Croatia Day 8: Trogir and Departure Day

Vanjaka B&B

Our plane did not leave until early afternoon, so we had plenty of time (ok, maybe not plenty, as there is always more to see – but sufficient) to explore Trogir. We started with the breakfast served by our host, which was one of my favorite breakfasts of the trip, perhaps tied with the farm omelet. This was a very European style breakfast – a basket of breads with butter and jams, a small meat and cheese plate, an unsweetened, tart, liquid yogurt (I think it was an Icelandic style), fruit, and coffee with milk. Ben also opted for the eggs, but I was very content with the other fixings.

After breakfast, we went to explore the city, enjoying more views and architecture, briefly watching a kids’ soccer match, and peeking inside the fort – my quote there was “no way am I doing anymore fucking stairs.” 

Look, another old church

View of Trogir from afar

Amazing door in the walls of Trogir

The fort that I was not going to climb up

Fort details

Another amazing view, in the distance from Trogir

 We got our last gelato, bought a few more souvenirs, and headed to the airport. We had to rearrange our bags before we left, which was a hassle in the parking lot, but was made so much easier by packing cubes, which are my new favorite packing implement. I also was super glad to have a luggage scale with me, because it let me know one of our bags was a bit over the weight limit, so we shifted things around before getting to the airport. We stopped for gas, then arrived at the rental car return – which was much quicker and smoother than the pick-up. This time, the staff was even friendly. When I kept trying to fix the trunk insert that attached to the hatchback but which had come unmoored, the rental car agent suggested that I might be “OCD.” Ben and I got a real laugh out of that, not what we expected from him. He must be a fan of US TV shows to pick up on that vocabulary.

The Split airport is tiny, a fact made much more clear during our wait for our departure. It is smaller event than Bradley, even though it serves a city twice the size of Hartford. Also, weirdly, the airlines don’t have their own check in desks – just airport employees who check everyone in regardless of airline. There is only one terminal with like 5 gates, and it was completely packed. We spent a bit of time in the duty free shop, using up the last of our Croatian currency. We also grabbed beer to share as a last toast to our vacation – at least until I discovered the free beer on the flight to Boston.

The flight to Zurich was uneventful. This time, we had a much longer layover, so we meandered our way to our gate. This time, we were prepared and took out all of our electronic devices, so we got through the bag check without issue. I, however, completely forgot to take off my fitbit, which I think is what resulted in my getting a very intimate pat down from a nice Swiss lady, who did not even buy me dinner after. No pillow talk, nothing.

Since we had time to kill, we first shopped, spending our last Euros and then some, then we walked. We paced the terminal, which was quite large, stopping once at a gourmet candy counter to get me marzipan, which is enough reason alone to go to Europe. We don’t quite do it as well here. Actually, the view from the airport of the alps, as well as the very well-done tourism campaign put on by Zurich, really made me want to return to Switzerland. I think it’s definitely worth checking out, especially as part of a longer tour of the continent, which I do hope to do with the kids when they are older.

The trip back to Boston was fairly uneventful, though while waiting to board I had to threated a lady who kept bumping into me on purpose. The line to board was not a queue – it was a mass of people all converging on the gate. Rather than go to the back of this giant amoeba of people, I merged. The woman who I merged in front of apparently did not like it, and she kept bumping me. I finally turned to Ben and said something along the lines of “if the lady behind me hits me again, I am either going to slap her or report her to police for assault. I haven’t decided which yet.” It did not happen again.

On the plane, we were once again in my carefully selected seats on the bulkhead with tons of legroom. This time, it was a two-seater, so no issues of sharing my space – only problem was that it was near the bathroom, and for some unknown reason, people kept leaving the door open. Which is just gross. Even in the best of times, no airplane bathroom smells good – the chemicals alone are nasty.

I managed to not sleep all the way to Boston. I watched an awful movie, a parody of westerns with a great cast that I cannot recall the name of. Nor do I really want to.

In Boston, immigrations and customs are a PITA. By far longer and more involved that any of the four countries that I had just visited. And I have a US passport! All travelers now have their pictures taken and scan their passports themselves. They also complete the customs information electronically and get a printout of their answers (the card is apparently obsolete, which was annoying because I stopped along the way to complete it, losing ground to the crowds in the process. For non-US citizens, the process looked even more involved, though the lines were separate. While slow and time consuming, we did not hit any snags. We grabbed our bags, and a shuttle to the parking lot arrived just as we were walking out.

