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Krka

Friday, June 26th, 2009

That’s not a spelling mistake, but it is the name of a national park here in Croatia. It may be short on vowels, but not on views. After a few days of rain in Dubrovnik, we headed up the coast to visit Split and Trogir. The weather finally cleared up and we had some great sunshine on the waterfalls of Krka. Here’s one of the many throughout the park.

blog-krka.JPG

Posted in Croatia, Travel | 2 Comments »

Baked

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

We’ve been making our way along the Dalmation coast and spent the last few days in Dubrovnik in the very south of Croatia.  As we drove along the rocky shore and spent a day at Lapad Bay, we’ve noticed something about Europeans on holiday.  I’ve come to believe that either there is a different sun here or they haven’t heard the news about skin cancer yet.  It’s incredible that any flat stretch of concrete next to the water will invariably have people sunbaking, er… sunbathing, and in as little swimwear as possible.  I have never seen so many seriously sunburned people since we got to Greece, Italy, and Croatia.

The coastline is lovely, so I understand their desire to be near it.  However, a little SPF 15, hat, and sunglasses would go a long way.  We escaped the beach for a while and visited the old city walls of Dubrovnik.  They are totally intact and provide fantastic views of the both the city and the sea.

View of the wall, from the wall:

blog-dubrovnik.JPG

The cruise ship was out of range of this cannon and sadly we weren’t able to defend the city from the onslaught of tourists: 

blog-cruiseship.JPG

Posted in Croatia, Travel | 2 Comments »

First blog from Croatia

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we need some time outside of the Schengen visa area.  After some research on the possible destinations in or near Europe, we came up with only choice that sounded safe, interesting, and in which our car is insured to drive. We headed off for Croatia and spent two days in Opatija, a nice resort town, and then 3 more just south of Zadar.  The coastline is very pretty and the atmosphere relaxed.  So relaxed, in fact, that I’ve been having trouble trying to figure out what to write about.  We’ve been spending our days by the Adriatic doing as little as possible, off the visa “clock” for the next week or two.

On the way to Croatia, we had to drive through northern Italy and Slovenia. The route made us realize that there’s something else we miss about California…freeways!  It may sound crazy given the notoriety that “the 5” has for traffic, but the tolls in Europe are budget killers.  Italy has superhighways called the Autostrada which are great to drive on, but they also have huge tolls (10-20 Euros a pop depending on how far you go).  It reminds me a little of NJ.  Slovenia, on the other hand, doesn’t mess around with toll booths.  They just sell you a “vignette,” which is a little sticker for your windshield, as soon as you enter the country.  It was 35 Euros, but now we can drive on any road, bridge, or tunnel in the land.

That’s it for now, but here’s a parting view of Zadar:

blog-zadar.JPGAs

Posted in Croatia, Travel | 1 Comment »