"Croatia"

As summer was rapidly fading away, Andy, Aaron and I decided that there was one last chance to see some sun before the darkness of winter decended. As Andy had a sailing trip planned for the following week, we decided that it would be a decent sort of a plan to get out and see some of Croatia, a country I'd always planned to get around seeing but until now, hadn't had the chance.

Sunday 12th September - Sunday 19th September 2004

We arrived in Trieste, and managed to pick up the rental car, a Fiat Idea (which during the course of the trip proved to be the worst Idea that Fiat have ever had) without any hassles and got on the road aiming to get as far south as possible.

We had a couple of problems getting on the correct road south as it wasn't immediately obvious (not marked at all) where the airport was on the map that the rental car company had provided. After finally getting out of Trieste and scooting through Slovenia, we quickly began to discover that the roads in Croatia are very narrow, quite windy and almost always contain a truck or slow moving vehicle situated exactly in front of you. At one point in some quite thick fog, Andy just stopped - revealling that he didnt know where the road was! We eventually managed to find a motorway - which was so new it was neither marked on our map, or totally finished yet. When we were forced off the motorway by construction and back on the narrow roads, we decided to call it quits and stopped for the night in Sibenik about halfway between Split and Zadar, after about seven hours in the car. We went out for a wander by the sea and a beer after securing a night in a sobe (private accommodation - essentially a room in someones house), returning sometime around half-past midnight.

The next day we continued South through the small outcrop of Bosnia that extends to the coast and back in to Croatia and Dubrovnik. After arriving we found a sobe right next to the fully booked Youth Hostel and went out to the beach via a local restaurant for lunch. After a bit if a swim we returned to the sobe, got changed and headed into town to discover the local nightlife. Andy managed to cut his hand and do a fair amount of bleeding at O'Neils - the Irish bar we'd been recommended earlier in the day and we all had a pretty good night.

After breakfast the next morning, we walked through the old town on the way to the ferry for the island of Lokrum where we arrived after fifteen minutes of cutting through some of the clearest seawater Ive ever seen. After a short walk around the island we settled on the rocks by the sea and spent the next few hours swimming and occasionally imbibing the odd beer.

We returned to Dubrovink in the late afternoon and paid to climb up on to the walls around the old town, which only ten years ago had been directly hit by shells over three hundred times. The only other obvious reminders were the occasional pile of rocks where a house would have been and the different colours of the roof tiles over the town. The views from the walls over the town and back towards Lokrum were fantastic and this has to be a highlight of anyone visiting Croatia. We then returned home for a little siesta before heading out to the local incarnation of the Hemmingway bar, a chain throughout Croatia where we whiled away the evening and early morning with the help of the occasional beverage.

The next morning after a painful couple of hours drive north, we arrived in Orabic where we caught the ferry across to the island of Korcula, just squeezing on as the last car - and proceeded to the town of the same name where we procured some accommodation. I was feeling pretty poorly still from a combination of the ride in the back seat and the exploits of the previous night (and possibly the "smokey bacon" tasting Lasko beer). We wandered around the old town and settled down to a pizza then returned home for a bit of a siesta and a trip out into the town, to discover that there was no nightlife here at all. We gave up, returned home and went to bed.

The next day we got away early and missed the ferry from Korcula by a few minutes, however managed to get on the next one without a hitch and while we were waiting got some breakfast. We then drove across the peninsular and stopped while we waited for a ferry to take us back across to the coast at Ploce. While we were waiting we managed a swim before Andy expertly reversed the car onto the boat. Luckily there was no damage done. After getting off, we drove up the coast and stopped for lunch at the tourist town of Markarska, then continued north through the 'Markarska Riviera'.

We got to Omish late afternoon, and initially drove and wandered around aimlessly before stumbling upon a sobe and utilising Andy's bitten Deutche to get us a bed for the evening. Thereafter we wandered down to the beach for a swim and a couple of beers by the sea whilest listening to music that, for a change wasnt a selection of 80's rock. The Scorpians, Europe, Roxette and even Big Audio Dynamite had induced the appropriate groans throughout the trip so far. In fact it seems strange to say that it was quite refreshing to listen to the selection of rap that the sound system of the beach side cafe was emitting.

