If you’re into waterfalls and emerald green lakes and beautiful hikes and some mother-effing nature in your face, then this wonderful place, a Unesco World Heritage site that is under the radar for most Americans, is the place for you. This is what we spent four house driving over a mountain to see, and it was worth it. While a picture could never do this place the justice it deserves, it does better than words, so I’ll let some photos tell the rest of the story.
Today we packed our bags, loaded up into our rental car, and drove to our next location, Plitvice National Park in central Croatia. Our day can be divided up into three distinct, glorious stops.
1) in the morning, after coffee #1, we went down the street and found an amazing “secret garden” location along the rocks lining Rovinj’s border. It’s easy to miss, but if you pay attention as you walk down one of the narrow streets, you would pass a small archway squeezed in-between two buildings that opens up to a glorious patio of rocks along the water’s edge dotted with cushions and pillows for lounging in the sun, sipping a cappuccino or a glass of prossecco, and watching the sailboats pass by headed out to sea. The owners of this magnificent oasis are a brother and sister team, Jasmin and Jasmina. The brother runs the bar on the sea side and sister runs a cute gallery upstairs on the alley side. We really, really wanted to sit there all day, but our schedule dictated that we pack it up and hit the road to our next home.
2) We had several hours of driving ahead of us to get to our next stop. We opted to take the longer route along the coastline to enjoy the drive a little more. The roads were in great shape and the drive at times was not unlike some of the winding roads in California along highway 1. We decided to stop for lunch in a small town along the way and just drove around until we found something that looked decent. We stopped at a place that looked questionable at first. When we walked in, things started looking up when we saw that the seating area was a covered patio overlooking the sea. Our waiter was Mario (who lived just up the hill with the chef). We ordered a plate of muscles and the “fish for two in the oven”. What came out 30 minutes later was some of the most glorious face-on fish ever! It was a whole sea bass basted in some sort of magical broth stewed with potatoes, onion, mussels, squid and other tasty morsels. The mussels were streamers in a white wine garlic sauce. This was certainly the best seafood we’ve had so far on our trip, and the fact that we stumbled upon it randomly makes it even more magical.
3) the rest of our drive included two hours up and down a very narrow, winding road over a mountain. One particularly beautiful stretch was a narrow road about the width of one car winding through prairie-like tall grass high enough that we couldn’t see around corners. It was slow going but well worth the time for the “scenic” route. Our final stop was “grabovac tourist park” where we has reserved a modern style “mobile home”. This was basically a cabin in a campground, but it was brand new and clean and pretty cool. It was so new that I think we actually may have been the first people to stay in it. We got ourselves settled in and prepared for our next day at Plitvice National Park.
Some bullet points of the day today (photos coming soon)
We woke up pretty early on our hotel in Buzet, are our free hotel breakfast, and hit the road north towards Italy.
Border crossing through Slovenia (couple extra passport stamps, that’s exciting)
Booked it the rest of the way to Venice, parked the car on the edge of Town and took train in. Walked around a bit. Canals were beautiful. Gondola drivers. Houses right to the water with doors opening up above the water for boat parking. Cute narrow alleys.
Ate an amazing Italian lunch of wood fired pizza and caprese with the freshest tomato and mozzarella di buffala you’ve ever seen.
We went to the grand canal, looked around a bit, took a few photos and got the hell out of there because it was completely overrun with tourists and cruise boat passengers on their day trip.
Stopped for some gelato and cappuccinos and people watched for a while
Being in Venice, we knew we couldn’t leave without going for a spin around town in a gondola, so we hired a gondolier named William who gave us a lovely paddle through the canals of old town. This will be a memory I will certainly not soon forget.
On the way home, we planned to stop in the town of Prossecco to drink some Prossecco. We couldn’t really find an good restaurants in that little town though so we went just a few miles further to Triste for dinner, where we found a little, local family style restaurant, where Bernadette ordered the largest $8 dish of pasta carbonate I’ve ever seen. Had it been the only thing we ordered I think we still would’ have been able to polish it off. Alyssa and I, of course, ordered more pizza (we just can’t get enough!)
After a couple of very rainy days, we decided to wake up and follow the sun for the next couple of days. Equipped with overnight bags we headed north with vineyards as our number one mission. We stopped in the tiny village of Groznjan on the way, known for its local artists and only 24 people actually living in the town. The hilltop town was abandoned for 500 years before being reinhabited by these 24 brave souls, and, despite the tour buses in the parking lot, it feels like stepping back in time. After some wandering and amazing pizza at the one pizza joint in town we headed off for our cellar and vineyard tour at Kozlavic Winery. After touring the grounds we got to taste many of their delicious wines with a platter of cheese, fruit and nuts. The cheese from Pag was amazing! Must find more of that.
The drive through the Istrian countryside was amazing. Abandoned castles and small hilltop villages stick out from the rolling hillsides covered in vineyards and small farms. We drove past a shepherd and his flock on the side of the road. He was wearing a cape and had a staff and the picture in our minds will last forever and was straight out of the Bible.
After the crew was imbibed with Kozlavic wine we headed to another adorable hilltop village called Motovun, which means mountain in Croatian. It seems this was a military post since it is built on the highest point around and walled in on all sides. You can almost hear the clip clop of roman soldiers’ horses as you enter through the main gate to the city.
