Croatia Chronicles
I kicked off the start of my pre-MBA era with six weeks of travel in Europe. We are so back, baby!! After an extremely eventful end to my pre-MBA working life (in which I contracted COVID for the only time and had to miss the company offsite, including a going-away spa retreat from my team...), I convinced my closest pals to escape to Europe with me with some snazzy decks.
And what a start it was. Since I was traveling with Steph, we went to the airport super early. However, this was the peak of Pearson-not-having-its-stuff-together, so our flight got SUPER delayed. We also ended up missing our connecting flight in Frankfurt, so we basically lost our entire first day planned in Zagreb (we were supposed to arrive at 7:30 am!). From what I've heard, Zagreb is nothing to write home about anyway. I just felt bad for Cora, who arrived on time from elsewhere in Europe and had to wait all day for me, Steph, Lisa, and Andrew to land. She even graciously got us all McDonald's for dinner ahead of our long car ride to Plitvice from 8-11pm.
Plitvice
We started the evening by breaking out a tarot reading from ~ Shaman Steph ~. Shortly after we settled in, it started HAILING with giant ice chunks and thunderstorms in JUNE. It was 27ºC and perfectly clear when we landed, so climate change is truly the culprit. And then... the POWER WENT OUT! We were super panicked, especially upon discovering giant mosquitoes in our room. After the crazy travel day though, we fell asleep quickly.
Despite the foreboding start, we were in high spirits on our way to Plitvice. We grabbed some grocery store charcuterie, then headed to the park bright and early (very important to arrive asap: it was absolutely PACKED as we were finishing up, with single-file range of movement). Since it was a rainy day, I don't think we got the full effect of the super blue water. We did get to experience the power of the waterfalls rushing beneath us on the stairs, around us, and above us. Somehow, all the tour groups trodded around in ponchos... did we miss the memo somewhere? I was happy to have my brand-new Arc'teryx jacket, at least.
Plitvice is still blue, but with different shades on an overcast day.
The area around Plitvice is strange because it feels super rural and non-touristy, yet there's a lot of infrastructure set up for tourists (from the guest houses to wooden paths along the falls). There were also cute cheese and honey shacks on the side of the road — more recently, I've seen similar fruit stands in Norway.
Zadar
On the same day (we're nothing if not efficient!), we made our way to Zadar. In a word, Zadar was YOUTHFUL. There were loads of school groups and playgrounds. Zadar feels like a place where people actually live (unlike other touristy places), although I wouldn't call it "liveable" since the lifestyle felt too different from my own.
We enjoyed a fine dining seafood experience by the water for $45 each. The food scene in Croatia was fantastic. We also grabbed gelato, and I liked the tart flavours like yogurt, green apple, and lemon the most.
It felt like we experienced two different days in one day, starting in Plitvice and ending in Zadar. We ended up walking 33,000 steps that day, whew. The weather was MUCH nicer at least — it finally felt like summer! To cap off the evening, we checked out the sea organ, which was a cool public art installation(?) or architectural feature(?) that had a bunch of lights and organ music created by waves lapping against the shore. It seemed like a fun hang-out spot for the locals, too.
The next day, we went to a hipster and aesthetic coffee shop called Coffee & Cake before walking around Zadar. We ended up seeing all the sights within half a day — Zadar is NOT a big town. We explored the Roman Forum, five wells, a couple parks, and got gelato from the same shop as the day prior. The bad weather from Plitvice seemed to have caught up with us, so we ended up going back to the Airbnb to chat over our grocery store charcuterie. We tried grabbing dinner at a spot recommended by our Airbnb host, but were shot down very directly (there seemed to be a pattern here, with super-direct interactions...). We ended up getting more seafood next door before heading to bed. A few of the others stayed up late for some shenanigans, but we were off for a day trip to Dugi Otok at 5:45 am the next day (the ferry even left a minute early!).
