Croatia: Plitvice Lakes National Park and Rijeka

I arrived at the Plitvice Lakes around mid-day and wandered for a while before coming upon a house with a sign indicating they had a room available. After finding a very nice, smiley young woman inside, she explained that the room included dinner and breakfast and I would have my own bathroom all for 50...50 what I wasn't quite sure (it turned out to be Euros), but after lugging my bag around for an hour or so I decided to take it. After dumping my stuff I headed to the lakes and spent several hours walking around and exploring the amazing lakes, waterfalls and scenery. The clarity and color of the water was so amazing and different from lake to lake (11 in total) and you could look down from the wooden walk way to see fish swimming right beside you.

I met an English family that night that mentioned they were headed to Rijeka the next morning and they graciously offered to give me a ride. Unfortunately Rijeka was the dirtiest city I had seen in Croatia, with graffiti fairly rampant. Fortunately it just acted as a stop off on my way to Slovenia.

Photos: Plitvice Lakes, Rijeka
Videos: Plitvice Lakes 1, 2, 3, 4

Croatia: Split and Zadar

As I headed North I was hoping that things in Croatia would get slightly cheaper, and was a bit surprised when I arrived in Split to even higher prices for accomodation and food. I stayed in Split for two nights, in the house of an old woman who liked to wander into my room at all times unannounced (especially at 8am when I was freshly woken) and tell me long stories in Croatian despite my gestures of incomprehension. She was friendly, and we did manage to share some comprehension through our smiles, I think she was just a little lonely. Split houses another old town, similar to the others, but surrounding the remnants of Diocletian's Palace. I explored the old town with two Irish students I met and got the chance to brush up on my fashion sense as we bounced from one clothier to the next in the old town.

I continued my way up the coast to Zadar and made the acquaintance of two Australian travelers, both on vacation from working in London and traveling solo. The three of us stumbled around the Zadar old town in search of accomodation and ended up in the apartment of a man named 'Robert Wagner' (not the actor). Robert was nice enough, but things soon proved strange: it appeared that the girls and I had been assigned to stay in the master bedroom of Robert's parents, complete with clothes, china, and pictures of young robert and his sisters. The remainder of the apartment consisted of three other bedrooms also let out to travelers as well as a kitchen/lounge area which appeared to serve as Robert's bedroom, with clothes stacked on the sofa and countless nail-clippers, nail-files, and scissors splayed out on the tiny kitchen table. Another oddity was the pervasive presence of ballet paraphernalia throughout the house...all adding to the mystery was Robert Wagner. The strangeness aside, Zadar was a relatively quick and uneventful stop on the way to the Plitvice Lakes National Park.

Photos: Split, Zadar
Video: View from my window in Split

Croatia: Mljet and Korcula

Having had such a good experience in Dubrovnik and having no specific plans, grandpa suggested that I go stay in his house in Sobra on the island of Mljet close by, which I did. A wonderful small island town that gave me the chance to escape the hustley, bustley mode for a few days and just relax by the cool green and blue water, albeit on a concrete slab of a beach. On Mljet, I met Aisling and Athol, a couple from England, who were having a bit more success than I when it came to relaxing. We spent the evening cooking a wonderful pasta meal (my first home cooked meal of the trip) and reading a play, which was a fun and new experience.

After three days of relaxing I started to get a bit antsy and decided to press on to the island of Korcula, which also has a nice 'old town' similar to that in Dubrovnik but much smaller. I have to admit that Korcula was a bit more my speed and size, perfect for leisurly strolls and a bit of getting lost, but not to lost. The first night there I met a fellow American traveler who provided some reassuring words about long term solo-travel as we swapped travel stories over dinner. I ended up in the 'one love' hostel, where there were no locks on any doors, you only get 10mins in the bathroom, and the party goes to the early morn. Needless to say, sleep was not bountiful.

Photos: Mljet, Korcula
Videos: Sobra Beach, Live Music in Korcula

Croatia: Dubrovnik

Croatia has been killing me, or more precisly my budget, slowly with expensive accomodation, food, and most importantly internet access, which is the primary reason for my lack of posting frequency lately. Enough about that, down to business...

After arriving sick in Dubrovnik at 4:30am and relaxing on the concrete for an hour, I was fortunate enough to be greeted by an old man offering a room, unfortunately it was a bit more than I was planning on paying at roughly $22 a night, but being sapped I took it (I would later find out that $22 was the cheap end of accomodation). The man proceeded to drive me to his place in the most rickety car (apparently a communist era Yugo) I have ever had the pleasure of riding in: sitting in the back seat it felt and sounded like a metal rod was about to break through the seat at any moment. The place was nice, also housing the man's son and a daughter and grandsons visiting from Virginia for the summer.

Dubrovnik itself was an amazing, and surprisingly large, old, walled town that has been impressively restored/maintained. The town has been filled with expensive restaurants, bars, cafes, hotels, clothing stores and other shops that fill the narrow, winding streets and cater to the large tourist crowd. Unfortunately Dubrovnik was the most touristy place thus far along the way, largely filled with german and french tourists. Despite the large crowds it was nice to spend a day getting lost amongst all the back allys, stop for a coffee, and drink from the large, multi-headed fountain. At night, parts of the town were filled with jugglers, musicians, and peeps dressed in traditional outfits. Alas, two days was all I could manage before heading off to the small island of Mljet, just off the coast.

Photos: Dubrovnik
Video: Inside Dubrovnik

Mostar to Dubrovnik

I was originally planning only 2 days in Mostar, but when I showed up at the bus station on the morning of day 3 to catch the 10am bus, I was informed that there are only 3 buses a day (7am, 10am, 1am), that there are only 5 seats available on each bus, and that the 10am was sold out so I would have to wait for the 1am. Upon asking for a ticket I was told I would just have to buy one from the bus driver when the bus arrived at 1am.

The day passed fairly quickly with a bit of reading, lots of coffee drinking, and several chavapi meals. I showed up at the station at 9am to wait. Around 11 the on-set of sore, scratchy throat, ferver, headache, and chills were settling in, and by 1am it was in full swing. Though several buses came and went, none were the one I needed. About 1:30am I started chatting with a group that was apparently waiting for the same bus, and they informed me that they had been told they all had reservations and tickets aboard the coming bus and were very surprised that I didn`t.

When the bus finally arrived at 2am the bus driver was very reluctant to take my money and let me on the bus, but after some hard-nosed, hand-signal driven negotiations he relented and I was awarded a spot. We pulled into Dubrovnik at 4:40am, to the wonderful aroma of salty ocean air.