My Adriatic Adventures

My Adriatic Adventures

In many ways this tour was like the one to the Baltic States: it was to three small and poor countries - Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina  - which were throughout their history ruled by other countries (in this case the Romans, the Turks, the French and the Austrians) and which finally got their independence after the fall of communism in 1990. In both cases I knew virtually nothing about their histories, so once again it was a voyage of discovery.

Day 1

The tour started in Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia. Like on the Baltics tour it was a large group (42) with people from all around the world. This time, however, the dominant nationality was British, not German. (In fact there were no Germans - or French, and only a handful of Australians.) The first stop was to a world-class attraction: the Postojna Caves, a vast, 22km labyrinth of stalagmites, stalagtites, columns and weird rock formations, of which only 6kms is open to the public. The first two ks were by open train rushing through claustrophobic tunnels, then the next two on foot through huge limestone caverns, with the last two back on the train. I'd been to countless caves before but this took the yellowcake in terms of size and beauty. It was like something out of "Voyage to the Centre of the Earth". Outside the cave entrance it was very touristy (justifiably so); there was even a huge international hotel within walking distance. (No, it wasn't called The Cave Inn.)

The beautiful Spaghetti Chamber. I have no idea why they call it that.

From the caves we motored on southwards, crossing into Croatia and into some beautiful forest scenery. Being autumn, the leaves were starting to turn gold and it was a gorgeous sight. Then we crossed a mountain range and the landscape changed to a rocky, barren, almost desert-like state caused by the buffeting ocean winds. This area, the Paklenica National Park, doubled as the Wild West in the successful 1960s German films about  the Indian brave Winnetou. (Apparently you couldn't tell it was European and not American, though the German-speaking Indians were a bit of a giveaway.) Later on, some stretches were littered with unexploded land mines from the 1991-1995 Bosnian war and each side of the road the terrain carried warning signs to that effect. I couldn't help imagining the scenario of a non Croat-speaking tourist stopping for a pee. "Hey Ethyl, I wonder what this sign me..." (I shouldn't joke about such an awful time in their history.)

Paklenica National Park - Wild West on the cheap.

At 6pm we arrived at the charming and ancient Adriatic port city of Zadar for our overnight stay. Under Venetian domination for centuries, then Austro/Hungarian, Zadar was ruled by Italy after WWI, and today belongs to Croatia. Before heading for our hotel, we did a walking tour with a local guide. For this (and for all subsequent walking tours) we were issued with head sets. The guide talked into her microphone and we could hear her through our headphones, no matter how far away she was. It meant that when we visited a church she could stay outside doing a commentary and not disturbing the people praying while we walked around quietly inside. (Or I could pop into a toilet and not miss anything.) The head sets were brilliant and made us feel superior as no other tour groups had them.

The highlights of the Zadar, apart from the Roman ruins, were these coloured light displays produced by solar panels you could walk on and the "sea organ", an experimental musical instrument which plays music by way of sea waves and pipes located underneath a set of large marble steps. (No Handel's Water Music jokes please.) The sounds produced were deep, ghostly and ethereal. We were told these musical pipes were unique to this city. I'd certainly never heard anything like them before.

The colourful solar panel lights at Zadar

The Zadar Sea Organ

Day 2

Today we drove south to Split to visit the former home town of the Roman emperor Diocletian and his palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Croatia's second biggest city (350,000) , Split is situated in the Mediterranean Basin on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea and is a huge tourist attraction, especially for cruise ships. It is called the Sunny City because it has more sunshine than any other city in Europe apparently. It certainly lived up to its name when we got there, though locals told us that it had been raining three days before *and* the morning before we arrived. How lucky is that! Driving into Split was pretty depressing. It was dirty, soulless and old-looking, like something out of the 70s. The historic city center, however, was colourful and vibrant. I guess you could say the place had a Split personality. (Sorry.)

Split

Today the palace constitutes the inner core of the city, still inhabited by rich trendies and full of shops, markets, squares inserted in its corridors and floors. The ancient Cathedral of St. Duje (a recycled pagan Diocletian's mausoleum) with its high bell tower is adjacent. We did an hour-long walking tour through, under and around the palace and cathedral, which was interesting, but all the cruise ship tourists, especially the loud Italians, were a pain. Thank heavens for our head sets!

This underground chamber of the palace was once full of garbage. Now it's full of tourists.

The items on sale at this stall in one of the corridors of the palace are made of marble from the island of Brac, near Split. Limestone from this island was used to make the White House.

