Last blog from Croatia

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Hello from Samobor, (V.O.T.I.T.C to the west of Zagreb, north Croatia)

Hello Blogettes, I am sitting up in the very comfortable family apartment at the Hotel Livadic in the township of Samobor, details of which will follow in due course.

Well after the Croatian National Army and Navy were called in to get me off the boat, we made land again and settled up our boat account and took stock of the fact that somehow we had to make our way from Sukosan to Zagreb where we had to catch a flight on the 14th of May, back to Amsterdam via Paris. That was five days away and apart from thinking about going to the Plitviska National Park, we had no idea whatsoever as to what we were going to do for the next few days.

Eldin, our boat broker had very kindly suggested we meet him in Bosnia for a partay extraordinaire but I think in reality, we were not in the partying mood after leaving the boat and being at a bit of a loss as to what we were going to do. Sounds a bit morose I know, but be assured dear Blogettes, the sun does shine again.

We took a punt and called a rent a car company recommended by our yacht charter company and an hour later, a brand new Opal Vectra was delivered to us with a very minimal 36 k’s on the dial. We had a bit of a conniption at the first car that pulled up bearing the rent a car company logo as it would have had trouble squeezing me into it, let alone the rest of the crew and all of our luggage!! Fortunately, that was only the delivery driver’s pick up car and ours was much more suitable.

As it turned out, we were able to fit most of the luggage into the boot but had to put one bag between the girls. Apart from that slight inconvenience, the car suited us to a ‘t’, except the steering wheel and controls were on the wrong side. I think the rent a car representative said a little Hail Mary when I got into the passenger side ready to drive away - what is travel insurance for anyway???

The Plitviska National Park is about 80 klms from Sukosan and from what we had read; the Park contains a plethora (big word points Alsy) of turquoise blue lakes, stunning waterfalls and hiking paths. All good stuff for the crew who had not used their shanks ponies too much over the last couple of weeks. We had not booked any accommodation and didn’t think it would be too much of a problem seeing we were out of the tourist season.

We left the marina about 1.30pm and headed off full of confidence about our ability to take on the best of Croatian drivers and Croatian roads. We made it to the turn off to the motorway, well after a few small wrong turns anyway, and soon we were on our way, plodding along at a very modest 130kph as car after car roared past us.

The scenery along the way was quite dramatic. Basically, from the coast, you head up to and through huge mountains with incredibly barren and rough rocky ridges and peaks. The ‘big’ tunnel we were told about was exactly that, about 5.5 k’s long, through the mountain range.

Coming out the other side and thanks to the directions of our rent a car rep, we found the turn off to the area of the National Park and still had about 30k’s to go to our destination.

We drove through small village, after small village, stopping along the way at a road side stall, having no idea what the little old man was selling. It turned out it was smoked cheese. We are still not sure if it was smoked sheep’s cheese or smoked goats cheese, the best he could do was emit a bleating sound in an attempt to tell us what it was, the truth be known, it could have been either. Obviously not being able to speak Croatian sheep or Croatian goat, we were unable to decipher the country vocabulary. When we were able to communicate that we were from Australia, old mate became very excited and we think that was because he may have had a cousin in Sydney. Pleased to report the cheese, whilst very mild, was very delicious and coupled with a smoked salami sausage we bought a little bit later on at a market made a very nice picnic lunch when we finally made it to the National Park.

We turned to the Lonely Planet Guide Book and looked for a hotel in the Park, having passed literally dozens and dozens of private homes offering rooms for rent - most, if not all of them showing the house full sign. Well at least the hotels would have plenty of rooms wouldn’t they; after all, it wasn’t tourist season.

We went to the first recommended hotel and it was jam packed with busloads of tourists on bus package tours getting their rooms organised, exit stage left Sparkes family. Onto the next of the three hotels in the park, sorry, house full, maybe Hotel Bellevue will have a room. Now Hotel Bellevue is fondly written up in the Lonely Planet Guide book as, cheapest in the park, dreary rooms rooms, try there as a last resort!!!

