Obatija

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We took off from Plitvice and decided it would be a 'capital' idea to check out the capital, Zagreb.
Unfortunately, Zagreb was closed. No one told us. (It was Sunday)
We decided to cut our losses and keep on moving on to Rijeka where we were to fly out on Tuesday morning.
Rijeka itself is a fairly horrible looking town with lots of high-rise apartment buildings in desperate need of repair.
Fortunately a few kilometres away is Obatija which accounts for 1/2 of all Croatia's tourisim and has been a tourist beach side resort town for ages (like 100 years) since the Austrians were in charge of things.
(That is obviously a long time ago, I mean, when was the last time you knew Austria in charge of anything?)
The Austrians built some amazing old art deco villas (but like, 30 room villas.. so BIG) all along this little coastal town.
It reminded us a lot of the south of France, there was even a casino or two!!
The place is full of old people, mainly Germans, and had a hint of Blackpool about it.
We particuarly liked the lounge bar singers that could be heard from our hotel room singing the entire back catalogue of Engleburt Humperdink in stilted English - This was a real holiday now!!
We decided on a couple of rest days here so booked a nice hotel, rented a sun lounger or two and got really stuck into the gelato. (I had Bounty icecream flavour and banana - brilliant)
Bong had a dip in the sea, I got a tiny bit sunburnt, and ploughed through about 1/4 of The DaVinci Code.
We also both bought steaks which after about a week of pizza was really due!
Managed to tune in both CNN, BBC World and some french TV channel and got a few summarised sports news clips of the Rugby. Go the ALL BLACKS!!

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Photos

Obatija 3
Wild animal found in the jungle..

Obatija 5
Motember - It's important to look as German as possible to fit in with the locals

Obatija 6
Come on in, the water is fairly unpolluted!!

Obatija 7
Moustache growing is hard work

Obatija 8
MMMmmm How many of these can I have today?

Comments

[Adam]

Good Times
Sounds like you are having a great time on your journies. I didn't realise that you were going to the middle of nowhere. I like the craic about the Austrians in power! Go the ABs!

[eddie]

Road trip
Looks (on your handy map) like it was quite a long way to get to a city that ended up being closed. Reminded me of a road trip we once did, Bobe. I'm pleased to hear about the traditional Croatian cuisine too, icecream and a good eddie-friendly Margherita and I'm even more inspired to go. I guess you've got a couple of weeks of cod and chips ahead of you now.