Croatia — Rogue Wanderers

Our Croatia story is largely different than our others to date as it is dominated by time off from truck life to enjoy family and friends. Our decision to sell our house, buy a camper truck and go on the road was a scary leap. We could never have done it without the encouragement and support of our adult children and our assorted family and friends. We miss them on the road. The opportunity to meet up with a few of our nearest and dearest in Croatia was something we fell into and then embraced. It started with our oldest son, Nicholas buying tickets to a Rage Against the Machine concert in Zagreb (the concert was later cancelled but luckily he still came). Then Dawn’s English cousin Helen joined the party followed by our German son August and his family and our Californian friend Cheryl. It was on! Because we were staying in a series of Airbnb’s, our time in Croatia was much more urban than normal, but we appreciated the novelty of staying in each area for multiple days, learning neighborhoods and favorite restaurants.

*First night spent along the river by the Croatian border, it felt a little exposed but we ran into a policeman having his dinner and he said it was fine to sleep there*

Highlights:

Plitvice Lakes National Park - exploring on our own off season, beautiful pools and waterfalls

Split - fantastic old town dominated by Diocletian Palace

Island of Hvar - beautiful turquoise ocean, white rocks, exploring nearby coastlines and caves

Dubrovnik - picture perfect ancient walled city

*Our route through Croatia, not as much camping as usual!*

We started on our own, entering the country from Hungary, first stop Zagreb. It was cold and dreary but we still managed to tour the city and appreciate its elegance.

As we started working our way down the coast, we stopped off at a smaller historic city, Rovinj. We later came to realized how unique it was in comparison to many of the other ancient Croatian towns which largely stuck to a color scheme of white buildings and red roofs. Rovinj was a diverse yet harmonized palette of yellows, reds, pinks and orange. Built on a point surrounded by the turquoise Adriatic Ocean, it was a delight to wander the narrow alleyways and sit in the big central square watching people.

Then, on to the most famous national park in Croatia, Plitvice Lakes National Park. Cascading pools and waterfalls with boardwalk trails, it felt magical. We had the fall light, many of the canyons and lakes hidden in shadow, but on the upside the crowds typical of the summer were absent which made it more enjoyable for us.

Then we made our way to the Dalmation coast to head south to Split, our first meet up with the family. The first night on the coast reminded us of Baja.

The next we made our way down the windy mountain road to Zadar, appreciating the ocean views along the way.

Zadar gave us our next taste of ancient Croatia, the first of many white marble walled cities, narrow streets, roman ruins, and numerous cafes and churches. As one of only two Catholic nations in the region, almost 80% of the population is Catholic and the churches that survived the communist era are beautiful.

The Balkans have a fascinating and complex history and are a region haunted with recent wars among neighbors, religious conflict and communist suppression. Following WWI, Yugoslavia was formed joining six ethnic groups and regions. Following WWII, the six republics were held together by communist dictator Tito. After his death, things started to fall apart, leading to Yugoslavia breaking apart in 1991. That year Croatia and Slovenia declared independence. Fighting ensued in Croatia when the minority Serbian population (Orthodox in a Catholic country) wanted to create their own state. The Croatian war of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 against the Serb-controlled Yugoslavian army. In the end the Serbs were unsuccessful and mostly pushed out of the country. In 1992, Macedonia peacefully created its own state. Bosnia and Herzegovina then declared its independence leading to a three year war as the Bosnian Serbs wanted to remain in what was left of the Yugoslav Republic. They were also unsuccessful. The two remaining republics, Serbia and Montenegro finally split off from eachother in 2006. Fighting continued between the Serbians (Orthodox) and the Kosovans (Muslim) Most recently, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Until the war in Ukraine, the Balkan area was the most recent active war zone on the European continent. Croatia is one of the few Balkan nations which is part of the EU, but all of the Balkan nations are in conversation with the EU about joining. Croatia also plans to convert to the Euro as the national currency and become part of the Schengen area in the coming year.

We spoke to a young person (30 something) in Croatia about the past conflict. He felt that the older generation needed to let go of the past and stop fueling the ethnic divide. He said that his father still re-lived the war and told him that he could never marry a Bosnian or Serbian woman. The son personally felt that it was time to heal.

*Zadar’s narrow streets paved with marble, typical of the ancient Croatian walled cities.*

*Beautiful marble columns, echoes of the past*

Then on to our Airbnb in Split. Normally we rent one about once a month and there is always that moment of anticipation when you arrive - will it be what you expected? As it turned out, we rented a great place, outside of the palace but still in the old town. Even a bonus washing machine! We learned to hang our laundry out the window like a local. Our host kindly showed us the safe, free parking area nearby.

*Dawn reuniting with her cousin Helen right outside the Airbnb*

Split is a beautiful city. The old town is dominated by Diocletian’s Palace, built in the 4th century AD. The palace walls are enormous and now house shops, cafes, homes and Game of Thrones tourist attractions. Split has a long history of changing occupation along the lines of the whole country.

