Europe 2025 part 2: rest of Croatia

Epic Dalmatian coast

Plenty of beaches, but don't expect sand... nothing but pebbles.

It's quite mountainous very near the coast.

Split

Split is the second largest city in Croatia, after the capital city Zagreb. Like many things in this area, it’s been around for millennia. It’s known for being the place where Roman emperor Diocletian built a retirement palace around 300 AD.

After making it to Split after lunch, we spent several hours checking out the palace, or at least what’s left of it. It was not a single building, but rather a complex that makes up a good part of the old city. It was nice to wander around for free, finding ancient stuff intact or in ruins, alongside much less ancient stuff.

Love the tiny alleyways!

Ancient palace gate

Quaint courtyard restaurant

Ruins!

The waterfront is a great setting.

Shiny streets

Diocletian had a bunch of sphinxes brought over from Egypt; a few survived, one of which sits outside for all to see. It’s 3500 years old.

After a nice dinner, we jumped in the car again and made our way inland. It was a 1.5-hour drive to our next lodging, near Plitvice Lakes National Park. We arrived there after dark.

Oh, and apart from the first hour or so that I drove that, for the rest of the rental driving I got to cram myself in the back of the tiny rental due to some carsickness-prone individuals who required a front seat. Or so they claimed.

Plitvice

The next morning we got up early-ish to beat the crowds. Our destination was a national park called Plitvice (pronounced something like plit-veetse). Billed as the country’s most beautiful park, it contains a series of sixteen cascading lakes connected by waterfalls. This place gets insane in the summer, but we had no idea how busy it would be for us. Aiming to be there by 9 or so (and with our pre-purchased tickets having a limited window for entry), we were running a little late, so Reuben was careening through the countryside to get us there on time. Suddenly as we rounded a bend, there was a police car, and a grumpy-looking older cop waving at us to pull over. Ah crap… This felt like the eastern Europe stereotype where you have to bribe your way out of a police encounter. He checked our passports and made us open the trunk…

And that was it! He waved us on, so on we went! That was a thoroughly confusing little episode, until we realized we were about 5km from the border with Bosnia, which, not being part of the EU, is a possible source of smuggling. Fortunately we must not have looked suspicious enough to be thoroughly searched.

We arrived at the park with minutes to spare. There are various loops one can choose, depending on one’s appetite for walking. We chose one that would take about four hours to complete. All the routes consist of well-made trails or walkways, so it was all very civilized. Except for the tour groups that liked to stop and clog the path once in a while.

Reuben mingling seamlessly with the Asians

A ferry ride was part of the route.

The wooden walkways were all rough-hewn planks.

Reuben frolicking, as he does.

It was a pretty nature walk. The water features were pretty cool. It seemed we were just too early to catch the fall colours, although we got a bit of a glimpse.

Zagreb

With that off our list, we headed off to take the back roads to Zagreb, where we’d stay for one night.

Small towns...

...and countryside.

The airbnb there was a bit tricky to find, but we managed. It was in what was a decent part of the city, but very noticeable was SO MUCH GRAFFITI! Many buildings had graffiti for the first eight feet from the ground, but once you looked above that things were nicer.

Nice digs

Grand buildings, with graffiti at eye level. Lame.

Reuben and I then went to drop off the rental car. Afterwards we all went for dinner and checked out the town a bit before the day was done.

Zagreb... a little less polished than Dubrovnik...

...but not everywhere!

The next day we checked out of our place, brought our luggage to a locker at the train station, and explored Zagreb some more. Other than some serious graffiti mess in places, it’s just another nice old city with interesting architecture and a cool European feel. We bought some gifts for the kids, hit up an outdoor market, and walked around some. I took the opportunity to head over to a currency shop and buy some Croatian kuna, their currency before they adopted the euro, because I’m a sucker for shiny coins.

St. George defeating a dragon. A common statue theme.

Street to nowhere

Drive a Hummer? Blinkers on and park it anywhere!

Some art was pretty neat.

Soviet-area tram

The cathedral was under construction.

"Retaining wall" redefined. Why retain this chunk of wall?

Later we headed to the train station to catch a six-hour train to Budapest, Hungary.

Caught Reuben at the back of the train again, doing drugs or blowing his nose.

It started as a Croatian train with Hungarian cars (or maybe as a Hungarian train with Croatian cars), stopped at every small town it could find, discarded the Croatian cars at the border and picked up more Hungarian cars, and arrived in Budapest an hour behind schedule. By the time our Uber got us to our next airbnb it was far too close to midnight.