That night we ventured into the township and went looking for a nice place for feeding and watering, but after grand beginnings, neither the beer, the food or the nightlife were up to scratch and we headed home.

We arrived in Opatija after the long and painful drive from Omis late afternoon, having stopped briefly for a reasonable sort of lunch at a small restaurant en route. We found a park and wandered around in search of a tourist agency to book us a sobe. After much searching, and with the pain in my foot becoming quite substantial a place only a short drive through town was booked and we drove up to the gate of the Sobe where we were greeted by Hans who welcomed us in and showed us around the vacant room. He was a little apprehensive about letting three lads stay, but after getting permission from his wife and accepting our money we had a bed to sleep in for the evening.

Out on the town in Opatija that night, we found a distinct lack of people, so after returning from a restaurant and a few empty bars we went straight off to sleep. Opatija though, a mecca for the rich and famous of Germany, Italy and Austria before the war looked the part- it was just lacking the people that by all rights should have been somewhere there. Perhaps they had been and it was too late in the season, anyway to us, the nightlife did not impress.

The next morning we got up and I made an attempt to get the car out forwards, but the reasonably long driveway was too narrow to turn around. No problems, just reverse up the drive - however, Hans and some strange European guy with accompaniment from Han's mad wife decided that they had to direct me. It sort of went like "No, no, yes.. just three metres forward.. turn right, left (followed by motioning with hands in the appropriate/opposite direction), yes, yes, no.. you see I have driven this driveway many times.. ahh yes, yes.." before stating the blindingly obvious ".. ahh you are now out."

The driving test passed, we drove down to the marina - where we had breakfast and then wandered around to the swimming area where we had a bit of a dip and basked in the sun, before a couple of beers and some frisbee and another dip and etc etc. At around lunch time the group that Andy was about to set off on his boat cruise with arrived, and although their vessel was yet to appear, we settled down for lunch. After ordering our food the boat turned up, so Aaron and I were left to eat up the rest of the food and get in the car for the hour and a half drive to Pula.

We got into Pula and sucessfully navigated to the Youth Hostel there, where we checked in and went back into town to have a look at the Roman colliseum situated there. After having a good look around the circular structure, which occasionally looked out of place next to the cranes that comprise the skyline of the ship-building town, it was time to get back to the hostel where we treated ourselves to some beer and an amazing view of the sunset dissapearing into the waters of the Adriatic for our last night in Croatia. That night we met some interesting people, one American guy who was as patriotic as he was mis-informed about his country provided some lively banter before he just got up and walked off. Still, he tried to tell us that 65% of the population of the US (excluding nurses) were tertiary educated - the sad thing was all the rubbish that came out of his mouth, he actually believed. The best thing was that 500ml bottles of beer were 1 pound and despite the fact that Karlovacko is quite strong, there is nothing further to reccommend it.

The next morning we enjoyed the breakfast included in the cost of our nights stay and jumped in the car for the trip back to Trieste. Although it is only 115kms (a contentious issue according to the various signs which constantly debated the remaining distance throughout the trip - the remaining number of kms seemed to grow or shrink randomly during the journey) the trip took nearly three hours as there are two border crossings and therefore four passport checks en route.

We found a spot to park the car and wandered around the pedestrianised centre of the town for a while before sitting down for some lunch, and wandering back beside the sea to the car and the trip to the airport. Finding the airport was not an easy task, almost as difficult as finding a service station in Italy thats open on a Sunday, and after finally finding one, getting directions and then almost getting run over by a truck revesing out of a toll booth on the motorway, we had a grand total of 50 metres to slow down from 100km/h to take the turn-off from the motorway when we finally found it. Luckily the only good thing about a Fiat Idea is the brakes, so we made it and settled into the bar at the departures area to await our flight home to London.