The Croatian Adventure, Part I

So at the moment, I´m chilling in the sweet seaside town of Split on the Adriatic Sea. Its (pardon my punctuation at the moment, Croatian keyboards are funky) my third day in this great country and boy, has it been a whirlwind three days so far.

After getting into Zadar late Wednesday evening, my companions and I caught a three hour bus to Grabovac, a small town near the Plitvice Lakes National Park, which are absolutely breathtaking. When we got in, the weather was horrible: it was rainy, foggy and all around miserable. My friends and I sat inside all afternoon, napping and eating baguettes from a nearby shop with local cheese. Mind you, it was a sweet way to pass the afternoon, but when there's a whole national park to be seen, its not very satisfying. From the forecasts, I only brought a water resistant shell, and it didnt stand up to the Croatian rain at all.

The next day, we got up early and our host (who spoke no English, only Croatian and German) excitedly drove us to the lakes. There really are no words to describe how beautiful the lakes were from the lookout. As we came to the edge of the gorge cliffs overlooking one of the lower lakes, the morning mist moved slowly across the water issued from a small waterfall from a slightly higher lake. The humidity added a chill to the air, which only added more to the excitement of being the first people in the park for the day. The first lake was like a mirror, and it was almost as though the waterfalls feeding it added seamlessly to it and didnt affect its tranquility at all. After discovering that a normal passageway to a ferry on a higher lake was impassable due to flooding, we found another way around through a path next to a massive waterfall. The whole thing was very Lord of the Rings, but with more Japanese tourists.

We climbed higher and higher, until we were on top of the opposite gorge cliff and, after about an hour, made it to the boat landing. The boat dropped us off next to some peaceful falls, and we began to climb the boardwalk. An hour and a half later, we found the bus stop, but then realized that due to flooding, that bus stop was excluded from the route. We walked back down, covering an hours distance in near half an hour. The ferry carried us over toward the shuttle stop, and we made our way back to the place where our host dropped us off. We headed back to our hostel, picked up our bags and then headed to the bus stop to catch our bus to Split.

One of the more harrowing sights along the way back home from the lakes was a house, not more than 300 metres away from our hostel. It was absolutely gutted: no roof, no windows, the walls were exposed down to the brick below the cement that covered them. Our host explained in broken English that it had been destroyed in a war (which war, I do not know), but it brought the realities of war much closer to home. Its easy to see it on CNN with the voices of a reporter barely masking the gunfire and grenade explosions, but seeing the remnants of a war is more shocking and sobering that one can really imagine or describe. When I saw the Adriatic across from our hostel in Zadar early Thursday morning, it was not at all what I thought of when the word ˝Croatia˝was mentioned to me. However, its one of the great parts of this country that show that where there is life there is hope, and in the midst of war and destruction, there is peace and beauty.

Flash back to our busride through the mountains into Split of slight discomfort and very wet shoes, and I am fast asleep from trekking through lakes and sloshing through wet undergrowth. We got in yesterday evening around seven, and made our way directly to our hostel, which is right outside of the old walled city. We spent most of this morning exploring it, meandering along the harbour embankment and headed to an old cemetery (which had since been demolished) to look out across the Adriatic.

And, perhaps the highlight of the day, was this amazing sky blue yacht that was calling at Split for the Croatia Boat Show. On the way back from the cemetery at sunset, I happened to see the thing at the gas station fuelling up for it's journey back to whatever ridiculously creative utopia wherever, where money grows on trees and the fruits have golden seeds, or something. I even got to touch it. It made me really happy. I think I'm gonna get one someday, and sail it on Sunset Lake for no reason, and that is one of the wonderful things one can do with a Vassar degree, or so I hope.

And, as most good things, this account has come to an end, mainly due to my being in a hostel and having other people waiting to use the net. Part II to come soon, if not in Dubrovnik, then definitely back in Bristol.