After finishing our time in Slovenia Candice and I had used up our 90 days in the Schengen travel zone.  Luckily for us Croatia, while an EU member, has not yet joined the Schengen travel zone  allowing us to travel from Ljubljana, Slovenia, to Zagreb, Croatia, for the next part of our travels.  I do believe that Croatia may be joining Schengen in 2020 so if you’re planning any trips just double check that.

Croatia is located directly across the Adriatic Sea from Italy and it has a large amount of coastline.   Naturally this gives it a Mediterranean climate similar to Italy and it is well known for wine, olives, and yes Roman history – a LOT of Roman history.

We chose to start our trip in Zagreb because our friend Mike was coming over from Canada to travel with us so after a 3 hour bus ride from Ljubljana we arrived in Zagreb.

Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, is often overlooked by tourists which is understandable since there is so much to see in Croatia.  We had 18 days and it felt like we didn’t stay long enough at any place.  If you do have some extra time on your hands or get stuck in Zagreb don’t worry, this is actually a pretty nice city to be in.  The old town is small enough to easily navigate on foot but large enough to have a lot of different restaurants, coffee shops, and points of interest to keep you busy.

We spent 2 days here and I believe it was the perfect amount of time.  Also the prices here are half of those on the coast (honestly) and 1/3rd that of Dubrovnik.  Amazing cappuccinos for $1 CAD?  Yes please!

So if you do stay in Zagreb make sure to wander the old town naturally.

The mosaics on St. Mark’s Church are really cool.  The medieval coat arms of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia are on the left while the emblem of Zagreb is on the right.

We saw a vendor with some cute umbrellas.

And found some statues to have fun with.

And don’t forget to find the tunnel that runs through the hill that the old town is built on.  It’s pretty impressive to walk through it.

Yup, of all the places we found the Lord of the Rings Tolkien’s House pub here in Zagreb.  Supposedly it carries a great selection of beers and is reasonably priced but we didn’t have time to stop in.

We did however find a beer sampler at our restaurant for the evening.

Out For A Drive

If you’re looking to strictly stay in the cities while visiting Croatia you can easily get around with the bus system but the best way to see Croatia is with a car.  We wanted the car to properly explore the Istria area of Northern Croatia (it’s full of small towns and buses would be difficult to use here) and also to get us out to the Plitvice Lakes National Park.  Again the park can be reached with a bus tour but it’s quite expensive and renting a car for the day is way more economical when splitting it 3 ways.

Our intended driving route was to pickup in Zagreb first thing in the morning and head out to Trakoscan Castle for approximately a 3 hour stop and then we headed to Pula in Istria (technically we stayed in a tiny village called Premantura since we had the car).  After a few days touring around Istria we intended to head out to Plitvice Lakes National Park for a day visit and end in Zadar.  I say intended because the day we left Pula the park was closed so instead we drove directly to Zadar and dropped the car off (don’t worry we still got to the park).

This worked out really great with 3 people splitting the costs.  If you want more freedom and don’t mind the extra cost then keep the car the entire time and drive it right down to Dubrovnik.

First stop was Trakoscan Castle as mentioned already.  I don’t have any pictures of the interior but I can’t remember if that’s because we weren’t allowed to take photos or we didn’t bother to take them.

The castle is right up there with other Renaissance style castles and worth a visit but we did lose an entire day of our trip so if your time is limited I would pass on it.  There’s a large lake next to the castle that you can wander around but we didn’t have time so we were off to Premantura.

Just to let you know, driving in Croatia was perfectly fine.  The roads are well maintained and have plenty of good signage.  People mostly follow the rules of the road though Croatians drive exceedingly fast (if you’re not 20-30 km/h over the limit you’re getting tailgated) and when they pass they get as close to you as possible, swerve out hard, and jerk the car back in just inches in front of you.  It was a bit unnerving but you get used to it I suppose.

Also the toll expressways are 130 km/h and people drive no slower then 150 on them – it was a bit crazy at times.

Istria And All The Villages

The Istrian Peninsula actually covers 3 countries today, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy.  Before WWI this entire area was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire but after WWI Italy forcibly seized the area and kept it until WWII when the area was then occupied by Yugoslavia after Italy and Germany’s defeat.  Italy was none to happy about the occupation and it caused a lot of political tension so the free area of Triest was established as a neutral border between Italy and Yugoslavia.  However Italy didn’t like that and they simply occupied Trieste illegally.  Yugoslavia didn’t want to start a war over the territory so Trieste still remains part of Italy today.