We were lucky enough to be seated at a table with a view when the skies finally opened up poured on us. The sun attempted to make an appearance after that, but it was still elusive. DP said the view from Motovun was one of the tops of his life.
Off to dinner at Zigante Restaurant. Black truffles shaved on each dish by Zora, our white gloves server, was endearing. Mark said it reminded him of the fine dining of 15 years ago. Food was good and after a full day of wine country we were ready for bed. We found a place in Buzet to stay and wait for the sun to announce where we would go in the morning.
Today we woke up to the sound of rain. Not great for motivating us to explore, but we strapped on our rain gear and headed out to discover what Rovinj has to offer. What we found were the best strawberries we’ve ever tasted, covey beaches just waiting for the sun to reappear and the romance of an old European town with nothing to prove.
Wandering around Old Town in the rain.
With these two.
#nobikelocksinthistown
Croatian beaches in the rain.
And this is how we end a magical day, chocolate mousse in our faces.
… Some bullet points from Paul to add in eventually…
Coffee on the harbor. Fishermen untangling nets. Pastries from the bakery.
Walked around in the rain and circled the little peninsula. The tiny, winding cobblestone streets are really romantics. Very reminiscent of Italy. Cloths lines stretching between buildings overhead. Locals sipping espresso on sidewalk cafés and pastel pinks, greens and yellows for all of the buildings.
We stopped by the local market and purchased the most delicious, juicy strawberries I’ve ever had. I didn’t know you could get this sort of sweetness out of a berry without soaking it in sugar for an hour.
We had dinner at a really cute place named Ulica. Our server brought us (3 of us at least) our first sampling if mistletoe grappa. Our crew had mixed reactions to it, but I think I discovered that I an a secret Grappa lover.
After some coffee and a little hotel breakfast, mark, Berdadette and I took a short walk around our neighborhood. It was raining, but we wanted to see a couple more things before leaving town. We did a quick swing in to the museum of broken relationships. We didn’t to the tour, but the gift shop was quite fascinating.
we all made it out with relationships in tact.
We walked through the daily market and bought a bag of cherries.
We went into the church
tallest building in Croatia?
Then we packed up the car and drove west. Stopped for lunch in the coastal town of Volovsko, where we ate at a cute little alley restaurant named Tramerka.
Drove coastal road to Rovinj and got checked into our beautiful airBnB.
saw this super cute man and hos son herding some giats at a 13th century castle we stopped at.
Our first flight into Zagreb went without incident, and we worked with a great rental car agent to pick up our ride for the next week, a brand new fancy-pants Mercedes. Our first 20 minutes of driving was actually a but confusing because our car refused to go over 40km/hr. Luckily we hadn’t hit the highway yet but we did feel a little like pokey tourists. A call back to the agency revealed a magical hidden button that sets a max speed, and we were on zippy sport mode in no time.
We got two Great rooms at Hotel Jägerhorn, in Zagreb’s old town neighborhood, and fought a little jet lag with som wandering around looking for dinner.
We took the hotel receptionist’s recommendation and ate at an awesome place named Mundoaka Street Food, a few blocks from our hotel and just off of the central square. Tables were set up on the pedestrian street for some great people watching. The food was incredible and beautiful, and the local wine (Slovenian, this one) was delicious (and cheap!).
this guy, my passport, and this FroYo… and that’s ALL I need.
I just let the Amsterdam airport and am currently on a plane headed to Zagreb, Croatia. Alyssa and myself, along with Mark and Bernadette will be spending the next three weeks driving through the countryside, tasting wine, eating truffles, strolling cobblestone streets, and lounging on a sailboat. Alyssa is about 6 months pregnant so this trip will certainly be much different from other adventures we’ve had in the past.
Here’s a brief rundown of our itinerary. We land in Zagreb, the capital city, and spend one quick night in town, then we take our rental car and head east to the Istrian peninsula for a few days. This part of Croatia has a lot of Italian influence,with lots of cute, old, small towns, plenty of vineyards, lots of coastline and beautiful food. We then head south for two nights at Plitvice national park. This area is a world heritage site and home to miles of walking paths winding around lakes and hundreds of waterfalls. Next to the town of Dubrovnik. Recently made popular because it’s one of the shooting locations for Game of Thrones, we have an apartment for a few nights not far from the old town and the city walls surrounding the city which we can walk. From there we board a traditional Gulet boat where we will live for a week while our skipper sails us around some of the many islands dotting the Dalmatian coast. Our trip ends with a few final nights in the town of Split, where we can choose to either law low and relax, find a scuba outfitter, or take a ferry to explore some towns on nearby islands.
I’ll do my best to keep the blog up to date, even if it’s just to post some photos.
Writing this from the airport TGI Fridays in Quito. We made it out of the airport in Galapagos without any lizards crawling into our backpacks (which would land us a year in the clinker). After this 8 hour layover and a red eye flight back to the U. S. Of A. We’ll be getting home. Looking forward to our bed and seeing our dog again!
Highlands Tour
• two craters
• lava tunnels. Falling rocks
• Tortoise reserve
• photo pop with tortoise shell
Bay tour
• shark feeding
• swimming in crevasse
• “tunnel of love”
• short walk to a couple other beaches