All in all, it was an amazing trip. The good thing about missing our kids was that it made leaving the vacation much less painful than it normally would be. Although there are so many places in the world that I want to see that I have not yet seen, I really want to go back to Croatia soon! I also think that the kids would enjoy many aspects of it – gelato everywhere, for a start! And real castles. I don’t know if or when it will happen, but I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Croatia Day 7: Longest Day Ever - Bosnia, Krka, Sibenik, Trogir, Split

Who knew that donkeys were SO loud

We woke early the next morning to the sounds of the farm – the braying of the donkeys to be precise. After quickly getting all of our stuff together, we set out to explore in daylight. Given the winding, uphill drive that we had taken the night before, we fully expected a spectacular mountain view, and that’s exactly what we had. Rolling hills in all directions, a wild, untamed countryside with no civilization in sight. It was great! Even more isolated that the dirt roads we both grew up on in Vermont.

The addition where we stayed

Random Tortoise 

The farm was full of interesting characters, from the escaped rabbits who ran all over the yard, to the three donkeys, to the completely random tortoise. 

Mara ran around, brought us a ball for fetch, and was unrelenting in her energy. After a long look around, we sat down for breakfast, which was huge omelets made with freshly laid eggs and more of the same sheep cheese, along with the strongest coffee I have ever had. The grounds were still in the bottom. We drank it black, and while I can’t say I loved it, it worked. The omelet was delicious and filling. After some more brief conversation with Davor, including learning that the tortoise was found nearby by his friend. Davor adopted it and researched its origins, learning that it was not native to the area. He suspects that tourists brought it here illegally and let it go, though why someone would travel with a tortoise is beyond me. I asked about the rabbits, and he said that he didn’t really care if they escaped, as he did not plan to use them for food.

We finally got on our way, though we somehow managed to take a wrong turn and drive much deeper into the countryside. It was actually a blessing in disguise because it was truly beautiful in a totally different way than the coastal areas. Eventually, we stopped near a school where we asked directions from a kindly looking woman who was the only person we met on this trip who spoke absolutely no English. We got past this when she finally understood my badly pronounced version of “Neum”, the town we needed to get to. Gestures got us going the right direction, and we basically just backtracked the way we came. It was easy from there.

The day started out beautifully sunny, and remained so for our entire drive north to a national park called Krka. Krka was the small, and closer, of two national parks in Croatia that are known for a series of lakes and waterfalls over limestone cliffs. Once we arrived, it got cloudy and rainy, but that did not stop Ben from putting on his swimming trunks! It took us awhile to get our tickets, map, and get on the bus that takes you from the entrance to the lakes, but when we got there, the wait was worth it! Despite the gloomy weather, the beauty was again overwhelming. I know I sound like a broken record, but I can’t help it.

The park is enormous, but the part we visited had a manageable walking path over the steams and around the lakes and falls. It’s hard to describe, so the pictures will have to speak for me. The whole time we walked, we smiled. Except when we were annoyed by the other tourists, who we thought might push us right over. I would not enjoy this place during a more busy time – remember, this was the “off season” on a cold rainy day! I can’t even imagine what it would be like on a sunny summer day. 

After many pictures, many oohs and ahs, and rolled eyes at the tourists, we made our way back to the bus stop. Along the way, there were many vendors hawking Croatian food products, all of which looked tempting, but which we had already bought several of, like figs, jam, and candied orange peels. Now, I regret not buying more – like tons more, especially of the orange peel. The bus took forever to arrive, and a large crowd had built up at the bus stop. We were a bit concerned that, without a queue, having been one of the first to arrive would not make much of a difference. It ended up not being an issue, but we were pretty quick to jump up and get on once the bus stopped. The ride to the parking area is basically one hairpin turn after another, which was interesting in this enormous bus – great turning radius! The views along the way were also great, as you could see the lakes from above.

