Zagreb, Croatia

Sept 16 - 18

Having traveled many different countries in the last year or so, I have discovered that I much prefer a small town surrounded by mountains and waterfalls and lakes over a big ol' city. But that said, I did really enjoy my quick stop in Croatia's capital city.

We arrived into Zagreb in the afternoon and quickly found our way to a free walking tour. Dora led us around the city, pointing out some cool buildings and telling some interesting stories.

The most unique buildings were Saint Mark's church and a random building with a whale on it! The whale-building  was built in 1987 as a "flashy modern" building to show off to the world when Zagreb hosted the student Olympics. However in reality it's an ugly building that was once used as an art gallery. The somewhat recent addition of a huge whale painted across it makes the building now much more appealing to the eye.

Saint Mark's church has a stunning roof tile design, including the shields of different areas of Croatia.

We also visited the 'Bar Street' - which is exactly as it sounds...a street full of bars. Apparently it used to be somewhat of a red light district. There is a statue of a naked woman hanging out of a window to mark the spot. Currently it's situated next to a children's playground. How appropriate..!

Dora gave us many tips on bars, restaurants and sights to ensure we enjoyed the rest of our stay.

Following her story of the cannon that is still fired daily, we made that our first stop the next day. The cannon used to be fired at 9am and 9pm each day to signify that the gates of the Old Town were closing. Nowadays, it seems it's just for fun! A mixture of cardboard and gun powder is shot out each day at noon.

Just up the road, we popped into the Museum of Broken Relationships, possibly the most unique and interesting museum I've ever been to. It was founded by two artists who, upon breaking up, realised that they had enough items to "fill a museum"...so that's exactly what they did! People from all around the world have donated items from failed relationships - mostly romantic relationships but also many family relationships. Each of them has a story to go with it and while sometimes depressing (one was a suicide note) it was also fascinating.

Zagreb seemed to have loads of food festivals on, so we had lunch at an international food market.

Our last stop before leaving Zagreb was the cathedral. Honestly it looks like just about every other cathedral, but what's interesting is that the chandeliers inside once belonged to a Las Vegas casino! Random.

Rovinj, Croatia

Sept 14 - 16

We spent two nights (but really only one day) soaking in the beautiful Istrian coast.

We spent our morning in Rovinj just having an aimless wander around. As we walked through the Old Town we found beautiful coastal views and colourful buildings lining the narrow streets.

We then got a bus half an hour down the coast to Pula, famous for its colosseum. We circled around the outside of the colosseum, admiring how it has been kept in such good condition.

While Aamer went inside the colosseum (to fulfill his dream of becoming a gladiator...) I walked around Pula.

Back in Rovinj that evening we discovered there was a wine festival happening! There was singing and dancing and most importantly, wine making and wine selling. Naturally, we bought ourselves a bottle to enjoy with the sunset.

It was cloudy, so not the most spectacular sunset...but still lovely. We even saw some dolphins!

We roamed around the town again, somehow even more beautiful by night, then sat at the docks to eat dinner.

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

Sept 12 - 14

On our last night in Split we met Keiran at the hostel and discovered that we were heading to the same hostel in Plitvice, so we shared a car to make the journey quicker. The drive was ridiculously stunning. We followed the coast for a little while, before we turned inland where we got incredible mountains and lakes all around us.

When we arrived into Korenica (nearby Plitvice) we checked into our hostel and went out for lunch. Shortly after devouring my soup and grilled veggies I declared it wasthe "best"meal I'd had in Croatia - tasty and cheap! It didn't take me long to retract my statement when I was curled up in bed with stomach pains and dizziness. Fructose...you got me again.

Later in the afternoon, when I had recovered from my lunch sickness, we went out for a hike. An epic hike!

We'd been advised to time our hike up Mrsinj so that we could see sunset at the top. However...we left a little late. So we ended up absolutely legging it to the top. We made it up there in record time, and thankfully there was still some sunlight to enjoy the spectacular view.

The skies gradually changed colour and we sat on the rocks to enjoy the sunset.