As it turned out, Hotel Bellevue was a great spot to stay, the rooms were basic but they were very clean and the beds were incredibly comfortable. They had hot showers, full sized toilets (luxuries in life now) and brekkie was included in the modest fare as well. The place was old, it did need a lot of work and it reminded us very much of Lodge 21 (only bigger) in Smiggins Hole, the ski lodge we have stayed at a couple of times. Lizzy and Dave and Laura and Tim can picture the place clearly I think!!

After we booked in, we went for a drive around to get a bit familiar with how the place works and had a bit of general look around. The Plitviska National Park has serious significance as this is where the Homeland War started in 1991 and a local Croatian Policeman, Josip JOSIC was the first casualty of the war. There is a monument to his life and a tribute to his death at one of the entrances to the park and there are fresh National wreaths and flowers laid there, fairly regularly I think.

The Serbian Army took control of the park and all of the hotels and amenities and did not leave there until the Croatian Army took control back, in about 1995. Evidently, the place was not left in the best of states, to say the least.

On a brighter note, we went out for dinner that night to a restaurant that sold lamb roasted on the spit and a variety of other meat and vegetables and we sat down to a very satisfying dinner.

The following morning we had brekkie at the very substantial Croatian Buffet Breakfast and headed off to the park for a few hours of hiking and sight seeing. The simplistic description is that the area was once, a very, very long time ago, a river running through incredible gorges, running down stream from the mountains toward the coast. Over lord knows how long, a substance called travertine started to form and grow, growing bigger and bigger and developing into natural dam walls, forming dozens of lakes and impressive waterfalls.

The visitors to the park, thanks to the guidance of the park staff, choose their path around the lakes and falls depending on the amount of time they have. Buses and boats are available to assist the visitors to make their way around certain sections. We opted for the 6 hour course and were taken by shuttle bus to the top of the lake / waterfall section from which we would then walk for a number of hours, making our way down hill to quite a large lake where we would board a boat that took us along the lake system toward where the ‘big’ falls were located.

Once we got off the bus we just had to grab a coffee after such an exhausting bus trip; well it did take about 10 minutes up hill! After recharging we headed off and were literally stunned by the majesty of the scenery. Many years ago, Debs and I rode our bikes from the mountains of Norway down to the coast and were blown away by the colour of the water in the mountain rivers and streams and the colours we saw this day reminded us so much of that dramatic trip.

The waterfalls ranged in size and form and we walked along timber board- walks over the smaller lakes and along man made paths alongside the larger lakes. The walk was of course very easy as we were heading down hill and we spent a lot of time taking in the views and trying to capture the memories on camera.

We made our way to a large lake that has small punt like boats that ferry hikers to and from various sections of the lake. After we got off the boat section, we found a very large buffet and outdoor eating area but unfortunately we had forgotten to get some cash out of the a.t.m before we left and as they did not take visa. The best we could manage was a couple of ice creams for the girls to keep their energy levels up.

Having said that, we had packed a few provisions to have a bit of a picnic along the way and after a while we stopped at a little timber bus stop that was not able to be used as a bus stop (go figure??) and we made the best of the breakfast extras we’d collected; some cheese and some packets of nutella that the girls dipped their sliced up bananas and kiwifruit into. We had thought we would have been able to get some bread along the way which unfortunately we couldn’t but as it turned out we had a fabulous lunch anyway together with the most expensive bottle of water to be found in Croatia, which we’d bought from inside the park. It was about 12 times the price we’d paid for bottled water in the supermarket!!! The funniest part was we were surrounded by beautiful clear water running from the waterfalls and down the mountain streams. When we were thirsty we just collected it in one of the plastic cups we’d taken on the walk with us!!!!!

I’m not sure what it is that has happened to our family this trip but I don’t think we have ever laughed together as much as we have the last two months. That lunch was just the same. I can’t really even remember exactly what we were laughing about except that everyone laughed for the most part of it.

