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Cathedral
Another huge one, in the continent of Cathedrals. After heading back to Ljubljana for a very brief stop, it was on the train again, into Croatia, where I got my first passport stamp of Europe! It's taken a month or so, but finally got one cos Croatia is not yet part of the EU, and Zagreb was my first port of call. Zagreb was fairly manic for 2 reasons, a) Croatia were playing Russia here in a European Championship Soccer Qualifier, so every second person was draped on the national colours, and b) tomorrow was a public holiday. So it was fairly lucky there wasn't much I wanted to see, cos everything would be shut anyway. Not like back in NZ, where shops just open anyway and charge you more.
So like the rest of Zagreb who didn't have tickets, I headed along to the pub and watched a thoroughly boring 0-0 draw. It definitely did not match the fervour of the supporters. On the brightside for the English, they finally won a game and beat the mighty Estonia 3-0. And for the rest of the evening, I met and chatted to several others from the hostel, including several Kiwis, who have been very scarce on the
View from the hostel
Over Diocletian's Palace ground since I hit Europe.
The following day, the public holiday (I still don't know why, and neither do the locals it seems), was as predicted, very slow as nothing was open, but I kept myself amused before I headed for the coast down to Split tomorrow. I met up with an Irish guy, and completely going against the stereotype, he enjoyed a few pints, so we ended up at the pub, and dinner and 5 pints each cost us just over 10 Euros! I love Eastern Europe.
The trip the next day to Split was long and very rain-filled and I had to cancel my possible excursion to Plitnice Lakes, but made it there and found my hostel and met up with 2 American girls, Denise and Jacqui and one Australian, Jen, so we headed for the beach in the hour of sunshine then found an awesome little restaurant hidden in the backstreets and had some excellent food. And after strolling the waterfront with some gelato (I recommend Snickers flavour), we headed back to the hostel for a few drinks.
After breakfast, the girls headed off to Hvar Island and a cruise respectively, and I did
Split
View from the port a bit of exploring around Split. I managed to find a 'beach', which over here means sharp rocks next to the water. And after yesterday, when about 10 cruises headed off, the city seemed fairly deserted so had a quiet night.
Next on the agenda was Hvar Island, supposedly one of the top 10 islands in the world. And it definitely wasn't too bad. Although I wouldn't rate it above Ouvea, but it did have some amazing views from the fortress and the water was pretty good. After spending the afternoon relaxing on one of the stone beaches, the plan from here was to ferry through to Korcula Island, and onto Dubrovnik, but the ferry timetable was against me, so I headed back to Split and made the bus journey to Dubrovnik from there.
The good weather is back to shining on me, and that makes any city look better, but Dubrovnik is truly a beautiful city. I have met many a traveller who put the city in the top echelon of the ones they have visited, and after one day, I couldn't disagree with them. After fighting through the hordes of 60 year old women offering accomodation
Formerly part of the Palace
Watchtower and some random guy who looks a bit like Gandalf. at the bus stop, I made my way to my 20-Euro-Queen-size-bed-with-ensuite (again, I love Eastern Europe) and headed into the city.
The Old City is completely surrounded by a medieval wall, which can be walked around, and it is completely free of cars and the streets are all cobbled white marble, which gives the city a very light feeling. There are also numerous medieval buildings that have survived 600+ years. Although, I must say, one of my biggest highlights was that I found a bookshop that had all English books! I know, I know, strange when you are in coastal Croatia, but I grabbed a couple and they will come in very handy lying on the beach in the next couple of days.
The following day I was back into the Old City and went for a walk along the walls and got some amazing views over the city, the sea, and Lokrum Island in the distance. I also managed to find a place that did some very good fruit smoothies, which as some will know, was half my diet back in NZ, so good to find those again. 😊 And after a homemade dinner, it was a
Hvar Island
The wall of the fortress leading up to a glimpse of the building up top. relaxing evening on the terrace watching the sunset over the Adriatic Sea.
Today I had planned to head out to Cavtat, but I slept in. That, and basically it was too hot to do anything else and ended up not doing alot other than relaxing on the beach just outside of the Old City, which was a pretty perfect way to finish my time in Croatia. The water was fantastic aswell, especially as this time I managed to avoid those damn sea urchins. So it's a farewell to Croatia, and tomorrow I make my way into Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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