Thursday, April 25, was a travel day to Dubrovnik. I arrived 1.5 hours ahead of Bill at the Dubrovnik airport which gave me considerable time to scout out the bus transport to the Ploce Gate. Bill and I boarded that bus (the driver waited for us!). Once we entered the Buza Gate, I texted Pero that we were there and got a cryptic message about where to meet him. Bill and I were confused about where to go, and then I noticed Pero approaching us.
I learned about Pero’s rental in Rick Steve’s book. Notable in RS book was that Pero still had part of a mortar that damaged his home during the 1991 Yugoslavia breakup. And as Rick Steves learned, Pero likes to do a liquor shot with his guests.
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| Obligatory shots with Pero |
OK by me.
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| Part of the mortar shell that damaged Pero's home |
After unpacking, we walked about Dubrovnik and covered everywhere within the walls in under 3 hours. It’s much smaller than we thought it would be. Even though it is considered a shoulder season, it was incredibly crowded.
Bob had recommended finding the Hole-In-The-Wall bar; it’s accessible by a hole in the wall. Duh. We found it; however, the bar was undergoing reconstruction as evidenced by stacked tables and chairs, and a do-not-enter tape around the area. Two women were seated within the taped area, and they told us about the reconstruction. Then they asked, would we like a shot? Of course! Then she asked if we wanted another shot. We passed on the second shot, not wanting to seem greedy.
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| The crowds even on a "shoulder" season. |
The next day was tour day. We had booked two 1.5-hour tours, first with the old town and second with the high wall. I discovered that back-to-back walking tours for me became boring and just wearing. Cool and a bit windy weather didn’t help. There was a woman on the tour who seemed to be dealing with a crisis on her phone while on both tours. Someone politely but determinately told her she needed to step away from the group when she was on her phone while everyone was trying to listen to the guide.
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| On the phone and resolving issues. |
After the old town tour, we had just enough time to grab directions and where to meet for the high wall tour and grab an ice cream cone. That was enough to at least get it started, but that also ran long, totaling three hours. The transmission of what the guide said to my earpiece kept cutting out. I thought it was due to a failure on the guide's machine and confirmed by asking Bill if she cutting out and he said yes. After that I gave up, it was just too frustrating to hear it all so I then just took it out and put it in my pocket. Later, Bill told me it was because of the walls in between that it was cutting out.
Saturday, April 27, was Ferry to Hvar day. Getting to the ferry dock was troubling, having missed the stop and then walking back about 1 km. The ferry was a huge catamaran with inside-only seats. We couldn’t go up the stairs to the top deck seating area due to “security issues”. Sure. The ride was about 3.5 hours long and we were moving at a fast clip.
Hvar was easy to walk around and even smaller than Dubrovnik. We walked most of Hvar before thinking about dinner. Earlier we looked at the Val Marina Restaurant menu and decided to return there for dinner. Our waiter, Zalar, returned to our table and I said “I think we are ready to order”. Zalar said, “No you are not. Here, you must relax first with a complimentary glass of prosecco and watch the sunset over the harbor”.
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| The complimentary Prosecco |
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| And the recommended wine. Thanks Zalar! |
Zalar, you were so right. We enjoyed the prosecco, and then sunset and laughed with the table light randomly turning off and on. Our order of the Fish for 2 platters paired well with Zalar’s recommended red wine. This was a great, great dinner lasting 2.5 hours.
We hiked up to the Tvrdava Fortica (Fortress) above Hvar. The view was incredible. And we walked along the seawall to the next village and beyond.
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| The view above Hvar from the Fortress |
We saw several sailboats and powerboats, mostly high-end rentals or owned boats, which were coming in or leaving various ports. I did not see a sailboat shorter than 47 feet.
Monday, April 29, was a ferry to Split day. This was only 1.25 hours long with impressive views of various islands and the mountain range behind Split.
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| The mountains! |
The Airbnb manager said we could check in early, and he met us at the walk-up door. We unpacked and then took off to explore Split.
Split was first developed for a retired dignitary many centuries ago. The original walls were huge as was the clock tower. I wondered how much of the GNP was consumed in building this palace.
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| Impressive clock tower |
Having a working cellular phone was needed in the narrow cobblestone streets.
That evening a nearby open square was set up to have a symphonic band that included guitars and a drum set.
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| Rock on! |
They were to start at 8 pm so we were seated at 7:30 for drinks and dinner, and caught the performance.
Rick Steves recommended a hole-in-the-wall place for dining called Villa Spiza. We found it the next evening and had a great dinner while seated at the bar.
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| Highly recommended. Livin' Large. |
It was so good that we returned the next evening for the same seats and dinner.
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| And again the next day. |
May 2, Thursday, was travel to Plitvice Lakes. It was a leisurely walk to get to the Split bus depot.
The bus ride was almost full, and we got to see the inland terrain and pass through the Ridge Mountains.
The bus took a 10-minute stop in Zadar. I took this as a time to stretch my legs and get a coffee. I went to a bus depot diner and asked for a takeaway coffee. Then I offered to pay by Visa card. No cards accepted. Then I (stupid American!) asked if would they accept US dollars (sorry, didn’t have euros). She said no; I said thanks away (sincerely – it’s my fault not having euros). Then she said ‘How do you want your coffee?’ I countered but I can't pay you. She said don’t worry about it and she gave me a free coffee. Thank you!
