Blogs from Central Croatia, Croatia, Europe - page 13

We made it to Zagreb today! Not before having to make the traditional stop at the Karlovac McDonald's though. Got to the hotel Dubrovnik at about 3. while dad rested, the rest of the crew went out to shop a bit. After that, we meet Domagoj, Lea, Ivana and Franjo for supper at the restaurant at our hotel. The food was Excellent. After eating we had to head out to Makšimir for the Dinamo Zagreb game. They were playing a team called Sheriff from Moldova in a Champions League qualifier. It was quite an experience. We had to pay 5 x the regular ticket price, found out only half of the stadium was available for seating due to penalties handed down on the club for racist violations, saw 10 times as many SWAT people than I ... read more

Today we spent our day in Selce. We went to the beach there since we could not find parking in Crikvenica. It was a good beach with a lot of people there. On our way home, Domagoj took us up over the top of the mountains through Krivi Put. It was the place of the most amazing views I have ever seen as I looked out over the Adriatic. Domagoj said it would have been even better if we were up there near sunset but we were a little early for that. When we returned it Brinje, we had a huge meal that consisted of mushroom soup, tomato-onion-cucumber salad, spaghetti bolognese and čevapčići. That was then followed by some ice cream. It was an unbelievable meal prepared by Mira. Off to the soccer field for a ... read more

Apparently I didn't have enough of nature being out in Plitvice for two days - today I went to Maksimir Park, a large park in the east end of the city. I brought a sandwich and had a picnic while reading my book. No, it wasn't the beauty standards of the past few days, but it was nice and quiet. Finally, somewhere without a heap of tourists! I continued venturing around the park - I decided to go check out the zoo, it was only like... $4? haha. It was a decent enough zoo... the cages were relatively well maintained (minus one or two), and they're in the process of rebuilding and creating new enclosures, so that's always good to see. And because it's late here and I don't feel like stringing these into paragraphs (oh, ... read more

I really should just post photos from today - they say more than anything I could type. (Internet connection is woefully bad here... so... photos might wait until tomorrow. I'll be back in Zagreb at night, so I'll have proper wifi.) Plitvice is stunningly beautiful - one of the nicest places I’ve ever been, and that is saying something. Again, I fear the photos don’t do it justice... even if they are lovely. The colour of the water, the waterfalls, the trees, the waterfalls, the electric blue dragonflies... did I mention the waterfalls? I don’t think there’s a spot in the park where you can’t hear a waterfall, and very few places where you don’t see them. They are everywhere - big, small, solo, in a cluster... just all sorts. Truth be told I much preferred ... read more

Croatia is a cool place. Lazy morning getting my things in order - needed to do laundry (ugh the worst pack of backpacking, let me tell you), buy bus tickets to Plitvice and train tickets to Budapest. So lazy, but productive. The walk to the bus station was beautiful in it's own way. There was no one out - Sunday seems to be very dead here in Zagreb. Ghost town-esque. Stores are mostly closed and even a lot of restaurants are closed too. Odd. Anyway, the road to the station has a long wall with graffiti all over, so I was quite content snapping away my photos. After that I pretty much spent my day wandering towards the Upper and Lower Towns. Very very quiet... again, must be because it's Sunday. (Hoping it's a little livelier ... read more