We're planning to leave Croatia tomorrow, after travelling around for two weeks. We've not published many blog entries, partly because web access has been tricky, but we've seen a lot and updated our first impressions quite a bit.
One first impression that hasn't changed is that this is a beautiful and welcoming country. During our travels we've seen a little more of its diversity, but we know there's a lot more to see. If we'd had another week we would probably have visited the Istrian Peninsular. If we'd had another fortnight we might have got as far inland as the flat arable country towards the Danube. As it is, we need to be home this month to get an MOT for the van, and a little earlier than originally planned to get Scooby to the dog dentist.
After we finished our last blog we made our way north up the Dalmatian coast (in southern Croatia there's not much except coast). It wasn't obvious in Dubrovnik how we could buy insurance for the short stretch of the coastal road that goes through Bosnia, so we bypassed it by driving up the Pelješac Peninsular and getting the ferry to Ploče. Next we went to Split, which is another lovely little town, at least as good, if not better, than Dubrovnik in terms of historical features and pretty winding streets (but could hardly be more different).
Then we cut a little way inland to see Krka National Park, to the coast to Zadar and Nin and then further inland to see Plitvice National Park. After that we spent a couple of nights near Karlovac and had a day trip to Zagreb (a beautiful, bustling and very stylish little city). Tomorrow we plan to look around the countryside and small towns north of Zagreb before crossing into Slovenia and back into the European Union, Schengen area and the Eurozone!
Not surprisingly, Croatia looks very different when you leave the coast. As you move inland there's less Italian influence and the buildings start to look much more central European. Just south of Plitvice we noticed steep roofed houses with small windows, built for a place that expected snow and hard winters, looking like something from Poland. Just north of Plitvice the scenery and the houses turned alpine, with overhanging roofs and pretty wooden balconies. The lower town of Zagreb is filled with imposing highly decorated buildings from the 1880s and 1890s, reminding us of the parts of Budapest that were built around the same time (during that period Croatia was governed by Hungary). On the hill in Zagreb, the winding streets of the old town are like the pretty old towns of Germany and Austria (dating back to the period when they were governed by Austria).
Krka and Plitvice National Parks are both stunningly beautiful places. We now have endless photos of turquoise lakes, gushing waterfalls and lush forests in every shade of green. The water in the lakes is so clear that you can see shoals of fish below the surface, apparently unbothered by the tourists peering at them, and on the lilypads are wonderful frogs that sound just like quacking ducks. The water in Plitvice lakes calcifies the roots and branches of the trees; which makes for very interesting, and rather ghostly, shapes below the water. Anyone with a poetic frame of mind would have plenty to fire their imagination here.
One of the things that we liked best about the National Parks was the fact that they were so well managed. All the walkways were very natural looking, with wooden slats to walk on and paths that took you right up to the lakes, rivers and waterfalls; sometimes the water was actually splashing over the edges of the path. But what they didn't have was all the warning signs and barriers that you'd have in Britain. The Park authorities clearly trust people to understand that water is wet, wood can be slippery and waterfalls entail steep drops.
We were told by a Dutch fellow-camper in Sicily that Croatia has “wonderful nature” and he was right. The National Parks are lovely at this time of year, but would also be gorgeous in the Autumn when the variety of trees in the forests would be a riot of colour. We'll have to come back sometime.
Recovering from War
During the last week we've seen another side to the 'Homeland War'. Before the war southern Croatia was occupied predominantly by Croats, so the war came from outside, caused havoc, and passed on leaving the survivors to rebuild. Further inland and north, the populations were more mixed. There was plenty of physical damage here as well, but it's also obvious how many people were displaced from their homes. Gutted, abandoned houses abound, sometimes entire villages. In Dubrovnik the saddest thing was the damage to the beautiful town, elsewhere the saddest thing is the people who aren't there any more. We've visited a couple of places where Serb Orthodox religious institutions have been rebuilt after the war, but they seem like museum pieces, inhabited only by furtive priests, their congregation fled.
European Union
When we arrived in Dubrovnik we were struck by how familiar and orderly it seemed after southern Italy. It seemed like the sort of place that should be in the EU.
A lot of Croats have doubts about joining the EU. Some are worried about EU rules impacting on their businesses. Others are worried about the EU interfering in their national sovereignty (particularly after Ante Gotevina, one of their national war heroes, was recently convicted by the War Crimes Commission in the Hague).
As we've travelled around we've seen many infrastructure projects that have been funded by the EU. Croatia has aligned its agricultural and environmental legislation with the EU. When we visited Zagreb the EU flag was flying alongside the Croatian flag on the parliament building.
Sorry sceptics, there doesn't seem to be any requirement for a referendum here. Croatia is going to join the EU.
Language
Croatian is starting to sound a little less alien. We've struggled to learn a few basic polite phrases and are just beginning to be able to make the odd connection between phrases (“'Veliki slap' was the big waterfall, so 'veliki kava' must be a large coffee”). Pronunciation's getting easier now we know some of the rules and realise 'r' can act as a vowel ('Hrvatski' (Croatian) is pronounced 'Herevatski', which is much more straightforward).
Some Croats have been delighted that we've learned to say 'Hvala' ('Thanks') and 'Molim' ('Please'), but others seem a little irritated that we're wasting their time with confused scraps of Croatian when they speak fluent English. Everyone older than us here seems to speak fluent German and everyone younger than us speaks fluent English. We walk into a bakery and the person serving greets us (before we've said a word) with “Good morning, can I help you?”.
There's no language problem for the English speaking visitor here.
Food
In Dubrovnik they were most proud of their sea food – fresh fish cooked simply, as good as the best of the Italian coast. Further north and inland the food, like the architecture, it gets more central European (and more Turkish). It makes for a very interesting mixture.
In Split we ate goulash as a spaghetti sauce, followed by baklava which was a pastry the size of a jumbo sausage roll. In Zagreb we were faced with a huge platter of grilled meats and kebabs. Here in Karlovac they are most proud of the 'world famous Ogolin cabbage' – a whole white cabbage pickled in a vacuum packed plastic bag.
In Croatia Italian, Austro – Hungarian, Ottoman and Slav influences all bump up against each other.
Wine
Many miles ago in France and Spain we talked a lot about wine, and someone said they were enjoying our 'wine blog'. We've tried to stay off the subject since then, but Croatian supermarkets were a revelation; walls of wine, almost all of it Croatian, none of which we'd ever heard of.
We bought a tiny bottle of Croatian red wine on the ferry from Bari, and I realised it was the first Croatian wine I'd tasted since 1989. The 1989 wine was Laski Reisling – cheap, dull and apparently extinct.
During our stay we've naturally dipped into the available selection, which is full of surprises. We had a golden syrupy Chardonnay at 14.5% alcohol, a bone dry Grasevina (which the supermarket told us was 'Welsh Reisling'), a Frankovka which tasted like a mature oaked French style Merlot, a honeyed Kapistran and a soft fruity Babić. There's a huge selection, some of it ordinary, some of it special, all of it well presented, and none of it appears in British supermarkets. We can expect that to change when they join the EU.
And that's before we even start to consider the spirits. Croatian brandy. Croatian rum. Croatian herb schnaps. Croatian cherry brandy. Croatian slivowitz. Croatian mistletoe flavoured aperitif...
Tomorrow, we cross the border and head north. Looking forward to a brief look at Slovenia, but Croatia leaves us wanting more.
