Croatia

We arrived in Croatia on a cloudy, drizzling morning. I remember waking up, and looking out the window at one of the many islands that speckled the coastline. The many islands contained sailboats and white stucco homes with Spanish style roofs. The first day, Mike and I decided to start walking to the old town, with no plans. We came across a bus station, and at that very moment, we decided to hop on a bus and drive five hours to a city north of Dubrovnik. The drive was beautiful, the highway paralleled the coast the hole way, and the combination of the landscape, Spanish style homes, and the beautiful ocean reminded me a lot of southern California. About two hours into the ride, to our surprise, we entered Bosnia, as it lied directly in our path to Split. We stopped for a bathroom break at a mini store in Bosnia, and I bought a coffee mug, just to say I got something from Bosnia. We arrived in Split that night around eight or so with no plans and with no where to sleep. In the bus station, a little old lady who was renting out a room in her home for the night approached us. The room was about 100 Kuna, equivalent to twenty dollars U.S. so Mike and I agreed. We had our own room, with two beds and a bathroom. The king size bed I slept in was very comfortable. There was a down mattress cover, down pillows, and a down comforter. We spent the next day exploring the beautiful beach town of Split. It was very cold, so the city wasn’t as lively as in the summer, but we still had a good time. That evening, we crossed back through Bosnia and continued to Dubrovnik. The next day, a few friends and I walked around the old town. Old Dubrovnik is a several hundred-year-old walled city that is still the heart of Dubrovnik life today. The weather was cold, but it only rained a few times. When it did rain though, it rained very hard. While in Dubrovnik, we noticed a large cross situated atop the steepest incline in the city. We got the idea to climb up to this cross, but we wanted to ask a local first if it was safe, because we had been warned to not venture to far off the beaten path as there were still live landmines buried from the Serbs a decade or so ago. After getting the okay from a few locals and a tour guide, we began climbing up to this cross. We first walked through little neighborhoods to get up to the highway that lined the side of the mountain. After crossing the highway, was jumped into the woods, to begin our climb. We fought through sticker bushes and pine trees for the first half hour or so, and then had to scale some large rocks. After about forty-five minutes we exited the woods and were about halfway to the cross. The last half of the exhausting hike was trekking up loose rock. We reached the top, turned around, and saw one of the most beautiful views I had ever seen. The water was turquoise blue, the palm treed islands scattered the coastline, and the brick buildings of the old city complimented the Spanish style homes outside the walls. The cross was about twenty-five feet tall, and behind it was ruins of some buildings. These buildings were once a Croatian military fort before this hill, along with the rest of the city, was bombed by Serbians in the early nineties. We explored these buildings, and even though the raid is fifteen years passed, it appeared as if had happened only yesterday. The soldiers beds were still tipped over, clothes were scattered on the ground, and many of the walls were littered with bullet holes and blood. The feeling in this place was really uneasy. The last day we just hung out in the old city and drank wine at one of the many outside restaurants. That night we saw a movie. We saw the new American movie ‘‘Rendition.’’ It was weird to be in a movie theatre again, especially watching an American film with Croatian subtitles. The movie was set in Egypt, and it was cool to see after recently visiting that country. However, some of the movie was in Arabic, and the English subtitles of the movie would overlap with the Croatian subtitles, making it hard to read. I would love to return to Croatia in the summer time, as I can only imagine how beautiful it would be. Manning a sailboat through the isles of Croatia is a new dream of mine.