The Dugi Otok mistake
Oh boy... Dugi Otok was an adventure. I've come to realize that touristy places are touristy for a reason, and the "off-the-beaten track" hidden gems are often hidden for a reason too. I can partially blame the weather — it was cold, rainy, and unpredictable every day of the trip to this point. But the other issue was that I had vastly overestimated the group's bicycling skills (including my own).
We started in such high spirits, but were quickly worn down by the uphill climb.
The bike ride in Telascica Nature Park was highly traumatic. I should've realized something was amiss when the bike shop owner didn't have a bike small enough for Steph, so he went to fetch his wife's bike for her to use. Or maybe when three out of the five of us started falling sideways while trying to bike...? The experience was almost laughable. We suffered with an insane 30-minute uphill walk with our bikes (because we gave up on actually biking up the hill) to get to the Grpascak viewpoint. I suppose the view looked better in real life than in these pictures. From there, we went to Salt Lake Mir, which—on the flip side—looked a lot better in pictures than it did in real life. I had seen a bunch of cool drone shots highlighting a gradient effect caused by the salt, but the water just looked kinda murky from sea level.
What do you think, were these spots worth the journey?
After making it to the "viewpoints," we had to bike on perilous cobblestones beside the water. We sat by the lake while catching up on Henry's story of successfully catching a pickpocket in Portugal to recover his passport and wallet. My key takeaway was that I needed to buy AirTags ASAP. The whole bike ride was miserable and cold, but at least that meant we weren't sweating too much whenever we had to walk the bikes uphill. I think this was the first activity that truly warranted my Arc'teryx jacket (yay for DWR and pit zips!). We were essentially biking on the main thoroughfares of the island, so someone had to yell "CAR!" whenever one of them passed. Suspiciously, we didn't see any other cyclists on the road. 🙃
For a reprieve, I had booked a private shuttle for us to go from the cycling area of Dugi Otok to Sakuran beach! It's been lauded as the best beach in Croatia, so I excited for us to relax after a strenuous morning. However, the beach ended up being the BIGGEST bait-and-switch. I've come to learn that beaches in Croatia are nothing to write home about (they tend to be super pebbly), but this was on another level. Perhaps because of the overcast weather, we had "the whole beach to ourselves." Truly. Even the tiki bar was closed and seemingly deserted. And there were woodchips, garbage, and pebbles everywhere. In horror, we slowly tramped to the other side of the bay, where we thankfully discovered a pizza shop, which was the ONLY place open in our vicinity. There weren't even any sinks to clean up after our gnarly bike ride (I ended up ruining my mom's eyelet beach cover-up with bicycle grease... sob!). At least there were... portapotties? :\ We had to "wash our hands" in woodchip-infested seawater.
Unfortunately, we couldn't even make a quick getaway! There was only one ferry back to Zadar in the evening, and we were given clear instructions to take the only public transit bus to the ferry dock. I repeat, there is only ONE BUS PER DAY to the ferry, so we were forced to stay at Sakuran beach for five hours. Did I also mention there was pretty much no signal to even plot another potential escape route? I felt so sorry to my friends, who I had essentially trapped on this deserted island. They were good sports though, and understood that planning can be a mixed bag. Alongside fun activities, sometimes, the best intentioned plans go sideways.
We ended up sitting by this singular pizza restaurant all afternoon, chatting and listening to house/techno music. The beach somehow became super photogenic once the sun started shining, and some families came out to frolic on the beach too (seriously, where did they all come from? Most seemed to be locals, other than a pair of tourists who seemed equally disappointed as us). The locals braved the woodchip-water while we kinda just... sat on the side eating our grocery store charcuterie and pizza.
Needless to say, we couldn't get out of there fast enough. All was right in the world by the time we took the car ferry back to Zadar during golden hour though. The sky was clear and the sunset was pretty, although it remained quite windy. We were dropped off at a different ferry port, and negotiated with a Bolt driver to drop us off for a well-earned Italian dinner. Alas, dinner was just spaghetti and pizza, with slow service. It really just wasn't our day.
Trogir and Split
Luckily, the next morning wound up sunny and scorching. We drove to the small town of Trogir. To be honest, it didn't look notably different from Zadar. We gobbled up more delectable seafood here before driving onwards to Split.
