CROATIA!! In a Nutshell

Oh hello there! I typically try to do at least one international adventure each year... well, this year I had no international trips on the horizon until my friend from San Francisco, Cara, contacted me a few months ago about a trip to Croatia. I was immediately on board - I've been wanting to see Croatia for quite some time now! Anyhow, it turns out that one of Cara's friends was organizing this whole extravaganza amongst quite a few of her friends, most of whom weren't really friends with one another.

The other girls in these posts had done a full week of boating around the islands of Croatia before I joined them for a week on land. All in all, I have to say that Croatia hit a soft spot in my heart - the people in this country were among the nicest people I've met before... and, well, that pretty much sold it for me.

In short, I loved, loved, loved this trip and would 100% recommend this destination for any and all - it's, simply put, perfection.

To make this easier on the eyes, I've divided my trip into quite a few blog posts (we did a LOT of stuff in a week, turns out!), so please feel free to pick and choose any / all posts that spark your interest. (If it helps at all, my favorite day was Day 9 :))

So, without further ado, I present to you... Croatia, in a nutshell:

Day 1 - Split

Days 2 thru 4 - Zadar (Plus Surrounding Areas)

Day 5 - Dubrovnik - Half the Fun is Getting There, Right?

Day 6 - Dubrovnik, by way of Old Town

Day 7 - Dubrovnik, by way of Kayak, Buza and of course, STEPS!

Day 8 - Dubrovnik, by way of Bosnia-Herzegovinia

Day 9 - Dubrovnik, by way of Hiking, Biking and Kayaking

Day 5 - Dubrovnik - Half the Fun is Getting there, Right?

After a fabulous few days in Zadar, it was time to say farewell as we were heading to Dubrovnik to spend the last few days (Tuesday - Saturday) of our trip. Our plan was to take the bus from Zadar back to Split where we had rental cars ready for us to drive to Dubrovnik.

For how smooth of a journey it was to get from Split to Zadar, it's amazing how... well, eventful was the journey back to Split. We started off boarding this small mini-bus type of situation... it was a lot smaller than the bus we had taken to arrive in Zadar, but we all got seats so we figured we'd just roll with it... until we realized that the line of people to get on this minibus thing was getting longer and longer... and the space in the minibus was getting more and more cramped - people were literally standing on top of one another (I wish, oh how I wish, I'd snapped a picture of this whole experience). It was all rather disgusting, really, and we were all a bit confused as to WHAT was going on. We all ended up transferring from that minibus nonsense to a regular size bus after some lightbulb went off in whoever was organizing the bus situation's head.

Thinking we were all ready and set, I did what I do best on buses apparently... I passed out. What can I say? I'm perpetually sleepy, I guess. Unfortunately, I was rudely interrupted when our bus ended up stopping about 15 minutes later because we had to transfer buses for some reason. I rolled with it, confused but obedient, nonetheless. Well, another 45 minutes later... we had to transfer buses yet AGAIN! We were all getting a bit annoyed by this point, myself particularly because... well, a girl needs her SLEEP! Hahaha. To this day, I have NO idea what was going on (the whole bus situation was totally fine when we were traveling from Split to Zadar before!), but I was so over this whole "Half the fun is getting there" mantra that kept running through my head during this whole spectacle.

Anyway, we ended up arriving back in Split in one piece and headed right over to the Hertz to grab our rental car and GO! The seven of us split into two cars, so I ended up in a car with Cara and Gillian. The goal was for the two cars to follow one another on the journey to Dubrovnik... which is all fine and good in theory. Until the two cars lose each other before we even leave the city proper of Split!

The girls in the other car were well-prepared and had two sets of printed out directions in the car. Cara, Gillian and I... we had nothing - including no form of digital navigation assistance. So what did we do? Well, imagine that, we did the "old-fashioned" thing and literally just followed road signs that pointed us to Dubrovnik. Imagine that, right?

