Monday, November 21, 2011

Croatia: Day IV (Split)

Monday, July 18th:

St. Dominius Cathedral in Diocletian's Palace:


            A very long, at times frustrating, but still fascinating day we had today. The day started with a long, four-hour drive from Dubrovnik to Split, Croatia. Along the way we passed a tiny strip of about twenty miles of coastline that belongs to the nation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was given to the country as concessions to the Bosnian war for transit and as a link to the sea. Both Max and I thought it was cool that we were in Bosnia, so we took pictures of ourselves there before continuing back into Croatia for the rest of the drive. One highlight of the drive was the Great Wall of Croatia, a mysterious medieval wall on one of the Dalmatian islands off the coast that resembles the wall of greater namesake in the far-east.

The Great Wall of Croatia:


            We did have one hilarious gaffe on our drive that provided further adventure. Since the country is still developing and building new highways our GPS device did not know some of the roads we were driving on existed. We followed signs to Split before we came to a dead-end at an unconstructed road. We decided to try it anyways and off-roaded for about a mile before finding the road again, only we were on the wrong side of a concrete barrier. Shortly after contemplating trying to move the barriers we had to backtrack across the construction site to find the way around. It is probably a good thing we did, because we discovered that there was a toll-highway we needed to get a ticket for on the other side. This highway was pretty awesome though, as it was five-lanes wide and had a speed limit of one hundred forty-five kilometers (roughly one hundred miles-per-hour)! We sped along to Split and arrived at the port city in no time after that.

Max in Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina:


            We checked in to our hostel for the night, the Split Beach Hostel, and went straight to Bacvice Beach, named one of the top party beaches in Croatia. We got lunch here at this beach lined with clubs and restaurants. We sat next to the water and went swimming while enjoying some Leo Dicaprio Pizza (ham and mushrooms) at Pizzeria Karaka. We also drank some Karlovacko draught beer and hung out until we needed to return the car.

Bacvice Beach:


            The next adventure began when we had to find the dealer to return our rental car. We had arranged to drop off the car in Split but the rental shop was in a very difficult-to-reach location near the walled-in old city center of Split. After driving the wrong way down several one-way streets and me walking some of them on foot to get directions, we finally dropped the car off. This was not without issue, however, as someone had stolen one of our hubcaps. Fifty Euros later, we angrily left the rental car dealer to make our way to the old city.

The Old West Gate to Diocletian's Palace:


            The Old City of Split is basically the ruins of a giant Roman palace, Diocletian’s Palace. We walked around this area for a while, exploring People’s Square, St. Dominius Cathedral, the Temple of Jupiter, and the basement halls of Diocletian’s Palace. We also climbed to the top of the bell tower of St. Dominius Cathedral to see the views of the port and the surrounding mountains that it offered. The area is very small but very charming and offers a glimpse into the Roman lifestyle that we will soon experience in Rome, Italy! We walked around the adjacent markets before heading back to Bacvice beach for another swim and more Karlovacko. We hung out there before getting dinner at the same restaurant as before, Pizzeria Karaka. This time I had a Captain Nemo salad with bacon and squid.

Ruins of the East Gate of Diocletian's Palace:


            We hung out at the beach for a while and explored the scene before heading back fairly early for some rest. This hostel was one of the most uncomfortable of the trip because there was no air conditioning and there was barely even a window offering a light breeze in the 80+ degree heat! We also had some problems with obnoxious Danish neighbors who kept us up half the night before our very early morning flight to Rome, Italy. It didn’t help also that there was no toilet paper, no hot water, and only one bed for the two of us. Hopefully our sleeping situations will improve when we get to Italy! Croatia is a beautiful country with some great things to do and see, and I would love to return here in the future to see how quickly it is developing and improving its amenities.

Zbogom Croatia!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Croatia: Day III (Dubrovnik) - Montenegro: Day I (Kotor, Budva, Lovćen National Park)

Sunday, July 17th:

St. George's Island at Perast, Montenegro


            Today Max and I woke up and said goodbye to Chris before we rented a Volkswagen Passat for our drive down to Montenegro for the day. We drove down to the Old City of Dubrovnik first to do the hour-long walk around the city walls. This was one of the most beautiful days of my entire trip so far, but also the hottest as it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit! The walk around the city walls was really awesome, but we hurried through it a little bit because we wanted to get down to Montenegro. There was a ton of traffic at the border and I had to offer up some extra money for agriculture taxes, but we were across the border in no time. The Balkan Mountains around us became more jagged and taller with each passing kilometer, and I stopped all the time to take pictures of the beauty.We also passed some scenic old cities such as Perast and Herceg Novi, but we did not stop for more than a picture.

