It was obvious as soon as we arrived that Dubrovnik is the most heavily touristed city in Croatia. Hordes of poorly dressed, camera-toting sightseers fill the old city, which has become even more popular in recent years as the setting for the popular TV show “Game of Thrones”.
A short ferry ride took us to Hvar, a long, skinny island just off the coast from Split. As we took a quick walk around the marina and tiny old town, sun beamed off the polished white limestone covering the ground. This is a place for sunglasses.
Split is a good sized resort town filled with yachts and cruise ships, surrounded by mountains that make it look a bit like Tucson. A faint sulfur smell from nearby, naturally occurring sources, fills the city.
On our first night in Split, the group of us went to a booming outdoor nightclub near the beach. I’ve gotten much of the group drinking rum and cokes. Gabo and I bonded with some great conversation about the life of a G Adventures CEO and about how one of his best friends is Fredy, the CEO I had for a previous Rome to Madrid G Adventures trip that I took last year. When we discovered that my favorite restaurant in the world, La Cabrera in Buenos Aires, was also his favorite restaurant, we knew we would be friends forever. Then one of the girls knocked over a glass, cracking it and badly cutting Gabo’s hand.
We got to Plitvice Lakes National Park in late afternoon, with enough time to hike through about half the park. The skies were cloudy, which made this particular hike a lot more tolerable than they have been.
Scenery is beautiful. Lakes and waterfalls everywhere.
Spent a couple of days touring around Zagreb (ZAH-gdib) on my own. With its old world architecture and cobblestone and cafe culture, Zagreb could be almost any other city in Europe. It bears similarities to Budapest and Prague and Vienna. But from a tourist perspective, it doesn’t really seem like there’s a whole lot to do there. I was able to comfortably hit all the highlights in a day and a half.
The Zagreb Cathedral had scaffolding on it, of course. Is it a requirement for all my photo stops to be covered in scaffolding?
First flight of the day was a 13-minute hop from Nanaimo to Vancouver. One of the things I miss most when I’m out of the country is a good cheeseburger, so I have a tradition of eating the biggest, juiciest, tastiest burger before heading overseas. That plan was thwarted by the lack of selection in Vancouver Airport’s Terminal D. I settled for a greasy mess of a burger and an even greasier mess of poutine from Canadian fast food chain A&W.
My second flight was delayed because of a problem with the PA system, despite the fact that they used the PA system to keep us updated on the problem. We left about an hour late.
Out the window to my left, I saw the majestic and snowy Canadian Rockies.
My name is Jeff. I'm a photographer and web developer living in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