Since the collapse of Yugoslavia the remaining areas of Istria were given to Slovenia and Croatia and it seems Italy has dropped any claims to the rest of the peninsula these days.  Also as far as I can tell there is no tension between the 3 countries in Istria these days.

On the Croatian side Pula is the big city in the area and a common place for people to stay but honestly any of the towns along the Western coast would be amazing.  We made stops in Novigrad and Porec and they were awesome places to hang out in.  Rovinj would probably give you the best base to launch out from with your rental car.

We didn’t get too far on our first day, as Premantura, where we were staying was just 15 minutes South of Pula so we headed into town to see the star of the area, the Pula arena.  If you come to Croatia you have to make it out for the arena alone.  It’s ranked as the 4th largest and probably the 2nd best preserved Roman coliseum in the World.  Even if you’ve seen a few Roman arenas or amphitheaters before you have to come see this one.

The 3 levels of arches are almost completely intact and cover a full 360 degrees of the arena.

The arena is still used for concerts and shows but there weren’t any happening in late October.

n lieu of there being no shows to attend I tried putting on a 1 man gladiator fight but I somehow lost.

If you’re hankering for a coffee or tea and want a good view of the arena you can always check out this cafe with the best view around.

At the top of the arena stairs you can also get a view of the Adriatic sea through the arches.

We also found the local arena lion.  Don’t turn your back or he might devour you.

You can also go underneath the arena to the area where gladiators and wild animals would wait before the fights.  Unfortunately the tunnels leading to the center stage were collapsed, just imagine how cool it would be to walk out from where the gladiators used too.

Make sure to have extra time to explore Pula city after seeing the arena as there are plenty of other monuments such as the Temple of Augustus.

The old town is also full of cool buildings to see and cute alleys to explore.

There’s also a fortress on top of a hill in the middle of the town that gives you a good panoramic view and you can also see a well preserved Roman arch called the Arch of the Sergii.

Another popular thing to do in Pula is a sunset dolphin cruise with dinner.

The cost was fairly reasonable especially with a seafood dinner included.  A whole fish (literally) with coleslaw was on the menu this day and it was super delicious.

The dolphins also delivered.  We got more than 30 minutes of dolphins jumping and there were more than 20 in the pods we saw.  I was skeptical about taking this random tour from the harbour but it turned out fantastic.

More Touring Around Istria

The coast is amazing in Istria (and all of Croatia) but you must venture inland to see at least one of the mountain fortress cities.  Originally built for protection these centuries old medieval towns dot the numerous mountain tops in the interior of Istria.  After about 5 minutes of Google research we chose to visit the most popular, Motovun.

It’s no exaggeration when I say that Motovun is on top of a mountain.  Luckily you get to drive up 90% of the way but it’s a long steep accent and we actually passed through the clouds on our drive up.  From the main parking area it’s still a short walk up and this is the view you’re greeted with.

The clouds did burn off about an hour after we arrived giving us fantastic views of the valley below.

Outside the walls of the old town are a number of restaurants.  We picked a pizzeria and although this is a touristy town the prices were actually really cheap.  Less than $5 CAD for a medium sized pizza.

Did I forget to mention some cute kitties came to join us for lunch.  As they were typical cats they had no fear of walking the wall back and forth even though one miss step and it was a long way down.

The old town is fairly small with a church and some walls you can explore.   We wandered around for about 30 minutes and headed back down to the car.  Unless you want to sit and admire the view over coffee for a couple of hours ( I wouldn’t blame you) you really only need about 90 minutes to eat lunch and see the town.

Our next stop was back on the coast at the small town of Novigrad but this next stop didn’t have anything specific to see.  I read that it was a nice place to visit and I have to agree with that statement.

Candice had plenty of opportunities to practice her camera skills.

This part of the town along the sea was really cool to walk along.

Now you might think we headed home after this stop but we actually had one more site to see on our way back.  Just south of Novigrad was the Euphrasian Basilica located in Porec.

The basilica was created in the 4th century and is one of the best intact examples of religious architecture of the Roman period.  It’s quite a large complex and worth the quick stop since we were driving right past Porec anyway.

The basilica is clustered in with other buildings so you can’t get a good view of it from the outside.  This picture from the entrance atrium is a popular photo I’ve noticed.

You can climb the church tower to the bells for a great view of the city.

A view along the basilica from one of the outdoor courtyards.

Very intricate floor mosaics on display

The cathedral

Also don’t forget to take a bit of time to wander the boardwalk along the sea.  On a clear day you should get a fantastic sunset over the water.

