Honeymoon in Croatia

Day 13: Trip Home

2009-10-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

At 6:00 AM we were in a cab heading for the airport to begin our long trip home… Dubrovnik to Zagreb to London to Chicago to St. Louis. Flights started at 7:30 AM on October 24th and ended at 10:30 PM also on October 24th, but because of the time change it was much longer than it sounded. We hated to leave but were excited to get home to our dog Chompers. There were only a few hiccups along the way. First, our Croatian Airlines flight from Zagreb to Heathrow broke before we boarded it so we were delayed about an hour getting a new plane. Luckily it only cut in to our layover in London and we didn’t miss our connecting flight. We still had time to take in the sights of Heathrow Terminal 1. I can now say that my favorite place to eat in the UK is Giraffe (also in Terminal 1 of Heathrow). Second, United Airlines neglected to send my luggage from Chicago to St. Louis. Surprisingly Steph’s luggage made it. Weird since we handed them both to the baggage people after going through customs in Chicago.

A picture of us sightseeing in London:

Summary
Well looking back on it all we don’t think we would change much. The time we spent in each city seemed just about right. If we had traveled during their summer months we probably would have needed to add some time to spend on the beach. Although, we liked going outside of the main tourist season since it was less crazy. We wish we had time to go to the Plitvice Lakes National Park (about an hour outside of Zagreb), the islands of Hvar and/or Korcula, and Mostar in Bosnia. With that being said, we loved the experiences we had. If you are planning a trip to Croatia have some questions feel free to reach out (dan_orms@yahoo.com).
(Steph) We had an amazing time and are glad to be home but I know I speak for Dan as well that we are so grateful for this amazing trip, thank you.

A pic of chomps getting comfy on my lap at last:

Day 12: Dubrovnik

2009-10-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

(Dan) Our last day in Croatia for our Honeymoon . The day started much like the prior. Pretty bad weather… lots of wind and rain. Actually, I think this was the worst rain we had the entire time. (It’s almost like the rain prior to the wedding followed us to Croatia.) If the day was nice we were going to try and take a ferry out to the Elaphite Islands but this obviously didn’t happen (the seas were angry again). Instead we decided to go to a few places we hadn’t made it to yet, the Rector’s Palace and the Cathedral. The Rector’s Palace was the home to the ruler of the Republic of Dubrovnik back in the middle ages. Today this is a fairly interesting place to tour. It has been turned into a (small) museum and has a few neat exhibits. The most interesting of them being the findings of some archaeological digs around the Dalmatian Coast and the various original paintings. With the rain still coming down we headed to the Cathedral.

Picture of the Rector's Palace:

The Cathedral was neat but nothing spectacular. The most interesting thing here is the Treasury. There is no charge for entering the Cathedral, but 14 kn to view the Treasury collection. There is some pretty cool stuff in there but I’ll spare you the history lesson. After the Cathedral we tried to dodge the rain and do a little shopping. Even though we both had umbrellas we got soaked. Getting hungry we went to Spaghetteria Toni for lunch again. We figured since it was our last day we had to have it one more time. I talked Steph into getting the meat lasagna this time. It was good, but it was no 5 cheese lasagna. We stopped for some gelato and a crepe. Seeing as it was our last day we had to have some, even though we were so full!! Being as soaked as we were, we decided to spend some time in the hotel in the afternoon and let our shoes dry out.

On our way back to the hotel, more pics of the angry sea and broken umbrellas:

After a few hours the rain let up and then stopped all together making for a really nice evening. We didn’t have any plans that night and just took it easy hanging out in Old Town. When dinner time came we were going to pick a new place to try, but then again, it was our last night, so we had Spaghetteria Toni again . This was the first time we didn’t share a meal there. While it was fantastic, it was way too much food and we were stuffed. The activity in Old Town had really picked up since it was a nice Friday night. We did a little bar hopping then ran into Toonces again.

Cute Little Place, Spaghetteria Toni:

Lunch of Lasagna Bolognese: (empty!)

Last Day getting Gelato!

While hanging out with Toonces we made friends with a dog that seemed to be a stray. When we were playing with the animals a local stopped and started talking to us. She explained the dynamic of owning an animal in Old Town to us. Steph and I were happy to hear that all the dogs that seemed like strays actually had homes. The dog we had just made friends with was named Kiera. She thought Toonces had a home based on her appearance and demeanor, but a lot of the cats we saw were strays. Even with them being strays they were fed well and were taken care of pretty well by the townspeople. We hit the hay after packing at about 1:30 that night. Pretty late considering we had to get up early the next morning to head to the airport.

Kiera:

Toonces:

Views of the Old Town at night:

Day 11: Dubrovnik

2009-10-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

We decided to sleep in this morning. I guess we were finally fully adjusted to the time change since we woke up at about 9:30 on our own. It was another dreary day with high winds (surprisingly warm though). We took our time with breakfast and headed into town to finally do the self-guided walking tour in the book. The tour took us all of 15 minutes. With the extra time we decided to check out the Memorial Room of Dubrovnik Defenders, dedicated to those that gave their lives fighting the Serbs in 1991. The Memorial wasn’t huge, but it had a lot to see. The most interesting being the slideshow of the city and the damage caused during the war. Being our 4th day in Dubrovnik it was easy to pick out the locations of the damage and compare it to how much has been restored today. (Steph) Details we learned at the memorial that the book did not elude to: 1) The attack on Dubrovnik began on Oct 1, 1991 (remember they declared their independence in June 1991) and 2) the book talks of how the Croatian army liberated Dubrovnik after 8 months of bombing but the memorial talked of how Dubrovnik suffered attacks until mid 1995. (Dan) After we finished looking through the Memorial it really started to rain. We thought we would take advantage of the time by having an espresso and updating our blog at SKY Bar.

