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Published: October 27th 2013
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Dobar dan! This blog contains the second part of my visit to Croatia.
While I was in Split, we also visited
Trogir, a small but beautiful city located less than half an hour west of Split which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Kamerlengo fort offers spectacular views over the city. It’s a beautiful town to visit as a short half-day trip from Split.
After Split I continued towards the capital, Zagreb. My friends in Zagreb, Viktor and Melita who I also met in Rovinj in 2007, arranged a car for me. Viktor works at a rental car and many companies needed to relocate their cars from Dalmatia back to Zagreb. I had to go to Split airport to take one car to Zagreb airport which are about 370km away from each other. I started driving around 8:30am and arrived at Zagreb airport just before 16:00 and of course I stopped on the way: once for breakfast, once for toilet and once to visit a national park. The highway consists mostly of 4 lanes, it’s well made, easy to drive and you can actually go very fast in a safe way. My maximum speed was
near 180km/hour but most of the time I was maintaining a steady 150 km/hour during the whole journey.
I got a yellow Seat Ibiza to drive and the only thing I had to pay was the toll on the highway. Even then it was cheaper than going by bus or train and I took advantage and stopped for an hour at
Krka National Park. This park has several waterfalls, located within the Krka River, and to see the whole park you’ll need at least 4 hours. So I only had time to visit the first part of the park really. You need to take a boat in the town of Skradin which takes you over the river to the entrance of the park in about 20 minutes. From here there are different trails you can take. It’s a beautiful park and I enjoyed it. I've seen many waterfalls in my life but I love them and they always fascinate me, especially if you’re able to swim!
In Zagreb, Viktor came and picked me up at the airport.
Zagreb is Croatia’s capital and largest city with 700.000 inhabitants. It’s a big city but tourists obviously concentrate in the
city centre. I was actually surprised by the beauty of the city centre because I didn’t expect too much of it to be honest. You won’t need more than 2 whole days here though, but since I have friends here I stayed longer. Ben Jelacic is the main square in Zagreb which I found colourful and beautiful. Just one street further you find the "Zagrebacka katedrala" cathedral and the nice Dolac market where you can find almost "everything"! The city consists of an upper and lower part, Gornji grad and Donji grad, which is connected by a small funicular system. Viktor lives near a park called Maksimir where locals hang out, walk, run, picnic and so on. We went to Sljeme one afternoon, a hill just a few minutes out of the city centre. The top is just above 1000m high and there are restaurants on the hill and a big telecommunication antenna, which they tried to bomb and destroy during the war. It's also a popular place for locals to come during hot summer days and also during the winter since you can ski and snowboard here. At one of the restaurants we had lunch and ate a Croatian
"Sarma" which is basically sauerkraut filled with minced meat and rice. In Zagreb I also met one evening with Branka, a girl which I also met in Rovinj in 2007. She was leaving Zagreb for a few days so we could only meet for a few hours. In Zagreb I also met my youngest Croatian friend, Viktor and Melita's little son. His name is Niko and he is 9 months old! :-)
Melita’s sister gave birth and they needed to go to
Virovitica, her hometown. This little city has no more than 25.000 people and is located in the east of Croatia, in the region called Slavonia and is very close to the border with Hungary. It’s just a small city, nothing particular and tourists usually don't come here. This region has a lot of agriculture and since the Yugoslavia period, most food came from this region. The region has the lowest average income of Croatia and lags a little bit behind. Melita's mom doesn't speak English but she's an extremely nice and warm person and she took good care of us during the days we were there. In the garden they had a lot of grapes which
was something I really liked...I was picking and eating all the time! Driving towards Virovitica you'll notice the flat landscape and the many agricultural fields. Sometimes there were tractors on the road slowing down the rest of the traffic. Nearing Virovitica, which remained untouched during the war, there were several abandoned houses that used to belong to Serbs who left the area. Just before Virovitica there is a small village called "Loncarica" (if I'm not wrong), where a heavy battle took place during the war. They actually battled here to keep the Serbs out of Virovitica so they couldn't destroy it. It all culminated around a restaurant and this building remained heavily damaged until today. In the neighbourhood I stayed and saw a house of an ex-Croat soldier who fought during the war and he has a real cannon, used during the war, in his garden aiming at Serbia! From my room upstairs I peeked through the window, zoomed in and took a picture of the cannon. In Virovitica I ate "Kotlovina", a traditional Croatian dish. It's made on a big, hot plate. On the edge the meat is grilled and in the middle they put potatoes, red kidney beans,
onions, sauces etc. Tastes "very" good!
My second visit to Croatia, where I spent about 2 weeks, was GREAT! I’d probably come back in the future to this beautiful country! I had a good time and will miss Viktor, Melita and Niko a lot!
Thanks for reading, aj bok! 😊
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Frido Lovert
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hopi bon. leuk pa lesa.