Bled, Slovenia

After nearly 3 months on the road, it is time for an R&R, which is our plan for the next 10 days or so. After departing Italy via Trieste, galloping across Slovenia – we didn’t even stop to buy a Vignette, we arrived in Croatia. Our first overnight stop was in Selce, but now we have to get used to a new currency because, even though Croatia is the most recent member of the EU, they are still using their currency, the Croatian Kuna.

Selce was purely an overnight stop because we were heading for Zadar but we found a nice campground for the night. Selce is south of Rijeka and on the coast line which is overshadowed by the island of Krk. Is Croatia too poor to afford vowels???

Because we were travelling quickly to reach the southern coast, we didn’t really do justice to the upper coastline or visit any of the islands. If you look on a map, Krk is a huge island with some stunning scenery – as we were told later!!

Our second overnight stop was at Zadar where we planned to stop for two nights but ended up staying for three nights! We spent our first day enjoying the delights of Croatian public transport and exploring Zadar which has an interesting history – it was an ancient Roman town, suffered severe damage during the war in the 90s and today has two pretty amazing attractions – the “Sea Organ” and “Greeting to the Sun”. The Sea Organ is an arrangement of steps which plays music when water washes across the steps. The “Greeting to the Sun” is a solar-powered lightshow which accumulates the power through a range of small solar panels set into the ground and then at night, they pump out a lightshow.

We met a lovely English couple, Stephan & Janet – we both arrived at the campground on the same day and they stopped by to ask us about getting fresh water – I think they were happy to not have to try and negotiate any foreign languages. Our campground had a small beach at the end, so we were happy to cool down after a hot day of tourist activity. Our second day in Zadar was pretty much spent floating in the Adriatic Sea and cooling down. Just a word of warning about Croatia in summer – it is H-O-T!!! I think that it is a combination of warm temperatures and all that sunlight that reflects back off the limestone!

We have also had the fun of sampling various delicacies – Cevapcici with Ajvar, a Dalmatian Volcano which was a stew with chicken and rice, and some sort of Med liqueur (honey).

In 2008, when MJ was at University in Oldenburg, she spent a week in Croatia on a diving holiday with a group of German divers, and she stayed at a placed called Zablače which was just down the road from Šibinek. So we went there to see what had changed – and there was a lot! Whereas in 2008 there was only one restaurant – a pizzeria, yes, she ate pizza every night in Croatia! Now there are about 5 restaurants as well as a large family-oriented summer holiday resort. We stayed there for one night and it would probably have to have been our most expensive night of camping! But it was by the sea so, even though it was hot, we managed to cool off in the water.

Our most southerly destination in Croatia was going to be Split where we planned on staying for three nights. Yes, you guessed it – we stayed longer!! Our day exploring the old town of Split was fascinating. Everywhere, there was advertising of a tour of Diocletian’s Palace, and as we were walking around, I was looking for an old Palace but couldn’t find anything! It turns out that the old town of Split IS the Palace. Apparently the palace was so big that when the Romans left, the locals built their houses within the Palace walls! We decided to get a tour of the Palace and we were very glad that we did. It was a pretty amazing place and we really needed someone to explain the layout, the history and everything about the Palace.

When we were first planning to include Croatia in through part of our travels, Dubrovnik was high on the list of places that we had to visit, but we had discovered that because Dubrovnik was on the other side of the Bosnian Corridor, and our EU insurance didn’t cover the Bosnian Corridor, it was going to be a problem. So we had decided to give it a miss until we discovered that there was a day-trip from Split to Dubrovnik, with a local guided tour in Dubrovnik – and THIS is why we stayed an extra day in Split.

Our trip to Dubrovnik required money (ouch!), and early start and patience! Have we mentioned how much we hate tours? The bus was a 20-seat Coaster which means no leg room (oh my poor sore knees) and the only high point of the trip south was crossing the border from Croatia in to Bosnia. There is a 5-km strip of coastline that was given to Bosnia after the war in the early 90s but that meant that there was a Croatian island in Bosnian homeland.

We remember reading in the news about the damage that Dubrovnik suffered during the Balkan War and much of is has been rebuilt in keeping with the old-Dubrovnik but something has been lost. It seems that most of the locals who used to live within the town walls have sold their apartments to Europeans who wanted a cheap holiday home so these days, within the town walls there is only restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops or expensive boutiques. But it is a popular film location for “Game of Thrones” and other shows/films set during the Crusades. And now we can say that we have been there and seen it.

As Nick and I are such huge sports fans, you will be surprised to hear that we almost missed the European Cup!! We wish!!!!

Whilst we were in Split, we learnt that there was a game between Croatia and Portugal and it was scheduled to be held on the day when Croatia celebrates its independence, which fell on a Saturday this year. After dinner, we went for a walk along the shoreline to help our digestion, and passed any number of bars and cafes which were all showing the football (Soccer to our Australian friends) on big-screen televisions to the people who were gathered to watch the big game. It turns out that this particular match was the final game to decide who would be playing in the Quarter Finals. Nick went to bed and I sat up reading in the cool of the evening and at about 11pm or so, I was overwhelmed with the sounds of yells, carhorns and then fireworks – my immediate thought was that Croatia had won! Only to discover that Portugal had scored the only goal of the match in the last 10 minutes! Any genes that I inherited from my Great-Great-Grandfather Jose d’Oliveria were cheering for the Portuguese.

It was time to say goodbye to Split and head north. Looking at a map, it’s a long drive from Split back up into mainland Europe and that day, we drove north from Split, around Zagreb, paying a fortune on the Croatian Autobahn, entered Slovenia and headed for Ljubjiana. But it was too hot to camp in another hot crowded city, so we continued towards Austria until we reached the mountains and Lake Bled. This part of the Alps is called “the sunny side of the Alps” and it is! In a word, Lake Bled is stunning. We found a campground on the far-side of the lake, staying for only one night because we had appointments to meet friends in Germany.

We have started a list of places that we have to come back to and both Croatia and Slovenia are on that list!