After Krka, we headed towards the coast to an ancient port town (and another GoT filming site for season 5) called Sibenik. Sibenik was lovely, with a small concentrated historic area on the waterfront. We found parking, which took a few loops around. When we did finally park, we noticed that several of the cars were adorned with white bows, and that the car next to us was a man with a very large and complicated looking video camera. At first, we were like “Game of Thrones!!” but then realized that it was for a wedding. We saw the wedding party gathered outside a small, ancient-looking chapel, drinking and relaxing, and we assumed that it was the reception.

Church in Sibenik - we easily recognized this as part of Braavos in Season 5 with Arya

Another angle of the church

The wedding!

A small square off the main square - no idea who the statue is of

 We wandered for a bit, but hunger got the best of us so we stopped at a well-reviewed restaurant with another amazing view. This time, we had the water, as well as the main cathedral, ornate and ancient, to stare at. The food at this spot, called Pellegrini, was excellent. I ordered an antipasti platter – each item was delicious, especially the prosciutto – it was finely sliced, unlike most places where it had clearly been sliced by hand. It had capers, preserved peppers, and different delicious spreads. They did have a weird “cover charge” that they did not tell us about in advance (though I had read about it in the reviews), which including a bread and spread plate that was worth the money for the cover charge easily. 

Super tasty food, despite weird service at Pellegrini

The service was very odd – slow, and not especially friendly. And then the waiter’s baby mama and their infant showed up, sitting down at the table right next to us and garnering all of his attention. She was about 19 years old, not classy, and proved that point by smoking while holding the baby. Then, just when I was getting distracted by the baby mama drama happening at the next table, we realized that the wedding party we had seen as we walked over was heading towards the cathedral we were watching. It was what appeared to be a traditional ceremony, and we watched as the wedding party and guests proceeded into the cathedral to live music and pageantry.

After eating, I was eager to get on the road again because I wanted to avoid the difficulty of arriving in a new place in the dark. Our next destination was Trogir, a small island just off the coast – like ten feet, it’s divided only by a narrow canal – and very close to the airport. Trogir in another ancient city surrounded by water and full of ornate buildings with historic value. It is also a walled city, with a large fort just outside the walls. Despite my best hopes, we did arrive in the dark again, though it was much different than the previous night – it was very well-lit, and after turning around only once, we found a parking spot and walked to our last night’s lodging, a bed and breakfast called Vanjaka B&B.

We met our host, who welcomed us warmly. She had worried that we were lost but did not seem put out at all by our arrival time, and happily gave us plenty of information about Trogir and nearby Split, which we were debating whether to try and visit that night. 

We went to our room to decide on a plan for the evening. The room was small but very nice, warmly decorated in a traditional style but with all the modern amenities, in a 450 year old building with small reminders of the age, like a wooden window with shutters, and spots where the original stone still showed. I loved this room, and would gladly have stayed there a couple more nights. It was a perfect, romantic spot.

The Riva

After taking showers, we felt ready for more adventure, so we did drive to Split. Split is a large city, and it’s the most urban of all the places that we went. In terms of size, it’s neither large nor small. The population is around 200,000, similar to Akron, OH or Salt Lake City, UT. Some tourists don’t like it because it is too “real” – unlike somewhere like Trogir or Dubrovnik that seem to be straight out of a fairy tale. I did not hold its realness against it, especially since the place that we were visiting, Diocletian’s Palace and the waterfront pedestrian zone known as the Riva, were pretty unreal. It was easy to find from the highway, I did not take a single wrong turn, and parking was similarly easy and not crazily expensive. We wandered the Riva, popping into a couple of shops but mostly window shopping. It is a mix of an outdoor mall, with international brands and local boutiques, along with touristy souvenir shops. Eventually, we left the main drag and were really in for a treat with the Roman ruins. After being wowed and in awe all week, I thought that I would not be quite so shocked, but these were so totally different than anything we had seen yet. Far older than most of the cities we had visited, the ancient palace ruins were in surprisingly good shape. The network of streets and alleys running throughout and under the palace were full of activity – shops, restaurants, live music, and art vendors, even as late as 10pm. It was an interesting mix of people – trendy, local urbanites, older tourists, and teenagers out on the town.