We had some confusion when getting dropped off at Entrance #2 for Plitvice Lakes. Bill pulled out the hotel paperwork to show where on the map we were going to the driver and he said it was just down the road. So several groups that also departed the bus started walking in that direction and found the hotel.
We checked in everything went great. We can leave the luggage after checking out since we are departing the area at 5:15 PM. After mentioning that at our check-in, the check-in person said oh we have a complimentary delivery service to take you to the bus stop. Great because the walk is uphill from the hotel.
Bill and I checked into the room and were amazed at the external piping added later for heating. Then we started to walk back to town or the park entrance to get a feel for the area. Maybe 50 m outside of the hotel looked up and said maybe we should have beers here first at the hotel. Good move, as 2/3 the way through the first beers the rain let loose.
High entertainment value when stopping by the Lakes Information Center. Bill and I walked in and there were two women in their 50s behind the counter. They made us feel we were a major inconvenience to them just by walking in. The attitude and the looks from them were that, well, they didn’t expect people to walk in. They had a grid picture of maps. No, they did not have maps for us to take away. They did a few questions and answers about what we wanted to do and they filtered us down to a few choices, but they were very reluctant to show on the map where things were. More smirking looks at us. In between us looking at the maps and trying to decipher what they told us they spoke Croatian amongst themselves. I don’t speak Croatian but I am guessing they said ‘Stupid Americans’. All in all a lacking customer service experience, but we did walk out of there with a rough idea of what to do. As well as a good story. I pointed out to Bill that this is old-school communist customer service.
The next morning we planned to beat the rush and cover the park as much as possible by lunchtime. We did just that and discovered the park was much bigger than we thought to the point we would not see everything. This was mainly due to getting tired from all the walking.
That evening was our bus to Zagreb. It was misting rain when we arrived at the Zagreb bus depot. I ordered an Uber to get to our airport hotel. The Uber driver, Tin, was eager to talk to Americans. Everyone speaks several languages!
We checked into the hotel, scheduled a morning taxi, and then walked in the misting rain to find a beer and food.
Saturday, May 4, was a fly home day. We taxied to the beautiful Zagreb airport. We had the same flight to Amsterdam. We then had brunch at Schiphol airport before splitting to take different flights home. Bill won the ‘I am home first’ trophy.
More Croatia pics here.
Lessons Learned
- Having a working cellular phone is now a travel requirement! The Europe SIM card requirement of initially starting it up only after arriving in Europe means you have to update any apps to use the new phone number. My immediate need for Uber proved challenging since I used my US phone to book the Uber but lost Wi-Fi when leaving the airport. Lesson Learned: use the Uber app only on Europe phone (seems so obvious now).
- Rick Steve’s books and website are invaluable. I previously have been dismissive; thinking that it would only apply to the get-on-a-bus people that follow a person with a flag. I was so wrong. I found that even the user-contributed forum content is relevant. My going-forward action is to always review RS content as well as get the latest book for the applicable European area I travel to.
- Poland is underrated and inexpensive. Given an event in Poland, I would book a trip right now.
- All European restaurants and bars do not use plastic silverware or glasses, except when asking for takeaway.
- Everyone speaks at least 2+ languages. They may struggle with English but I did not have any problem communicating. There were two exceptions: the elderly woman at the Katowice transit rail system (nyet!), and a Split waiter who just agreed with anything said (requested a red wine and got white). I had a conversation while ordering takeaway with a counter person. He was mid-20s, from South Korea, spoke 3 languages, and went to uni. I expressed there are great opportunities ahead for someone with multilingual experiences and uni.
- The European SIM card was a win. There is so little stress when always having Google Maps and Search always available. Not knowing how much or little data I would consume, I opted for a 30-day 30GB data plan. I only used about 3GB over the 3.5 weeks.
- There was always the question of how to get local currency or euros. Most places would take visa cards but having local currency is great for tipping. I did notice that in some places when the bill did not include a tip, a QR code was on the bill to add a tip. I tried the QR code but the opened page did not translate and I wasn’t going to enter my visa card info onto a webpage I could not read. In Poland, I used an ATM to get Polish zlotys and was clipped about 24%. Ouch! Luckily I only converted $20. In Budapest, I used an ATM located in a bank’s kiosk and that only clipped about 3%. And I used that ATM to pull varying quantities - $20, $100, $50 and it was the same percentage. So going forward, I will try bank kiosk ATMs and use (many times) pulling $10 and $20 to get the smaller bills, because when pulling $100 worth of euros gets you a 100 euro bill which is hard to break.
- Bill discovered that the Plitvice Lake hotel front desk would convert dollars to euros for about a 4% clip. Bill got a bunch of 1 and 2 euro coins and I got 100 euros in fives. I guess that this will only work for major hotels and certainly not at an Airbnb.
- Life Pro tip bring multiple lightning cables for multiple devices charging at the same time. As well as bringing multiple sets of batteries for the computer mouse.
- Airbnb having clothes washers are great when on extended trips. No need to search for laundry services. But you need to remember to bring clothes soap.
