Croatia

With a few days of BH under our belt, a love for Eastern Europe has already started to bloom and our next stop was to Zagreb, Croatia. Our time in BH was short and our train ride to Zagreb, Croatia was long but it’s all good because Croatia is beautiful. For the first few days we walked around Zagreb, which is the capitol. One of our favorite sights is the Church of St. Mark for its colorful tile roof, it dates back to 1880 and depicts two coats of arms. As we walked up to St. Marks we walked under the Stone Gate which has been turned into a chapel. The focal point is a painting of Mary that happened to survive a fire and around it are lit candles plus benches for people to pray. Although it was strange to see and walk through, it felt like a real church it just happens to be in the middle of this main path. Another favorite spot or site was the Burglars’ Tower which was once a watchtower and at the top sits an old cannon; they fire the cannon everyday at noon. While all the sites were interesting to see my favorite was the red tents or should I say the market. Just off of the main square is the big open air market which is covered with red tents and people are selling all kinds of fresh fruits, vegetables, and fish. :) Plus, they had beautiful flowers for sell as well as flowers and herbs to plant in your garden. Underground is the poultry market, where they sell cheeses, meats, bread, wine, and sauerkraut, oh what a wonderful smell!!! The market was amazing and we went back a few times and picked up several items; strawberries, carrots, radishes, a tomato, bread, two kinds of cheese (goat and sheep), salami and of course a cheep 1L bottle of barreled white wine. We were set for a few picnic lunches or light dinners.

Croatia is primarily known for its Dalmatian Coast but sadly we didn’t spend any time there and instead toured the NW which is called Istria. Since we had a car, we stayed in a little beach town called Opatija and from there ventured out to different cities. Our first visit was to a town called Rovinj where we wondered the cobble stone streets. In the heart of town there are no cars since the streets are more like lanes and as we walked through them we walked under various arches which connect the houses. This town was once very crowded and since its right on the water, space became limited so the only way to grow was to build up. Rovinj is also a fisherman’s town, so for lunch we indulged in some local fish and it was delicious. Just as we finished eating it started to rain so we ended up having a coffee to kill time as the rain passed and then dashed to our car before the next rain clouds rolled in.

For our last day in Croatia before we headed into Slovenia we did an all day road trip through most of Istria. We first drove along the west coast and passed through Vrsar, Porec, Novigrad and then on to Brtonigla where we stopped for lunch. From there we started our drive inland and drove through Buje, Groznjan, Krasica, Motovun, Buzet, Roc, and Hum and then finally made our way back home, Opatija. Well, I realize I mentioned a lot of towns but most of them we really only drove through, but a few of them we did stop in for a quick tour around. One of our favorites was Motovun, mostly because of all the wine and truffle shops. Truffles are found all around this area and are popularly used in there traditional cooking. Since I am not familiar with truffles I went for the wine and liquors, Dad on the other hand picked up two bottles of brandy. One is flavored with mistletoe and honey (disgusting) the other was walnut flavored (better) but my favorite was the cherry brandy or liquor (yummy). I went for the cherry and a bottle of white wine since it’s what they mostly grow. Another favorite town was Hum, and to get to this town we drove along Glagolitic Lane, a suggestion by expert travel Rick Steves. Apparently, Glagolitic Lane commemorates a ninth century alphabet which was once used for written Croatian. Along the drive we saw monuments that had Glagolitic characters. At one time it looked as though we drove past Stonehenge in Enlgand, but really they were just stones with different characters on them. At the end of this lane we arrived in Hum where we walked around the whole town in about ten minutes. The population of Hum consists of 16 people, so says the guidebook and is probably the smallest town in the world. Even though it’s small it has great character because it sits on top of a hill over looking the valley, plus it has the Glagolitic Alphabet in writing all over the place. From Hum our drive home was supposed to be easy, or so I thought, but of course we got a bit off the beaten track and ended up driving through a few more small towns, if you could call them that, before we finally found the highway which took us home. Anxious to be out of the car, I was nevertheless thrilled over the success of our day, and really enjoyed seeing the countryside. There are definite perks to having a car!!!