In the past few centuries, the area of Croatia bounced back and forth from Venice to the Austrian Habsburgs, back to Italy and to France then back to Austria. In WW2, Croatia was occupied by Italy and Germany then after the war became part of communist Yugoslavia. Croatia is now a parliamentary republic that holds free elections. From our perspective, Croatia’s tourism infrastructure felt more developed than the other Balkan nations. Which wasn’t necessarily a good thing for us, we like to have to work a little harder to figure things out and develop a communication strategy. Throughout Croatia, English was widely spoken.

*Split harbor with the mountain backdrop*

*First meal out in a long time - good pizza is impossible to make on a two burner camper stove*

*Our happy Split crew out wandering the harbor*

*Inside the old town palace - people living and working amongst the ruins*

*Something interesting everywhere you look*

*Franzi, Ida and August, Ida not quite so sure about the free walking tour of the palace. A lot of talking.*

*Playing in the water from the still operational 2000 year old aqueduct*

*Nicholas and August sharing an incredible platter of fresh fish. The konoba,s or family run restaurants in Croatia, offer up flavorful home cooking for reasonable prices.*

Adventures with the Truck

Now a sidebar on the ongoing challenges of life in a camper truck. Our tires were approaching 60,000 miles and we knew we wanted to replace them before entering Africa in December. Andy knew he wanted BF Goodrich All Terrain K02s. Dawn spent some time in the passenger seat Googling tire dealerships in cities that we knew we would be visiting to find a dealer. Auto Antonio in Split was well rated and their website mentioned the ability to special order. So she emailed them a few weeks before our planned visit. They were super to work with. Ivan agreed to order the tires based on our emails and made an appointment for us to have them mounted and balanced. When we didn’t have the ability to access their Netbank system with our US account, he even agreed to accept payment when we arrived.

*Auto Antonio in Split - great to work with!*

*New tires, slightly smaller but we have tread again*

Now back to our adventures in Split. We had no problem filling the days with beaches, historical sites and food.

*View of Split from the ramparts of Klis Fortress*

*Day trip to Kils Fortress, 20 minutes from town. An imposing medieval fortress, it was home to many Croatian kings and a key defense point in the wars with the Ottomans.*

*Dawn so happy to be with our son, Nicholas*

*Inside the fortress chapel watching a painter at work*

*Just hanging out on the ancient stones*

*Narrow streets of medieval Trogir, another easy day trip from Split*

And then we just spent time enjoying eachother’s company. Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.

*Life with a three year old in an Airbnb. Sometimes you just have to watch silly animal videos.*

*Dawn trying to look like an evil queen. She doesn’t quite pull it off. We watched Game of Thrones and are moderate fans - enough to make it fun to see some filming sites.*

*Fish, its what’s for dinner, now there is a platter full!*

*What? a random Dalmatian just wandering along on the Dalmation Coast*

*We walked along the coast to a place Nicholas could rock climb over the water. Here he is jumping in to climb back up.*

*One evening we climbed (many many stairs) to the top of Marjan park to watch the sunset*

While enjoying the local alcohol, slivovitz, a plum brandy. It gave August a halo.

Even though it was past the height of the island season, we wanted to explore off shore so ferried over to Hvar for a few days. Known for being a party island, we were happy to be arriving two weeks before the end of the season when things were calming down.

*Another beautiful harbor with the obligatory fort on the hill*

*Somehow the scenic narrow hilly street pictures never got old*

We hired a boat for a day and set off to explore the famous caves nearby. Although clearly set up for streams of tourists, the caves were still beautiful to be in.

*The fearless swimmers in the green cave*

*Frighteningly small entrance to the blue cave, one boat exiting as our driver times our entrance. Heads down!*

*Group photo time (actually taken with Dawn’s phone, no photoshop)*

*After some crazy travel delays, our friend Cheryl joined us to relax*

*And another adrenaline filled afternoon of watching Nicholas jump off cliffs.*

*And August joined the fun. Andy is the paparazzi.*

*Store run for the essentials. Beer and ice cream.*

*Soaking up the family and friends time*

Dubrovnik was the last main stop in our time in Croatia. An architectural feat, the walled city is still mostly intact from the 16th century. We were glad to be there after the main tourist crush, but there were still plenty of us outsiders wandering around. We later found out from our walking tour guide that the city has mostly transformed into a tourist shell. Locals have moved out, renting their places on Airbnb and the traditional butchers, bakers and fruit sellers have left, replaced by t-shirt vendors and a variety of souvenir shops, bars and cafes. It all felt lively, but false somehow. The city becomes a ghost town after October. The architecture and the history still made it one of our favorite places, but the results of tourism success were disturbing to see and feel. It was one of the places in the Balkans where we felt that the main language being spoken was English.

*City walls along the cliffs to the sea*

*Now that’s a fruit stand. Definitely tourist prices.*

*Despite being late September, plenty of tourists about*

We left Dubrovnik, said goodbye to the last of our family and friends, loaded all our clean laundry and groceries into the truck and set off. One last leg stretching stop in Cavtat, because you really can never get enough of turquoise ocean, narrow steep streets and white and red architecture.

*Beautiful village of Cavtat, our last coastal stop*

*A final night in Croatia on a hill top overlooking the Adriatic*

And we are both agreed. Airbnb’s have their benefits and are awesome when shared with people we love, but our truck bed is really the best. Back on the road! Thank you for reading and for being patient with our interlude from standard overlanding life.