Croatia - Split

When we had arrived up north there was a storm coming in and we did not get to go to the national park right away, and then we spent twice as long as we had expected to looking at all of the water falls. So when we arrived in Split it was very late and we got short changed on enjoying our hotel which was directly on the water and absolutely beautiful!

I did make sure I got up early to enjoy what I could of it.

This was the view from our balcony

Add caption

The water was so clear and the weather just a little bit too chilly to want to swim, but we all enjoyed the crystal clear water and the sounds of the waves.

Split was actually a pretty cool place. It was the wondering around kind of place. Little alley ways and old ruins mixed with new shops. An open air market and pastry shops.

This guy was an arch bishop in the catholic church who help to defend his people and their way of life during some religious uprising. His statue was taken down for a while because the "other guys" won and then when the unrest settled he was put back up. Apparently rubbing his toe and making a wish is good luck!

This old wall used to be inside of the palace kitchen. If you look to the right you can see a piece of the old oven area. (I would have liked to get more in the picture but there was a lady taking what seemed like 100 selfies while her two year old ran around)

This is the old bell tower next to the cathedral. We climbed it ( by WE I mean everyone except for the one with a bad hip- me) and got to the top to look out over the city. Don't worry, I enjoyed the people watching, and took this great picture!

Inside the old castle walls is now a shopping area. Artist and crafters have booths that line the halls and they sell their items to all the tourists who pass through.

It is pretty cool to walk around in such an old place a look at items crafted from local rocks, or artists who have drawn local sites.

This whole area, had once been a Roman command post back in the day when the Romans owned pretty much all of the free world.

Croatia- Plitvice Lakes

I have often been asked , of all the places I have been where do I think is the most beautiful. Up until now my answer has always been Greece. I believe my new answer will be Northern Croatia (Mostly cause I can not pronounce the name of this national park)

You can see the path we took if you look at the people on the bridge

In reading about visiting this national park, we read things like its a 3 hour hike unless you sit and stay a while. The sign said 4-6 hours, so we had no idea that we would be there for 7 and half hours. It was so beautiful and around every corner there was more breath taking views. I feel like these pictures do not do it justice. I can tell you though that I took all of them with my simple iPhone and have applied no filters and no editing!

Croatia - Dubrovni

We only spent 4 days in Croatia, 5 if you count travel, but it was such an enjoyable time and the souvenir I brought back was pictures, so sit back and enjoy a three part blog post about out trip to Croatia!

We took a car ferry from Bari, Italy ( a 2.5 hr drive from home) The ferry left at 10pm and arrived in Dubrovnik Croatia at 8 am. so we slept on the ferry which was interesting because wile we purchased seats for our journey, (there were no cabins left) there were plenty of people who just booked passage and they chose to put air mattresses on the deck, or bring a blanket and snuggle up on top of the life jacket boxes. As you can see the chairs were not the most comfortable way of traveling and Seth and Paige gave them up for the floor.

It was a fun trip to walk the deck and see the stars and the lights of Italy getting farther away and sailing off into pitch blackness towards a country most of us had never seen before. (Dan has been stationed in Bosnia which is a very close neighboring country. which we passed through for a short while on our trip)

This is the port of Dubrovnik. It was a beautiful sight to wake up to as we pulled into port and docked the ship ready for our adventure!

 We both started and finished our trip in Dubrovnik. After we got off the boat we drove nearly 5 hours north to start our vacation, and then the next day down to split and then after that back down to Dubrovnik and that is when we took these pictures.

 Dubrovnik is a small town, but it has a giant walkable wall that surrounds it. It was build as a fortress  in the early 7th century and was never breached. In 1979 it was made a UNESCO world heritage sight. Some of the homes inside of the fortress suffered some damage during the Balcan war.

 This what the inside of the city looks like. I am sure at a time this was a very safe place to live and people were very grateful for the tight community. Now I wonder how they do it. With all the stairs and houses right on top of each other. It is full of restaurants and has its own church and plenty of houses!

 Croatian food is pretty much meat and potatoes and we enjoyed many forms of it while we were visiting. They also eat a lot of fish as the entire country is a sliver of land that runs the coast line.

We got up early and walked the wall before all of the tourists were awake and the morning was just beautiful and it took about 2 hours to circle the whole city on its wall. It has beautiful views and a very interesting peak into an old world way of life.