Croatia With a Little Italy

Dubrovnik

This trip is a little different than my past few, in that it is more city focused and relaxing verses high activity and out hiking in nature. With that in mind, it was pretty nice not having a set schedule to follow (other than commuting between cities).

To start the trip, we started in southern Croatia in the city of Dubrovnik, AKA King’s Landing for anyone who’s a Game of Thrones fans. We stayed just outside Old Town with views of the Adriatic and overlooking the large walls and towers surrounding Old Town - close enough to walk everywhere we wanted to go but far enough that nights were calm and quiet. Once we got to our BnB and unpacked, we decided to stroll Old Town a bit and grab lunch still pretty jet lagged and tired from the chaos of cancelled and delayed flights (but luckily we all arrived around the same time).

Most of our time in Dubrovnik was spent exploring the area around us, Old Town, taking the cable car up to the top of the mountain overlooking the city, and swimming at a couple cliffside bars. On one day, we did join a charter boat to island hop - first stopping on Lopud and taking a quick walk to Šunj beach, then to Suđurađ to either explore the town or swim and jump off the boat (I opted to do some boat jumping and swimming), then a final stop in Koločep for more swimming before heading back to Dubrovnik for the night.

Split

On our last morning in Dubrovnik, we pickup up our rental van and departed for Split. We made a few stops along the way, first in Ston to grab some lunch. Known for their oysters, we all had a seafood meal and relaxed a bit in a nice covered restaurant. After eating, and poking our heads into a couple of shops, we then set out to Kravica Waterfall. Initially, we thought this would be a sort of park/preserve with trails to nice waterfalls….but we were wrong. It turns out this place has been set up as almost a day resort/water park. It was very crowded - expected for a hot summer day - and not at all what we expected. We did not do any swimming since we weren’t expecting this to be a swimming spot, but if we had more time we easily could have spent some time there. After leaving here, we made one more quick detour to Međugorje to climb Apparition Hill, but I opted to stay in town and stay in the shade and AC of the van.

Finally, we set off to Split arriving a bit later than expected. But luckily our host was flexible with our schedule so there were zero problems finding and getting into our BnB overlooking the city.

Similar to Dubrovnik our time in split was mostly exploring the city, swimming at the beach, shopping and one day island hopping on a small chartered boat. Within Split itself, is Diocletian’s Palace - an ancient roman palace and fortress. Within these walls, you can walk through the narrow streets that have been filled with shops and restaurants and other museums. One of the nights in Split, we were recommended to a Michelin Recommended (Dvor) restaurant right on the coast, and indulged in their tasting menu (which pictures can be found below with other local foods eaten).

For our one day island hopping, we boarded a fast motorboat with a couple other small groups and visited 4 places - first to Biševo where we opted to explore the island a little and relax while others on the boat visited Blue Cave, then to Podstražje where we snorkled around Blue Lagoon (fun story on this island is apparently there is a single inhabitant who decided to leave his wife and kids and live on his own, so we’ve been told), then took off to Hvar for a local lunch and shopping, followed by a visit to the Carpe Diem Beach nearby for more swimming, and finally stopping in Sutivan for one last swimming spot at the Amaya Beach Club.

Zagreb

To kick off our longest drive, we first stopped at some nearby Roman Ruins and walked through the old ampitheatre, therme, and other ruined buildings. This place was also filled with what looked like olive trees and other plants being farmed and maintained. After a bit of wondering we set out for Krka National Park, however we could not find a place to park our oversized van so could only drive through and continued on our way. By this time, and looking at the remainder of our commute to drop our rental on time, we had to bypass some other stops on our original plan and head straight to Zagreb.

After dropping off the van, and reaching our next BnB, we were all pretty tired so decided to go to a local restaurant and relax for the night. The place we stayed at overlooked the Dolac Market, so every morning the streets were lined with vendors selling fresh fruit and other merchandise. For the remainder of our time in the city, it was pretty similar to the previous two minus the swimming. Plenty of shops to check out, nice restaurants, and niche museums to visit. On one day, we commuted up to the Mirogoj Cemetery to walk the lines of large sarcophagi - where I was on the hunt for local birds I could not find back home. Additionally, we visited the Botanical Gardens to walk a bit in ‘nature’ and see some local plants (as well as my hunt for more birds). And for one final chance to walk in nature (and for me to see some wildlife) we decided to trek over to Maksimir Park then test the tram system on the way back to our BnB.

Touching up on the niche museums in the city, one night we decided to visit a few starting with the Video Game museum. Three floors full of all sorts of video game systems, arcade games, and history of video games from pong to modern day. Some games were even playable for a nice bit of nostalgia. I even set the high score on Missile Command. After this we walked to the Museum of Hangovers where we got to enjoy a drink and read stories submitted to the museum as entertaining reads and even some props to enhance our ability to see the craziness. It also had a bit of interaction with a simulator to drive intoxicated (which was broken when we were there), goggles to try and walk a straight line, and more. Finally, we headed to the HAHA-House Museum of Laughter. Filled with some props to make you smile, and a history of comedy, it was an interesting place but it was the least entertaining out of the three.

Trieste

Getting to Trieste was simple - we took a bus. The overall commute took about 4 hours so I just filled it watching Netflix on my phone and relaxing as we passed through Slovenia on our way to Italy.

After getting to Trieste and checked into that BnB we had the remainder of the day to kill. There wasn’t exactly a lot to do but still plenty of restaurants. Similar to Split, there is an old Roman Amphitheatre to check out. Our second day was more eventful. I woke up a bit early to take my camera to Fernato Park to try and photograph some wildlife before it got too busy. Around lunch we decided to all meetup for a meal then rest and prepare for the purpose of our Trieste stop - the outdoor Gorillaz concert hosted in the Unity of Italy Square. It was a cool experience to watch the show surrounded by old architecture. A very different environment than the shows i’ve been to in the past in an indoor venue and a lot of fun.

Venice

For our last commute, we took a 2 hour train from Trieste to Venice in our final BnB. This city was one of the most unique places I’ve been with incredibly narrow streets and water ways throughout. It was easy to get lost and even walk to the end of a street that ends with water. We didn’t really have a to-do list while here but we spent plenty of time exploring and wondering around taking in the sites. Restaurants and shops filled in all the street level entries to there was plenty of opportunities to spend our remaining cash before heading home. Plus, we took the obligatory gondola ride (which I assume everyone on the bridges judged the 4 of us as we passed underneath each one). On the day of our departure, we took an easy boat taxi to the airport and headed home - even though my flight was cancelled 4 hours before departure I still managed to get a rebooking to leave that day just significantly later than originally planned. As an added bonus to the commuting hardships both to and from this trip, my Lyft home from the airport got a flat tire. But after being awake for 26 hours, I finally made it back and slept like a baby in my own bed.