Tag: Croatia

Croatia Day 12: Crikvenica

That’s it, our last day in Croatia. I felt a penetrating sadness that we must leave. I fell in love in Croatia – there’s no doubt about that.
As our farewell to Croatia, we went to Crikvenica (15 km from Senj) which was, to be honest, not very attractive to me.

In the evning we went for a walk round Senj, to have a final goodbye with the sea, warm breezes, holiday carefree attitudes and the charm of Croatia.

Croatia Day 11: Zadar and Nin

Our Croatia trip was getting to the end so this was almost the last chance to see more of the country’s beauty. This time we headed south, to Zadar (centre of Dalmatia) and Nin (the town with the smallest cathedral on Earth).

Zadar is an amazing place. Full of tourists and full of richmen on their spectacular, jaw-dropping yachts. The old part of the city is also magnificent, it looks really old, like from ancient Roman times.

As most of Croatian towns, Zadar also had a tower to climb. I consider tower-climbing as a must on a tourist’s checklist.

Except for the view of red roofs, what was special in the city was the see organ. I’ve never seen or heard anything like that and I found it mesmerising! The waves press the water into the organ holes playing a tune of magical tone. It sounds strange, like a cacophony a bit, yet it made me want to stay there for hours (Radek needed to  hurry me because I didn’t want to leave the place). I wonder if it’s possible to get hypnotised by that sound. If you are interessted by my description, check out the YT video that shows the place.

In the end, I bowed to Radek and left the enchanting see organ and we drove to Nin. Nin is very small and not so swarmed by tourists. I liked that! We spent there lovely 3 hours, walking around and having a lunch.

Croatia Day 9: Krk Island

Krk is one of the biggest Adriatic islands and we had been recommended to go and see it on our previous Croatia trip in 2009. Krk is also well known for its vineyard – something untypical for the region we stayed in.

We visited 4 places on the island: Vrbnik, Krk, Baška, Čižići mud beach.

What Radek grabs in hand is olive oil, made locally on the island. In general, before we even reached the centre of Vrbnik, we visited a vineyard called Katunar where we supplied ourselves with Croatian wine of many sorts.

Then we continued our wine cellars trip in the town of Vrbnik. In principle, wine was sold every 2 meters, so it took us really long time to move along the streets. I particularly liked one elderly man who was very very friendly with us and made us taste everything he had in stock. He also told some stories about how wine is made and what is important in wine production. Lovely.

Our next destination was Krk – the biggest city on the island. We strolled around the place, but it was relatively deserted due to the siesta hours. Krk has a very nice marina, as well as the old part of the city, so we just strolled around, having a cup of iced cofee every now and then.

Spot number three on Krk’s map was Baška. It’s a very small town, yet very very crowded with tourists. The central point in Baškais undoubtedly beach and it’s adjacent promenade. We sunbathed and bathed in the sea. The main attraction for us was a floating wheel carried after a motorboat. Unfortunately, I didn’t take part in the ride (I didn’t have any bathing suit), but all the guys were delighted. Such a pity that no one fell down to the water…

And at last we arrived at Čižići mud beach. The sun was already low over the horizon and there were not so many people around. Maybe it’s good that few saw what guys did on that beach 🙂

Ps – If you ever wonder how the mud smells… The answer is – putrid.

Croatia Day 8: Senj Summer Festival

Once a year Senj hosts lots of people from all over Croatia (and all over the world as tourists) for the summer festival. What happens at that day is a huge costume parade. Additions to the parade comprise of: rivers of alcohol, … and I cannot think of anything more.

This year’s parade was also accompanied by a Bura winter. It’s a local wind that can be really bothersome (especially for tourists who hope for a perfect weather on their holidays). It made the street decorations fly unrulily.

When the parade started we were unprepared for the amount of participants. It was a real crowd and multitude of fancy dressed people. There was no leading theme (except for alcohol) and it was a real pleasure to have a look at all those disguise ideas. on top of that, people had real fun taking part in the parade (again – alcohol could have something to do with that) and it was fun watching it.

We didn’t stay till the end, the wind was getting really nasty and I was cold. We finished the day by having a look at a beautiful sunset over Senj.