Before it got too dark we headed back down again, in order to avoid walking the steep slippery path in total darkness.

We cooked up a feast at the hostel to reward ourselves for the fast-paced hike.

The next day we had another early start, aiming to get to Plitvice Lakes ahead of the crowds. We got into the park before 8am, allowing us an hour or so of peaceful walking before the masses piled in.

We walked around the upper lakes, enjoying many waterfalls and beautifully bright blue/green waters.

By the time we made it to the lower lakes there were ridiculous amounts of tourists. For me, hustling past big groups of people took away from the experience a little. And it's not even the high sesson any more - I hate to think how busy it was a month ago!!

Regardless, the waterfalls and lakes we passed by were incredible.

We had a lazy afternoon and evening at the hostel, preparing ourselves for the enourmous hike we had in store the next day.

Pljesevica Mountain sits 1657m high, on the border of Croatia and Bosnia. Before departing, the staff at the hostel gave us an instruction sheet that included fun facts like: "There are bears and poisonous snakes on this trail" and "There are landmines in the forest" How could we say no to hike with bears and snakes and landmines?! Jackpot.

When we parked our car at the base we met Bruce the dog. The little champion followed us all the way up. 

We started the hike up nice and early, walking firstly through fog. It didn't take us long to get up above the fog, catching our first mountainous view.

The climb up was hard. Steep. Unstable. Marked only by red and white dots on the trees. I swallowed a fly at one point. Amazingly, we only went off track once! 

When we were very nearly at the top, we stopped to rest up on top of what I assume is a little power box. With a view like that, why wouldn't you take a break?!

On the last little stretch of the hike we saw numerous signs warning us of landmines on the Bosnian side of the mountain.

Once we were at the top we got incredible views of both Croatia and Bosnia. 

We found a huge boulder to rest on and enjoy the neverending mountains.

Before we knew it we were sitting amongst the clouds!

Side note: I dropped my phone off this boulder, which we agreed was at least 15m high. It bounced multiple times on the way down....and somehow landed without a scratch!! Whaaaaaat?! Magic.

The mountain is also home to an abandoned military base, used during the Yugoslavian civil war. We had a little roam around the house and tunnels, careful to come out the same place we came in...so as not to end up in the landmine-filled forest on the Bosnian side!

On the way down I saw a snake! And screamed! But we saw no bears.

What a little legend!

Split & Krka NP, Croatia

Sept 10 - 12

Having explored the old town when we arrived the previous day, there was not too much else to see in Split. Lily, Paloma, Chloe and I dumped our bags at our hostel and made our way to Marjan Park. We spent the morning walking around, admiring views of the town along the way.

Aftr saying goodbye to Paloma, we sepent the rest of the day at a huge shopping centre. I searched (unsuccessfully) for new shorts and then we went to the cinema to see War Dogs - pretty good movie!

Aamer arrived in the evening and we had dinner at a local bar.

We all got up early the next morning to set off for Krka National Park. After an hour long bus, we reached Skradin and discovered that we had 45 minutes before we could get the ferry over to the national park. To fill the time we had a look around the town. Kind of adorable!

The fifteen minute ferry ride provide stunning mountain views and I spotted all kinds of animals in the water - including jelly fish!

Shortly after stepping off the ferry we found the waterfalls. We resisted the urge to jump straight in for a swim, instead going for a walk around the national park first.

The walk offered all kinds of different views of the falls.

The water was so clear and full of an assortment of fish.

Once we had finished the 2km loop, we went for a swim in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. A reasonably tough swim (trying to avoid rocks while pushing ourselves against the current) was well worth it to get up closer to the waterfall.

All the walking and swimming eventually tired us out, so we relaxed in the sun for an hour or so before the rain came along and ruined our fun! We waited for the rain to stop and then began our trek back to Skradin. The 4km walk followed the river we had come down on the ferry.

We had enough time back in Skradin to enjoy a freshly squeezed juice...and then a mad storm kicked in. Skies turned dark, it started raining heavily and then thunder and lightning took over the skies as we waited for our bus. Luckily, we only had to endure the storm for a short wait before we were on our way back to Split.