Croatia

- By Lingling CAO
July 2009

This summer I finally managed to travel to Croatia. Well known for its nature and beautiful coast, I would say it deserves well a visit indeed!

A little geography/history class about Croatia, just like some guides in Croatia told us a little history of here and there on the islands to start a trip:

Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia (Republika Hrvatska listen (help¤info)), is a country in Southeastern Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital (and largest city) is Zagreb. Croatia borders Slovenia and Hungary to the north, Serbia to the northeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, and it has a sea border with Italy to the southwest

The Croats arrived in the seventh century in what is Croatia today. They organized the state into two dukedoms. The first king, Tomislav I was crowned in AD 925 and Croatia was elevated into Kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for almost two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Kre?imir IV and Zvonimir. Via "Pacta conventa", Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1526, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand from the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918 Croatia declared independence from Austria-Hungary and joined the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as co-founder. During World War II, Nazis occupied Croatian territory and with the aid of Usta?e created the Independent State of Croatia. After the war Croatia became a founding member of Second Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence and became a sovereign state.

Croatia is a member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the Council of Europe, CEFTA, and is a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2008

Source: wikipedia

First impression

I changed flight in Frankfurt, spent the whole morning in lounge Frankfurt trying to send out some files. Airport lounge in Germany is very familar to me, since I flew so much in the past years here, I felt almost home. :-)
"Hygine" is the word I have to describe Germany, flying back from China.

But taking a shower in Frankfurt airport is the first time, it refreshed me from the trip from China, I would not say "long trip" even, since it felt short, I slept the whole way over, even in an economy class seat. Since the seat is the first line seat, I can stretch my leg fully, at least my holiday mood has made it feel like a business class for me :-))) Frankfurt to Split was operated by Croatia airline, I learnt already one more thing: Croatia airline is also a star airline in that case...

Landing in Croatia in the early afternoon, it is mild warm here, flying from Shanghai, it felt fresh, holiday starts, my heart is singing...

Soon after arriving in the airport, I gathered the necessary information within 10min, benefit from a few solo travel experience. 1 EUR =7.2 Kuna, so it is Kn the local currencyworth a little more than RMB. The rental car seems to be rented out from large companies, small local ones still have available ones for around40-60EUR per day (just in case I want to drive around myself), shuttle bus from airport to city costs you 30Kn while by taxi cost you 300kn. It takes around 30min to arrive the city center, I took the bus, observing the new country...

I booked myself in a private apartment the day before from Shanghai, it turned out to be a great, neat place! Just a bit walk to city - 15 min. Especially the walk is a quiet and sweet one, with two little croatian cats fighting on the grassland along the way... A fair good bet via online booking already. a good start.

By taking a little D-tour for the first walk to city, we discovered the beach - a very active beach in Split, looking very inviting, but we are eager to have a look at the old town first.

The city center is very impressive, old style buildings, well maintained, lines of pine trees add the tropical taste into the little town, very beautiful harbour parked with beautiful sailing boats... It looks a little bit like "Cann" in France to me...

The lovely famous "Diocletian's palace" does worth a visit, the people here lives with the history, not like in China, the old building shere are well maintained and people even lives there! modern shops and restaurants mixed with the history.

Walking in the old town, I feel sometimes I am in Italy...

I stayed in Split for two days, drinking coffee, start to adapt well into the city's pace, relax and enjoy the sun, let time pass, fell asleep with a smile, exhausted, quiet nights compare to Shanghai city...

One evening we happen to capture a live show in the city center, music does not have national borders, it communicates well to a Chinese girl. :-) I enjoyed it.

The draft plan is to go from island to island sout to Duvrovnik, then rent a car from Avis to drive up to Split along the coast.

Island hopping starts:

1st island is called Brac, the little town we went to is called "bol", reknown by its active water sports. The ferry only takes 1.5 hour to bring us there and it cost ONLY 22kn!

Bol did not disappoint me, it offers a lot of water sports besides swimming...

And the most exciting thing for me is the windsurfing, I have tried it twice, but not really good at it. This trip, I really manage to surf out, turn and surf back by myself. Even though when I fell now and then, it is tiring to pull out the sail, I loved it. This windsurfing location at the beach almost made me decide to stay here just a whole week to live a local happy life, surf everyday... :-)