11.7: Croatia
Last year, Sarah had proposed Croatia as a potential place to go. But since I was already heading north before she flew over, we decided to table Croatia as a vacation spot. This year, it worked out well to go there after Italy. I arrived on a Friday night during a thunderstorm after my flight was delayed and Lufthansa lost my luggage for 30 hours. Not the greatest of beginnings!
But then Sarah arrived, and we had a lovely time! We were in the capital city of Zagreb. Most of the touristy places are on the Croatian coast, which is a six hour drive from Zagreb. This meant the places we went were relatively empty of tourists and most importantly, cheap!
For our first day, we turned to Rick Steves and did a walking tour through the Old Town. We also visited the Museum of Broken Relationships (fascinating), saw the "changing of the guard" outside of the church (after seeing the changing of the guard last year in Copenhagen, this was not quite the same but rather more like a parade), visited the Cathedral, and had a lovely selection of local cheese and wine for dinner.
For our second day, we walked around the Old Town and tried to get to the area called New Town, but the heat beat us and we ended up back at our Airbnb with some local goodies to rest during the afternoon instead. We did find the University of Zagreb Academy of Music and some lovely botanical gardens on our walk!
 |
| Zagreb Academy of Music |
Botanical Gardens
We knew we couldn't go to Croatia and not visit Plitvice Lakes National Park. We did this on a national holiday (Assumption of Mary), and so did all of the other tourists. The line to get in the park wrapped around the entrance, but thankfully didn't take too terribly long to move through. And, once we were in, the lakes were absolutely worth it. I think easily half of my pictures are from this one day. What a beautiful place in this world!
For my last full day in Zagreb, we visited the Museum of Technology (where some of the items on display looked suspiciously like items that my parents still have in their house), the Museum of Naive Art, and had an absolutely amazing dinner, where we discussed next year's travel plans :)
 |
From the Museum of Naive Art. It's St. Mark's Basilica,
which I saw just a week before in Venice! |
 |
| A local shop up the street from our Airbnb |
 |
| My first time trying swordfish |
 |
| Chicken stuffed with prosciutto and cheese |
 |
| Pork tenderloin stuffed with prosciutto and cheese--noticing a trend? |
Croatia was a beautiful country with really fascinating history. I had a great time with Sarah, and would love to return someday to see some of the smaller towns, famous castles, and the famed Dalmatian coast.