If you are staying near Pula (maybe in Premantura) you must take an evening to go down to Kamenjak National Park at the very southern type of Istria.  We found the beach Plovanije and it was fantastic to sit and watch the sunset.  Honestly I don’t think I can get sick of these.

Picture of Mike throwing rocks while the sun sets.

Isn’t that heaven on paper?

South To Zadar

Originally we wanted to hit up Plitvice Lakes National Park immediately after leaving the Istria area but it was closed for an event for the next 2 days so onward to Zadar we went.

Zadar is another tourist stop people either skip or just make a day trip too.  I think it’s a mistake to simply pass through Zadar, and although I preferred Istria as my favourite area of Croatia, I think the Zadar old town was my favourite city.

We got in late to Zadar but we didn’t want to waste any of our time so we took a night stroll down to the old town.  We were headed for 2 attraction stops that are the best in the dark, the sea organ and the solar light display.

The sea organ is a stretch of the boardwalk in the old town where they installed different sized pipes designed to allow air pushed by the waves to make a musical chorus.  How quiet or loud the organ plays totally depends on the sea, is the tide low and the waves gentle or is the water high with heavy waves.  I could have sat here for at least an hour just enjoying the music but the concrete steps are not that comfortable to sit on.

If you to hear what the organ sounds like check out this video on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n86pF-wQKrw

50 meters from the sea organ is a set of solar powered lights that charge during the day and then put on a light show at night.  It was really cool but half the lights weren’t working while we were there.

Exploring Zadar

Zadar old town is one of the more unique old towns we’ve seen.  Built onto a tiny peninsula 3 sides are surrounded by the water.  Of course it’s a tourist trap area full of restaurants, cafes, and expensive hotels but the vibe here at the end of October was pure chill and relaxation.  The prices for food were more expensive than Istria but they weren’t awful, expect to pay about $12 CAD for a meal.

As we love doing we found a self guided walking tour to take us around the old town.  One interesting thing it said was that the local people had no idea there were Roman ruins under the Old Town until WWII bombs landing in the city exposed the ruins.

Since then a number of areas have been excavated and allow you to enjoy a gelato while sitting on 2000 year old Roman bricks.  Is it OK to sit on Roman ruins?  I’m not sure how much damage it actually causes (I mean they survived bombs right?) but the local government has no laws against it.

Starting our self guided tour outside the main city gates.

No cars are allowed in the old town.  You don’t understand how amazing it is to have pedestrian only areas until you’re in one of these old towns and cars and scooters can still drive around pushing you into the gutters.

Every place you want to stop for food or a drink is going to be surrounded by amazing architecture like this.

Love the facades carved into stone

Behind this cafe is an old stone cathedral.  It’s not advertised, there’s no fee to enter, it’s just a part of being in the old town.  So crazy.

And this old church is used as someone’s personal art studio.

We couldn’t resist getting a photo of this ridiculous statue.

If you’re wondering how the weather is in late October I’ll let this puppy tell you about it.

Honestly though we were told the weather is normally much cooler and wetter at this time of year and it was unseasonably warm this year.  It had been between 18-25C every day so far with no rain so we weren’t complaining at all.  Tourist season generally ends by mid October so I would recommend a late September to mid October visit as we were missing a lot of tourist activities by mere days.  Some island cruises in Zadar were ending their season the day we arrived and they were only going this late because the weather was still favourable.  We weren’t planning on too many tourist activities so this didn’t bother us but keep that in mind if you plan a trip.

Now that the weekend was over we were able to get tickets to Plitvice Lakes National Park.  This unique natural land formation has been a very popular stop for local and foreign tourists for a long time but the Croatian government did very little to maintain and protect the area allowing it be overran with tourists doing untold ecological damage.  The UNESCO Heritage committee petitioned the government to set up laws restricting the number of people that can enter and protecting the landscape from further damage.

The government took a long time to set up these rules but when they finally did the area was able to become a UNESCO site.  Only a certain number of tickets are sold per day so make sure to buy them online and, especially during the peak summer, get them early.

There are a few different trails you can take around the park.  Everything is clearly marked and the trails are maintained and you cannot leave the trails.  You can choose some ridiculous 8 hour trails or you can opt for shorter trails that give you transportation along the way.  You see the same amount of stuff but there is less walking involved and it’s quicker.  We went with a 4 hour trail that had a train and boat transfer.

Ok this wasn’t the “train” I was expecting!