An hour and a half later we split from Split and drove along the coast before reaching the capital Dubrovnik for two overnight stays. Dubbed the Dalmatian Riviera, this resort-filled stretch of coastline has some jaw-dropping views, with steep mountains plunging straight into the sea. (The road just skirts around them at their base.) Interestingly, towards the end, 10 ks of the road passes through Bosnia-Herzegovina, before going back into Croatia. (For our comfort stop we needed Bosnian money - the third currency in as many days!) Off the coastline were numerous small islands, adding to our viewing pleasure. Between the high mountains were flat areas supporting agriculture with such as crops as olives, figs, mandarins (they are exported internationally) and grapes. Croatian wines, we were told, are starting to make a splash in Europe. (Watch out Australia!) The ones I have tasted have been excellent. Of course they are ridiculously cheap.

A typical stunning view of the Dalmation Coast

Day 3

The day began early with an hour-long guided walking tour of the beautiful medieval walled old town of Dubrovnik. Although heavily damaged in the recent war it was quickly restored with financial assistance from UNESCO. After the tour many of us decided to climb the walls and do a circuit, which ended up taking an hour and a half. It proved to be one of the most enjoyable and awesome experiences of the last six months. Everywhere you looked was a picture postcard. I won't say any more, just look at the following pictures and you'll see what I mean.

At midday some of us did an optional extra rip-off tour, me being one of them. (You'd think I'd have learnt by now.) We first went to the moderately pretty coastal city of Cavtat, then to a "family vineyard" for a wine tasting. (The owner was probably the bus driver's brother-in-law.) We tasted a white, red and rosé and they were all god-awful. (The Australian wine industry needn't be concerned.) We then went on to taste some fruit liqueurs at another "family" brewer (the bus driver's cousin) but this time they were good. The setting was this quaint water mill by a picturesque little brook and the brandies were served by pretty Croatian wenches in traditional costumes. Most delectable (the liqueurs as well).

Wine tasting. The happy faces belie the quality of the wine.

Sampling the liqueurs. (Sorry about the quality of the pic. The Croation girl fogged up my lens!)

Day 4

Today was to be a bit of a culture shock. We left beautiful, prosperous Catholic Croatia and headed for war-torn, poverty-stricken Moslem Bosnia-Herzegovina. Our first stop was in Mostar, where a local guide took us on a walking tour of the city. It was heavily damaged by the Serbs and buildings are still pockmarked from mortar attacks. Many remain gutted and abandoned, awaiting restoration. The guide took us into a typical house in the Turkish quarter, into a mosque (my first, and last, time) and then to the famous reconstructed 16th-century bridge. The Stari Most, or Old Bridge, built by the Ottomans in the 16th century, is one B-H's most recognizable landmarks, and is considered one of the most exemplary pieces of Islamic architecture in the Balkans. Death-defying local youths and stupid tourists like to dive off it to prove their manhood. In fact while I was getting my camera out someone had just belly-flopped into the water. (Talk about bad timing!) Even I had heard of this bridge that was blown up in 1993 by Bosnian Croats as an act of vandalism then rebuilt and opened by Prince Charles in 2004. (Unfortunately he didn't dive off it. Pity.)

A derelict building in Mostar showing the effects of war.

Inside a mosque.

The famous reconstructed Mostar bridge.

We then moved northwards through steep mountains, bedecked with flame-coloured trees (a gorgeous drive) to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the most Turkish-looking city in the Balkans, famous for its mosques, markets, and bazaars. A pretty young local guide (a veritable Turkish Delight) lead us through the city, pointing out its many Ottoman and Austrian-influenced architectural features and peppering her talk with interesting facts, like Sarajevo was the first city in Europe to have trams. The Austrians decided to try them out there first in 1885 before introducing them into Vienna, figuring that if there were any fatal accidents it wouldn't matter. (The present day trams look so old they may well be the original vehicles!) Apart from staging the Winter Olympics in 1984, Sarajevo is of course famous for the incident that sparked World War I. It was here on 28 June 1914, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, were shot dead by 19 year-old Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six Bosnian Serb assassins who wanted to end Austrian-Hungarian rule and set up a Greater Serbia or Yugoslavia. I stood in the very spot where he pulled the trigger. (No, I didn't feel an urge to shoot Tony Abbott, but it's a thought...)

The Latin Bridge, near where Franz Ferdinand was assissinated.

Our guide also related the horrors the city experienced during the siege of 1992-6 when it was totally cut off by the Serbs and deprived of electricity, water and essential supplies. Casualties numbered 14,000! The people never capitulated, however, building a tunnel to smuggle in food and water. They even staged a film festival, which continues today, using car batteries to run the projectors! (No doubt sponsored by 20th 'Century' Fox.) You have to admire people like that. Today Sarajevo is known as a tolerant, multi-cultural city where Moslem mosques, Catholic cathedrals, Jewish synagogues and Orthodox churches exist literally side by side and races intermarry freely. Though incredibly interesting historically and culturally, however, Sarajevo was for me dirty, ugly and charmless (I didn't take one picture) and I couldn't wait to get back to Croatia.