After that we continued down toward the ‘big’ waterfalls and found even more stunning scenery along the way. The ‘big’ waterfall was actually an area of very large waterfalls and the views were brilliant. As Murphy’s law would have it, because we had walked downhill all day, there had to be the reverse and we spent some time making our way back up to the bus stop to get a lift back to the park entrance. Along with way we met up with an Aussie guy and his sister who were having a holiday in Croatia. We chatted with them all the way back up, Nikki being particularly interested in his story as he is a professional soccer player, playing with a team in Glasgow in Scotland.

We had a very easy dinner that night at the local self serve and whilst the food was pretty basic, it was very much appreciated after the day’s adventures. It was simply a great day of hiking and sightseeing.

That night we looked to the guide books for where next we might head to and decided that the thermal spas at Stubicke Toplice, north west of Zagreb might be worth a look as well as the picturesque village of Samobor which was listed as a bit of a gourmet retreat for hyped up Zagrebians. Gourmet was a word that captured my interest from the outset and Samobor suddenly rose to the top of the must see destinations for the next day or two.

We left Hotel Bellevue after again making the most of the buffet brekkie and headed off; utilising the Croatian Road Map given to us, courtesy of the Hire Car company. The slightly challenging issue of the map was that it was written in Russian!!! Not a problem, at least all the names were in Croatian and by now we were very adept at deciphering the native language.

We chose the small scenic roads as identified on the map and we expected to make our way through the hills and valleys, taking in the sights and smells of country Croatia. Well most of that was true except the road, in most places was just wide enough for one car and for reasons yet known to me, any oncoming vehicle was being driven by a would be Mario Andretti and whilst Debs and the girls might have been able to take in the sights, I had to have the eyes glued to the road, expecting a bumper bar to come hurtling around each and every corner. Fortunately there were times when we could stop and take in the views and as we climbed higher and higher, we entered some remarkable areas, covered in grape vines and small family wineries.

The road map worked pretty well up to one point when we got to a small village and a T intersection with no signs. It must be a favourite spot for the locals as there was a café right at the intersection and when we looked up from the map there w were a number of coffee drinking locals, laughing and pointing the way for us. Laughs and smiles were returned and on we went on our merry way.

The drive was improving with one lane moving to two lanes and making the drive a whole lot easier to take in the views as it became more and more interesting the further we went. We went through one village called Rude and whilst the name was memorable in itself, what I remember most was the local lollypop man at the local school crossing was having a little rest, sitting in the shade, holding his stop / go sign in one hand and a nice big, cold bottle of the local beer, Karlovacko, in the other!! Obviously the fact that a rather large group of kids were heading in his direction was not a concern to him as he sat there, sucking on his beer, seemingly without a care in the world.

We had opted to drive through Samobor on our way to Stubicke Toplice just to make sure it was going to be a worthwhile place to return to as we had planned to spend a night / day at the spas. We headed through considering it well worth a return visit and continued on our way north. Road works and road sign changes meant the Russian / Croatian road map had served its purpose and an exit stage left into a servo for a more suitable road map was in order.

Well now there was no excuse for any navigational errors and with the help from the friendly but not fluent English speaking service station assistant we headed off brim full of confidence that within minutes we would once again be enjoying the benefits of the time saving luxury of the Croatian motorway system. Well after a couple of kilometres down some dirt track we realised the error of our ways and understood the meaning of 1 kilometre down the road was in fact 1 hundred meters down the road!

Illegal U turn, back up the one way street, dodging huge trucks filled with rocks and dirt and round the round about a couple of times and on the motorway we were. Confidence building, our speed on the motorway, at times tended to match the traffic heading our way and a polite, “Speed demon Dad” coming from the back seat drivers’ quickly brought me back to the limit.

Now a small note to self here, when Debsy says, take the next exit Alsy and Alsy says, no not this one, it is a few k’s ahead - pay attention to Debsy.

Well it was only a little mistake and we did see a lot more of Croatia than we had planned but when I suggested we make a U turn at the toll booths Debs became quite adamant that we would follow her instructions and get back on that &^%$ing yellow road now. Well Slovenia did look quite appealing, at least for a while and hey what a nice stamp to have in the passport.