Hold Up! What makes this place so unique??  The natural land formation has caused a series of terraced lakes (7 I think) which creates numerous river ways and lots of magnificent waterfalls.  You start the hike at the top most lake and wind your way down each level of the lakes.

I am definitely not taste tasting the water.  Definitely that is NOT what I am doing.  I’m just, ummm you know, trying to pet the fish.

These waterfalls are a common site.

There are plenty of good photo opportunities.

At the mid way point you board a river boat to take you to the far side of the lakes to finish the hike.

There are a few caves you can explore as well.

A good example of the boardwalk snaking across the lake.

For our last day in Zadar we decided to try some island tripping.  From the main ferry port we were able to get a cheap ferry ticket over to Preko on Ugljan island.

This island actually has a few hiking trails that are easy to access from Preko and there are some landmarks on the hills you can hike too.  We didn’t feel like walking up so we stayed along the water.

Even at this time of year there is plenty of plants in bloom.

Some lemons that haven’t turned yellow yet.

Not sure on this one

I thought this was such a cute statue of a donkey.

There are plenty of interesting buildings to explore as well like this abandoned and falling apart stone building we found.

Croatia is well known for it’s beautiful and clean swimming water but their beaches are mostly pebbles.  This was the first sand beach we found so get here early in the summer as I’m sure it fills up quick!

This guy was enjoying the nice weather

This pond probably looks amazing when it’s not full of scum.

Splitting Hairs

The further south you move along Croatia the more touristy it gets.  Finally we arrived in some prime tourist territory after getting to Split.  I’m not entirely sure if the city is more popular for being the former palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian or for being a filming location for Game of Thrones – I fear it’s the latter one.

Bear with me on this history lesson, it’s really cool (I think).  Diocletian was one of the few Roman emperor’s to die of natural causes – honestly it was a very very dangerous job, very few emperors were not assassinated or killed in battle – so when he retired as emperor he built a retirement palace in present day Split.

It was always dangerous to live in Roman times where barbarians and bandits were always a threat to local people.  Being a retired emperor, who was probably very wealthy, meant that Diocletian could always be a target for thieves or looters so he built a massive palace that would hold an entire army for protection inside the walls.

Below is a drawing of what the original palace looked look.  Note that the water up to the wall was an exaggeration by the artist, even in Roman times there was a substantial amount of land between the palace walls and the sea.

The palace has survived for 2000 years old and is now the modern city of Split.  Below you can see the South wall along the water as it was in October of 2019.

After the collapse of the Western Roman empire the palace was abandoned but the small Roman town by the name of Salona continued to be inhabited.  However without the protection of the Roman army the city kept getting attacked by barbarians and other not so nice people.  Finally in 614 AD the people could no longer defend themselves and they abandoned the entire city to move into the palace and hide behind the massive walls.

The city to this day still has local residents living in some of the buildings so this is one of the few old towns in Europe that has actual real residents living inside.  Because people have been living here as a town for 1400 years much of the interior of the palace has been changed.  People have knocked down walls to expand houses and built alleyways to allow goods to more around easier and the entire western wall was knocked down at some point to allow the Medieval city to expand.

Because the history is so fascinating I wanted to get a good paid tour.  We got a lady who studied ancient history and archeology from the Roman period as her University major.  Exploring Diocletian’s Palace was her bread and butter and you could tell she was well informed and enthusiastic about it.

This building was part of the military barracks but a 14th century house was built into the side.

Here you can see where a lot of the interior palace has fallen apart.  It’s hard to believe that people from the 1500s didn’t have the technology and resources to maintain something that was constructed 1300 years earlier.

The Romans revered Egyptian culture so you see Sphinxes around.

Many of the shops have glass coverings to show you the old Roman floors below.

At the very center of the palace is the entrance to Diocletian’s personal rooms.  If you come at the right time of day you may find these 2 Roman soldiers hanging around.

Now make sure you’ve practiced how to fight with a Roman gladus – that’s stab in a forward motion, never slash! – because you may have to battle for your life here.  Yes yes I know that Romans didn’t fight with 2 swords but there weren’t any shields handy so I had to improvise.

After you’ve had some fun exploring the top part of the palace make sure you go down to the cellars.  Part of the underground cellar is free to enter with some small tourist shops but you must pay the few dollars to enter the full underground section.

The size of the underground section is breathtaking, if nothing else catches your eye.

The eastern part of the underground is actually exposed and can be viewed a bit from above ground, but still, go down to the cellars.

