Croatian beach time

Hvar was amazing. It was an idyllic, beautiful paradise of an island. Amazing scenery, buildings, and everything else. We also had no less than 4 of the best meals I have ever had - amazing italian seafood mostly - and took a few hikes to remote beach/coves, including one that culminated in a beautiful one man restaurant called Robinsons that was amazing.

But much like people do not like to hear stories about how cute other peoples pets are, I will not spend much time describing our awesome island beach vacation. I will just say that it was fantastic and the photos barely capture it.

After 3 days in Hvar, we took a boat back to the mainland and a bus all the way to the southern tip of Croatia to Dubrovnik. This old walled city was really cool, but a little over-run with tourists. The old town had really cool walls all around it which you could climb up then hike around to get great views of the city.

Instead of getting a hotel in Dubrovnik we ended up renting a Sobe, or private accommodation, from a nice Croatian couple Bozo and Rada. We rented an apartment in a 400 year old building that had been in their family for generations. Their kids had grown up though, so Bozo and Rada had just finished renovating their apartment for renters. It was really cool being able to stay in a unique place in the heart of the old town.

Despite the daytime crowds (nothing like Venice, but after Hvar almost anything would have seemed too crowded), Dubrovnik was pretty great. And while we have now definitely seen a number of Stari Grads (old town) this trip, Dubrovnik was probably my favorite. We watched an outdoor movie that was projected on the old city wall right across the street from our house. We went to Lokrum island (about 10 minutes away) for some more beach time, and generally enjoyed wandering around, stopping in shops and cafes, and taking in the views from the city walls.

Then, after two great days in Dubrovnik, we headed even further south into Montenegro.

Update after Hvar

Croatia continues to amaze. Hvar was incredibly beautiful and one of the most fun and interesting beach towns I have ever seen. We left by ferry this morning and got to Dubrovnik in southern Croatia earlier today. It is also incredibly scenic. In lieu of a further update, here are some photo highlights from the past few weeks.

Croatia - the real Little Italy

Saturday morning we said goodbye to Sarajevo and took a bus 3 hours south through some cool mountains and rivers to Mostar, a town in southern Bosnia. Mostar is most famous for its old stone arch bridge which was built in the 1300s. Sadly the bridge was destroyed in 1993. But a few years ago the restored/replaced it with a new version, and a nice downtown area of shops and cafes have sprouted out along it and the river front.

After a few hours exploring town, we hoped on another (hot!) bus and headed to Split, Croatia.

Croatia is tough to write about. It is just amazingly beautiful and hard to capture in words. Green hills, craggy mountains, amazing beaches, beautiful blue coastlines. It is gorgeous.

Split was founded around 200AD by the Roman Emperor Diocletian who built it to be his retirement palace. (Italy is only a few hours west of Croatia by boat across the Adriatic Sea). While the "palace" still stands, it would best be described as a small complex, complete with city walls. Amazingly, not only is the palace still largely intact, there are over 3,000 people who still live in apartments and houses in the various alleyways and rooms of the palace! The whole area feels like a clean, largely undiscovered Venice.

We spent a pleasant night and day just walking around the Old Town, hanging out on the Promenade, admiring the nearly 2,000 year old columns, walls, archways, and art (including some Egyptian Sphinx sculptures that Diocletian imported for decoration). We also watched the Euro Cup final in a huge crowd outside and were ecstatic when Spain - who we've been cheering for throughout the tournament - pulled out a 1-0 victory.

We also spent a relaxing day and a half playing in the sea. We stayed at a nice hotel just outside town so we had a sweet pool and beach access right outside the door. Really pretty, though the rocky (not sand) beaches took a little getting used to. Still though, it was great.

Next stop - the island of Hvar. We are taking a big catamaran out to this increasingly popular Croatian island for 3 days of fun and sun.

Note: Uploading pictures so far has proven difficult. But, finally, I got a couple photos uploaded for the previous posts.

Bridge in Mostar

Cheesy B&W picture of tower in Split

Street corner, Split