Tail well and truly between one’s legs and apologies all round we back tracked to Stubicke Toplice searching out the one and only hotel and indoor / outdoor heated spas. We pulled into the hotel, into reception; sorry no rooms. Well my family is going to be pleased with me aren’t they? By now it was about 3.30 and we hadn’t stopped for the very nice picnic along the way and what happens now Alsy???

Quick, off to the spas to check them out, visions of svelte Croatian damsels were rapidly replaced by rather large, rather old and rather folliclely challenged western Europeans playing wally walrus in the one and only pool that was open (out of 9 that the guide book said were there). Even Layni, who is an indoor heated pool aficionado, was not at all keen to dip a toe or any other part of her body into the warm waters of the indoor pool. Well of course I knew that on Mondays they close all the pools bar one didn’t I? Definitely struck out in Stubicke Toplice so we made plans to head back, as quickly as we could to Samobor!!! Needless to say the laughter was missing a bit for a while - one could say the atmosphere was even a little frosty!!!! Luckily it defrosted fairly rapidly!

Being a tad smarter than a couple of hours before, we rang ahead to one of the hotels in Samobor and made a reservation. Back into the car and back down the motorway and quicker than you can say Karlovacko, we were meandering through the streets of Samobor trying to find our new home for the next night or two. Samobor has a very unique little street system with one way streets governed by very slow traffic lights and quite a lot of drivers trying their hardest to get where they want to go as quickly as possible; all of them having very little patience for the family from Korora Bay searching out the hotel, not really having a clue where it was.

Fortunately a couple of right turns had us into the car park out the front of the hotel and just to make sure we had made the right choice, Debs ducked off and checked out another hotel on the other side of the road we had just passed. That hotel had no vacancies so we opted to check out the hotel recommended in the guide books as a quaint 19th Century Hotel with spacious rooms and delightful décor!!

A quick check of the room revealed quite a stunning apartment style room with one window in the lounge area overlooking the main square of the town and an upstairs main bedroom area with the most inviting bed you have ever seen (no offence to the wonders of Forty Winks!!!). The hotel, obviously being built in the 19th Century has some incredibly beautiful architectural features that, at some stage, during particular renovations, have been retained and exposed. The village itself was founded in 1242 and it has had a very chequered history over the time. One of the main features of the village is the remains of the Castle that overlooks the village, being built to thwart the invading Turks around the 17th Century.

The staff were very friendly and very helpful and even though their English was a tad limited, we were made to feel very welcome and in next to no time, we had the bags in the room and were out having a bit of a look around town; sampling the local coffee and grappa in earnest, settling the nerves after a full day at the wheel.

We opted for an old favourite for dinner and had one of the best pizzas of the trip at a local pizzeria overlooking the small stream that dissects the main part of the town. Like many places in Croatia, the main part of the town does not slow down as the sun goes down with most, if not all of the outdoor cafés and bars still being well patronised well into the evening.

One of the ‘cool’ features of our room is the shower. After having a wide variety of showers on the trip, at various marina’s and town berths, this one took the cake. It had two individual shower heads and six individual jets that came out of the wall. A twist here and a turn there and water was literally going everywhere. Poor old Nik thought she had broken all of the plumbing at her first shower when there was water coming from all directions!!! The bidet in the corner of the bathroom also raised a couple of eyebrows from the younger members of the party, mentally calculating the workings of the very foreign piece of plumbing equipment.

We jumped into our bed and it was like we were floating on clouds it was so comfortable. I don’t think we stirred until the 6.00am alarm of the longest sounding church bells we had heard all trip. They went on for what seemed like minutes, fortunately not repeated at 7.00am but returning at 8.00am meant that we were able to have a bit of a sleep in before the kids woke up.

