Trip to Croatia | Split & Zagreb

We docked in Split in the evening, and walked a couple of kilometers to our Airbnb place for the night. After a serious mooch around every corner of the apartment (it was MASSIVE!) we walked into the touristy part of the city. I bought some lavender 'essential oil' that was actually just watered down. I have been had, my friends. We got some seafood and saw the sights. Split is a pleasant old trading town with a colourful history. A large Roman palace was built which was home to various Roman emperors. The streets are all paved with this very soft smooth rock that seemed very popular in the entire coastal region.

There are a surprising number of 'Leo' signs in the world. We take pictures of them all, naturally.

The tower reminds me of the temple in Salt Lake City. Absolutely terrifying.

We made the most inspired choice in the morning. Weeks and weeks ago we booked bus tickets, for a lengthy journey all the way up Croatia from Split to Zagreb. And, at the last possible moment, we changed our mind, and took the train. I paid, and thought nothing of it, because there's nothing more preferable than a train journey over sitting on a sweaty, cramped bus with your luggage at your feet for 6 hours.

We had an entire compartment to ourselves (Harry Potter style!) and happily passed the 5 or so hours. At each station house along the way there were finely dressed station masters with their red flags, standing to attention. In a heavily automated and efficient world (the UK, Denmark), you miss the human element. Of course, it's very cost effective to have a machine with a light do the job of a human, but it's good for the soul, for the sense of togetherness culture is supposed to foster, to see honest decent human beings wearing their uniforms with pride and doing a job that pays a decent salary. It just makes sense.

Zagreb is an absolutely charming city. Beautiful old buildings with a modern touch, well dressed and good looking people everywhere, a million different cafes to try, I would definitely recommend a visit. We arrived just as Autumn was arriving, the most perfect time of year to do anything in my opinion.

Our trip was coloured by trains (I love train journeys), mushrooms (a trip to the fungi museum proved very informative), and a lovely afternoon spent in the Ethnography museum (I am an ethnography enthusiast, after all). We got fancy barista-made coffee, had excellent organic burgers in a little joint that could have been in Hoxton, and even went to the cheapest cinema in the world (€3 per person!) on an ill-fated trip to see Lucy (we left early). A perfectly relaxing urban end to a perfectly delightful visit to Croatia.

And before you know it, we're back in Copenhagen, and it's raining. 

All good things must come to an end.

Trip to Croatia | Southern Dalmatian Islands | Korčula & Mljet

We arrived in Korčula bright and early after our even brighter and earlier catamaran journey over to the island. I knew right away that this was going to be a good place. We found our accommodation (and the cat, Marco, that lived there), dropped off our stuff and headed to explore the town. Man, it was hot out.

Our first day there basically consisted of  a lot of swimming, reading our books in coffee shops, and walking around the town at night enjoying the holiday atmosphere. In fact, that's what almost every day consisted of.

We had a gorgeous second day of hanging out: swimming, reading our books, drinking coffee, and then it was time to get on another (very packed!) boat and head to the island of Mljet, which was meant to be the longest stay of the holiday. 

We arrived in the evening and the place seemed nice enough. We had major issues with our room, but finally got settled, ate the remainder of our boat snacks and went down to the bar, where I had the first Amaretto of my life (Leo had a Jameson, if I remember correctly).

It felt like it rained more than not during our stay. Neither of us were impressed with the island. If you are equipped for hiking (we had limited space in our hand luggage so didn't bring anything for such activities), have kids, or are an Australian on a cruise around the islands you might enjoy Mljet. We found it to be a rip off, everything costing 20% more than anywhere else in Croatia, poor quality food, the hotel (the only one on the island) was incredibly poor (UHT milk and instant coffee for breakfast), overall my advice would be to go elsewhere. There was good swimming to be had, at least. And swim we did, every day. The water is so clear in Croatia that as soon as you duck under you're exposed to this fascinating world of fish and crabs.

We cut our trip to the island short by one day, because to be honest one week in and we were bored out of our minds. We got one of the speed boats back to Korčula. A terrifying experience, but the fastest way, and it was quite an adrenalin rush once I got over the fact that I wasn't going to be ejected.

And then we were back, for two more days, in Korčula. It honestly felt like there had been a permanent cloud over Mljet, rain every day and occasional thunder storms. But back in Korčula everything was peachy.

We wrote a lot of postcards to send to various countries, and Leo honestly spent a solid afternoon drafting all of his messages and making sure there would be enough space on the cards to write the intended message. Our different ways of tackling tasks are always amusing to me.