We walked and walked, trying to see as much of the palace as we could. Several parts were off limits, only open during regular hours and for an admission price, but what we saw was really enough. Given more time, I would definitely go back here in the daylight and likely pay to see more, but this was just the right way to finish our adventure. We headed back to the B&B and managed to get a bit of sleep ahead of departure day.

Croatia Day 6: Evening on the farm

After the winery, we got back on the winding road, hoping to beat the sunset. There was definitely more to see along the peninsula, and given more time, we would have definitely stopped in at least one of the small towns and at a couple more wineries. But we finally made it to the border crossing, and began to look for the farm where we would be staying that night. We had received an email that day from our host with (confusing) driving directions. We also realized that we did not have Euros or Bosnian Francs, both of which are the preferred currency in Bosnia-Herzegovina. When we arrived in Neum, the only real coastal town in B-H, located on this skinny spit of land that bisects Croatia, we looked for an ATM in the dark. We tried a hotel, but the lobby was locked and deserted. We made the judgment call to continue to our destination, and offer US Dollars or to visit an ATM in the morning. I felt nervous about doing that, but it did turn out ok.

The drive to the farm was one of the most tense of the trip. The signage was confusing, my phone got no signal at all, and it was pitch black – no streetlights and no towns in sight, as we drove along narrow winding roads, uphill the whole time. We just rolled with it, breathed deep, and continued on the way. I finally got a signal and was able to reach the host, who assured me that we were heading the right way. Sure enough, a few minutes later we found the farm.

When you are staying with a family, rather than in a traditional commercial setting, you feel a bit more pressure to arrive in a timely manner. I felt bad about arriving so late and even worse about not having the proper currency. After the tense trip through the dark, winding countryside, I really hoped for a warm reception. Our host, Davor, was a somewhat dower man, and I thought that perhaps we had offended him with our late arrival. I apologized profusely, and he seemed fairly indifferent. I realized that eventually that it was just his manner and that we really hadn’t inconvenienced him at all.

When booking this trip, I had initially intended that we stay in Dubrovnik one more night. Somehow, I wrote the wrong dates when we booked the apartment, and when I asked about adding night, it was possible but we would need to move to a different apartment in the same building. I took that as a sign that we look elsewhere, and I will forever be grateful that we did. I wanted somewhere close to the Peljsacs peninsula, knowing that we would be there on this day. Neum looked like a great location, and we’d be able to experience B-H a bit. But when I went online to find hotels, nothing looked appealing. No spot had great reviews, and none of the pictures really got me excited. I then expanded the search a bit, and stumbled upon Agrotourism Matusko (not related to the winery). The reviews on the booking site were stellar, and it initially seemed too good to be true – a reasonably priced (35 Euros per person for room and board, which meant dinner and breakfast), working farm in rural B-H. In fact, I worried that it might be too good to be true right up until we got there, and even for a bit after our arrival. Those worries totally dissipated, and ultimately I realized that I had stumbled onto what amounted to a dream come true vacation experience for me.

Despite Davor’s solemn manner, we were greeted most enthusiastically by his fluffy black dog, Mara. Davor showed us around a bit, though we couldn’t see much in the dark, and then showed us our room. Though he has three guest rooms, we were the only ones staying there that night. The room was upstairs and away from the main eating area, but it was unclear how much privacy we had. Davor and his parents appeared to stay in the home directly below where we were sleeping, though the layout was a bit confusing. The room, while sparse, was clean and modern. I would not want to spend a week in this room, but it was more than adequate for one night on the road. After we freshened up a bit, we headed down for dinner.

Davor served us cherry brandy, made with his own cherries, and we all toasted. This was followed by a large carafe of homemade red wine – I’m not gonna pretend it was anything spectacular, but the setting was enough to make it taste delicious – and a plate of meat and cheese, all locally produced. He made the meat himself, smoking it and curing it, while the cheese came from his neighbor’s sheep. This was delicious, and since Ben can only have a bit, I had to eat most of it. Not that it was a chore, but I didn’t want to be rude and leave any on the plate, something I had read could be insulting to your host. The meat was very tasty, though cut thickly and requiring a lot of chewing. Luckily the wine helped wash it all down! He also served us some homemade bread to go with it, which I encouraged Ben to eat since I had to take care of the meat and cheese.