The rain had stopped a bit so we thought we would check out the aquarium. On the way we walked out on the Porporela (breakwater) by St. John’s Fortress. I tell you the sea was angry that day my friend… angry indeed. (Steph) We stood out on the break for 15 minutes or so catching as many pictures as we could as the waves broke against the fortress. We were not the only ones attempting to brave this, a tour group came around the corner to see this really intriguing view of the sea. Some brave souls actually walked up on the Porporela with us. We were on the most eastern point where it seemed the least amount of water was spraying up and we watched these two people walk right into the middle of a giant waved and get just drenched. It was the most hilarious thing I have seen in a while!!!! We ran back across to safe ground to go where it was less windy and see what the aquarium was all about. We only had about 30 minutes to spare because we had scheduled massages in the afternoon at the hotel. We walked into the aquarium to see what the cost was and how long it would take to venture through. To our luck, the aquarium was free today and it should only take about 20 minutes to get through. Perfect, that was just enough time for us! We walked through and realized that it was worth seeing for free, not sure we would pay 30 kn to see it though. The eels and the octopus made us squirm a bit. At this point we hurriedly began to walk back to the hotel because we needed to get to our massages on time. We made it just in time and both felt amazing afterwards!

After taking our time getting de-oiled from our massages we decided to head out for dinner. We walked by a few places and checked out their menus and we ended up at a place called Wanda. It was raining but they had a decent awning so we opted to sit outside because it was a very nice temperature. This restaurant was more Dalmation traditional dishes as opposed to pizza and pasta. It was finally day 11 and I decided to go for the fish. Now, I love seafood but every time I saw someone served a seafood dish, it was the entire stinking fish. I realize that it is probably phenomenal fish but I just cannot bear to order it and see some fish looking back at me. So, I tried to be brave tonight and ordered a traditional Dalmation dish with sea bass, prawns, clams and grilled squid. Now yes, it looked frightening and half the tools they put in front of me I had no idea what to do with but I forged on. I actually ate over 80% of what was on that plate! I’m not really sure if I looked absolutely ridiculous eating it but I do not care, I ate it and that is what matters!! To top it off, it was fabulous!
My dinner from the start:

Dinner Plate after I attacked it:

Watch out, the claw may get you:

When dinner was finished we quickly left to make it to see the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra. On the way to dinner we had seen a sign advertising the performance in the Revelin Fort and decided to go on a whim. This performance was absolutely amazing. There were approximately 160 seats for the performance. We were in the second to last row but it didn’t matter. The venue was spectacular along with the amazing music. The orchestra performed: Don Giovanni, Uvertira/Overture KV 527 by Mozart and Symphony No 5 in E-minor Op. 64 by Cajkovski. The conductor was Noorman Widjaja. Of course the rain was still coming down and the winds were so forceful but we continued on. We stopped at an Irish bar, Gaffe, for a drink before heading home.

Day 10: Montenegro and Dubrovnik

2009-10-22T04:20:00.000-07:00

(Dan) On Wednesday we talked to the front desk at our hotel to find out the best way to visit Montenegro (the neighboring country to Croatia’s South). There were multiple bus tours that ran there or the option of renting a car. Seeing that Steph got a little motion sickness from riding in the car along the coast we figured a bus would be a bad decision. We also liked the flexibility of the car, not to mention it was the most reasonable price (60 Euros for the day). I’m pretty sure the bus tours were twice that per person. We decided to have the desk call a few rental companies and book our car. 7:00 AM up, and out the door by 8:00. On the way out of town, we stopped to the east of the city for some pictures. We got some really cool ones.

The Montenegro border is only a 45 minute drive from the Old Town. (Steph) Our rental car came with only an 1/8 of a tank so we had to hit up a gas station right outside of town. Here I am presented with another miracle...nutella on the go! YES!!

(Dan) You get about 20 minutes of shoreline then you head inland until after crossing the border. The next time you see water you are at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor. Our destination was Kotor Town (a UNESCO site), about 2 hours from Dubrovnik. The unique shape of the Bay makes it a long drive. On the way down we made the mistake of driving through Igalo, one of the bigger towns along the way, instead of around it. It was a hectic area that made a stressful drive and took a long time to get through. It was raining on and off throughout the way, but started to clear when we stopped for lunch in a small town called Orahovac. We found a four star hotel on the water there called Hotel Amfora and decided to eat at their restaurant (figured the 4 stars meant it was safe ). Another good reason was they took credit. Montenegro uses the Euro and we had none. It was a fantastic meal and only cost about 25 Euro. Come to find out at the end that we could not add tip into the price ran on the card (the rest of the world needs to figure out how to use credit cards right… geez). We had to tip the waiter in Croatian Kuna. I don’t think he was to thrilled about it, but it was that or nothing. We felt bad, but it was the only option.

After lunch we continued on our way. We were surprised when we hit Kotor about 5 minutes later. Based on the map (and the JefJef) we thought we had another 20 – 30 minutes. We parked outside of town and walked across the bridge past the town walls to the gate. The 3 mile wall built up into the mountainside and around the city was very impressive to see. Kotor town has a lot of interesting history that made for an interesting town. (A little history paraphrased from Rick Steves) The bottleneck shape and extreme depth of the Bay made for the best natural harbor between Greece and Venice, and made the town very appealing. Throughout its history, the city was controlled by the Illyrians, Romans, Slavs, Venetian Repulic, France, and Austria. Montenegro is actually Europe’s newest country as they declared their independence in 2006 from the area formerly know as “Yugoslavia” then “Serbia and Montenegro”. Enough with the history… long story short, there are a lot of cool things to see. Notice in our pictures how a large cruise ship was able to pull right up to the street… that’s a deep bay.

