Dubrovnik, Croatia

First day in Dubrovnik was a beach day. We were staying in Kupari 6km south which we think may have been a swanky resort in its day, but has seen much better days. The "Homeland War" obviously took its toll on the sea front hotels:


Still, it's freed up what was a private beach for the locals and us! So we had a lovely sunbathe and swim in the incredibly clear waters of the Adriatic. Dubrovnik's sea must be seen; it brings new meaning to crystal clear.

Don't think we've forgotten the drink challenge, oh no! In the old town that evening, Ben got his grubby mitts on some Pelinkovac, the official Croatian drink on the list. And bitter only goes some way to describe it!


Day 45 of our travels was spent in Dubrovnik's old town, again in quite sweltering heat. Spent a couple of hours up on the city walls learning about its history and how it too has largely had to be rebuilt after the war. UNESCO coming to the rescue with the cash and new roof tiles. The old walls were so well built, they still managed to protect the inhabitants from modern artillery.


And after being up there in the heat, it was ice cream o'clock:

As an extra note, ice cream o'clock comes from Slovenia where the natives are rarely to be seen without one. How do they stay so slim?!

We also dropped in on Europe's third oldest pharmacy. It's been in continuous operation since the 1300s, unfortunately we didn't need any drugs.

When we returned to our tent it had developed a bad case of dandruff, on later inspection this turned out to be forest fire ash. The clio was also covered, but some seriously strong breezes in the night (all of which were warm) meant everything was clean (by our standards) by the morning ready for Montenegro!

Split

We got up early and broke camp. Seriously, we were driving by about 9.15! We had plans to spend the night in Bosnia, and wanted to see Split first.
A short drive down the coast later we headed straight for Diocletian's Palace. For those without an in-depth knowledge of 3rd century history he was a Roman Emperor from the point at which they decided to have 4 emperors. He chose Split as his retirement place, and built a rather large garrisoned palace there, which has to some extent survived. He was one of the last to persecute the Christians so it is with some irony that not only are there lots of christian marks on the building blocks, but his mausoleum was turned into a cathedral in the 7th century.

We had a good wander around his basement as well:

Ben tried to make Joanna go to the Archaeological Museum, but it was shut due to being Sunday. So we just had to poke our heads through the bars.

Also shut on Sundays is Bosnia. Well, to those who need to buy special car insurance on the border. Bugger. We were trying to get to Mostar where the men of the town were doing their annual jumping off the famous bridge to impress their lady friends. Ben'll have to wait till next year. So we back tracked a few miles to a lovely seaside resort by the name of Gradac which really wasn't too much of a hardship. We thought there was going to be no room at the inn, but in the end we didn't do too badly with one of the last rooms in town:

For kiwis reading, yes, Joanna has been listening to a little too much Fred Dagg.

Next day, to Bosnia & beyond...

Trogir

From Plitvisčke we headed on down the coast, stopping for lunch in Zadar. Nice old town, and we were happy to find a park in the shade.

A bit of pizza and sweating later we swapped drivers and Ben drove almost to Split, along some amazing coastlines. Talk about scenic. Joanna didn't sleep through too much of it (and she deserves her afternoon naps). And besides, there's over 1000 islands, the odd one missed won't be noticed... Our campsite coincided with a UNESCO site just north of Split at a place called Trogir. We've since discovered virtually everything here is a UNESCO site...
We set up camp in the mad heat and went for a swim on the beach at the campsite. Lovely. Although the water had a bit much floating vegetation, and Ben had just got paranoid about sea-urchins after reading the Lonely Planet, so sandals got a bit wet.

Next day we made it into Trogir, and started investigating what made it UNESCO worthy. Except it was 40C. Seriously. We were hoping for sea breezes, but there was nothing. We have since spotted a cloud in Croatia today, but it was very small. Apparently it's over 40 days since it last rained here.
So much sweating was done, but we discovered Trogir is an island (we'd walked over the bridge and wandered about a bit before we realised), settled by the Greeks, but made famous by the Romans for its marble & marble artisans. They've kept at it, so there's great buildings from the 9th-19th centuries still in good shape.

Anyway, dead pretty, here's a couple of pics of the marble stuff:

Plitvicke Lakes, Croatia

Whilst in Maribor, we caught up with Bianca & Brett, who were passing through Slovenia on a wee break. Had a huge dinner, but still couldn't find Ben the Slovenian national drink, despite it being top of the menu. Mission failed.

So we headed out of Slovenia to Croatia, our first non EU country. We're getting used to the Croatian Kuna which is taking some brain power after the simple Euro. After a short walk around Zagreb, we made for the most famous Croatian national park, Plitvicke. On the way there, we stopped so Ben could chat to a nice young lady who was minding some tanks in Karlovac. He got his fill of (recent) war history even though some of the equipment looked like it had been used in the second world war as well. We also started noticing the shrapnel damage to buildings along the road.

We arrived in Plitvicke and set up camp. Ben achieved instant success with a Croatian National Drink:


The next day we set out to explore the Jezera, as the locals call Lakes. Ben continued to enjoy his game of number plate scrabble ... and in the car park it got really interesting ... there was no Ireland, Turkey, Portugal or Russia but pretty much everything inbetween. Wow.

Joanna managed to drag Ben (while containing her own excitement) off to see the lakes - which rightly deserve their UNESCO status. Here's a few photos from around the park:


Waterfall, was, well, Big. In Croatian a waterfall is a Slap.

Unfortunately there was no swimming allowed, despite the Lakes' pleading with us to jump in. It's been quite hot in Croatia. We're yet to see a cloud or experience a day less than 35C.