Back to Zagreb

Pag from the pass
looking inland at the road and monuments

The best seat in the house. Or out of it for that matter.

The trip back from the coast to Zagreb was full of interesting things. First was the pass at Oštarijskavrata. There is a range of mountains right by the coast and this is the pass we took over them. When we got near the top we noticed the sports car in front of us taking a side road that looked suspiciously like the “old road” over the pass. Since we were on an adventure we decided to try it also. It was in fact the old road. At the top of the pass, in addition to the fabulous views of both the Adriatic with all its islands and the lovely green rolling valleys on the inland side, were some markers and monuments. Of course we had to check them out. The markers were for the Emperor Franz Josef. Based on our travels they could mean one of two things: 1) the edge of the land under Austro/Hungarian control at the time (the Venetians controlled Dalmatia for a very long time) or 2) the Emperor came there, spent 15 minutes looking at the view and left so they built a monument. Not being able to actually read the monument made it more difficult to determine which was the reason.

Our route took us back near Plitvice, the first waterfall park we went to. On the map we noticed a secondary road that appeared to go through the back side of the park. As I said earlier, we were on an adventure and so decided to try it. So off we went. It was another of the beautiful roads through the woods that we have encountered all over Eastern Europe. Since landscape does not understand such things as park boundaries we ran across another small village with waterfalls. It was not as fabulous as Rastoke but it was very interesting to see a non-tourist setting.

During this trip from the coast to Zagreb we noticed quite a few abandoned or burned out homes, as well as ones with sprays of poc-marks on their sides. This was an area of very heaving fighting during the Balkan wars of the 90’s and based on the history we have read, the homes were very likely damaged during that time or were “abandoned” by their owners as they fled for their lives from the ethnic cleansing.

Since we “just happened” to be in Rastoke at dinner time we felt compelled to again have a wonderful meal at Pod Basiokim Krovom, the tavern we visited when we were here on our way down to Dubrovnick. It was just as fabulous. This time Dave had fish soup, I had “waterfall salad” (a pasta salad with fish and lots of wonderful fresh veggies) and then we finished it off with fresh, made there, gnocchi. Too wonderful for words. We got a table over the water and between waterfalls. It was lovely.

Pag

Our pink hotel - and the food was great!
small boat harbor - notice the steps, how Mediterranean

a beach in Pag

SewDiva sitting on the beach finding shells

leaving Pag on the ferry. Notice: no green.

Our last stop on the Adriatic was the island of Pag. I had seen pictures of long sandy beaches and, when reading about places to go, Bear saw that it was a lace making center and was also famous for its cheese. Since this was to be our last stop at the ocean I thought a pink hotel would be a nice way to finish up. We found it all! The beaches weren’t exactly sandy – more like small stoney – but they had shells – the first we found here.

The cheese lived up to its reputation. We wanted to bring some home and so were wandering the streets looking for somewhere to buy it. On the side of a building was a sign with an arrow and #17. Bear went off on his quest and found a man sitting in the doorway of #17. As Bear went by he said “fromage?” and we had cheese. The man makes it himself. The lace was very lovely. It is called “needlelace” and is very similar to needle tatting except the holding threads are on a base and the whole thing is worked over a pillow in the lap rather than being all held in the hands. I found a lady on the quay selling her own stuff and so bought a beautiful piece to frame. I asked about instructions and was told that the only way to learn was to come to their lace school and study for 9 months. Let’s see, 9 months on the Adriatic doing handwork – I’m up for it. Bear said he would be willing to come along. We discovered we were in Pag one week early. There is an International Lace Convention going on here the 20th through the 25th of June. I would love to have been able to see it.

Pag is a very strange island. It is almost a desert island. On the seaward side there are low scrub bushes and the occasional tree. On the landward side it is absolutely barren. Not one shred of green. This is because of the prevailing dry wind that blows off the land. They have built rock walls to act as windbreaks and keep the island from blowing away.

Krka

These bright dragonflies were everywhere.

Krka is another waterfall park. After the others we had seen I wondered if it was even worth stopping for. It was! How all of these places can be so the same and yet so different – isn’t it a great world God has created for us.

more photos from Krka

See how the waterfall is laying down the travertine.

It builds up where the water hits the ground and also as the water is coming down.

Makarska

beach at Makarska - see the lighthouse out on the point
boardwalk and harbor in the center of town

looking north(ish) across our beach - the lights in the far distance sparkled like jewels

see the concrete platforms on the rocks. These are all over and are used like a beach.

notice the shape of the rocks

The next thing to check off our list of Adriatic sights was a sandy beach. We had seen pictures so new such a thing existed. We found one in Makarska, about ½ way up the coast. Don’t get me wrong – we passed several others but wanted to get up the coast a bit before we stopped for the night. Tourist information came through for us again and found us a room 1 block from the beach. I am not going to go as far as to call it a “sandy” beach. It was small limestone stones with occasional tiny patches of sand. But we loved it. We had dinner at an outside table right on the boardwalk (or limestonewalk, in this case) and for breakfast we found a restaurant with a German style menu. They had country fried potatoes. I love them so much. These were the first we found on our trip.

Dubrovnik

our "beach in Dubrovnik"
Bear in the Adriatic

typical street in Old Town

another

looking back towards our hotel from the top of the wall. The large light colored building on the right across the harbor is The American School of Business and Technology (the Dubrovnik campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology). My niece, MaineCutie, is currently going to RIT at their Rochester, NY campus.

