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Published: August 30th 2008
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What a view
Ever bloody morning we had to look out at this Twevle beautiful days of clear blue skies, gentle sea breezes and hot sunny days. Welcome to Paradise, Balkan Style.
On the 15th August, a day before the beginning of my 58th year Anita and I left the grey skies of Gatwick for a holiday in Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro, our 1st port of call Split. We were picked up from the airport by Glynn, a friendly Pom who has, with his wife Ann, set up a small hostel in the hills above Split. What a beautiful place to start our trip. Kamena Lodge is quiet, clean, friendly and reasonably priced (highly recommended).
We spent my birthday going to the island of Brac, and a beach called Bol, for the day. Bol is argueably one of the best beaches in Croatia. Although the sea is crystal clear, pebbles just don't match sand and I was a little disappointed. Never the less, it was a great day followed by a huge pizza and a couple of pints of the local lager. the next day we toured the city of Split before meeting with Sonja and the rest of our group at the Hotel Marjan. I was very surprised by the ancient
Happy Birthday to me
A pizza cake without candles (We ate it all) history of Split, the whole region in fact. I had never thought of Yugoslavia in term of Roman, Greek, Venitian and Ottoman ruins, but of course given its location it makes sense. The real amazing thing is most of the buildings built back in those times are still being used. As homes, restaurants and shops. I still find it strange to see an old building with Nike or United Colours of Benneton signs on.
The make up of our group was 3 New Yorkers, 3 Poms, 6 Canadians and us, the 2 Kiwis. It was a fabulous group and we all got on well. Our leader was a 28 year old amazon woman, Sanja, from Northern Croatia, she was good value. On the morning of the 18th we walked to the local bus station to catch the bus to Trogir, our first stop. Unfortunatley our bus was late, then they refused to take our bags, so Sanja ended up arranging a minibus and 2 hours later we were on our way "Croatia time". This resulted in only 2 hours in Trogir but that was probably enough to view this beautiful small village and take in the views from its
No silicone here
Anita emerging from the Adriatic to the pebbles of Bol. historic church tower. For lunch Anita and I sampled our first Cervapi' from a local market. It was delicious, made from a local sausage and put in pita bread with salad and some capsicum paste (Ajvar), yummy.
We the headed to Sibenik (3 hours by bus) and after a 15 minute walk checked into our hotel and for the second night in a row we had a room, with a gorgeous view, overlooking the sea. That afternoon/evening we toured what the called the old city. All the towns we visited had an old city and new city. We were always strategically placed near the old cities and I fell in love with the narrow streets, marble lanes, no motorised transport and the feeling that centuries of people had been there before me. The history often dated back to the 12th century and the building depicted the style of each conquerors that had formerley ruled the city.
Next day we hit the magic that is Plitvice National Park (you need to find some photos of this place), after travelling into the mountains we encounter the natural beauty of lakes, waterfalls and native bush and a pretty flash hotel. We
Old city (Split)
I was really impressed by the historic buildings walked for about 5 hours including a boat trip taking in all scenery and beautiful (deep blues, ice greens and champagne) colours of the waters. There was meant to be wildlife including bears and deers but as is often the case they were all sleeping, trout and ducks was our lot.
Next stop was 2 nights in the capital city of Zagreb. You could really see the Hungarian and communism influence in the buildings. To me very drab but again the Catholic influence is very prominent and the city has many beautiful Cathedrals. After 2 days we took a 9 hour bus trip to Sarajevo, yes Sarajevo. This was one of my favorites, again the old city is amazing with a strong Ottoman influence and the Muslim Mosques but what struck me most was the evidence of the war just over 10 years ago. The city was ravaged by the Serbs for four years and still bares the scars of bullet holes and the damage of shells and bombs but it has survived, been rebuilt, maintained its character and moved on without forgetting. I was very impressed.
Next was Mostar, famous for the bridge (that was destroyed) that
Plitvice
Is this pretty or what, we experienced 5 hours of this seperated the river , Muslims on one side Catholics on the other. Again it was very pretty but now also very touristy. Guys used to jump from the bridge to prove their manhood but now it takes 25 Euro from tourists to witness the leap. At this stage let me mention the ice cream, it is to die for, and there are small stores everywhere selling a variety of fresh flavours for about 70p a scoop, very reasonable by English standards.
Shit, I hope I'm not boring you. Next is Dubrovnik, say it bro DO-BROV-NIC, it just roles off the tongue. At last a place to swim in the Adriatic, in fact one of the three swims was at a little rocky beach, just down from our hotel, called Copacobana (not a touch on Brasil's but listen all the beachs are crap, but the water is clear, clean and beautiful as is the city of Dubrovnik, as is the food (fresh fish and calamari, yum). our hotel was also amazing and this was my second favorite place. Again the old city (even though 70% was destroyed in the conflict and was rebuild to its original look) is amazing and
Sarajevo
A reminder of the violence, not so long ago (1994) the 2 days we spent here seemed to fly. In between we took a day trip to the newest country in the world, Montenegro. It remined me of a cross between Marborough Sounds and the Kaikoura Coast. High mountains dropping right down to the sea for mile after mile very, impressive.
Well it's getting late and my brain is starting to stall but as you should be able to tell we loved the Balkans, we loved the people, we loved the group we traveled with, G.A.P does great tours and it was a really great experience. Some of the things that struck me were:
1 It is a very safe country to visit, the people are friendly, you are never hassled and crime appears to be minimal
2 All the food is fresh, simple, tasty and cooked beautifully, the fruit is to die for.
3 There is an historic aspect with beautifully preserved building that are still utilised though residential and commercial purpose.
4 The balmy warm evenings and the beautiful scenery.
Dalmatians have had a part to play in New Zealand history. I have know may families that are of Yugoslav extraction and it was really special
Mostar
This bridge was destroyed in the war,it has been rebuilt and seperates the Muslim from the Catholic quarters to witness the culture and friendlyness of their country. I feel privledged to have had the opportunity to experience the beauty, history and recent pain of countries divided by power and religion. A unique experience.
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