At dusk the lighting hit just right for a couple of photos.

More Old Stuff and Game of Thrones

As mentioned the Roman city of Salona was abandoned in 614 AD and the people moved into the palace.  This means there is an entire Roman city to visit just 4 kms from Diocletian’s Palace.  You can take a public bus to to the ruins but Google Maps doesn’t have any bus information for Croatia so I was having a few issues determining where to catch the bus (I knew it was the #1 but I didn’t know where the stop was).

We decided we’d just walk the 4 kms, no big deal right?  Well if you decide to try that just keep in mind it’s fairly hilly, you’ll walk through an industrial section, and the entrance is on the far side of the ruins so it’s more like a 7 km walk that takes about 2 hours.  Candice wasn’t prepared for a 2 hour walk (and it was hot this day) so she was a bit grumpy at me.

Since this was an entire city the ruins are quite extensive and you can see where many different buildings used to be.

At the far end is the partial remains of the town’s amphitheater.

The ruins only take an hour to 90 minutes to explore so we had time to see the next stop, Klis fortress.  The fortress is in the same direction as Salona so they’re perfect to visit on the same day but the fortress is built way way way up into the mountains.  Take a local bus or a taxi to get there.

If you’re a Game of Thrones TV series fan Croatia will definitely interest you as many locations were used for filming.  Klis Fortress was used as the filming location for Meereen.

The fortress has a unique design being very very narrow and long so this is my best attempt at capturing it.

You can see from this picture of the tv series the similarity.  Obviously a few additional pyramids were added in.

This was the first gate to the fortress.

After 2 narrow turns up a ramp you hit the 2nd gate.  If the attackers got through the first gate they would have a hell of a time fighting to the 2nd gate.

Oh did I mention that this was originally a Roman fortress?  It was expanded greatly by the Venetians in the 15th century when they controlled the Croatian coastlines and it was furthered expanded by the Austro-Hungarian empire in the 18th century.  It was a very popular place apparently.  I have a hard time imaging people hauling all the building materials and supplies up this crazy mountain for this fort.

The views out to sea are pretty spectacular as well.

To The Final Destination… Almost

So after Split our last stop was Dubrovnik.  I should emphasize was on that last statement because while researching things to do in Dubrovnik I kept coming back to a day trip to Mostar in Bosnia.  While a day trip is doable from Dubrovnik (and very common) it is almost 7 hours of driving time and you only get about 3 hours to see Mostar.  Also it was close to 50€ each for the tour.

Looking at a map it becomes pretty clear that it’s actually way simpler to go to Mostar from Split and then go to Dubrovnik.  There are plenty of local bus options to and from Mostar and they aren’t too expensive, I think $15 CAD each way.  When driving from Split to Dubrovnik by bus you need to cross the Bosnian border, near Neum, any way so hey why not a small detour?

I did have to rearrange our buses, cancel the one to Dubrovnik, and we lost our first hotel day in Dubrovnik but the AirBnB in Mostar was something like $30 CAD total for 3 people so we didn’t worry too much.  It was totally worth it.

I don’t want to add to this lengthy post with things not related to Croatia so I’ll throw up our day trip to Mostar in my next post but I will tell you that it was a very cool town to visit.  You don’t need any more than 2 days here (1 is plenty for the town) but it was so very different from Croatia.  I mean it was surprisingly different given how close these 2 countries are together. After leaving Mostar we then got our bus to Dubrovnik for our last stop.

Now I said that I loved the old town of Zadar the most, Split has one of the coolest history stories, but Dubrovnik is hands down the coolest and I emphasize, the coolest, old city I’ve seen yet.  The entire city was built as a military fortress to repel invaders and even during the Croatian-Bosnian wars the city withstood months of attack.

The city walls are 100% fully intact and its location on top of cliffs overlooking the Adriatic sea is amazing.  The interior of the city is insanely well preserved and I was simply whistling with amazement everywhere we turned.  Looking at this photo it doesn’t do any justice to being here on the Red Keep (GoT reference by the way) looking down at the walled fortress of Dubrovnik.

 

With that hint drop there Dubrovnik is, today, most famous for being the filming location of a LOT of the Game of Thrones TV series, specifically everything to do with King’s Landing.  I absolutely demand that if you come here you go on a GoT walking tour but you have to use the guide we had.  He worked as an extra on the show and knows all of the filming locations and has all the interesting juicy tips about it.