Split was definitely a larger city, which I appreciated. The cobblestoned tiles were strangely very slippery! After peering in some churches and palaces by the Riva Promenade, we bounced around for ice cream, gelato, olive oil, and brandy. I wouldn't recommend getting any fruity gelato flavours in Croatia. They were all super sour, and the orange flavour tasted like Emergen-C (which is great for medicine, but not for gelato).
For dinner, we got cevapi sandwiches! This brought me back to the Serbia case comp days. We ate it on the go while walking up to Marjan Hill for sunset. I would definitely recommend making the trek — the view was aesthetic and pretty.
That evening, we sat by Riva Promenade. The vibe was super lively and young. Steph, Lisa, and Cora even got approached by a club promoter about entering a club for free! We didn't take him up for it, instead chatting and reflecting along the water. When I look back on this trip, I'll remember the silly meme-y sayings like, "Waaaowww, da mooooon!"
It's called efficiency, hunny.
Party (or not) in Hvar
The next morning, we took a car ferry to the little "Venetian" town of Stari Grad in Hvar. The canals were tiny though! I started to feel like all the towns in Croatia are pretty much the same — unlike places like (ahem) Switzerland or Italy, with different influences and topography, Croatia was the epitome of the phrase, "You can copy my homework; just change it up a little." After powering through a super long tunnel, we found ourselves at Ivan Dolac beach. Touted as the "best beach in Hvar," we were relieved to discover that it delivered! The water was refreshing, clear, and bright... but that might have also been a function of the gorgeous weather that day. From there, we hopped to Malo Zarace beach. It was a worse beach (although really, all the beaches in Croatia are a bit pebbly) but had a great viewpoint. Despite being an island, the water in Hvar is very hard and surprisingly dry. The pebbly beaches were too rough to trod on barefoot, but the rocks were also so small that they'd permeate our water shoes. Yuck!
Aesthetic lavender shots, courtesy of @naisooli.
After making a pitstop at the airbnb, we decided to send it for Brusje at golden hour. The pictures turned out very aesthetic, but the lavender was really just on the side of the road. Because we went early in the season and chaotically tried chasing the last of the sunshine, no one else was there! I imagine a less maximizing travel group would've skipped this stop altogether.
For dinner, we went to Lungo Mare for traditional Croatian fare! We had delicious grilled lamb, fish soup, gnocchi, and monkfish carpaccio. It was so good that we decided to go again the next day, ordering ahead to try their famous peka (meat and potatoes cooled in a stone pot with charcoal for 12 hours). Would recommend — it was tender, but definitely too big for the five of us.
The next day, we went on a famed blue cave tour! I would definitely recommend booking one in Hvar. We had an activity-filled day, and it was probably the highlight of the trip. These were our stops:
- We started off by swimming in a calm and empty blue lagoon.
- Stiniva beach — this required a loooong swim over. Make sure you're a strong enough swimmer. It was ranked as Croatia's top beach in 2016, but I thought it looked better in pictures than reality. The washroom at this beach was surprisingly nice, but the rocky beach really hurt my toes.
- A rock formation called "two legs " — this place had a lot of fish and jellyfish. I got stung twice on my left side — maybe that's the hidden meaning of the moniker?
- Pritiscina — this was the skipper's favourite stop! The water here was super light green with pretty rocks. It was nice, warm, and secluded.
- And finally... the blue cave! We ended here right before high tide. It was super pretty and super blue, indeed. Around the area, we even saw a couple baby dolphins! Unfortunately, they seemed a little scared.
- To cap off the day, we visited the Pakleni islands for "lunch" from 4:30-6:30 pm. We mostly stayed at a beach bar with our boat tour companions. It was fun to socialize with Ines from Portugal and a couple named Danny and Rami from Toronto. We also saw a wedding reception happen here!
So green and so blue!
After a long day on the boat, do you think we went to rest? Do you even KNOW this group?? Of course not! We went to visit the Spanish Fortress for sunset. Since we could see the view from the parking lot, we didn't bother paying to go in. Unlike yacht-weekers, we were definitely spent from our busy day of sightseeing and went back to the Airbnb after dinner. No Carpe Diem for us!