Pictures of the town of Kotor:

Dan having an espresso:

After making our way around the city to see the sites pointed out in our book, we decided to ascend the Town Walls up to the Fortress of St. John (at the half way point you find the Church of Our Lady of Health). This wall is so big and goes across such crazy terrain that it was built from the 9th through the 19th centuries (most during the 17th and 18th centuries). For some reason we decided to pay the 2 Euros each for the “opportunity” to climb it. Again with the steps… just under 1,500 this time... at an elevation gain of more than 700 feet. Woo! Best 45 minutes spent yet. Again, the view was worth it. After the climb, time spent at the top, and the trip back down, it took us about an hour and 30 minutes.

A view looking up to the walls:

A view on the way up, from the top and on the way down:

After reaching the bottom we decided it was time to head back. On our way to the car we paid 1 Euro to use the most disgusting restroom known to man. I’m still not sure if the Euro was for the use of the bathroom or the shock factor that went along with it. I guess you could compare it to paying to see the bearded lady. Sick. On the way back we opted to head the opposite way around the Bay to a town called Lepetani. Here we were able to catch a car ferry over to the side we were supposed to be on (through the city of Kamenari). The ferry only lasts 4 minutes since it crosses the Bay at its most narrow point, but it saves about 30 minutes on the trip. Not bad for 4 Euros. On the way back we made sure to skip going through the center of Igalo. We got back to the hotel just after dark, cleaned up, and went to dinner in Old Town.

Picture of the sunset just outside of Dubrovnik

We ate at ANOTHER pizza place. I swear they are everywhere. I think this was my favorite yet though… Oliva Pizzeria. While at dinner a stray cat wandered through the open door (Toonces we’ll call him). Steph thought it was pretty cute and tried to feed it. He wasn’t interested and eventually left. After dinner we went through the Stradun on our way to the hotel. While walking who did we see? Toonces again. This time he was interested in Steph… didn’t want food though, just wanted to cuddle. We sat there on the steps of St. Blaise’s Church for about 15 minutes with him curled up on her lap. When she put him down he jumped back up on her before she could stand. Eventually we had to leave. Pretty friendly for a stray… we think his home might be somewhere in Old Town. It’s hard to tell with animals there. Dogs follow their owners around without leashes and some go without collars. Cats that have owners don’t have collars. Cats that seem to be strays usually look pretty groomed. We hope Toonces has a nice home.

Day 9: Dubrovnik

2009-10-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Dan!!!

We woke up at a decent time today so we could get our tour of Dubrovnik in while it was not raining. We were hoping for a nice gorgeous sunny day but it started really overcast and had sporadic showers throughout the morning. Even so, we trudged on in hopes to conquer the entire Dubrovnik town walls. These walls encompass the entire old city of Dubrovnik, an entire mile and a quarter long. We tried to get there early as to avoid too many cruise ship groups but we ran into them anyway. We took our time getting ready and getting breakfast before heading out. What made us really behind was just trying to find where to buy the tickets to go up on the walls. Everyone you asked gave directions like a gypsy (as Dan says… i.e. turn left at the rock by the tree). What?! We ventured to two different rocks and trees before we found the ticket booth.

Town walls here we come. You can enter the walls in 3 places throughout the city. We entered at the Pile Gate, which are closest to where our hotel is and where we always seem to enter Old Town. We probably should have entered the walls at different location, as this one seems to be the most popular. Luckily, we started out well and didn’t run in to too many large cruise ship excursions. We opted for the audio tour, which you could purchase for 40 kn that gave us a little extra insight to the old city and its history. We should have brought our own headphones. Without them we enjoyed squishing our heads together to hear the commentary out of the itty-bitty speaker while the loud French tourists yelled in our ears! It took us approximately 2 hours to get around the entire city and each view was absolutely breathtaking. We had amazing views of the Adriatic Sea, Old City, and the mountains in the distance. The most impressive part to me was seeing the remnants of the 1991 war Dubrovnik faced from the Serbian and Montenegrin armies. One of the most apparent ways to see this are the new bright orange roof tiles that have replaced the ones damaged in the war.

We decided we would try to do a healthy not pasta/pizza lunch so we went to seek out a place called Fresh that Rick Steve’s had recommended. Much to our dismay it had already closed down so we headed to pizza instead. We made our way across the Stradun to Mea Culpa, which was phenomenal!! We split a salami, ham and mushroom pizza that was delicious. We had sat down to two American couples on each side of us. One couple was about our age and we found out they were on a day trip to Dubrovnik from their Mediterranean cruise. Come to find out they were married the same day as us…October 10th! The other couple we did not talk to as much due to our embarrassment of acknowledging that they were Americans. Now I don’t mean to be rude but they were so loud and obnoxious that we didn’t really even talk to them.
After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a quick break and during that time the sun came out and was here to stay...yeah!! We headed to the Fort of St. Lawrence that overlooks Old Town. We thought the view was great from the walls but from the Fort of St. Lawrence, the city looked even more beautiful. Maybe it was the sunshine or the fact that there were not as many people here but we liked this stop better than the old city walls. We stayed up here for a good 30 minutes just soaking in the view and the sun.