St. Lawrence Fort from Atop Fort Minceta on the Dubrovnik City Walls:


            Max took a short nap while I drove around the Bay of Risan and the Bay of Kotor, and we arrived at the Old City of Kotor at around noon. This city is another medieval walled-in city of old, but it is smaller than Dubrovnik. It does not lack Dubrovnik’s beauty, however, because Kotor is tucked in the biggest fjord in Southern Europe, and is surrounded by tall mountains on each side. We walked around the city for a little while, exploring some of the small churches, before we stopped to have some lunch at a place called Scorpio Caffe. I went a little wild here and tried the Shark Medallions in Orange Sauce which was very good, and we also drank a local beer called Niksicko. After lunch we went inside a tiny church called St. Luca’s before we decided to climb the 1300+ steps up to St. John’s Fortress. The Fortress is over 850 feet above the city of Kotor and was built to protect it from invaders.

The Walls of Kotor:


            The climb was not very rigorous, but it sure felt pretty tough in the sweltering heat. We had to take a lot of water breaks, and thank God I brought my camelback backpack filled with water. We finished it by the top, but boy was the climb worth it. The top of St. John’s Fortress will stick in my mind forever as one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen (and I had another that trumped it later in the day!). We descended slowly before we left Kotor to drive farther down the coast to another medieval walled-in city called Budva. The drive did not take very long, and we quickly noticed how much of a beach vacation destination Budva was. There were tents set up along all the beaches and the traffic was heavier for sure.

St. John's Fortress Above Kotor:


The View from the Top of St. John's Fortress:


            We drove passed Budva down the coast farther a ways before we found a tiny island connected by a small foot causeway called Sveti Stefan. This island has been turned into a resort, and it sure looks funny and cute jutting out into the Adriatic and covered with old Mediterranean buildings. We tried to walk out to the island but we were not allowed unless we were a resort guest, or we had restaurant reservations. We hopped back into the car and made the rather quick decision to drive way out of our way to Lovćen National Park. The drive to Lovćen was over an hour out of the way in both directions, but it was one of the most scenic drives of my life. Switchbacks climbed higher and higher up the mountains and breathtaking views of the coast, the Old City of Budva, and Sveti Stefan existed on every corner. We finally got over the first row of mountains before driving through the old capital of Montenegro, Cetinje. It was a pretty small city, and once again we were climbing, this time into Lovćen National Park.

Sveti Stefan:


Budva from the Climb to Cetinje:


            We got there very late in the day, and the weather was quite temperate on our drive up to Jezerski Mountain. The park information was closed, so we had to feel our way to the top, but I was on a mission. I had heard about a mausoleum that was built atop this National Park, and I was determined to find it. We passed multiple broken-down buses on our drive but we made it up just before the mausoleum was closing for visitors for the day. Thank God we came up here, because this trumps St. John’s Fortress as the most stunning sight my eyes had ever seen. The view at the top of Jezerski Mountain offers miles and miles of untouched mountains above the clouds in all directions. What a beautiful country Montenegro is! Max and I remained up here for a while and also went inside the Njegos Mausoleum to visit the bronze statues inside and the tomb of Njegos before heading back down. On the ride down we offered a ride to three backpackers who were planning to sleep up there but found out it was forbidden. The trio each hailed from one of Austria, Poland, and Spain, and were quite nice on our drive back down (which was much quicker than going up) to Budva.

The View Atop Jezerski Mountain in Lovćen National Park:


            We got to Budva famished for dinner, so we found the nearest parking spot on the main strip before looking for some food. Little did we know that our parking spot was a metered spot, but I will get to that soon. We walked through the Old City of Budva for a little while before settling on a place called Konoba Stari Grad right on the beach. I ate some absolutely wonderful Grilled Octopus here and Risotto with Sea Fruits while we both drank some local beer. The Octopus was served with head and all, and it became a favorite of my trip immediately! I don’t know what I would do without seafood in my life. After dinner we were thoroughly tired from our long day, and knew we had a long drive left, so we quickly walked by the Citadel of Budva before going to find our car.

The Budva Citadel at Night:


            When we got to our parking space, our car was missing. We looked around for a while before noticing a sign showing a tow-truck towing a car, so we went to find police to figure out the deal. The local policemen laughed at us, told us it would be two-hundred euro to get back, but then said it was merely twenty euro and that we had to only walk about a kilometer to retrieve the car from a nearby lot. We walked to the lot and an argument ensued between myself and the clerk, and it was only made worse by the language barrier. After asking a cop nearby if my two-hundred euro bill was counterfeit or not, he finally accepted it and we were on our way. The drive back home was fairly uneventful and quick, and both of us crashed in bed at around 2am. What an amazing, crazy, and awesome adventure! Tomorrow we are off to Split, a four hour drive to the North.

The Adriatic Coast at Budva and Sveti Stefan from the Climb to Cetinje: