I love the sight of an airplane waiting for me
30th of September 2021
In September of the year 2020 the weather in my country was slowly getting worse and worse. Me and my friends were supposed to fly to the United States but the pandemic changed our plans making us stuck in Europe. The decision to visit Croatia was made quite spontaneously. Despite not-so-optimisic weather forecasts, we booked a flight, found a villa on Airbnb and packed our bags.
We landed in Zadar pretty late and it was Sunday so after getting an Uber to the first apartment of the trip we realised that all grocery shops and supermarkets were closed. We ordered a pizza and called it a day.
The next day consisted of walking around Zadar - it's a pretty worth visiting but don't spend more than a day or two here. While you're there make sure to see the Sea Organ - they sound beautiful and relaxing.
It was boiling hot that day (especially compared to a cool rainy weather in my country). Other than seeing most of the touristy stuff we didn't do anything that noteworthy. Please enjoy this photo of a random palm tree.
We had a Flixbus reservation to Split for the following day. We woke up early, packed our bags and left our firts Airbnb. Then we took an Uber to the bus station. The bus was more than half an hour late so we had to wait. The worst thing was that there was another Flixbus also headed to Spilt but the driver told us that it was resereved for a group of elderly Germans as part of their trip. When our actual bus finally arrived it turned out that it wasn't green and it was operated by a different company. Weird. But we were told that it's still Flixbus and our tickets were valid.
The trip went smoothly, it was longer than I had anticipated, though I love all forms of transportation so I couldn't complain. When we approached Split we were greeted by beautiful mountain views and we couldn't wait to see the city.
We didn't spend much time strolling around the city - pretty much the first thing we did was to take an Uber to Bene Beach. The water was warm, crystal clear and there were a lot of rocks so we had to use our Jesus shoes. It was my first time swimming while being surrounded by mountains and I was blown away. We spent quite some time there, swimming, jumping to the water from a little pier, taking photos and relaxing. I really recommend going there.
We got to our second Airbnb and I had a horrible accident there. I took a shower and when I got out from the bathroom my phone slipped out of my hand and landed screen-first on the floor. I didn't panic because it had happened a lot of times before. Turns out I should have panicked. The screen was broken, it worked but there were a lot of cracks, the front camera was having a hard time not falling off ond the rear camera glass was smashed. Everything worked though, except recording videos because the stabilization feature broke and it looked like I was recording an earthquake.
We had only one night booked in the city so in the evening we went to Ovčice and Bačvice beaches (we stayed on the border between the two) and watched sunset from there. It was amazing, the colours looked surreal and the restaurants and bars around had kind of an '80s vibe to them.
The next day we went to our "final" Airbnb - a villa with a pool in Jesenice. We were greeted by a lovely lady who was the owner. She made us a welcome cake! After unpacking our things we jumped into the pool and spent a lot of time there. In the evening the rest of our friends were supposed to arrive, so we watched movies to kill the time. When they arrived we played some board games, got silghtly drunk in the process and went to sleep.
The following days were pretty similar - we looked up various beaches on the Internet and went to the one we liked the most. I want to highlight two of them. The first one is Nugal Beach. It's a nudist beach, which we hadn't known before we arrived there. Wish you could see the look on our faces when after a long downhill walk to the beach we saw a sign which said that it was a nudist beach. Luckily it was split in half and we stayed in the clothed part. It's difficult to get to this beach but it's totally worth it, there are cliffs for jumping, there is sand and the water is ideal for, well, everything.
Another beach I want to highlight is Punta Rata Beach. Back in 2004 it was rated one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world by the American Forbes magazine. I second their opinion, the beach is quite big so there is place for everyone, the water is clear and I love to swim while being surrounded with mountains from both sides. The only thing missing is some kind of place from which you could jump to water - some people tried climbing the Brela Stone but it looked pretty tedious to climb after every jump and I don't know whether it's even permitted by the local authorities.
When we were there the weather couldn't make up it's own mind and the sun was shining, there weren't a lot of clouds but from time to time there was a bit of drizzle in the air. Not ideal for sunbathing but if you were in the water you wouldn't really notice it.
Our time in Croatia was slowly coming to an end. Most of us are Game of Thrones fans so there was one more place we definitely had to visit - Dubrovnik. It may be surprising to some American folks who are used to being able to drive for hours and not crossing a single border but things are different in Croatia. To go from Croatia to Croatia you need to cross a border with Bosnia and Herzegovina the country which isn't even a member of the European Union. Luckily it's mostly hassle-free, however you musn't get off the main road.
On the way to Dubrovnik there were a lot of lovely views, one of them being some kind of lakes which you can see below.
The time passed quickly and after a few naps we were in Dubrovnik. I was even more excited than the rest because a few dozen minutes before arriving I received an email from my university which said that I was allowed to go on Erasmus to Malta. The city is more expensive than I had anticipated so bear that in mind if you are planning on going there. We ate a pizza with a beautiful view at the castle and one of the places where GoT had been shot. Then we checked out a few more places, finishing our trip in the Old Town
I also managed to snap a few pictures of cats, which there was a lot of in the city. After spending some time in the Old Town we decided to check out the Dubrovnik Cable Car which takes you to the top of Srđ. Turns out the whole thing is vastly overpriced and if you have a car you can just drive there for free. The view from the top is gorgeous, one of the highlights of the whole trip. Make sure to go there if you can.
That pretty much is all I wanted to write about. There were even more amazing places, such as Omiš and many more, however I don't have photos of them. And besides seeing beautiful places we made a lot of warm, unforgettable memories as friends, which I think is the best thing you can do on a trip.