Month: August 2021

Our next stop was Zadar, our first town in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and a very pleasant 4 hr ferry ride from Pula. Our apartment was a 15 minute walk from the old town. Zadar was heavily damaged in WWII (and again in the ‘homeland’ war in the 1990s), and is an odd mix of old and new, where new is mostly really ugly/basic buildings from the 50s/60s.

Speaking of the ‘homeland’ war: that’s the current politically correct term for that war that occurred here in the 1990s, according to one of our tour guides. Previously known as the “War of Independence”, it’s all pretty confusing to the outside world. I also asked many of our various tour guides what Croatians think about Tito, and all seemed to like him, but also said ‘it’s complicated’, and it depends on what region you are from. It sounds like he did a lot of good things for Yugoslavia, and some bad things too.

Besides wandering around the old town, activities in Zadar included a great sunset sail, a bike ride around Ugljan island (a short ferry ride from Zadar), and Christine making an amazing dinner with the fresh truffles we bought in Istria.

One of the ‘must do’ places to go in Croatia is Plitvice Lakes National Park. I agree it’s pretty special, but it was REALLY crowded. Just like many national parks in the USA, August is the wrong time of the year to go. But what can you do. We should have spent the night outside the park and gone early in the morning before all the tour groups arrive.

Next stop is was Šibenik, normally a 1.5 hour bus ride from Zadar, but 2.5 hours due to peak season traffic. Šibenik was the most picturesque town so far, and we had the best AirBNB of the trip (so far). We loved being right in the heart of a 500 year old city.

Other activities in Šibenik included a fantastic 60km guided eBike ride all around the region, and we took a ferry to Zlarin island to swim/snorkel. Speaking of snorkeling: there are no reefs in Croatia, so the snorkeling is not great, but the water is so amazingly clear that you can see everything there is to see very well. We saw tons of sea cucumbers, urchins, and lots of small fish at Zlarin.

Full set of photos is here. Next stop: 2hr bus ride to Split.

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After our time in Zagreb we took a bus to Pula, the largest town in the Istria region of Croatia. Istria has a lot of Italian influences, especially in the food, and everyone must study Italian in school.

We stayed 1 block from Pula’s 2000 year old Roman Arena. It was really cool to walk past it every day. They even do gladiator shows there twice a week. We had a number of great meals in Istria, the best being at a tiny place called Backyard, which is literally the chefs backyard, and has about 7 small tables.

We rented a car for two days to explore the rest of Istria, and visited the coastal towns of Rovinj and Porec, the medieval towns of Groznjan and Motovun, and the ruins of Pietrapelosa Castle and Dvigrad. The rental car was a bright orange Renault Clio, a great little car, but crazy expensive ($215/day) this summer due to the COVID-induced rental car shortages.

We went truffle hunting in Buzet with the cutest truffle dogs (no one uses pigs here), and only found 1 truffle. It has been a very dry August, so not a great season for truffles.

While Christine did a pasta making class, I did a mountain bike tour of the area, and it turned out my tour guide is one of the gladiators! He swears that the fights are not rigged, and that they do sometimes get hurt. Here is a clip from YouTube. We also did a kayaking trip to a nearby island that is part of Brijuni National Park.

Full set of photos are here.

Next stop, Zadar.

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We decided to book a trip to Croatia to escape California fire season. Unfortunately we booked it 3 days too late, as 3 days before we were scheduled to fly out a 2000 acre fire broke out about 5 miles from our house, and we almost had to evacuate. Also, the Dixie fire, the largest fire in California history, is about 90 miles north of our place, and will likely be smoking out most of northern California for the next couple months.

Our first week in Croatia was spent in a nice AirBNB ten minute walk east of the city center ($55/night). (Map). As Croatia has only 4 million people (about the same as the state of Oklahoma), they do not expect anyone to speak their language, and its easy to get around with English (or German).

My biggest surprise about Zagreb was that there was a big earthquake here in 2020, and many historic buildings and museums are still closed and under construction. We had no clue! The earthquake happened 3 days after the world went into COVID lockdown, and only 1 person died, so maybe its not surprising that that it did not get much news coverage in the US. But unfortunately several of the top sites like the main cathedral, art gallery, and opera house are all still closed for repairs.

Zagreb must be one of the cleanest capital cities in the world. Absolutely no trash or homeless anywhere to be seen (at least in the city center). Quite a bit of graffiti, but thats all. Fantastic, cheap, clean public transit that goes everywhere, and very little noise or traffic (at least in August, when apparently much of the city heads for the coast). The city is also very green, with tons of well maintained flower beds everywhere, including a nice city maintained rose garden right in front of our apartment building,

Zagreb has an amazing cafe culture, and it seems like there is a cafe on almost every block. They are mostly open from 7am till 11pm, and serve mainly coffee in the morning, and mainly beer from 11am till 11pm, tho all types of beverages/spirits are available. Local beers typically cost $2.50-$3 dollars for a .5 liter bottle. My favorite local beer is Karlovačko, a Czech style Pilsner. Most cafes do not sell any food at all (not even pastries!), as apparently that requires a special license that most cafes do not have.

It was quite hot while we were here, with a high of 90-96F everyday. Our AirBNB had AC, but none of the museums, cafes, or restaurants did. But the restaurants and cafes all have 90% of their tables outside in the summer anyway (true before COVID too), so AC would not matter. There were very few tourists here, though it was not clear to me if that was due to COVID, or due to people avoid Zagreb in August due to the heat.

Due to the heat and jet lag, we had a slow, relaxed first week. I typically did a bit of exploring in the morning, hung around the apartment and read/napped in the afternoon, and then went out in the evening for a hot, sweaty dinner.

My favorite museums included the Museum of Broken Relationships, The Croatian Museum of Naive Art, and the Modern Gallery. Our favorite Restaurant was Restoran Uspinjaca at the foot of the world’s shortest funicular (only 66 meters long). The best bar we found was called Alcatraz, an actual dive bar on the inside (but inside of bars are still closed).

Speaking of COVID, luckily there is no Delta variant spike here (yet), so the spike of COVID stress at home is not here. But they are also still more locked down than in most of the US. Indoor bars / nightclubs are still closed, and no indoor gatherings of more than 50 people are allowed. Masks are still required indoors and on public transit, and I’d say about 80% of the locals seem to be following the rules in Zagreb. But, every local we talked to claimed the government was lying to them and that they did not need the mitigation measures.

Our favorite AirBNB experience was a food tour with Luka. We were able to try the local specialty, Strukli, which is a phyllo-like pastry stuffed with creamy cheese and sweet or savory fillings. We also did a day trip to a couple castles and wine tasting with ‘Ned’ which was so-so, but Ned introduced us to a wide variety of 70’s-80s Croatia Rock on the drive back.

Typical Zagreb street scenes are below. You can see the streets were pretty empty.

Full Set of photos are here. Next taking a bus to Pula.