splitbound: August 2009

Monday, August 24, 2009

Croatia. July - August 2009.

John's birthday; a man on the cactus; "Man overboard!"

Part 1

Today is the eighth day of our boat trip in the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. Last night we strayed on a big island called Zut, which has a big marina with a shop, restaurants, toilets and showers but no town. Zut Island is a part of the Karnati Islands National Park, which is famous for its moon landscapes (very little or no vegetation). Our crew consists of six people: Peter’s sister Ruth, her husband John, his sister Sandy, Alan – Sandy’s husband, Peter and me.

But I will start from the beginning.

Our journey started in the town Zadar located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. We flew there from Edinburgh. Zadar is a relatively big town with a very impressive old town, included in the UNESCO world heritage list. The town is also famous for its Sea Organ – a construction consisting of a complicated system of pipes under the rocky shore and holes, through which wind is blowing, which produces music-like sounds.

Peter and I had 2 days to wait for Ruth and the others so we decided to explore another UNESCO listed sight – Plitvice National Park. It is located inland, on the way from Zadar to Zagreb (Croatia’s capital).

After a long and tiring 3-hour bus trip we finally reached a small ski resort near the park, where our accommodation had been booked. Next day we went to the park. We did a 5-hour walk around incredibly beautiful lakes, waterfalls and streams with extremely clean and clear water of most amazing blue color with hundreds of different fish.

The next day we had to go back to Zadar and from there catch another bus to Trogir, where we were meeting with Ruth and John and starting our boat trip.

Our yacht is called “Sugar Daddy”. It a sailing yacht, which also has a motor. So when there is no wind we start the motor. Below the deck there are three sleeping compartments, a kitchen, sitting room and two toilets with showers.

There are approximately 300 different-size islands in the archipelago. Some are big and have one or several towns on them and some are small and uninhabited. John and Alan have decided to go north of Trogir as they had not explored that area yet. Peter and I didn’t mind, as we have never been anywhere. We start sailing about 10 or 11am each day, sail for about 4 or 5 hours and then park in a port to spend a night there. Although two nights we parked in the little bays near the shore. For situations like that there is a small motorboat, which you can paddle or drive to the shore.

Boat diary.

Old Church in Tribunj town and rocky islands of Adriatic Sea.

Part 2.

What do I think of Croatia? I think it is an amazingly beautiful and exotic country. I love the little towns with narrow streets, crooked passages, little kitchen gardens attached to the houses. It reminded me of the comedy “Diamond Arm” (“Briliantovaya Ruka”). The climate is dry and hot in summer and cool and humid in winter. The Adriatic coast is subtropical so the winter is very mild there. The islands are steep and rocky covered with shrubs and mostly olive and fig trees. There are no beaches anywhere so people sunbathe on the rocks. There are a lot of tourists from Germany, Italy, Britain, Russia, whom the locals are happy to have back as during the civil war in the 1990s the tourism industry decreased.

There are small markets where you can buy local produce of fruit (peaches, melons, nectarines, figs, plums), vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, potatoes, eggplants) and olive oil. Peter and I went out a few times for dinner and ate on the boat the rest of the time. I think the most exotic dish I tried was a calamari ink risotto (a rice dish slowly cooked with white wine and stock, served with seafood, chicken and vegetables and in my case with calamari ink). The color was black (because of the ink) and the taste was strong and fishy but delicious. Also we ate a lot of locally made ice cream, which was the only thing that was cheaper than in Australia.

This is the end of the trip. During these two weeks, we went about 100km up North of the cost and then back to Trogir. Surprisingly, we did not get seasickness as much as we thought we would. Only on the last three days the weather was very windy so we took seasickness tablets but didn’t get very sick.

Streets in Croatia's island towns

Friday, August 21, 2009

Somewhere in Croatia

"Sugar Daddy"

Croatia. July - August 2009

Beautiful National Parks:
1,2 and 4 - Plitvice Lakes NP
3 - Skradinski Buk waterfall at Krka NP

St Petersberg. July 2009.

Inside the Winter Palace (Hermitage); "white nights" (believe me or not, the picture was taken at 10pm; and a bridge with winged lions at Griboedov's Canal.