Dan wanted to head to the beach on the east side where the views of the city are supposed to be the best out of anywhere. So, we walked through the old town and exited out of the Ploce Gate and towards the beach. We found it pretty easy and there were quite a few people with the same idea as us. We even rolled up our jeans to test out the water. It was chilly that is for sure but we snagged a few pictures of us in the water. The sun started to set, which gave us a great picturesque view of the east side of the city. We spent I think almost an hour messing with our cameras to see who could get the better picture. I am not really sure either of us got an amazing picture but we had a lot of fun attempting it.

As the sun completely set we started to get cold and decided it was time for Dan’s birthday dinner. Shocker… there was actually a Mexican place that I swear was purposely there just for him on his birthday. It was a just a short walk up the beach. We shared some tasty chips and very little salsa to accompany the chips. Dan got some really good tacos and I had tortilla soup. Not exactly the Mexican we are use to but it did the job for Dan on his birthday! I will take him to Maguey when we get home.

After dinner we headed back through Old Town and stopped at SKY Bar again to update our blog and check email. We stayed longer than we should have but it was so much fun just hanging out in a local bar and having some drinks. I think we eventually decided it was time to go home once we updated all we could and realized we were getting up really early the next morning to head to Montenegro. I don’t think we got to the room until 1 am! Getting to bed that late was worth seeing the Stradun at night with not a soul in sight.
The view from the top of the Fort of St. Lawrence:

I love this picture...

A view from the beach..

View from atop the walls again....

Dan's favorite is Mexican.....

This guy was so cute...

Day 8: Dubrovnik

2009-10-20T13:34:00.002-07:00

Our first full day in Dubrovnik we woke up to rain… a lot of rain (Steph) ….lots! So we took our time getting ready and getting down to breakfast. We actually proceeded down to breakfast in our pajamas. I am pretty sure they were second guessing if we belonged there because most everyone was dressed to the nines for breakfast..what?! Anyway, we had a nice breakfast and then decided to head in to town despite the rain. Surprisingly the rain was not too much of a hindrance. Due to the rain we decided to make this day a shopping day and get souvenirs and make ourselves familiar with the Old Town of Dubrovnik since we are going to be here 6 days. Although we had to buy an additional umbrella to the one we snagged in Zagreb, the winds were really bad and still managed to break both of them…no worries though, we continued to use both of them. (too cheap to buy new ones) This reminded me of the 100 million umbrellas I went through in Ireland. Either I buy way too cheap of umbrellas or none of them can withstand the wind and rain.

Anyway, we found a lot of cute jewelry shops while browsing. Dubrovnik and the entire Dalmatian coast are known for their coral jewelry due to the coral found in the Adriatic. It is beautiful jewelry. Dubrovnik is specifically known for a piece of jewelry that is made in gold and silver called Konavoske Puce (Konavle buttons). These “button” jewelry pieces come as earrings, bracelets, necklaces, pins…everything. The detail is really pretty. I plan on getting some for myself, I just haven’t found the right ones yet.

The Stradun:

We also shopped for some warmer clothing..scarves and gloves for me. Reason being, the temperature here is about 15 degrees cooler than it normally is. So with the cooler temperatures and the rain I was freezing today!!

We decided to find lunch and randomly chose a restaurant that ironically was recommended in Rick Steve’s book. ( Ok, Dan picked it, I did not) Spaghetteria Toni turned out to be my favorite meal thus far. We got some tasty bruschetta and some absolutely amazing 5 cheese lasagna. I think I was in heaven eating this….so unbelievable good! I am not sure if I have mentioned this or if Dan has earlier but I have seriously gone overboard on the eating thing… I will come home with an additional 10 pounds of weight…all due to the pasta and pizza and gelato. AH! Serious dieting when I get back home!!!

Deliciousness beyond your wildest imaginations.....

We were wrapping up our day of shopping when we came across a place called SKYBar which amazingly enough had free wireless internet. The hotel charges and arm and a leg so we were pumped. We had a few drinks here and checked our email on dan’s IPod. We made note to come back tomorrow night to update our blog and send some more pictures. Sky Bar is located right in the center of Old Town, so although modern, it still has the charm of the old town. Best of all, it is a ten minute walk from our hotel.

For dinner we decided to stop at a restaurant on the water near the old town walls called Nauticka. We were still pretty full from lunch but needed just a little something so we each got some really wonderful tomato soup and split a penne arriabata pasta dish. (Again, here we go with the pasta) So with really really full tummy’s, we headed home. As we literally fell into bed, Dan began updating the blog as I passed out cold….so tired!!!

Dinner:

Day 7: Split, Medugorje, and Dubrovnik

2009-10-20T13:34:00.001-07:00

After breakfast, checking out, and the rental car paperwork we were in our car by about 9:30 AM. It was a pretty sweet ride that barely fit our luggage. With a little force we got it in though. On a positive note, the car was beat to shit and missing a hubcap but ran great. I thought this was a good thing since I could probably get away with running it off a cliff. We spent the night prior trying to get online directions from Split to Medugorje to Dubrovnik. I am pretty confident that “google maps” and pretty much every other map service does not yet cover Croatia. In the morning I also stopped by the concierge desk to have them print me directions. This got me an old map with a few cities circled and arrows drawn on it. At this point I got a little nervous thinking that it might be hard to find our way. Luckily I had Steph, and our new road map purchased the prior day to help navigate. I do have to say that she did a fantastic job… so much in fact that I named her JefJef (since TomTom would probably had some copyright and trademark implications). From here on out we will refer to Steph as JefJef.

The drive was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. It was also one of the curviest drives I have ever taken. Unfortunately, the car was a manual so JefJef couldn’t take a turn driving leaving me with just quick glances and the sea in my peripheral. We did pull over and take pictures quite a bit though. The Adriatic Highway is a two lane road that follows the coastline. The entire day called for rain, but it held off for most of our drive… making the view spectacular. JefJef made the comment that it was probably a better view that she saw at the Cliffs of Mohr in Ireland.

Some views from the drive:

Orms??? Am I part Croatian now?

Our adorable rental car:

The town we stopped in for lunch was pretty much deserted but we found a great place to eat and captured this great picture:

The drive went pretty much without a hitch until we decided to abandon the map and follow signs to Medugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Shortly after we abandoned the map, the Medugorje signs abandoned us. We felt lost, but just followed the signs towards the next city. Eventually JefJef got us back on the right road (although I nearly slapped her for saying “Recalculating route” so much) and we were good to go. Crossing into Bosnia-Herzegovina was not a big deal at all. I think they saw the US passports and JefJef’s big-ass camera and put two and two together. To our disappointment they did not stamp our passports… guess we only have our pictures and this blog to prove that we were there.

While really nothing changed, Bosnia had a different feel than Croatia. It seemed that there was a slower rebuilding going on from the war… maybe it was just hit worse. Not really sure. After crossing the border, we had about a 30 minute drive until we found Medugorje . Medugorje was really something to see. Probably a lot of hype to a non-catholic, but was a stop well worth the time for JefJef and me. When you walk into the sacred ground you see St. James’ Church and a white stone statue of the Virgin Mary. The church looks surprisingly new as does the entire grounds. It is all very well kept. Behind and to the left of the church is a path leading to Apparition Hill, where the multiple sightings of the Virgin Mary have occurred, and directly behind the church is the path to the Great Hill otherwise known as Cross Mountain. We would have loved to make the mile to mile and a half climb to these areas, but were not dressed appropriately for the cold weather and probably did not have the time. Instead we went to the gift shop and purchased some items then headed out back to the statue of the Resurrected Savior also know as the Weeping Knee. This statue depicts Christ’s suffering and has a knee that is always wet. The left knee is highly polished from visitors touching the spot that constantly drips water. Steph and I stood in line to touch the knee and bless the items we had bought in the gift shop. Surprisingly enough there were multiple people that felt fine cutting in line to touch the knee… not to mention a French dude cutting in line in the gift shop. Not sure where they get off calling us rude. For a few more minutes we took in the atmosphere and then got back on our way to Dubrovnik.

Medugoje and the weeping knee statue:

Before leaving Medugorje, we decided to check out some of the souvenir shops lining the road to St. Jame’s Church. A lot of what you found was similar to the items in the “official” gift shop, but what JefJef and I found next is what we consider our own little miracle (second to our dog Chompers). You might have caught before that I mentioned JefJef’s craving for Diet Coke could not be satisfied by Coke Zero, well here in this sacred city we found Coke Light. We made a special trip to the ATM and got out 10 whatever they are called in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Marks I think I heard the girl call them?) and bought 5 ½ liter bottles for JefJef. I fear touch these for my life since Croatia only sells Coke Zero.

AMEN!!!

The plan was to go check out Mostar as there are still very apparent reminders of the war there, but it was getting late and I wanted to get on the road. I wanted to be in to Dubrovnik before dark and that was going to be a push at that point.

We headed back to Croatia, again no problem at the border, and followed the signs to Dubrovnik. TIP 6, get a good map and follow the signs. No need to rely on google maps in this part of the world. Also maybe get yourself a good JefJef. As we reached about 50 km from Dubrovnik it started to get dark, and the rain they had called for all day moved in. This made the last 30 minutes of the drive a bit stressful. Locals fly on the Adriatic Highway and will ride your rear until they have the opportunity to pass. At night, with rain, this is annoying. Regardless, we made it safely and followed the signs to our hotel the Hilton Imperial. At the hotel we asked where we should go to dinner that would take a drive (since we still had our car) and were pointed to a sushi place out on the Lapad Peninsula. We got to our room (beautiful by the way, nice high ceilings and a view of the walls and water), changed, and set out to dinner. On the way JefJef noticed a cute place that looked pretty busy called Teatar. It was a good thing she noticed this since the sushi place was closed. We went back and had the best dinner to date (again for a very reasonable price). After dinner the rain was coming down but the front desk assured us the sun would be shining tomorrow.

Driving into Dubrovnik makes for a pretty picture even if it was raining:

Nice Hilton Room:

Day 6: Split

2009-10-20T13:33:00.001-07:00

(Steph) We woke up early again to have the buffet breakfast and catch the shuttle in to town again at 10:30. With it being the weekend the shuttle was packed, not a seat available this time. Good thing is, we did get a seat close to the front to help to avoid my motion sickness. (Dan) We again got off the shuttle to the smell of sulfur... farts... whatever. Today we decided that we would hike up the Marjan Peninsula, the peninsula with the best view of dowtown Split. Our books and online research told us it would be a 20 minute hike. That day it was calling for rain and the clouds were moving in. To beat the weather, we headed out ASAP in the direction the town map directed us to (different than the online research Steph had found… the book offered no directions). Long story short, we followed the “Trubiceva Obala” (a street) that bordered the sea looking for a staircase off to our right that would take us up Marjan. 20 minutes, no staircase, 30 minutes… we were definitely off the path tourists take. We turned around and headed back to the city to take the path Steph had found online.