Croatia Day 6: Hiking Rossijevo sklonište 1580 m

The next day we went hiking again. We started from Alan (yep, we reached it the easier way – by car). We wanted to do a mild ascent, like 2-3 hours of walking. We looked at a map and chose one of the routes that looked suitably.

We walked and walked and walked. Up, down, up, down… No sign of the turn right we saw on the map. At some point I got pretty tired and started being a bit anxious that we lost our way. But no, we didn’t. It turned out that the route we reckoned to be for 10 km was a 20 km one.

At some point we reached a summit we were aiming for. It was actually pretty cool, with a real mountain shelter inside, equipped with food, stove, dice and rainwater.

By the shelter we met a group of spelaeologists from Bulgaria who were there on a caving expedition. Wow, that’s exciting. We talked to them for a while and went back to Alan. We wanted to reach our car before the sunset. You can find the route on my Endomondo.

Croatia Day 6: Canoeing trip

The next day was supposed to be an action-packed one. I am writing „was supposed to”, because the canoeing trip we signed up for was not so thrilling as we thought it would be.

Pros:
– fantastic, clear, sweet water
– lovely views
– canoeing practice
Cons:
– a bit boring
– too many pauses

All in all I don’t regret taking part in the venue, but the next time I will make sure that the river is raging enough.

Croatia Day 5: Alan

Alan threw a gauntlet in my face so I could not ignore this provocation! „I will climb you, Alan” – that was my only thought from the moment I had to turn back in the middle of the route. And I made my promise, I came back.

There is not so much to talk about the route. Rocky mountains are the best!
But I have to say that although I did conquer Alan, I am not entirely sure who won the battle… It turned out that Alan is not so much a summit, rather a mountain shelter that can be reached by car. The shelter workers were very surprised that anyone chose to reach it on foot…
Anyhow, it turned out that from Alan all hiking roads begin, so we had to chose a relatively short one (since we were already tired after hiking a total ascent of 1101 m). We were recommended to climb on Buljma and we did. The views… spectacular.

It was a very pleasant moment – to be on the top of the mountain, to feel the cold breeze, to watch the islands just like on the map. Alan, you were a worthy opponent.

Croatia Day 4: Opatija and Rijeka

On Monday we went to see two lovely points: Opatija nad Rijeka.

Opatija is an incredible place. It’s a small city at the seaside, often called as Croatian Riviera. It really is very posh and it shows. Classy restaurants, spectacular monuments, expensive super cars and chic boutiques – that’s an ordinary landscape of Opatija.

We did a tour round the spot and had a compulsory bath in the sea. A pretty high springboard occurred to be the top of the pops.

Rijeka, unlike Opatija, is not a very tourist place in my opinion, but it has some lovely spots as well.
We started by walking in the city centre and then went to see the port and have a dinner in one of the restaurants.

Refreshed by an excellent food, we set out on a trip to the castle. Yes, yes it was a trip comparable to Frodo’s one to Mordor… All right, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but we found it really surprising that climbing a couple of stairs was such an effort for us. But almost always when one climbs up – one will be rewarded by nice views.

Croatia Day 3: Plitvička Jezera and Kuterevo

On Sunday we set out to Plitvička Jezera (Plitvice Lakes). This was our main destination – the National Park of Croatia and, I would say, the most famous place of the country. And well, it’s fame is undoubtedly merited. To me this was the day with the best views from the whole Croatia trip.

We made the long tour round Plitvice on foot with the exception of traversing the lake with a ship. The green is ubiquitous, it’s kind of amazing how many shades of this colour we have seen.

After Plitvice Lakes we headed to Kuterevo. It’s a small village I read about in a travel guide. It’s situated almost at the end of everything – really lovely and isolated place. It’s a must see point if you are in the area. Why so? It’s the residence of abandoned bears found in National Parks of Croatia. That’s right – „bear orphanages” – they exist!
The place is special not only because of the prevailing cuteness of baby bears. It’s managed by the volunteers from all over the world – one might think it became a Bohemia place for contemporary youth. The uniqueness expresses itself almost at very step there – starting from the fact that when we reached the place we were welcomed and guided in a familiar atmosphere by a young Croatian girl, through the presence of totems, signs, monuments, installations all over the place done by teh volunteers and ending on the souvenir shop where one can buy hand-made goodies (done by the youth of course). It’s a very original place.