses of my waterfall from the side and from a few outlook points we found (some sanctioned and some not), but due to the fact that it's been a dry year and it's August, this particular waterfall was sadly underwhelming.  Yet every other aspect of the park was amazing.  It really is a place unlike anywhere I've ever seen; almost like a scene from another planet.

Croatia - Zagreb

The Street Our Hostel Was On in Zagreb

Welcome to Croatia--the seventh circle of hell.  That's a little harsh because it's a fantastic country, but my God, it's as hot as Hades!

Our first stop was Zagreb, the capital.  I've heard it's a really nice city.  We must not have seen any nice parts of the city though.  We were only staying for a night before catching a bus, so we didn't do much exploring.  Our hostel was on a street that doesn't exist.  The Croatians had decided to tear up the entire street at the same time, even though the were only working on the 10 feet outside our hostel.  From the looks of it, the street had been closed for some time.  A general theme we've noticed in Croatia is that they're really good (and enthusiastic) about tearing things down, but once something's torn down, they seem to get bored and abandon the project so that they can find something else to tear down.

Our night in Zagreb was pretty miserable.  While we had a great dinner at a hole-in-the-wall seafood joint, the rest of the night did not go very well.  Our hostel was overrun with what seemed like hundreds of obnoxious French high school students (I know, obnoxious and French are redundant qualifiers) running around screaming in the halls for most of the night.  To make matters worse, it felt like it was 43 degrees Celcius (110 degrees Fahrenheit).  Our hostel didn't have air conditioning and we were on the fourth floor, so it was miserably hot all night.  Even better, they were still tearing down the street outside the hostel, so the construction workers finished around 10 at night and then started up again promptly at 7:00 in the morning (Although they were audibly preparing to start using their equipment from around 6:00).  Our bus for Plitivice Lakes National Park departed at 8:30.  The beds were stiff and uncomfortable.  We got very little sleep.  Oh well.