At this time we were an hour into our 20 minute walk and we were back where we started… no more trying to follow the city map. We headed up Sperun (street), slightly to the left of the Riva, and followed it once it turned into Senjska (street); finally we were on the right path. We were tipped to this when we saw and heard people coming down carrying cameras and speaking English. Senjka street was steep. So much in fact that it was grooved for traction. I have to say that 20 minutes is probably generous. The steep incline turned into rocky stairs, that turned into paved stairs. The stairs didn’t help. It was a rough climb. Steph and I like to think that we were in good shape at that time, but 4 days later her calves are still sore. I of course am 100% fine . The hike to reach the top was worth the view we were rewarded with. Luckily the clouds had just covered the sun, and still no rain. We took 20 minutes at the top to take pictures and dry out (well I dried out). We probably would have stayed longer but about 15 annoying Croatian kids were at the top on a field trip with their teacher. If you didn’t notice, we made this hike on a Saturday… what kind of school goes on a Saturday fieldtrip? Then headed back down.
The grueling trek up:

The beautiful view was worth the sweat...

We shopped for a bit in town then made our way out to Black Cat Bistro for a late lunch. Another place recommended by Rick Steves. Very good food and very friendly wait staff. We left and still had quite a bit of time until our shuttle at 7:00 PM so we went to BET Café (“E” being the sign for a Euro). This is the place we found free wireless internet at a few days earlier. Perfect for checking email, sending out updates, and downloading new games on my iPod touch. Steph and I were never without this little device. Prior to leaving the States I had downloaded 4 apps that gave us Croatian phrases and an English to Croatian dictionary. We referenced all of them a lot, but didn’t really use what we learned much as most people knew English. That night we opted to skip dinner; the late lunch at the Black Cat was plenty since the portions were huge. We did indulge in another bottle of Croatian wine that we picked up at a market in town. Neat little fact about the wine here is that many of them come in liter bottles instead of the 750ml we are used to. After the wine we hit the sack since we were getting our rental at 9:00 AM the next day.

A picture worth taking, some local men playing cards:

A little someone who reminded us of our little guy:

Day 5: Split

2009-10-20T13:32:00.001-07:00

(Dan) On Day 5 we were ready for a break. The constant sightseeing had us run down and we still seemed to be adjusting from the time change. We woke up at about 11:00. Our TV failed to wake us up for breakfast. We decided to head down the beach to try and find a place to eat out of our hotel. We made it about 10-15 minutes without finding anything and decided to head back and eat in the main restaurant at the hotel. The rest of the day we laid out by the beach, swam in the pool, and sat in the hot tub. This brings me to TIP 5… beware of those you join in the hot tub. Steph and I found the hot tub tucked in a room away from the pool with the saunas. A bit odd that it was segregated but we thought nothing of it. There was one gentleman in the tub that we joined. After about 5 minutes of us being there he decided to get out. He neglected to use the stairs and proceeded to take the giant step up out over the edge. In that one step we saw naked butt, balls, and donger. None of which were sights we wanted to see in Croatia. We didn’t know how to react, so we didn’t… until the hot tub bubbled water up and hit Steph in the mouth. Hilarious if you ask me . That night we got room service (more pizza), had our bottle of wine, and went to bed. Back to Split in the morning.

Day 4: Split

2009-10-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

We started our day with the breakfast buffet at the hotel. They had a pretty good spread including, but not limited to, really salty bacon, orange eggs (tasted normal though), “coffee” aka espresso, an omelet bar, and pretty much anything else you can think of. We boarded our shuttle at 10:30 with another 3 people and road about 20 minutes to our drop off point downtown by Diocletian’s Palace. When we got off the bus we noticed the slightly fishy smell of the sea and then the overpowering smell of rotten eggs. While Steph thought the people of Split had a really bad gas problem I thought it smelled like sulfur. Later we found out that back in the day people used to come to Split for their “Medicinal Sulfur Spas”… whatever those might be. I think it had something to do with the sulfur content in the water (Which you would not notice by drinking it... they have great drinking water. TIP 4 Drink water from the tap, it tastes just as good as bottled and saves you some money. Ask for “tap water” at restaurants or you will get bottled.). Regardless, we were just happy to find out that there wasn’t some digestive problem that we were going to catch.

Downtown Split is basically centered on the palace and has been built up all around and in the palace walls. So much in fact that it was hard to find the entrance where Rick Steves began our self guided walking tour. There are 4 main gates, somehow we entered through a small side entrance and had to wander until we found the Peristyle Square, the square in front of Emperor Diocletian’s Palace. From here we backtracked to the Brass Gate, where our self-guided tour began.

The tour started in the palace cellars. This cost 15 kn each and was well worth it. Without Rick Steves’ book, the sights in here would not have meant much. (Steph now) At first it feels as if you are walking through a bunch of random, empty stone rooms until you run into the giant asian tour group. Seriously!? It’s not just one or two… Anyway, the cellars were actually really interesting. In Diocletian’s time, these cellars were filled with water, a freshwater spring, a sulfur spring, and the sea. Later, villagers took refuge in the abandoned palace from rampaging Slavs. The elite lived upstairs and carved holes through the ceiling to dump their garbage and sewage. These cellars filled up with waste and solidified until the 19th and 20th centuries when discovered by archaeologists (gross).