Well, those signs ended up taking us down this coastal highway that stretched all the way from Split to Dubrovnik so it was a pretty straight shot... and it was quite possibly the most gorgeous road trip of my life. I mean, sure it's the coastal route so you're guaranteed beautiful views of the sun and water... but still. There's something about the Adriatic Sea - the colors, the serenity. Sigh.

Sorry! Got a little carried away! I couldn't determine what pictures were the "best" so... well, I just dumped them all in! :) Hope you enjoyed the slide show! Hahah.

Anyway, after PLENTY of stops along the way (I'm telling you, we could NOT get enough!), we finally ended up in Dubrovnik!

We honestly had just the best time - one of the best road trips ever.

We managed to navigate our way to the apartment that we were staying at in Dubrovnik. The other car had beaten us there by just a bit, so we arrived to a full house. And by "house", I do mean... palatial estate (we'd gotten upgraded by our original hosts). With, naturally, amazing views.

That night was fairly uneventful as we were pretty worn out from our neverending journey from Zadar to Split to Dubrovnik and we wanted to get to sleep early in order to take FULL advantage of Wednesday, our first FULL day in Dubrovnik.

Day 1 - Split

I flew out of Chicago on Thursday, August 29th (yes, I'm more than a bit behind on blogging) and arrived in Split on the afternoon of Friday, August 30th. The flight itself was nothing to write home about, although I DID end up catching up on a couple of pretty high-quality movies along my way:

42 - this movie depicts Jackie Robinson's story and is nothing short of amazing. I was definitely crying at various points.

The Internship - okay, so this movie is of a slightly different flavor than 42 (it's the one where Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson decide to get internships at Google), but it definitely had me laughing aloud at various points in time. I would say... no need to pay for a ticket / rental, but definitely a good watch if you can see it for free.

Oh! Okay, back to Croatia.

So I landed on Friday afternoon ready and waiting for some fun, sun and RELAXATION. The other six girls on this trip had already completed a week of sailing around Croatia's islands (I had decided to just do the land portion of the holiday) so I knew that they would be in serious vacation mode by the time I got there. I ended up taking a cab to the apartment that the girls were renting and reuniting with Cara (my friend who had invited me along on this holiday and the only person I knew at the beginning of the trip!) who had parked it in a lawn chair outside the apartment to wait for me (DRATS! How I wish I had a picture of THAT.).

Most of the other girls were out and about (it was the middle of the day, after all), so I quickly just dropped off my stuff, changed my clothes, brushed my teeth (I hate super long flights) and was ready to GET MY EXPLORING ON! I had less than a day in Split (we were peacing out to Zadar the next day) so I had no time for any of this jet lag nonsense.

Once I was ready, Cara and I ventured out to explore the mean streets of Split... there are so many inaccuracies with that sentence. First, Cara was well-acquainted with Split by this point, since the town is pretty small and the girls had been there for a few days by this point. Second, the "mean streets" of anywhere in Croatia simply does not exist - this country, I would soon find out, is one of the safest and friendliest places ever.

Anyway, we ended up catching up (I hadn't seen Cara since March when she'd come to Chicago for St. Patrick's Day) while wandering around and taking in the sights.

After a bit more wandering, we were ready for a late lunch / early dinner and ended up heading to this restaurant called Fife. The other girls had indicated this place was pretty delicious (some of them had gone there on an earlier night) so we decided to take their word for it... and boy, were we NOT disappointed.

Honestly, this has got to be the best calamari I've experienced in life. Ever. Sure, we're in a country which is known for its seafood, but really. I still think about that calamari from time to time, if you will...

In any event! After a nice, leisurely meal (I love European restaurants that let you just chilllll for as long as you please), we continued wandering along into Split's Old Town area, which was cute and quaint.

And ended up hanging out there into the evening (I was NOT going to succumb to jet lag no matter how hard it was for me to keep my eyes open by this point!).

I was actually quite proud of myself for staying awake as long as I had - I'm such a wimp when it comes to sleep (I just love it so much) - but I was more than ready for bed by this point. We had an early morning the next day, after all!