Blogs from Croatia, Europe - page 149

Having sailed in and out of Zadar several times it feels a little like coming home. We are awaiting the arrival of our other four crew members before setting out on unexplored (for us) waters to Pula. The weather last week was a big improvement over the gales of our first week, yet with enough wind for K to sail every day. We reprovisioned in Trogir and set out for the Kornati Islands, anchoring in scenic, sheltered bays and coves with lots of opportunities for swimming and sunbathing. We are adjusting to a leisurely pace but there is always entertainment. Yesterday we watched two bright yellow planes scooping up water and water-bombing a small island - for practice we assume. Lat nights sunset was spectacular and, with a winning score of 6-4, K is champion of ... read more

We caught another bus from Zagreb to Spilt on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It all started to go wrong at the coach station, Tony brought two tickets to Split for 200kn each and mistook a 200kn note for a 100kn and effectively handed over an extra 25 quid! We then boarded the "Willy Fog" bus and it literally stopped EVERYWHERE, the journey which was supposed to take 6 hours (according to the lying lady at the Zagreb bus station) actually took 8 and half hours! Luckily we had booked an apartment just on the boundary of the old city, so we did not need to hunt around for somewhere to stay. The “apartment” was a large room with a little kitchen and bathroom, but most importantly this little number had a washing machine!!!! So ... read more

Interesting Fact: (well not a fact but a quote published in Korcula Island) “Travel maintains an appetite for adventure. The eyes of travellers blaze with sparks, while the eyes of those who have not travelled beyond their horizons do not experience this" anonymous. Well what a pleasant surprise Zagreb comes as. We have travelled about 17 hours on a medley of trains and buses and 48 hours after packing up our camping stuff in the rain in Switzerland, we arrive at a coffee shop at about 8am. We were smelly, tired from brat boy's antics and the temperature was rising exponentially, we had to find somewhere to stay the night and shower before we offend the local population and be run out of town to cheers of BURN THEM BURN THEM! So we set about hunting ... read more

14 days is never enough time to fully grasp anything let alone a country and their lifestyle. Yet I needed something to do besides see old towns and churches and what have you. Granted it has been a lot of fun exploring the places that I have seen. I have run around the charming capital of Zagreb, the magnificent old town of Drubovnik, hiking along Plitvice's endless waterfalls and even sojourned to Slovenia for the weekend in order to learn how to pronounce it's capital city Ljubljana. Today however, I chose the town of Zadar to begin my ˝Croatia Day˝and attempt to do as I had observed over the past two weeks. So I started my day with the standard cup of coffee and a burek. Burek is a greasy pastry with a slight hint of ... read more

Time to relocate again, but this time its to an island called Hvar which is about an hours ferry ride from split. I was really looking forward to the ferry ride, mainly because boats are AWESOME, but also because it would be a nice relaxing ride where I could take in the wonderful views of the dalmatian coast. Unfortunately though, as I was so tired from the previous nights activity I could not keep my eyes open for more than 5 minutes once the boat was moving (damn that soothing back and forth rocking!!!). As has been the case in all croatian places ive visited so far, when stepping off the train or boat in a new town, you are swarmed by the locals offering cheap private accomodation. As I have heard a few (but not ... read more