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Published: August 29th 2017
Geo: 43.5127, 16.4424
Yesterday I woke up to fresh snow and a bitter cold minus number temperature. I took a walk around the rest of Zagreb city, lost feeling countless times in my extremities and decided it was time to leave for warmer climbs. I always say that being on a bus/train is just as fun as being in a new place. This journey took me through the beautiful rural mountainous region of northern Croatia, which was fairly hidden under inches of snow, but was still lovely nonetheless. The towns and villages were few and far between- this is indeed a predominately rural country. Then we went through a 5km long tunnel and hey presto the snow and mountains had disappeared and were replaced by rocky outcrops, shrub land, and the beautiful Adriatic coastline. The old man next to me kept up a commentary in broken English throughout the 5 hour journey and said that many people abandon their houses in the north over the winter months and move south where it never snows. It was kind of crazy to see that 5km was the difference between a frozen, Siberian landscape and am almost Mediterranean one. We proceeded to follow the coastal
road pretty much until we reached Split.
Split is the unofficial capital of Dalmatia and the second biggest city in Croatia (after Zagreb). It's built around the Diocletian Palace (a UNESCO site) built for the retired Roman emperor (thanks Wikipedia!). The really unique thing about this palace is the fact it's been so well preserved that there are shops and houses built into its walls and quarters. The hostel I stayed in was actually part of the walls and walking around right outside the hostel took me through narrow corridors, hidden doors and random shops and cafés. I also visited underneath the palace with its maze of huge rooms with wells, olive oil making machines and well preserved graves.
Split itself is a very beautiful place. Set on the Adriatic coastline it has the typical small buildings with bright orange/yellow colored roofs and a lot of cobbled, narrow streets. I took a walk to the highest point in the area- at the top of a hill surrounded by caves used by hermits many years ago. I also climbed to the top of the bell tower which had views of neighboring islands and countryside. The food in Croatia was also not
what I was expecting- a lot of chicken and cheese and their 'fast food' is the equivalent or our gourmet food- the chicken burger sandwiches were a firm favorite.
All of this took a morning and so I decided to leave Split earlier than planned and head into Bosnia; the point of this trip. I think that Croatia would be quiet nice in summer if you had a car and liked beaches/small towns. However, it being winter and me not being a huge fan of beaches got bored of it fairly quickly. I got to the bus station, was very lucky that a minibus was about to leave so I hopped on it and off we went. Again this was a beautiful journey, we drove through coastal villages and then over the mountains into Bosnia. We stopped at the border for about 40minutes whilst someone checked our passports- no idea what they did as I didn't get a new stamp! The drive into Bosnia was beautiful, mountains, rolling hills and small villages. The driver took so many detours to drop off/pick up people/food/who knows what and so we got to Mostar about 2 hours later than planned!
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