Croatia. This tiny country that I had heard of, but didn’t really know much about until Mike deployed last fall. During his deployment he had the chance to work with militaries from all over Europe. He told them we were moving to Germany and picked their brains about where Europeans actually travel (because they sure aren’t vacationing to the Eiffel Tower…) Overwhelmingly, Croatia was the answer, so thus begun the research to make this our first large trip. Unlike other bases, this base gives soldiers off during the school spring break so families can take a vacation together! Prepare yourself for a longer blog. Sorry, not sorry…we had a full 10 days ahead of us.

We left Friday morning bright and early headed south for Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. This city was never high on our list to visit but it was a good stopping point for day one. Our drive took us through Austria and Slovenia. Both of these countries required tolls and vignettes. These vignettes are basically just stickers you put on your windshield. Not really sure the purpose of them, except they prevent you from getting a 200 Euro ticket from the police. Austria was amazingly beautiful. Green grass, rolling hills, and snow capped mountains. We stopped for lunch at a roadside gas station/rest stop and didn’t have high hopes, but these people don’t mess around. It was elaborate. Homemade in-front-of-you burgers, roasted chicken and veggies, soup, fresh smoothies, Belgium waffles, and of course desserts. It was steps ahead of McDonald’s. We finally arrived in Zagreb at about 5:00. Our hotel was right in the middle of their downtown city center, which is great. We wandered around the city, taking in the architecture and all the adorable parks they have right downtown. We ate a small dinner outside at a cafe in the middle of the square (surprisingly delicious) and called it a night.

All our hotels included breakfast, which is so convenient since I can’t partake in the traditional European breakfast of cheeses and lunchmeat right now. (I’m not mad about it. I’m an eggs and bacon kinda gal!) We hit the road early after breakfast en route to Plitvice National Park. This place is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and for good reason. It is breathtakingly beautiful. The water is blue-green, crystal clear, and there is a boardwalk that just snakes through the park right on top of the water next to the waterfalls. It’s something out of a fairytale. Some of the trees were still a little brown from winter, but greens were starting to poke through showing spring was coming. We did a hike that was about 4 hours long and included a ferry ride across the lake. It was the perfect temperature with bright blue skies, and just when I was getting tired of walking, the trail ended and we got shuttled back to the entrance. We had a quick bite to eat at their park cafe and continued the drive down to our next stop: Zadar, Croatia.

Zadar ended up being our favorite city, which is interesting because when reading my guide book, most people skip this place to head further down the coast. We arrived in Zadar around 4:00. We stayed in an apartment right in the pedestrian center of town. It was nice to feel like we were 100% immersed in the culture, but it was also part of a “hotel” so we had a lobby to hit up for breakfast and a host who was over the top awesome. Our wifi ended up not working in the room which was slightly annoying but not a huge deal. We didn’t have much time before the sun was going to set, so we just set out to explore and get a feel for the town before dinner. The walkable part of the pedestrian city is where all the main spots are that you want to see. It’s not very big so if you take a side street rather than a main one, you’ll still end up where you recognize something. That evening we had dinner at this place called Restaurant Bruschetta while sitting outside and watching the sunset. It was so delicious and intimate. We obviously had bruschetta and then split a ravioli dish the waiter recommended (Can you tell my unborn child takes after me already by digging the carbs?) The next day Mike got up for a run (overachiever) and I couldn’t fall back asleep so I decided to take my book to a little beachside cafe to read with a coffee. I “ran” (ha, lame pun intended) into Mike and he quickly got cleaned up and met me. We had breakfast and then started our day. We checked out parks, churches, Roman ruins, town squares, and local farmers markets. It was so perfect and we had the best weather. By this point I was hungry (which doesn’t take long anymore) and we went to this restaurant/wine bar we had passed before. Cute little place that homemade everything including the bread. I really wanted to try Croatia’s version of ice cream and checked out one of the places the host recommended. Mike chose Snickers and it wasn’t my favorite, but we still ate the whole thing, duh. Afterwards, we went back to the room and took an afternoon nap with the windows open and the sun shining in. One of the main things I wanted to do while in Zadar was to watch the sunset while sitting by the Sea Organ. The Sea Organ was made by Tesla and it uses the waves to create music from the ocean. Since this was our last night in Zadar we camped out there for an hour and a half reading, people watching, and just relaxing. We grabbed (amazing) pizza for dinner, checked out the Sun Salutation light exhibit, and tried a different ice cream shop before calling it a night. (This one was so much better, for the record) Zadar was so incredible for us. We got to sightsee, relax, and every meal we ate did not disappoint. It was the perfect amount of time there and I’m so glad we didn’t bypass this city.

