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Published: October 17th 2013
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Dobar dan!
On my last day in Puglia I went to Bari, where I had to take a ferry to Croatia. Unfortunately there was no time to visit the city itself, which has a beautiful historic town according to Giuseppe. It was the second time I visited Croatia, after I visited the Istra peninsula and Plitvice National Park in 2007. I must say that for me Croatia is, so far, one of the most beautiful countries in Europe! Croatia became independent in 1991 after the break-up of Yugoslavia which consisted also of the current Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. Croatia still remains the second wealthiest of all the former Yugoslavian countries, behind Slovenia. Since earlier this year, Croatia is part of the European Union but still uses the Kuna as its currency (1 EUR = approx. 7,50 Kuna)
The ferry took almost 9 hours to reach Dubrovnik and the whole experience on Jadrolinija, the Croatian ferry company, wasn't very good. The whole check-in process was a mess to begin with, I won’t tell the details because it’s too much! I paid to get a reclining seat on the ferry. The seats were big enough but they
don’t recline as much as I thought. They recline just as much as airplane seats while there is enough space to make them recline further. And the armrests between the seats cannot be lifted, which makes it impossible for you to lay down and sleep on two/three seats if they’re empty. Sleeping wasn't too comfortable on board of this ferry.
At 7:00am the ferry arrived in
Dubrovnik. This gorgeous historical city lies at the coast of the Adriatic Sea in the extreme south of Croatia. Dubrovnik has not more than 50.000 inhabitants and is the most visited city of the country, which is no surprise. I found this city absolutely beautiful; it's unique and is completely surrounded by a city wall. Between the 15th and the 19th century this city was actually a sovereign country and was heavily bombed in 1991/1992 during the Croatian War of Independence, after the break-up of Yugoslavia. There is a big map on a wall where you can see which buildings were bombed and damaged. In order to restore this UNESCO World Heritage jewel they took original roof tiles from a nearby town and put them on the buildings of historic Dubrovnik that
were damaged during the war. Of course they put new roofs in that other town. One whole day is enough to see the old town, which is not very big. A walk on the city wall is a must! It was end of September when I was there and the city was pretty crowded with tourists. Cruise-ships often dock at the harbour of the city and you can just imagine how busy and crowded it would be in this city during July and August. I've been told that people have to wait in long lines in front of the city gates and were allowed in when others get out!
From Dubrovnik a took a one-day tour to Montenegro and after Dubrovnik I went to Bosnia & Herzegovina, before going to Split in Croatia. Blogs about these visits will follow soon, after the Croatian blog part 2!
Split, another beautiful historical city, was my next stop. The city also lies on the coast of the Adriatic Sea in the region called Dalmatia and has more than 300.000 people. Split is an important harbour and is Croatia's second largest city. It's a popular hub for tourists visiting the different
islands off the coast of Dalmatia with "Hvar" being (one of) the most popular island(s). In Split I stayed with Mario, a friend I met in Rovinj in 2007 and visited me in Curaçao back in 2011. I planned everything to be there for a weekend too, this way he had time to show me around.
The historical town of Split is small and beautiful. It has several remnants of the Roman Empire, during which the city was called "Spalatum". The boardwalk “Riva Splitska” had a nice atmosphere, with a park along the boardwalk and several cafes and restaurants with their terraces. The Marjan-peninsula is located just besides the city and has a hill with a big forest where locals go for a walk, run etc. Mario, Ivana and I went for a walk here but it was quite late and became dark. Then we stopped at a bar on the hill, which a nice view over Split, and we had a drink and met a friend of theirs. In Split I also had a chance to see and hear a typical Dalmatian "Klapa". It's a small group of men who sing together without instruments and it sounds very
good! It's like a little choir (a capella)! Many good Croatian sportsmen and women were born in Split and people of the city are very proud of that (including Mario). Their football team, Hadjuk Split, was founded in 1911 and all around the city you can see the logo and name of the team on the walls. A visit to the Ethnographic Museum was also interesting where they mostly show dresses and objects Dalmatians used in the past.
During the weekend, Mario took me out of Split and we had breakfast is Omis, a small town, before we continued to Biokovo Nature Park. With the car we drove up the mountains in this park and reached the top called "Mt. Jure" and is 1762m high. After that we went halfway down, left the car and hiked up the Vosac (1477m) which had a spectacular view over the city of Makarska, the Dalmatian coast and the islands. During the winter the whole park is usually covered by snow. The landscape in the park consists mostly of white stones which can be seen all over the place between the trees and the grass.
Mario also brought me to
the beautiful Cetina canyon and its surroundings and we hiked 45 minutes up to Mosor (above 800m). There we sat down, relaxed and had a plate of the Croatian “fazol”. It’s a soup with red kidney beans and pasta (noodles) which had a good taste, like "bonchi kòrá" in Curaçao. Again I can't complain because I had a very good time and I was treated very well by Mario, his girlfriend Ivana and some of their friends that I shortly met!
Well, that's all for this first Croatia blog.
Aj bok, till the next one!
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