What a massive day yesterday was! Sorry there wasn't a post up.
We left the flat and met our day tour at Matejuska Pier. I say tour, but it wasn't really. It was more a transport around the islands. So far we've been a bit disappointed by the Croatian people, but maybe it's just the culture here. I feel a bit like I've been transported into an Italian version of Russia, where you smile at people and get nothing back! Ah well, that's the whole point of travelling, experiencing other cultures.
Anyway, I say it was just transport as we weren't given any introduction to our two guides, and all day we weren't really given any information. I gather they didn't speak much English, but you would think you would have a pamphlet or something. So I'm guessing at the names of where we went, ok? Wish me luck!!
First we travelled by jet boat for nearly two hours to Bisevo Island, with beautiful scenery of other islands all along the way! We stopped here to see the Unesco site of the Blue Cave. We weren't told specifically why it's blue, but light reflects underneath the cave wall which goes 2m below sea level and is 4m thick. We were also told that it was discovered 130 years ago, and the man who discovered it used dynamite to widen the entrance so small boats can now go in and look. The colour was stunning! Bright blue like you've never seen.
We then went to a small bay (don't ask me what it was called!) for a quick swim which was nice, it was a little cove. Then we went to the Green Cave, a similar phenomenon to the blue one but obviously the water was more green. This cave was lots bigger and you could swim in it.
We then went and swam in a place called the 'Blue Lagoon' where the water was guess what colour?!? It was really pretty and I floated around like a starfish for a while. Our main swimming stop was just after this, in the Pakleni Islands. We had a drink and then Jamie sat in the shade while I swam. Whilst swimming I heard some Aussie accents, they were so strong that I thought they were country ones. Some Aussie accents sound so rough and bogan to me now, I guess it's because I'm surrounded by English ones most of the time! Chatted to them and it turned out they were from Murrumbeena.
Back on the boat and we made one final stop - Hvar Island. I had heard from friends it's really beautiful here and I wasn't disappointed! A sign in the village told me it was one of the first Ancient Greek colonies in the Adriatic, and was under Venetian rule in the 16th and 17th century.
We walked up to the fortress (very hot work!) but didn't pay to go in, instead we just enjoyed the incredible view from out the front. You could see Hvar's old town and harbour, it was amazing! We walked back down via the winding pathway and cute little staircases and wandered around the old town. Here we enjoyed an ice cream and had a look at an outdoor photography exhibition with beautiful photos of Croatia.
Then back on the boat and we headed back to Split. We were lucky enough to see dolphins 15-20m away from our boat, jumping out of the water!!! I got a photo, but you can just see the dolphin mainly in the water. Things like that I prefer to enjoy the moment anyway :)
We had a rest and then headed out for dinner. But first we had to meet the owner of our flat to pay her in cash for our stay. Nowhere here accepts card, it's really annoying! We had a pizza for dinner and then went to meet some of Jamie's friends from the Hawks at the flat they were staying at. About 8 of them have hired a boat and are sailing around as of today for about a week. They were playing a game sort of like charades, so we stayed for a bit, joined in and had a chat.
Then we had to be party poopers and head home to sleep though because we had to get up at 5am to get the bus to Dubrovnik (hence no blog!!).
Up at 5am and we left the flat keys in the mailbox, only to then find the front door of the complex was locked. So we had to break the mailbox and get the keys back - oops!
We caught the bus from Split to dubrovnik which took about 4.5-5 hours. The views were amazing but I spent the first two hours snoozing. Then something unexpected happened, the conductor came along and said "passports!". Confused as to why we needed them, Jamie and I looked at google maps on my phone. We were going into Bosnia and Herzegovina! Turns out B and H has 25km of coastline in between two sections of Croatia - how weird! My criteria for having "visited" a country are that you have to have done at least two of four things - walked around outside, taken a photo, eaten a meal or been to the toilet. Well I walked around, took a photo and went to the toilet! So I guess Bosnia and Herzegovina is country number 49 for me! Latvia will now be my magic 50 instead of Lithuania.
We arrived in Dubrovnik and met Maro, the owner of the apartment we are staying in. It's really nice and right in the middle of everything!
It's so hot here! I think technically the temperature is lower than Split slightly, but it feels hotter. First impressions - everyone here is much friendlier, and it has a bit of a middle eastern touch to it in appearance in my opinion.
We got the cable car up the 783m high mountain and enjoyed spectacular views over the city! I'll let the pictures do the talking. We bought a joint ticket for the cable car and 'Dubrovnik During the Homeland War 1991-1995' exhibition. It was set inside the 'Empire's Fort', which was built by Napoleon when he was here from 1806-1814 (is there anywhere that flog didn't invade over here?!?). During the war in 1991-1995 it was used by the Croatian military and was a symbol of heroic defence. The photographs were terrifying, seeing the very street we sat and had an ice cream in earlier completely gutted by bombs. More on the war further down.
We went back down the mountain and had a rest in the flat, before heading out again for a walking tour at 6pm. We had a great 1.5 hours led around by our guide, Marija, who was very friendly and knowledgable. We saw lots of the old town and learned some interesting facts about Dubrovnik too.
The exhibition earlier had a lot of text but didn't really explain the basic of the war. Luckily for me Jamie knew a bit about it. I personally never learned anything about it at school, and I find it astonishing how recent it all was. I was born whilst it was happening over here!! But Marija explained it best of all, in a very basic and summarised way.
After WWII, a new country was created in this area by the soviets - Yugoslavia. This was comprised of six republics; Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia. It was led by a guy called Tito. Everything was going fairly well until he passed away in 1980, after which there was a massive economic crisis. On the 25th of June 1991, Croatia and Slovenia proclaimed themselves as independent nations. Then as 1991 progressed, Serbia (who had control of Kosovo and Montenegro at this time) decided they wanted to expand their empire, especially in Dubrovnik as a lot of Serbs were living here at the time. There was a war for four years and a lot of damage was done in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dubrovnik was occupied from October 1st 1991 to May 1992, Sarajevo in B and H was occupied for four years. Serbia still had control of the Yugoslavian army whereas Croatia didn't as they had proclaimed independence. During the occupation here, 10,000 bombs fell and thousands died. The worst attack was on December 6th 1991. Today Serbia hasn't got control over Croatia, Kosovo, B and H or Montenegro, and there is still a huge amount of tension between Croatia and Serbia especially. Apparently on a Croatian public holiday a few weeks back the head of state in Serbia set a Croatian flag on fire very publicly. I never understood why there was so much trouble at the soccer between these two nations - now I do. Throughout the war the equivalent of $37.1 billion in damage was done to Croatia.
Originally Dubrovnik was called Ragusa, but this was abolished by (who else!) Napoleon and changed to Dubrovnik, coming from a type of Oak called Dube.
We passed gates in the city walls, the Onofrio Fountain and many other beautiful buildings and streets. Apparently in 1520 and 1667 there were really bad earthquakes here that did a lot of damage.
The city walls (that we are climbing tmro morning!) were built between the 11th and 17th centuries. There are 47 churches inside the walls, and the length of the walls is 1940m. There are 1080 steps to climb (mentally preparing ourselves for it haha!).
We had dinner at a place called 'Kapun' and we each tried a Croatian speciality - 'Capon', a castrated rooster. Mine was with mushroom sauce and Jamie's with honey and orange, both really nice! I also had an oyster from Shon, apparently they're the best in the world.
Now I am going to introduce Jamie to 'The Amazing Race' as he's not watched before and the Aussie one came here last year. We are going to watch and see what we can recognise!!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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