Our dinner was being prepared using a traditional Croatian method (we soon learned that this part of B-H, which is technically the H – Herzegovina – is predominantly populated by Croatians, which makes perfect sense given the geography, but which I had not really expected). Thinking I was smart, I said, “oh, is this [insert traditional Bosnian cooking method here]” to which he curtly replied, “no, this is a Croatian method called [I really can’t remember, and it was definitely difficult to pronounce.]” But Wikipedia tells me that it was probably the following: “pod pekom means that the dish has been put into a stone oven under a metal cover. The cook puts hot coals on the cover so that the meal is cooked slowly in its own juices.” At least, that is an accurate description of the method he was using! He showed us the big outdoor stone oven and the hot coals covering the dish. I did not inquire as to the contents.

The food as it was cooking

Davor cooking the meal

When he served it to us, the scent made my mouth water, and the taste exceeded my expectations. It was essentially roast meat and potatoes with herbs stewed in the juice and fat from the meat. While it was the most rustic food imaginable, it easily matched the sensory experience of a place like 360 Dubrovnik. It was as unpretentious as possible. The meat was tender, though chewy. As it appeared to be white meat, and was definitely not chicken, I guessed pork. It turned out to be lamb! That was not the first time I’d had lamb, but I always thought of lamb as a red meat. It was closest in texture to dark poultry meat, and appeared to be the rib meat, though I am honestly not certain. The potatoes were, as they say, a revelation. Meltingly tender and richly flavored with the lamb juice, everything was well-seasoned with rosemary, which grows like a weed all over Croatia, and which Davor had freshly picked off his own rosemary bush growing right near the oven. The potatoes were also his own, and the lamb had come from a farm nearby. While the lamb and potatoes were incredible, the moment I will never forget came when I dipped a piece of bread into the juices in the pan. This was pure ecstasy, foodgasmic bliss. I ate as much as possible, washing it all down with plenty of the wine. 

We cleaned the plate completely, which I hope made our host happy. He was a bit hard to read.

Speaking of our host, during this whole eating process, which was several hours long, we chatted with him. The conversation, while stilting at times as it always is when you try to make conversation with a  solemn stranger, was intriguing. We covered many topics, including the threat of GMOs to the world food system, the impact of factory farming on local places like his, the proper way to cure prosciutto, World War II, our host’s family, climate change, our kids, and so much more. Davor told us all about the farm and his business, how he decided to become a host just five years before, the work he did to improve the place for tourists, and who usually comes to stay with him. He does not get a lot of Germans because he does not speak German, but he is very popular with the French and was expecting a large group of French tourists the next day for lunch only – 40 people, to be exact, one of whom could not eat salt, which was really throwing him for a loop. While we sat and chatted, he decorated small bottles of his homemade cherry brandy that he hoped to sell to the tourists tomorrow. Eventually, I realized that we were probably keeping him up, so we went to bed and crashed. 

Croatia Day 6: Peljsacs & Korcula

The early start was somewhat compromised by oversleeping, but not terribly. We were on the road before 10am. We skipped breakfast, instead eating some of the food we already had. Rather than lug our suitcases up the 200 plus steps to the parking garage, we took a taxi – totally overpriced at 10 Euros – to the garage. We easily made our way out of Dubrovnik and got on the highway towards the Peljsacs peninsula. We decided that we’d drive the entire length of the peninsula to Orebic, where we would catch the ferry to Korcula, hang out there for a bit, then leisurely make our way back up the peninsula, stopping at the wineries along the way.

The Peljsacs is more beauty. It is basically one winding road down a narrow peninsula, looping around and over mountains. It’s heavily forested, with more spectacular views of the ocean and looming cliffs, basically like everywhere else, yet special and different in some difficult-to-describe way. When we arrived in Orebic, we followed signs to the ferry, parked (you had to guess how long you’d be there and pay in advance, a system that made me nervous), and went to wait. The parking attendant was totally unhelpful, but we finally found the sign with the times – the next one was still a couple of hours away. Then we realized that we could take the car ferry, so we went to check those times – luckily, there was one within the half hour. As I bought passage for the car, I realized that we could have ridden it without the car for less money. Next time, I would probably do that, though when you add in the cost of parking in Orebic (especially under the pay-in-advance-and-hope-you-don’t-run-late regime described above) along with the cost of a taxi once in Korcula, you probably don’t save a lot. And given our history with barely making it to the boat, I didn’t want to chance getting our car towed when we overstayed our pre-paid parking time.

