First the backstory to this post. Way back in 2010 my wife and I were married in Prague and embarked on a 3 month around the world adventure as our honeymoon. We’d meant to start a blog but never quite got around to it and instead sent long, meandering emails to our friends and family.
For your enjoyment (and amusement) we’ve decided to share some of our musings from long ago. Around the World airfare can still be purchased from Star Alliance or One World and although there are various conditions regarding backtracking and duration these fares are one of the best ways to see a ton of countries. Plus the route calculators make lunchtime fly by.
Croatia was lovely, though I fear that Zagreb is a poor substitute for Prague. The prices are more expensive, and the buildings less historic. There is a beautiful cathedral and I have been impressed by the number and size of the parks that are spread throughout. For my wife, the highlight was Vincek, a local favourite which serves some of the best ice cream we’ve ever had.
I have also decided that, if I ever need to rob a bank, I will hire a cabbie from Zagreb to drive the get-away car. During the drive from the airport, my wife was furiously searching our guidebook for the Croatian word for “Slow!” It turned out that most Croatians speak better English than I do, and he was likely chuckling away at our futile attempts to make him reduce speed. Considering at one point he was doing 100 km/h in a 50 zone we were relieved that at least the cab had working seatbelts.
We did have something of a misunderstanding with our hotel in Zagreb, as they accidentally collected the dirty laundry that we had been storing in the bags acquired from Hotel Josef. This created something of a panic, as we had no intention of asking them to wash two full loads of laundry at the usual hotel cost of $8 per sock. We reached a compromise, and they agreed not to charge us for the service, provided that the laundry would not be folded or pressed. I should have perhaps clarified that the laundry should be dry, as it was returned the next morning in a very large, damp heap.
We then had dreaded the drive from Zagreb to Dubrovnik, as I was unused to driving stick shift in Europe, particularly along steep cliffsides. Most of those fears turned out to be groundless, as the Croats have constructed a masterful highway, known as the A1, which stretches from Zagreb to Split, or roughly 70% of the way to Dubrovnik. Aside from a heavy fog and signs that caution travellers to watch out for wayward bears and wolves, that portion of the trip was largely uneventful.
The same can’t be said for the last stretch, which saw us winding across steep, narrow mountain passes along the Adriatic. The clerk at Avis had informed us that the quickest way to Dubrovnik would involve a short sojourn into Bosnia. Fortunately, this detour proved uneventful, except when I stalled our little rental car at the Bosnia-Croatia border. After the third attempt to get into gear the border guard was clearly getting annoyed and used his M4 to gesture and say “Go!”. We must have looked even more ridiculous with the loads of laundry spread out to dry across the back seat.
We stayed in the Old Town of Dubrovnik, in a guest house / boutique hotel known as Roko House. Our room was small but well appointed, and it would be hard to find a better location. However, not everyone quite so enamoured of the concessions required of a smaller hotel, and more than once we found impatient guests waiting atop the terrace to find the manager, who slept on a small cot in a tiny room filled with spare towels and miniature shampoo bottles, so that they might complain about the housekeeping service. We found a better use for the terrace: sipping wine and enjoying the sights and sounds of Dubrovnik.
The Old Town of Dubrovnik is quite small, but very scenic and historic. It was once a flourishing city-state that had withstood the ambitions of the Venetian empire, and which suffered its share of damage during the recent war with Serbia. The most pressing threat is now the daily horde of passengers disgorged from the dozens of cruise ships that tour the Adriatic. Though it took some searching, we finally found a quiet little cafe that provided a panoramic view of the Old Town and the Adriatic.
We also discovered that getting up early and following the soberly dressed seniors who appear to be residents results in delicious surprises. We followed a group to what looked like a window in an otherwise non-descript wall from which you could purchase pastries, including the best apple turnover I’ve ever had.
We had left the rest of our trip open, and I soon realized that I had perhaps misjudged how easy it would be to play a round-the-world trip ‘by ear’. We spent several hours at our room in Roko House, trying to find a suitable hotel on one of the Croatian islands. After a few false starts, we had to settle for visiting Brac instead of Vis, which was the most isolated of Croatian Islands and home to some of Tito’s hidden military bases. I have learned a valuable lesson: if I want flexible travel, I will make reservations at hotels with generous cancellation policies, rather than trying to book hotels while on the move.
Our time in Brac proved to be very relaxing. The nearby town of Supetar had wide streets for strolling, and the locals spend their evenings chatting at small bars and coffee shops that overlook the sea. The beaches are rocky, but the rugged forests and hand-cut stonework contrast beautifully with the rich blue of the Adriatic. We were fortunate to have a lovely sunset while we were there.
From Brac, we went back to Split to spend a day exploring Diocletian’s Palace. The palace itself was fun to explore, and replete with bustling bars and coffee shops. The underground portion (attached) has been converted into a market and museum, and we both very much enjoyed exploring the subterranean passageways, though we may have made up our own quasi-historic explanations for many of the unlabelled artifacts.
From Split we headed back to Zagreb to catch our flight to Egypt. Pyramids, tombs and heat here we come!
Continue reading Around The World – Egypt.