Dubrovnik is the largest city on the south Dalmation coast. The “Old City” is enclosed in a large wall with defensive towers in the corners. We decided to avail ourselves of the assistance of a travel agency to find a room. How it works here is you decide roughly where you want to stay and then stop at a travel agency, tell them what you want in a room and they check around and find one for you. We wanted to be near the Old Town because between the traffic and the one-way streets, driving was a bit hairy. The room they found for us was perfect! It was in a very old building owned by the same guy who owned the really nice restaurant next door and only a couple of blocks from Old Town and, as we found out, from the beach! While we were checking in the owner told us how to get to the beach so, since I was HOT the first thing we did was to dip our bodies in the Adriatic. It was so nice and refreshing!

We came back, had a fabulous dinner and then went wandering in Old Town. That definitely was the “swinging” part of town. Tourists and teenagers everywhere! There were some groups putting on a concert in the mail square. One of them was the Dubrovnik Girls Choir. They were so good! They sang a capella (probably misspelled and for you non-music types, it means without accompanment) under some arches and the sound was lovely. Later we saw the director on the street with one of her girls. I told her how much I enjoyed their music and asked if she had a business card or something with her so I could follow up. She didn’t have a card but gave me one of their CDs. It is lovely. We then went back to our hotel/restaurant for a wonderful dessert – strawberry cake.

The next morning we wandered through Old Town again. This time the shops were all open. Most were junky, overpriced souvenirs but there were a few gems. Bear noticed a shop with fabric in the door so, of course I had to look. It had some beautiful fabric that the woman said was woven by a local woman in her home using a traditional design. I had to get a piece and will let you know when the jacket is all done. We looked at some great jewelry and then I went to look in a Croatian designer’s shop while Bear climbed the wall and walked the ramparts. We each got to do what we love best.

more pictures from Dubrovnik

looking at the Adriatic from the top of the wall
the edge of the wall - the blue spot is a restaurant umbrella

looking over the roofs of Old Town

small boat harbor

Knin

Toilets"" built into the wall of the castle
View from the ramparts

lower part of castle from upper part

Castle is all the way across the top of the hill

coastal villa - typical

We were beginning to think that Dubrovnik didn’t really exist. Every time we saw a sign, it was 300 km away. We would drive for an hour and it was still 300 km away. But along the way we stopped at Knin. It has a very old fortress up on top of a hill. The city was the sight of some really intense fighting during the 90’s but we didn’t see any evidence of it.

Plitvice Lakes National Park

The second stop on our waterfalls tour was Plitvice Lakes national Park (www.mp-plitvicka-jezera.hr ). Bear thought it was twice as good, i.e. twice as many photos. Do we love the digital cameras? We would have to mortgage our house to process this much film and, besides, we wouldn’t be able to share with you. I don’t know how to share what we saw. It was too overwhelming. The park is divided into an upper and a lower part. We started in the lower with Veliki Slap, the Big Waterfall. The path wanders back and forth across the river on boards. The boards are so close to the water in places that the water bubbles up through them. Most of the falls are only a few meters high and the water tumbles through grasses and moss with the occasional fall dropping the whole distance (Re-reading this it doesn’t do justice to the real thing – you will just have to come and see for yourselves). The lower and upper parts of the park are separated by a large lake. After a 1 ½ km ( a little over a mile) walk we got to ride a boat the length of the lake. There are no buildings along the lake except for the boat launches. It was very beautiful. Once we got to the other end of the lake we walked another about 1 ½ km under, around and through the falls.

After all the walking (uphill, I might add – that being the main criteria for waterfalls) we were exhausted and determined to spend the night in the mountains rather than trying for a 200 km bolt for the sea. We were interested in a place with both a restaurant and rooms so that we didn’t have to drive after drinking wine with our dinner. In this part of the world one of the specialties is whole pig roasted over a wood fire. I spotted a sign for a place right on the road with food, rooms and roasted pig. We decided to give it a try: what a good call! The pig was outstanding and the wine was good. We had crepes filled with chocolate for dessert – mmm, yummy. The rooms where not actually at the restaurant but were a few blocks (an euphemism for around a couple of corners) away in a house set up as a B&B. The first B was great, clean, comfy, private bath. The second B was also great. Cold meats (more of that dried salted pig, mild pepperoni-type something, smoked bacon), hard boiled eggs, cheese, sliced tomatoes and little tiny croissants with meat and cheese in them.

Plitvice photos part 2

2 pigs and a sheep on the spit - mmm, yummy!

Rastoke

Rastoke is a little village that used to be full of Slovinian mills – 22 of them – but now is a tourist destination. A little geography: the mountains here are made of limestone, the water flowing through the limestone picks up calcium carbonate which it then deposits at the bottom of a fall of water creating travertine. (Think Mammoth Falls in Yellowstone) Over time this travertine creates barriers which make these very cool waterfalls. (Any geo-physicists out there who want to comment/correct, please do so.)

I am now swapping my teacher’s hat for my tourist sun hat. The buildings are set in little islands right in the middle of the falls. Bear felt it was worth 47 photos which, you notice, I can’t post all of here. After a bit of wandering in Slovin Unique-Rastoke open air museum (www.slunj-rastoke.com ), we decided to have lunch at a tavern/restaurant Pod Basiokim Krovom which is attached to the museum. Talk about a fabulous meal, we had some more of that dried, salted pork like we had in Zagreb with some local cheese (one had hot paprika in it and was WONDERFUL) and bread made with 5 kinds of flour ground at the mill in the museum. For lunch we had grilled trout which earlier we had watched them pull from the trout pond behind the restaurant. As soon as the fish appeared so did the museum cats. These were by far the most prosperous looking cats we have seen in Eastern Europe.