Views of Korchula from a distance

Outside the city walls in Korchula

The car ferry was uncrowded and simple to board with our little Corsa. I had only been on one other car ferry, and was not the one driving, so I felt a bit nervous – totally without reason, it couldn’t have been more simple, despite Ben’s dire warnings that I not miss the plank. Not a real possibility as it was far wider than the car, but funny nonetheless. The ride over afforded us more spectacular views of the peninsula and Korcula as we approached it (it was visible from the mainland). It took about 30 minutes total to get on, cross, and exit the ferry. Once we arrived, we drove to Korcula town, the highlight of the island and our main destination. The car ferry, unlike the passenger-only ferry, lets you off about three miles away from the main town. Finding parking was a bit tricky, but we did eventually find a free spot just outside the walled city. We, of course, had to take stairs (down on the way, up on our way out) to get there.

Local Kocula wine with lunch

Korcula town is sort of like a mini Dubrovnik – a walled city by the sea, full of ancient buildings, spectacular churches, and fabulous architecture that makes a person walk around with their mouth agape. Not surprisingly, given our sparse breakfast and that it was now close to 2pm, we were hungry. Having done little research, and forgotten our guidebook in the car (or deliberately left it out of the assumption that we knew what we were doing), we wandered around for awhile, half enjoying the sites, and half trying to find the places that we had read about. We finally did stumble on a place recommended by Steves and took a seat on the upstairs patio. We figured that no matter how the food turned out, the view was worth it. The food turned out quite nice. They brought out bread with a nice pate to spread on, and I started with a local specialty, a tomato based soup with polenta and some kind of seafood. For my entrée, I went with another Croatian specialty, black risotto. It gets its name and color from squid ink. The risotto was full of cuttlefish, shrimp, and octopus. I enjoyed it, and would probably order it again, but it was very filling. It was one of the rare occasions in which I did not finish every crumb of food on my plate.

From left: risotto with cuttlefish, bread with pate, Ben's steak, tomato polenta soup

After lunch, we wandered some more, got gelato and coffees, and made the now long feeling trek upstairs to our car. We missed some of the sights in Korcula. We were a little bit dazed and exhausted after so many days with far more exercise than we are used to in our everyday life. If we go back to Croatia, Korcula would not be number one on my list of priorities, but we definitely enjoyed it and were very glad that we checked it out. Particularly because in a place known for its islands, we were not planning to visit many of them.

Very old church

Another furtive inside the church shot

On the way back to Orebic, we decided on which wineries we would stop at. We ended up at just one, Matusko, which was recommended by Steves and by the waiter at D’vino. If we had more time, we probably would have done more, but 1) we only had room for four bottles in our suitcase, which we bought here; 2) I could not drink anymore samples and drive; and 3) we were on our way to the farm in Bosnia and hoped to get there before it was dark.

At Matusko, we were kindly welcomed and invited to explore the building. It was made of stone, and full of rooms that were mostly full of wine barrels. We spent about 15-20 minutes wandering, taking pictures, and admiring what we assumed to be ancient stonework. It turned out that it has been built just recently. 

After our exploring, we sat down with an employee who poured us nine different samples of their wine. She explained the growing process, location of the vines, and the aging of each. We enjoyed it all, and decided on four bottles to bring home – one white, one rose, and two reds, one of which we would be able to age. The employee, while informative on some things, such as the history of wine selling and making in Croatia and the impact of the communist regime on vineyards, she did not know things like “what is the wi-fi password” or understand what I meant when I asked about aging the red. I don’t think it was a language issue, it was just like the idea hadn’t really occurred to her. And she really didn’t know what wi-fi was – wi-fi is the word used in Croatia, so this definitely was not a translation issue.

We still have three of the bottles that we bought at Matusko. We opened one for Easter 2015, and it was great. A strong earthy, mineral flavor. 

After the winery, we began the trek to Bosnia and the farm, which is covered in the next post.