Day 5

This morning we travelled north through mountain scenery even more gorgeous than the day before. It was the first completely sunny day, which made the yellows, reds and gold colours of the autumn leaves even more brilliant. (The other days had been partly cloudy with isolated showers.) After a border crossing into Croatia that took forever we arrived at the country's best-known national park and most popular tourist attraction - Plitvice. Here we did a boat ride then a walk with a local guide through the breathtaking scenery of this beautiful park. Plitvice consists of 16 lakes, wooded hills, waterfalls, and cascades and in summertime it is crawling with tourists. (We were told we were there at the perfect time - it was low season and the trees were resplendent in their autumn colours.) The only thing spoiling the experience was our timing - we arrived at 3.30, giving us only a couple of hours of sunlight for photography. He were held up also by this Indonesian woman on the tour who had just had hip replacement surgery and was walking slowly with a cane. We had to continually wait for her to catch up and consequently were only able to do a small proportion of the available walking trails. She wasn't the only slow one though - many others found the trails exhausting and were huffing and puffing after only a few stairs. Every time anyone complained I just boasted, "If you think this is steep, try climbing the 800 stairs of the church tower in Ulm!" That shut them up. (Each time I said this I would increase the number of stairs, just to heighten the dramatic effect. By the end of the afternoon the Ulmer Münster was higher than Mount Everest!) Anyway, here are some photos that, despite the late afternoon light, might give you an idea of the beauty of Plitvice.

Gorgeous, hey?

This is probably the nicest picture I've ever taken.

Day 6 (last full day)

The first stop of the day was in Croatia's capital, Zagreb. Called "Little Vienna" because of the number of open-air coffee shops and konditoreis (a legacy of its Austrian background) the city is packed with historic buildings, such as the gothic-style Church of St. Marcus with its spectacular coloured tile roof (See pic below.) We did an hour-long walking tour lead by this personable 20-year old Uni student whose English was brilliant, except that he kept getting his v's and w's mixed up. ("A vonderful willage".) He was so nice and self-confident I didn't have the heart to correct him. Zagreb is a stylish, cultural and prosperous-looking city, despite its 12% unemployment rate. Definitely worth another visit.

Our enthusiastic young guide explaining a local custom of boyfriends giving their girlfriends a heart. The heart has a small mirror in the middle that reflects the suitor's true love. (Hopefully the mother doesn't open it first.)

The spectacular St Marcus Church.

Zagreb has several unusual muesums, like this one containing objects that caused relationships to break up. I reckon Split would have been a more logical place for this museum.

A local lass in traditional dress.

Did you know that Zagreb invented the tie (kravat)? I didn't.

In the afternoon we crossed the border into Slovenia to finish in Ljubljana where we started the tour. The country is a member of the EU and the only one of the three to use the Euro. (Croatia will be getting it in a few years time when it fulfils all the requirements.) The contrast with Croatia and Bosnia was stark: beautiful new highways, neat little willages and clean, painted houses as opposed to narrow, pot-holed roads and grey, un-painted and dilapidated houses (in B-H especially). Our final walking tour through Ljubljana revealed a lovely, compact capital city straddling a charming canal and full of newly-restored buildings in a myriad of historic styles. Also worth a revisit.

A couple of the nice buildings in Ljubljana

This peaceful canal runs through the city. It is bordered with numerous cafes and bars.

The final activity was an optional evening of traditional food, music and dancing in a "family restaurant" (you know what that means by now). If the eight singer/dancers were "family" they must have been the bus driver's grand parents and great aunts and uncles, wheeled out of the old people's home for the occasion. I kid you not, not one of them was younger than 60! The women were so unattractive I resolved to drink enough alcohol till they became pretty. It didn't work. After 5 glasses of wine they were still ugly. The five-course meal of typical Slovenia food was not bad, but the music (accordions!) was terrible, though the crowd lapped it up. Of course there was lots of audience participation, such as a hat dance where the victims, sorry, dancers had to take the hat of his/her neighbour and put it on his/her own head in time with the music, which of course got faster and faster. That one was mildly amusing. Thankfully, I managed to escape being chosen to make a fool of myself. (Picking my nose when they come looking for volunteers always seems to work.) The evening lived down to my expectations as I knew it would but it was a nice thing to do as a final activity with the group.

So that was the tour. A very interesting, informative and enjoyable visit to three unfamiliar countries with stormy pasts and hopeful futures. For those of you who have read up to this point, I am offering a little reward. Send me a blank email with just the words "Autumn Leaves" in the Subject box and I will send you a nice post card from Morocco (my last tour that commences on Saturday). This will show me if people are actually reading the blog or if I am just talking to myself. If I don't have your address include that in the text part of the letter. Bye, and thanks for reading!