Even if you’re not a fan, like Candice, our tour guide was energetic, engaging, funny, and you get a fantastic tour of most of the city.  Unless you need to know all the boring historical facts of the city go with this guy instead of a generic old town walking tour.

Here’s Davor’s AirBnB Experiences link – https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/955111

Just a quick side note we’ve used the AirBnB Experiences a couple of times and honestly they’ve been really great.  Better value then tours found on Viator or GetYourGuide and we’ve had great people every time we’ve used it.

Davor came prepared with a GoT picture book so you could see what the location looked like on the show compared to where you were standing.  Everyone on our tour who were actual fans of the show were really excited with the picture book, it was definitely a big hit.

This is one of the most famous locations for GoT, the pier for King’s Landing.

Apparently in the show Cersei and Jamie look out to see like this together.  I couldn’t find the exact scene on Google though.

A big part of the tour is in the Red Keep which is where a lot of scenes were filmed.

He had a ton of pictures, actually many more then shown here.  He was really entertaining and had interesting stories to tell about the filming such as regarding the photo below.  Apparently it was more than 30 degrees this day and the Hound, seen in his photo, needed to be fully clothed for filming.  This picture is during a break and he’s drenched in his own sweat, almost passed out from the heat.  I guess it’s not all fun and games being an actor

Davor also knew where to get the best pictures of the city from here

and helped stage some photos with a dragon as well.

You also get to see a few spots in the city such as the Stairs of Shame

And this entrance to the city was also part of the filming locations.

The tour is timed so you can see the daily feeding of the pigeons.  Yes this one guy comes at Noon every day.

I got the feeling that it’s not the best idea but it was a spectacle to watch.

The tour ends at one of the many Game of Thrones gift shops.  Normally you need to pay to take a photo on the Iron Throne (or buy some merchandise) but with the tour you got a free picture.

After our tour we grabbed some lunch and guess what, this city is such a popular filming location that they were actually filming something across from our restaurant.

I think this is the best place to insert the cats of Dubrovnik photo montage

The other thing you want to do in the Old City (besides taking photos of cats) is walk the city walls.  The cost is a bit steep at 150 Croatian Kunas, about $30 CAD, but it’s worth the cost.

Looking down at this cafe on the outside of the wall gives you a good perspective of how high up you are.

If you get bored of walking around the city then just a couple of kilometers West of the Old Town are some hills that you can hike and there is a really nice boardwalk along the ocean.  We didn’t hike the hills but we did hit up the boardwalk on one of our evenings.

The last activity we did was to hike up the large hill to the Fort Imperial.  The fortress on top has now been turned into a museum but it was used as recently as the 1990s during the Yugoslavian Civil War.  The hike isn’t too difficult but if you’re not a fan of the 15 switchbacks that go up steeply there is a cable car you can take.

If you do take the hike then just be aware you’ll have to share the track with some cows.

Near the top gives you the best views of the city below.

The fortress, now turned museum, tells the history of the Yugoslavian Civil War from the Croatian perspective.  The war is super complicated so I’m not going to attempt to explain it here, you’ll have to read Wikipedia or watch some YouTube videos, but Dubrovnik was under siege from the Yugoslavian army for 7 months.  They attacked the city with artillery, ships, and planes but the Croatians held on and eventually forced the Yugoslavian army to withdraw.

The museum is small, you’ll take about 90 minutes if you read every plaque, but I think it was interesting to see and definitely worth the small entrance cost.  If you’re not into museums at all then coming up for the views alone is still worth it.

Last Day In Croatia

For our very last day in Croatia we hopped on a morning ferry to the island of Lopud about 1 hour away.  You get some really picturesque views of the coastline on the ferry ride.

Pulling into the Lopud harbour you can’t miss the big church.

The town is really tiny and in the off season everything was closed.  There wasn’t even a grocery store or market open but during the summer it looks like there are a lot of cafes by the water where you can sit and enjoy a coffee and treat.  We wandered the town for a bit and took some photos of interesting doors and windows.

You can then walk to the back side of the island for one of the best beaches in all of Croatia.  The beach was super nice however it was full of trash washed up from the sea.  Maybe in the peak season they keep it clean but at this time it was kind of sad.

Mike and I still got out and practiced our surfing though.

Thanks for sticking through this post the entire way.   We did a lot in 18 days but there was still a lot more we could have done.  Croatia is one of those destinations that has so much to see and do in almost every part of the country.  These days it may have become one of those overly touristy locations but we still had an amazing time.

We said goodbye to Mike and we were headed on a bus further South to Kotor in Montenegro for our next stop.