Unusual Vacation Pictures: Croatia

Dober dan, my patient little Internet friends! That’s Croatian for “hello.” Actually, it’s “good day,” but it’s the primary greeting everyone uses.

I’ve actually been trying to make a point of learning some words in the language of the countries my permanent travel-partner-for-life XFE and I visit. I did pretty well on the Croatian. I learned hello (dober dan), thank you (hvala), please (molim vas), kako stey (how are you), good night (laku noch), sutra (tomorrow), dog (pas), white wine (bijeli vino), finished (gotov) and zivoli (cheers or long life). So basically, I could move there tomorrow and be just fine.

Anyway, I often get asked what my favorite travel destination is, and I always say that it’s wherever we last visited. But for some reason, I have a feeling that Croatia will always rank pretty high on my favorite list.

If I were in the least bit smart or clever, I would tell everyone on the Internet that happens to stumble upon this blog that Croatia is just awful. The cities aren’t at all pretty. The Adriatic Sea is a muddy mess. The Croatian people are mean and throw flip flops at you every chance they get. The wine was utterly undrinkable.

But that would all be a gigantic lie. My biggest complaint about Croatia (besides the fact that I’m not currently still there) is that the Adriatic is too cold for my taste. (Although XFE did overhear some spoilt American young girls in Split complaining about the pebbled beaches. We didn’t mind—they were very smooth and beautiful pebbles–but these girls did.)

XFE and I got back from Croatia a couple of days ago and I think we’re both still in shock by the fact that we are not laying on some beautiful beach somewhere overlooking some amazingly preserved, UNESCO protected medieval city. Alas, we are back, and there are a ton of mundane post-vacation chores to be done.

So, this post is just a quick check in and tease of sorts — a download of some of the more odd pictures from our vacation. I’ll be back this week with information on our second Lufthansa first class experience (one compound word: mounds-o’caviar); the highs and lows of Dubrovnik (one high: our truly unbelievable hotel, singular low: disappointing restaurant experience); drinking wine and eating oysters on the Peljesac Peninsula; the party scene that is Hvar, and, subsequently but unrelatedly, how to get stuck on the island of Hvar; a comparison of Croatian beaches (spoiler: they’re all great. You’re on a beach drinking beer, for crying out loud); people watching in Split; and seafood, seafood, seafood.

My handwritten luggage tag. As you can see, we went from Baltimore to Charlotte to Munich to Vienna to Dubrovnik. And even with these super sketchy tags, our luggage made it all the way to Dubrovnik, without having to pick it up and recheck it along the way. Pretty impressive, US Airways Ticket Counter Agent Nelson. I totally doubted you.

On our 20-plus hour trip to Dubrovnik, I came across this magazine in the lounge in Vienna. In my sleepless state, I swore it was Weiner magazine.

A sign on the ferry. I think it means, “No Gentlemen in Overcoats.” Which makes sense since it was warm out. Very suspicious to be wearing a top coat.

Excellent marketing of a bar in Dubrovnik.

Staying hydrated is very important when sitting in the sun. Cipi Chips helped with our sodium.

We had dinner next to an American family one night in Hvar. Later that night, we saw them getting on this boat. A couple of days later, we saw the boat (a rental) listed in a high-end luxury yacht brochure in our hotel in the Meridian Split. Dang. We should have made friends with them.

We saw a Toonie doppelganger in Dubrovnik one night while eating dinner. She killed me. So, so cute. I begged XFE to let me take her back to the U.S. He seemed pretty close to caving when he saw her playing with a bottle top. But then he reminded me about how friendly Petunia is towards humans and other animals, and the conversation came to a screeching halt.

Coming back to the Meridian late on evening, we saw staffers wrestling with a potted olive tree. There were olive branches all over the floor from where they had jammed it through various sliding doors and low-ish ceilings. Which is pretty ironic. Olive branches ripped from a defenseless tree? Not very peaceful.

As you can tell by the blurriness of the picture, I too celebrated Croatia’s EU accession.