Country 5: Croatia

After three large cities that were rather similar in the end, we decided to take a rest from the capitals- so we skipped Zagreb and headed for the Platvincki National Park. We took the old roads from Zagreb to the national park which reminded me of the roads in Norway- narrow, steep and curvy. The scenery was fantastic and it was nice to see some of the local villages.

Paradise- is how I would describe the Platvicka Jezera Park (Croatia’s National Park). The water was a beautiful aqua blue, the vegetation- a lush green, the waterfalls and the fish congregating at the shores of the lake all combined for a picturesque view, which I don’t think my camera captured in full. We had planned on being there for two days- the first day walking the short hiking route (3hrs) and then on the second day doing a longer route (6-7hrs).

After the short route we headed for the afternoon into Bosnia- to Bihac. We had lunch at a local pub and ate the only meal they offered: it looked like a large dumpling that was baked (it wasn’t bread like I know bread). Inside the dumpling were chunks of melted cheese. This bun-like object was sliced in two and had meatballs inside- which were really tasty but after a few bites I realized it was the copious amounts of salt in the meat that made the first few bites so tasty- now it was only salty and I had trouble finishing it.

Going back, Micke stopped of at one of the road vendors who was selling animal pelts- he had cow, horse, goat and sheep. He was really interested in a cow hide and out came a few “negotiating beers”- luckily we always had cold beer in the car because Micke had borrowed a portable refrigerator from work. He managed to negotiate the man down from 125 to 90 euros.

The next day, which was supposed to be day 2 in the park, was raining. Too bad-

So we headed off…to the coast.

The inlands of Croatia are beautiful and lush with vegetation. As we moved more towards the coast the landscape changed almost to a desert type landscape. It was rocky with little vegetation and extremely hot. It seemed very harsh.

We found a campsite in a small town called Omis just south of Split. The campsite was right on the beach. Three days were spent there- just relaxing in the sun. Aside from the Swiss Alps, this was the longest duration in one spot. We found a local restaurant that we frequented for dinner all three nights- it had fantastic food. The first night we had pizza (and beer… I drank a lot of beer on this trip, it was good). I had four cheese and Micke had a seafood- it was the best pizza I have had. Cheese is one of my favourite things to eat and this pizza had some good cheese on it. Day 2 I wanted to try something local and on the menu was a dish for two- it had no English translation and Micke could not make out what it was- so we tried it. The dish turned out to be a meat plate- mainly of pork. It had: two… large porkchops, liver, meatballs, sausages, other pork things… and fries with a tomato salad and bread. This meal could have easily feed four. Too much. I don’t remember what we ate the third day.