Palace Cellars:

The Peristyle was the center of Diocletian’s palace. While standing in the middle of the peristyle, you can view the entry vestibule to Diocletian’s living quarters, the Cathedral of St. Dominus and St. John’s Baptistry (Jupiter’s Temple). The Cathedral of St. Dominus in the 4th century was Diocletian’s mausoleum until the fall of Rome when it was converted into a cathedral. Unfortunately much of the front of the cathedral was undergoing repairs and construction when we visited making it difficult to really capture the essence of the exterior of the church. Quick blurb from Rick Steve’s “Diocletian brutally persecuted his Christian subjects. To kick off his retirement upon his arrival on the Dalmation Coast, he had Bishop Dominus of Salona Killed, along with several thousand Christians. When Diocletian died, there were riots of happiness. In the seventh century, his mausoleum became a cathedral dedicated to the martyred bishop.” Christian saints are now buried and entombed throughout the cathedral. It is a very small cathedral, I mean very small! After our quick tour of the church we decided to climb the bell tower (10 kn each), which gave us our first glimpse of the entire city of Split.

Entry Vestibule:

From the tower we had an absolutely beautiful view overlooking the city and the Adriatic. We were able to get some amazing pictures here.

View of Split from the top of the Bell Tower:

The hike up the bell tower reminded me of my many climbs to the top of too many bell towers while traveling with Jen in Italy! The good thing is that even though Croatians eat just as much if not more pizza than Italians, they do not have nearly as many churches to climb! We finished up the walking tour by Rick Steve’s and just decided to walk through the palace area. We stumbled across a small Mexican place where a young guy was working and we overheard him mentioned that he was from Wyoming. We didn’t feel like tacos at the time so we decided to come back to this place on our next trip into town… little did we know that they would be closed when we tried again…bummer! We ate lunch and had yet more pizza at F-Café on the Riva. The rest of the day we spent shopping through the market and just browsing the sites of Split. Split was our first experience of Gelato here! Dan got Vanilla…boring! And I got nutella! Both were really good!! We decided to venture to one of the more popular beaches on Split’s shore, Bacvice beach. Although it was not cold outside, it was not my kind of temperature to jump into the water, but that did not stop some crazy people from getting in. I guess we could have braved it but I think I would have left with permanent goose bumps. Instead of getting in, we just walked around the beach front and enjoyed the people watching.

Woo-Hoo Euro Trip 2009!

On the beach:

After venturing to a wine shop, Vinoteka Bouquet which was recommended by Rick Steve’s, we purchased a bottle of local Croatian wine, we sat down on the Riva to enjoy some roasted Chestnuts and some wine before our shuttle was to pick us up to head back to the hotel.
Once we got back to our room, we cleaned up and ventured out for dinner to Arkada. A restaurant that was in walking distance from our hotel. It seemed to be a very nice restaurant but not many people were in the restaurant so we had our hesitations. By the time we ordered and got our food, the restaurant quickly filled up and we were very happy with our choice. I had ordered the Crab risotto and Dan had some stuffed meat thing. After dinner…. Straight to bed, we were both super tired!!

Day 3: Zagreb and Split

2009-10-20T13:29:00.000-07:00

Day 3 started with a fright. The night before we had set the “wake up” on the TV. Turns out that is not a good idea if you want to be woken up by a gentle noise. At 9:00 AM the TV freaked out… Steph and I freaked out. There was yelling, we couldn’t find the remote (side note: Steph found the remote on her side). After we were done crapping ourselves, we headed down for breakfast. We thought this was included with the room rate, it wasn’t. Not a big deal, but we would have made the most of the “special order” services if we had known. On full bellies, we headed out.

Today we decided to stick closer to Rick Steves’ walking tour. Thankfully Steph was in charge of navigating (and will be from here on out). She was much better at reading aloud, directing, walking, and working the compass (this is a lie, we didn’t actually have a compass) than I was. Our first stop, through Jelacic Square, was St. Mark’s Square. To get here we had to find the funicular, located at the corner of Iliac and Takalciceva. I believe I read somewhere that this is the shortest funicular in the world. I’m not sure if that is a bragging point or not, but it was pretty short. I’ve been on the one in Philadelphia and Hong Kong, and this one was hardly worth the 4 kn it cost a person. BUT… with that being said, it might have gotten us to our destination faster. We walked up two blocks and came upon the incredible St. Mark’s Square. In my opinion, one of the more impressive sites we had seen to this point. The center of the square held the Church of St. Mark covered by a colorful roof containing two coats of arms, representing North-Central Croatia, and the Dalmatian Coast.

As you face the church, to the right is the “Sabor” or parliament, to the left is the “Ban’s Palace” containing the offices for the president and prime minister. There was a lot of security here (relatively speaking), but I was still able to pose in a guard’s station while Steph took a picture of me with her new wide-angle lense. We headed down the street to the right (Kamenita ulica), viewed the oldest pharmacy in town, and then entered the Stone Gate into a makeshift chapel that contains a painting of the Virgin Mary that survived a fire in 1731. While we were there a number of people were kneeling at the painting of Mary and sitting in the pews constructed into the walls. A metal bin contained candles lit for various prayers, and plaques tiled the walls thanking Mary for answering them.

One of Steph's favorites from the market in Zagreb:

One of Dan's favorites in Zagreb....