The road to Dubrovnik
After taking the car ferry back to Split, we drove to Klis Fortress (otherwise known as Mereen in Game of Thrones). Perhaps it's because I've never watched GoT, but I found the place underwhelming. It reminded me of fortresses in Canada, like the Battleford Museum or Halifax Citadel. After walking around alongside guided audio tour groups, we hastily departed. I had researched a bunch of stops along the way to Dubrovnik, but we were a bit antsy to arrive in time for our car drop-off. We ended up just driving by places like the Omis Pirate Town (can confirm, it looked pirate-y) and Modro Oko Lake (which turned out to be super small, and didn't even show up on Google Maps).
We DID decide to stop in Mali Ston for an oyster lunch, per the recommendation of our Airbnb host in Split. Apparently, this is the town with a bunch of oyster farms. The food was sooo good and came SUPER fast! Beyond the oysters, I would definitely recommend the bread, grilled squid, and black squid ink risotto, too.
Stunning! Gorgeous! I am 99% sure that these photos were not my own.
By the time we arrived in Dubrovnik, we made our way to the airbnb in the heart of the Old Town. Dubrovnik was so lively, especially since we stayed within the city walls! Since we were pooped after a day of driving, we got seafood platters to go and chilled at the Airbnb. The fried seafood was a bit mid after Mali Ston.
Destination: Dubrovnik
Unlike the other towns in Croatia, Dubrovnik definitely felt distinct. There were Asian tourists and cats everywhere. A bell would ring every half hour-ish — it was always 8-10 minutes late; never on time (and definitely woke us up in the morning). There were also a ton of bats and pigeons out in the daylight, which added a sense of foreboding (alongside the walls closing in on us). Luckily there were a bunch of cute pomeranians to balance things out. By 2022, Dubrovnik was already the third most over-touristed place in the world (after Iceland and the Bahamas), and has only exploded in the intervening years. While Dubrovnik only has 800 residents in the old town, it explodes with 1.5 million tourists during the high season!
Our first activity in Dubrovnik was a kayaking excursion to Lokrum Island! It was uninhabited and hard to access. Since we had a group of five, we initially planned for Andrew to be paired with a stranger. However, as soon as we discovered that the fifth person would get paired with Rafael, a hulking Brazilian military man, we made a game-time decision and realized that I would be best suited to get dragged along by him. You'd think that I would've been able to chill with Rafael at the helm, right? Wrong!! Rafael seemed to think this was a kayaking race, because we quickly zoomed in front of the rest of the group. Our shredded kayaking guide (Christian) even had to call us to slow down. The kayaks brought us to Pigeon's Cave (dark, bat-filled) and Cave beach. The latter had crystal clear water. Some people saw starfish and other cute aquatic life. Unfortunately, my friends were a bit hungover and I was dying after the crazy arm work-out. We mostly chilled by the rocks, fending off exhaustion from our self-imposed itinerary. We capped off the day with tapas (would definitely recommend trying smoked mussels).
The next day, we finally decided to sleep in a little. Andrew made us all soup for breakfast, which we ate with pastries at a cafe outside the wall. This brought us to Srd Hill for some #views. We were shocked to see how far we kayaked the previous day!
The rest of the day was spent eating gelato (Aroma has the best in Croatia), innovative nachos (the nacho toppings here were placed as a dip at the bottom, with the chips stuck on top to prevent them from getting soggy — why isn't it done like this elsewhere?!), and a restaurant called Proto. We had fancy oysters and wine-reduction escargot. We later discovered this restaurant was on the Michelin guide, which checked out.
Before we knew it, it was the end of our Croatian adventure. Waaah. Steph, Andrew, and Lisa went back to work (in fact, all of them were starting new jobs! Ahh, tbt 2022 job market), while Cora and I were westward bound, ready to connect with Tiffany in Slovenia!
Trip dates: June 6-17, 2022