Our next stop was Dubrovnik, Croatia. We had a Game of Thrones tour scheduled for that afternoon so we left right after breakfast and headed down the coastline. This was such a beautiful drive. Winding roads right on the coast with increasingly crystal blue water as we drove. There is a small section of Croatia separated by Bosnia, and some people had made the border crossing out to be intense. We didn’t find it to be like that at all; no traffic and no one even asked us why we were driving into Bosnia. All along the coast they have little orange stands that overlooked this vast valley, so we decided to stop and get some oranges. This adorable lady had homemade candied almonds, jams, and sugary candies made from orange rinds. (Who know oranges were such a big crop down here?!) We ended up getting an orange, apple, and a bag of candied almonds. That’s a healthy, balanced lunch right? The orange was so good! Super juicy (read: made a giant mess in Mike’s car and his car probably still smells like an orange vineyard) We finally made it to Dubrovnik a few hours before our tour and the weather was beautiful. After checking into our room, we headed down to the private beach the hotel offered. The water was similar to an ice bath, so we just put our toes in, but it was insanely beautiful. The Croatian beaches are pebbly vs. the traditional sand beaches I was used to. We walked the half mile into town and met up with our guide for the Game of Thrones tour. I don’t watch it, but Mike read the books and watched all seasons so when I told him they had a private tour here, he was all about it. The guide was also a local history teacher so he was able to talk about the history of Dubrovnik with Italy, Austria, Turkey, and the bombing in the 90’s. I feel like there is so much about the world I don’t know. I think I learned this in high school history, right? We grabbed dinner at a seaside restaurant afterwards, mainly because they had virgin pina coladas and I REALLY wanted one of those. The next morning we got up early (ish) and walked the city walls that surround the old town. It was beautiful to see these white stone walls with the cerulean blue water for a backdrop. At the very end of our wall walk it started to rain, so we headed down an alley to a craft beer bar. They had a large variety of Croatian beers (including IPA’s and Porters which aren’t popular in Europe and Mike’s been missing them!) Mike could have spent all afternoon here sampling. Unfortunately they didn’t serve food so we ducked into another hole in the wall that ended up being an INCREDIBLE pizza place! We split a pizza and when we asked for hot pepper flakes, the guy brought something we thought was like American crushed red pepper so we doused our pizza in it. It was definitely not just crushed red peppers. It was so hot haha! The flavor was amazing, but the first few bites were quite a shock. The rain had stopped, but it was still overcast and we felt like being lazy so we went back to the hotel to relax by their heated indoor pool and utilize their spa area which included a sauna and steam room. We both fell asleep and it was glorious. Our night ended with happy hour and dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Wednesday morning, before leaving Dubrovnik, we walked back into town and rode the cable car up to the top of city. From the pictures, it looked like an amazing view of the city and Lokrum Island. However, it was just mediocre for us due to the cables from the car being in each picture, and also it was still overcast and the platform was above the clouds. We had lunch at a Bosnian restaurant before taking off to Split. I couldn’t really tell you what we ate, but it was so surprisingly good. The only thing we didn’t care for was the dessert; it tasted like flan (aka: boogers) with crunchy nuts on top. No thank you. The drive to Split was uneventful and we got to our hotel around dinner time. It was raining in Split as well (what the heck?!) and starting to get dark. After wandering around Diocletian’s Palace and the Riva Promenade, we decided we were still too full from lunch to get dinner. The next day we roamed around the city, popping in and out of shops and just getting a feel for the city. We walked up the Bell Tower inside Diocletian’s Palace (holy quad burn!) It was a nice view of the city and the water. We happened to walk by an acapella band singing so we listened to them for awhile. I’m a sucker for stuff like that and I wanted to buy a CD, but the boss man said no. 😦 We had a traditional Croatian dish for lunch, Cevapi. It was a piece of pita bread almost, stuffed with their sausage and some other veggies (I think…) It was so good. Obviously we found out about this ice cream place with chocolate waffle cones so we made a beeline for there, because everyone has dessert after lunch…right! Right?? The ice cream was so, so good. Smooth, not too sweet, and the chocolate waffle cone. OMG. They had a brownie cheesecake that we (ok, mostly me) wanted to try so we got a coffee and the cheesecake too. Since we ate so many sweets, we decided to walk up to the top of Marjan Hill. It’s a park that overlooks the harbor and has (what felt like) a million steps. It truly was a beautiful view from up there. Dinner that night was at an amazing wine bar that makes their own pasta. The food was what dreams are made of. I would go back to Split just to eat here again.

TGIF, ha! We were headed to Hvar Island. The hotel we had stayed at in Split didn’t require us to move our car when we checked out, and actually they offered to hold our luggage we weren’t taking to the island, would move our car if they needed too, and even dropped us right off at the ferry. By far the best service we received the whole trip! The ferry ride was quick, about an hour and half. The weather was beautiful on Hvar Island and the water was the prettiest I had ever seen. (I know I keep saying this, but it truly kept getting better!!) We had lunch, read our books at a seaside cafe while watching sailboats roll in, got a couples massage, and had a nice dinner at a cafe. (More pasta, I think I have a problem!) There was a regatta happening that weekend so the island was busy and they had multiple parties going on around the island. Luckily for us (dripping with sarcasm) one of the parties was on the roof of our hotel. It was so loud. Even with earplugs in, we couldn’t sleep. The ventilation system was awful and the room reeked of cigarette smoke, and the hallways were even worse. We switched rooms and it was slightly better, but still not an enjoyable nights sleep. It was so bad we called hotels.com at 1:00 am at request a refund. The next morning we both woke up exhausted with headaches and in terrible moods. The front desk manager didn’t seem interested in being accommodating to our inconveniences, so we quickly ate breakfast and caught the bus to ferry back to Split. For our last full day, we were spending the night in Zagreb again to make our drive home on Sunday easier. We made a pit stop at Krka National Park. It’s a waterfall system located about an hour from Split. It was pretty, but not worth the detour to be honest. Our drive to Zagreb was uneventful and we pretty much crashed out as soon as we got there from being so exhausted due to crappy nights sleep before. We made it back to Germany around 6:00pm, got dinner in Regensburg, and came home.

Overall, we had such a great time in Croatia. It was relaxing, yet adventurous all at the same time. It was insanely beautiful and we are so glad we got to experience this country. The people were so friendly, had no problems communicating with locals, and felt very relaxed. This tiny country carries so much history and it was eye opening. Not sure we will be back (since we have SO much more to explore), but if we did come back we wouldn’t be mad!