I recently spent a two weeks vacation in Croatia, plus a couple of days in Slovenia, visiting different locations, such as Ljubljana, Postojna, Split, Brela, Mlini, Dubrovnik, Plitvice Jezera and Zagreb.
Here are some impressions from this vacation (an perhaps things to know).
Roads & Traveling
Roads are great, especially the motorways. The infrastructure is impressive (wich we could have only a little bit of it in Romania). You have to pay for the motorway, and it’s about 6 euro (or 42 kuna) per 100 km. The good thing is that you can pay either in Kuna or Euro. In Slovenia, since July 2008 you need a vignette, which is 35 euros for 6 months (the smallest time period), and it must be sticked to the windshild on the top-left corner. As for traffic jams I only experienced one in Rijeka and in Makarska. The later town has on both entries (from Split and from Dubrovnik) congestions spanning over 5 km, and you need 30-45 minutes for those few kilometers. Police patrols are everywhere, on the motorways, on the national roads, in the cities. Between Plitvice and Zagreb, on 120 km we met at least 4 patrols, 3 of them with radars.
Accomodation
Everybody has a room or apartment (“sobe” in Croatian) to rent. Really, all over the play you can see boards with “Sobe / Zimmer / Camera / Rooms”. You can even see people waiting in parking places asking if you don’t want to rent a room. If I understood correctly Croatians don’t pay taxes for this service of renting rooms, so I guess this is one of the reasons there are so many rooms for renting.
On the other hand, I can say Crotaia redefined my idea about crowded space, especially concerning the parking places. The towns along the litoral are spanned on the vertical, with villas erected on every empty space. Often it could be a hard to find a parking space or locate the building you’re looking for (especially since not all the building have numbers on them).
Tourist Information
Everywhere I’ve been, there was a touring information, offering free leflets, maps and information in different languages. In Zagreb we met two girls walking on the streets and providing information on demand.
Food and Restaurants
One curious thing (at least to me) was that most of the waiters in Croatia were men. In fact, we found a single restaurant (in Dubrovnik) were there were girls serving at the tables. Meals were in general very good (and unlike Itally, you don’t have to pay the “copperto” only for sitting at the table). I especially engoyed the beef stakes, and the best one I had at the Sedra Restaurant, in Irinovac, near Plitvice.
English
Though not everybody talks English, we were able to make eachother understood everywhere. Some people that rent rooms speak English, other German or Italian. Most waiters are able to speek English (all that served us did). Even the lady that sold us tram tickets in Zagreb was able to understand us. Sometime people talk to you in English, like a biker and excused itself for interupting us while making a picture. So in general, if you talk English or German you shouldn’t have problems (at least for) making yourself understood.
Things to see
Croatians are very good at advertising themselves. Some of the descriptions that you see on leflets are a little bit (at least) exagerated. But nevertheless there are nice things you can see. A few things that I could mention are the Old Town of Dubrovnik, the Domicletian’s Palace in Split, the center of Zagreb (especially the parks) and the National Park Plitvice Jezera (there are many national parks, but this one is the most beautiful and spectaculos). And I should not forget the beaches. though you won’t find sand on the beaches, only pebbles. But the water is clear and warm.
Below there are several pictures from Croatia.
Cloud over Brela
Dubrovnik cost line
Beach at Mlini
Waterfalls at Plitvice
Leaf floating on a lake at Plitvice
Lotus flower in the Botanic Garden in Zagreb
Building decoration in Zagreb