It was getting close to checkout time (12:00 Noon) so we started heading back to the hotel. On the way we passed through the open-air market again. This time it was in full swing and quite a sight. Since we were short on time we hit up the underground shopping area by the hotel for some fast food. I had a chicken sandwich and Steph had the caprese sandwich for about 50 kn. We ate quickly, got our bags, and caught a cab to the airport (200 kn). Checked in with no problem, checked our bags, and boarded the plane to Split. This brings me to TIP 3 for Croatian travel. The tip… figure out what row you are sitting on before you get on your flight. Croatian Airlines boards from the front and back of the plane at the same time. If you are like Steph and me, you will get on the front of the plane (when you are in the last row) and have to fight the crowd to the back. Not fun.

We landed in Split to find our prearranged driver waiting for us. He was a really nice guy that could speak English very well. He shared quite a bit of Split information with us on our 30 minute drive… including letting us know that it was unseasonably cold for Croatia this October. Over the next few days we definitely noticed it. The area around the airport was nothing special but the view of the Adriatic and downtown Split off in the distance was spectacular. The view only got better as we drove through the city to Podstrada where our hotel, Le Meridian, was located. Upon check-in (at around 4:00 PM) TIP 1 worked again. We mentioned that we were on our honeymoon and not 15 minutes after being in our room the phone rang and it was the front desk asking if they could bring by a gift for us. 30 seconds a later there was a knock at the door and in rolled a table with another bottle of champagne, a plate of assorted fruits, two chocolate bars, and a plate of small desserts. All of it was great… well the champagne wasn’t that great. It was a bottle from Germany and left a bad taste (of course we drank it all on the second night anyway).

Our room and comped spread in Split...

Our view ...

The rest of that evening we explored the hotel, had a drink at the hotel Champagne Bar (a Coke Zero to be exact… and I should note that this did nothing to satisfy Steph’s craving for a Diet Coke), and ate dinner at one of the hotel restaurants, Pivnica. Dinner was pretty good, nothing great. That night we checked out the casino in the hotel. Slots were played in Kune, table games in Euros. This is the only night we went to the casino. The lack of luck and free drinks didn’t leave us with a desire to go back. We turned in a bit early that night so we would be ready to get on our 10:30 shuttle to downtown Split the next day. The free shuttle service run by the hotel was a really nice treat. We didn’t know they had this, but it ran 3 times a day like clockwork. We opted for the 10:30 AM in, 7:00 PM out schedule.

Day 1-2: Zagreb

2009-10-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

(Dan) We left on Monday October 12th, flew through DC, connected in Munich, and landed in Zagreb on Tuesday October 13th. Surprisingly, our only delay was for about an hour in Munich. Figuring out where to go in the Munich airport was a little stressful. Well… clarification, not stressful but just a feeling of not knowing what to do next. We flew United to this point and weren’t checked into our Croatian Airlines flight. When we arrived, we ended up at a Lufthansa Airlines gate, which could not check us in to our flight since they only had access to the “Turkish system” (in broken English). Shame on us for not knowing German…. or maybe Turkish… your guess is as good as mine.

Anywho, we made it in to Zagreb and caught a cab to the Hotel (the Regent Esplenade). The hotel and room was incredible. Very “posh”. When checking in (and having to show our passports), I made a comment to Steph about needing to get her passport amended for her new name. The receptionist caught wind of what I was saying and congratulated us on our marriage. What happened next is what I like to call “an advantage” of Steph having to change her name… this is also TIP 1 for Croatian travel. The tip… tell them you are on you honeymoon and you get a free bottle of champagne in your room.

We decided to head out and see the sites since we only had two half days in Zagreb. Our hotel was located to the south, about a 10 minute walk from Jelacic Square, the “Times Square” of Zagreb. Jelacic Square is centered between the Upper and Lower Town areas. Once hitting Jelacic Square we headed slightly northwest to “the cathedral,” as it is known to the locals. The full name of the cathedral is the “Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saintly Kings Stephen and Ladislav.” Neat place but much more cool if it wasn’t undergoing renovation. The scaffolding obstructed the view a bit. After that… we wandered. Without knowing it ended up in the open air market as it was being closed down for the day. It was a really neat atmosphere in this area. We wandered through and headed for Tkalciceva street, a lively area filled with cafés and restaurants. Well, I say restaurants, but Steph and I are still trying to figure this part out on day 6 as I write this (more later).

It was getting to be dinnertime so we headed back to the hotel, cleaned up, and rested for a bit. The rest included dipping into our bottle of champagne the maître Dee brought to our room. It was a Croatian champagne, and it was very good (worth noting later when I talk about the crappy German champagne). All of our sightseeing has been guided by “Rick Steves’ Croatia and Slovenia” book… and to that point, we headed to a small pizza shop called Nokturno, on a side street off of Tkalciceva street for dinner. This is when we realized that eating was somewhat cheap… later to find out finding a place to eat, not worth how cheap it is. At dinner we had three glasses of wine and shared a (fantastic) pizza. Total cost… 60 kn (Kune) or about 12 US dollars.

This brings me to TIP 2 for Croatian travel. The tip… (and this is still a guess) it seems that there are a million outdoor “cafés”, but these cafés only serve coffee and booze, no food. Side note: when I say “coffee” I don’t mean Starbucks, you get an espresso, cappuccino, or maybe a macchiato if you’re lucky. There is no black coffee, much to Steph’s dismay. Food seems hard to come by. Or maybe we just aren’t looking in the right place. I hope to figure this out when we get to Dubrovnik on Day 7. For now, it’s pizza (everywhere), some gelato, and the occasional “fast food”, that is much better for you than US fast food. If you find a Kabap (maybe it’s a Kapbab) eat it. It’s GOOD.

After our pizza we headed back to the hotel and turned in for the night. We were exhausted from our day of travel and disrupted sleep pattern.