As brekkie was included in our room rate, we headed downstairs not knowing exactly what was on offer but it turned out to be a beauty. Apart from the best array of cereals and muesli, there was a good range of juices plus a machine that squeezed the abundance of fresh oranges to have THE freshest orange juice you could imagine. There was the usual selection of cold meats, cheeses and fresh bread and then we were offered ham and eggs as well as fresh crepes. Sensational breakfast and as we had not made any particular plans for the day, we sat back, relaxed and made right proper little piggies of ourselves.

A quick squiz around town and then we found a little shop that sold two of the local delicacies the area is famous for. A particular type of red wine made from grapes, figs and spices called Bermet and a particular type of sweet mustard.

I thought Debs was going to turn inside out at the first and only very small mouthful of Bermet she tasted. I think it is fair to say it was not to her liking. Couldn’t try the mustard so we will have to wait till Amsterdam to crack the jar we bought - Mustard surprise!!

After Debs stopped gagging, we went for a bit of a walk through a park on the side of the town square that ended up being a couple of hours hike up to the Castle and back along the myriad of hiking trails that surround the area. Fortunately there was one place that had a pipe coming out from the mountain side allowing the free flow of ice cold mountain spring water. We had a bit of a rest stop there for a while, re-hydrating and catching up on the view of the town and surrounding hills

Whilst we could not gain access into the ruins, for obvious reasons as the photo’s show, it was still quite an impressive sight. The walk back along the quite narrow path was just beautiful, amongst the forest, the fresh air and the melodious sounds of the vast variety of small forest birds that sing non stop the whole day long.

We got back to the township about midday and went to the small local museum that housed relics and artefacts going back hundreds of years, the oldest being a copy of the document proclaiming Samobor as a free market town back in 1242, the original being stored in the safe on site. They also had a very large book, full of very old (obviously) handwriting, one of the many that recorded the details of a lawsuit that last 130, yes 130 years between the feudal lords that controlled the castle and the citizens of the town.

Could you imagine the salivation levels of lawyers of today for a law suit that lasted 130 years!!!! It was not a big museum by any stretch of the imagination but we had a personal escort of the local curator, a delightful lady who, despite her protestations, spoke very good English and gave us a far greater insight into the town and area we were staying at.

We had been told about some caves at a very small village a few kilometres up the road so we bought some fresh baguettes and took to the car and headed off to see a bit of the ‘interior’ of Croatia so to speak.

We were told that the caves are owned by the owner of the restaurant across the road and to see the caves you have to go to the restaurant, talk to the owner and make suitable arrangements. We did all that and as the lunch time trade is very busy, we had to come back in a couple of hours when the maitre ‘D’ of the restaurant was able to show us through the caves.

We used that opportunity to drive a bit further up into the mountains and found a nice little patch of grass alongside an incredibly old church to have our picnic lunch. It was in the middle of the few houses that made up the village and our attendance there drew the attention of some older members of the Croatian community who sat on their porch, a few metres from us, watching us very closely as we sat and munched on our fresh bread rolls.

We still had some time to kill so we drove on a bit further and found a little café bar overlooking the valleys and across to the ruins of the old castle we had visited earlier in the day. The view was just spectacular. There were a couple of eagles soaring higher and higher courtesy of the thermals created in the heat of the day and as we were about as high as their eye level, for a very brief moment, one could imagine what their ‘regular’ view was on a daily basis.

The lady that ran the café spoke absolutely no English but she was very chuffed when we told her that we were Australian. By now, we are able to order what we like, including coffees, hot chocolates and cold drinks in very polite Croatian and she seemed very pleased at our basic linguistic efforts.

It was time to head for the caves (Spilja) and the restaurant, Gostionica Grgos. The maitre ‘D’ was an incredibly friendly guy who spoke very good English. He took us into the first cave, locked to the outside wall by a very sturdy steel door. Of course we thought that was to protect the cave but the cave has a dual purpose, it also houses the restaurants stock of beer and wine, cooling off, courtesy of the a la natural cooling system of the caves very cold temperature!!!

