Welcome to the Mediterranean - Croatia

10 - 17 August

I arrived in Croatia's capital, Zagreb, after a 6-hour train from Budapest. The quality & frequency of the train systems in Europe's eastern countries is definitely worse, but they still run and there's one big benefit - they're a lot cheaper that German, Dutch or French trains.

Lindsay & Hannah (who I'd met in Budapest) were staying at the same hostel, having arrived the day before, and Lindsay came and met me at the train station to catch the tram, a welcome gesture after the long train ride. From Zagreb, they decided to travel seperately for the rest of their trip, and Lindsay & I ended up travelling together for 3 weeks from Zagreb through Croatia, Slovenia & Italy.

Zagreb is a small city, so we spent just one day looking around at it's sights. The country has only recently become part of the EU, but still has it's own border controls - the only ones I encountered in four months in Europe (I can't imagine what it would have been like previously with passport checks at every border!).

Croatia seems proud to now be part of the EU

The very colourfully-tiled Crkva sv. Marka (St Mark's Church)

Zagreb was really only intended as a stopover on the way to the coast, and so the next day, we took a train (another 6 hours!) to the city of Split, a coastal resort town in Croatia's south. I'd been hoping to get to Dubrovnik, which is even further south and where scenes from Game of Thrones have been shot on the city walls, but Split was a more-than-satisfactory destination in its own right...

The Split seafront

Heading down to the beach seemed to be a popular thing to do... I can't imagine why, the water was so clear and the weather so warm...

One of the beaches in Split - zumba classes at the water's edge, and crowded with people well into the evening

Dusk looking out to sea from the Split waterfront

The city of Split itself is actually very old, with the remains of a Roman palace built in 305 AD forming the core of the city (in fact Greek remains have been found there from much earlier).

Diocletian Palace (from Roman times) forming the central, car-less "old city" of Split

Croatia is famous for it's islands - scattered along the coast are over 1,000 of them, the exact number depending on how an island is defined. Several of the largest are around Split, so we headed for the town of Stari Grad on island Hvar for a day trip. The island was lovely - I felt like I could stay there for a week, drinking in the sun (and a few beers!), and the water was crystal clear and gorgeously warm...

View back towards Split from the ferry

Not a bad spot for a picnic lunch...

The small town of Stari Grad, Hvar

As relaxing as Split was, Lindsay and I both wanted to get off towards Slovenia & Italy, so we headed back north, choosing to stop for a day at the Plitvice National Park. We were very glad we did - despite being quite full of tourists, the day spent walking around this stunning landscape was well worth it. The park, in mountainous karst landscape, was one of the first natural sites to be listed by UNESCO - and you can see why...

One of the largest lakes - the park is centred around a magnificent series of cascading lakes down through the narrow valley, all in rich blue and green colours

Veliki Slap, which literally translates with "Big Waterfall"

The waters are not only gorgeous turquoise colours, they are also perfectly clear

Lindsay & I & the view

Late that day we arrived back in Zagreb for the night again, spent the last of our Croatian Kunas & enjoyed a couple of Croatian beers, and then reluctantly were on the train again the next morning, bound for Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Had we thought Croatia was beautiful? Definitely. Was the more - and better - to come? Unbelievably, yes...