Past the bottles of temptation and into the cave system and the tour guides description of the discovery and history of the caves. Very briefly, the previous owner of the caves used to supply limestone to the local area and one day, in December 1973, they were blasting for limestone and a cave in, pardon the pun, led the powder monkeys to the entrance to the caves.

It wasn’t until 2004 that a further cave system was discovered just 50 or so metres further up the hill and both systems are now being turned into a bit of a tourist attraction. The owner of the caves has a 50% share of them with the state but between the caves and the restaurant, he has a bit of a market share tied up.

Our maitre ‘D’ was very keen to get my opinion on the local beers and when I told him that Karlovacko was one of my favourites he went onto explain how another beer, one that I had never heard of, was by far, a superior drop to other beers we had become accustomed to. So after our cave tour, it was back to the restaurant and time to sample the finest of Croatian lager and some cold drinks for the girls. I think the spelling of the beer was Velabitski after the Velabit area the water comes from to make the beer but forgive me if anyone sees that I have made a spelling error in memory.

The tour to the caves was supposed to cost 10 Kuna each but our new found best Croatian cave guide friend didn’t charge us and was very happy to spend the time talking to us and going over the restaurant menu which very strangely was only written in Croatian. Every other restaurant, café, bar or whatever we had been to, had the bill of fare written in English and Croatian and in most cases, the restaurants also had the menu written in German and Italian as well.

I suspect the aromas of the food being served while we were there and the labels of the wine being consumed were indicative that this restaurant was one very prized, very guarded and very well patronised by the local inhabitants and those ‘in the know’.

It is one place that I would definitely love to return to one day in the future to have one very lazy and one very long lunch. We were asked if we would be kind enough to sign the visitor’s book as they had not had any Australians visit before. The maitre ‘D’ was also very proud to point to the entry by Celine Dion’s manager; comments about how fantastic this place was - it was one of those gems of places that few get to hear / know about and we were very thrilled to have been able to visit it.

Back down the road and back to a bit of reality when we had to find a servo to fill up our rent a chariot - Euro Diesel only please - and then back into town. A bit of packing and then out for a quick bite to eat before we came back to the hotel café for one of the other local delicacies the area is famed for - cakes.

Now this was far more to Debsy’s liking than for me, not being a real cake / sweet fancier, I have to say these are the best cakes I have ever tasted in my life (barring my fabulous 50th birthday cake of course). One of the other great things about the hotel is the aroma of the cakes and pastries being baked on site that wafts all around the hotel during the day as fresh baking takes place. I think that was probably the real selling point for Debsy when we booked in.

Another coffee and grappa for me and then it was time to make some calls to our friends in Amsterdam, Loes and Patrick and finalise travel arrangements with them as they have been incredibly kind and invited us to stay with them when we first told them of our plans to come to Europe. We are absolutely stoked that we have also been able to arrange with Inga and Allard and their children, Maut and Cas, to see them in Amsterdam as well before we go back home.

So our last night in Croatia is a bag of mixed emotions; a great deal of sadness that we are leaving a country and its people that we have fallen in love with and have had so many incredible experiences in. The parts of Croatia that we have been fortunate to have visited are unique in so many ways and they will remain indelibly stamped in our memories but I think the memory of Croatia that will be the strongest will be that of the people.

At first, the Croatian people seem perhaps a little reserved but a hello, how are you, spoken in our basic Croatian opened the doors to unreserved friendliness, kindness and helpfulness. Once that initial little bit of ice is broken you are treated so well by these very special people. I once read that if you are offered the hand of friendship by a Croatian, the offer will remain for life and I have no doubt that is the case. They are so very proud of their country and their way of life and they have every right to be.

We are also feeling some sadness that our little adventure is rapidly drawing to a close but also of great excitement that tomorrow we are going to see all of our ‘Dutch’ friends who mean so much to us; even though, in reality, we have only spent such a short space of time with them. After that, home; to our very special place in the world. Will blog again after our time in Holland, till then…..Dobrijenja Croatia,

Alsy

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Photos

Plitvicka National Park
Mountain Spring Water and sooo cheap!!