Our hop around Croatian islands

Until this year, Croatia was the top holiday destination for Czechs - it's now been trumped by Slovakia. After the eighth or ninth Czech friend told us how much they loved Croatia in summertime, we figured we'd better make our way to the Dalmatian Coast. 

With our severe lack of melanin and inability to lay prone for more than an hour without sleeping, we are not particularly beach types. Yet, Roman ruins and fresh fish sounded enticing, so off we went on an island-hopping adventure posted on Chasing the Donkey, a Croatian travel blog.

Split, our first stop, was stunning. We only had a day and a half, so we spent a lot of time wandering around the old town, purchasing a ticket to see Roman Emporer Diocletian's Palace and hitting up a local beach.

Per BW’s request, we took a gander through the Fish Market and the Green Market. I get a kick out of how eager he is to see local food culture everywhere we travel. I do not get a kick out of a fruit peddler trying to sell me overripe figs for ridiculous prices because I am a tourist.

The first spot off the mainland was the island of Vis, which served as a Yugoslav naval base and was cut off to foreigners from 1950 to 1989. I'd found an AirBnB in a former palace (!) that was being renovated painstakingly by hand by the elderly gentleman owner (?!). We happily slept among piles of dusty old antiques.

Our main activity on Vis was renting a motorbike and finding a hidden beach that we had to scale about a kilometer of rock face to get to. (Smarter people took boats.) We also indulged in marinated sardines, shrimp and cuttlefish brodetto at Pojoda, a fresh fish restaurant.

Whereas Vis was cozy and sleepy, our next destination was high-octane decadence. We boated to Hvar Island with a huge Californian family who was in Croatia on holiday with their 80-year-old patriarch, who had been born on Vis. Hvar was a sight to see - all luxury yachts and party bars and modelesque figures stretched out on cabana chairs.

 

Calling Hvar expensive is an understatement; a bottle of sunscreen was over 20 US dollars. So we enjoyed the views, ate in and fell asleep to the sounds of the Adriatic Sea and the incessant "dns dns dns" beats of the beach clubs in the distance.

Our third and final island - Korcula - was our favorite, largely because our friend the Serbian and his daughter spend their summer holidays there and they showed us around. We swam and were gluttonous to our hearts' content, and we got to explore an old church and visit with locals.

The night before we were set to go back to Split, I saw on Facebook that my sister's sister-in-law and her husband were in the city, on their way to new jobs in Poland! We were lucky enough to enjoy a walk on the Split Riva and then meet them and an aunt who had been travelling with them for a fish dinner. A serendipitous event!

We'd hop on Croatia again any time.

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Foodie Tour Part 4: Medieval Hill Towns

Our last night in Rovinj was spent drinking wine straight from the bottle on a rocky outcrop where a martyr floated ashore in a sarcophagus circa 800 A.D. As the sky faded from aqua to inky black and the waves pulsed rhythmically below us, we watched fishermen sink flashlights to illuminate the sea and draw out their final day's catch of sardines and squid. It was beautiful to witness people doing what they've done for thousands of years on the water.

As difficult as it was to leave the sea, we headed into the Istrian interior the next day to explore Medieval towns renowned for their vineyards, olive groves and hills riddled with truffles.

The first stop: 2,000-year-old Motovun, the birthplace of race car driver Mario Andretti and home of an international film festival.

It prettily sits atop a hill

Two of its 531 residents

We saw the four corners of Istria from a walkway installed in the 1200s 

The view wasn't too bad. We spotted a woman truffle-hunting with her three truffle-sniffing dogs

Our favorite Motovun moment was spying a nondescript little cafe setup on a far edge of the village's walkway and settling down there for glasses of wine made from grapes grown 500 meters away. 

Cheers!

The second stop: Groznajn, the only Croatian settlement to still have an ethnic Italian majority and the seat of the International Cultural Centre of Young Musicians

A truly multi-functional building: Former city hall, jail and grainery on the left

Jayda bought us some truffle-black olive spread for a souvenir

Empty streets; it was reeeeeeally quiet there

The third stop: Modern Istrian regional center Buje, where the first traces of life date back to prehistoric times

We found a creepy, crumbly old cemetery

"December 1852"

I so wanted to steal an orange from the tree but decided against it

Fish soup! The kind restaurateur took J in the kitchen and fed her the soup scraps :)

BW had carbonara and raved about it for the next hour or so

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Foodie Tour Part 3: Rovinj again

Yeah, yeah - the last post was about Rovinj, but I had to post more pictures because there's just too much eye candy to keep trapped in our hard disc.

We visited the city on the tail-end of tourist season; a lot of shops and restaurants had already closed. In fact, the campground we booked (but never used due to rain) was the only one that took guests past Sept. 30. Could we swim in the sea? No. Was the nightlight amazing? Nope. But we got what we came for - tremendously good food, tranquility, history and the chance to dip our toes into an unfamiliar culture.

Fun facts about Rovinj/Istria:

= The Plague wiped out many of Rovinj's inhabitants in the Middle Ages

= It's an international destination for nudists; there are establishments and beaches that cater to them

= For almost 500 years, Istria was a part of Venice, which is just across the Adriatic

= All Roman emperors have owned olive groves in Istria

= The largest truffle in the world was found in Istria (19.5cm long, 12.4 cm wide and 13.5 cm tall)

Stare-down with a seagull

Just another apartment

I thought "cistern" meant "toilet." I googled "cisterna" and it's a flattened membrane disc in the nervous system. It's also a city in Italy

Getting J to stand still for a picture is like herding cats

We ate a picnic lunch of wine and Burek (phyllo and meat pastry), and this was our view

Yet more winding streets. The center is car-free

Spooky but lovely

Best. Pizza. Ever. We'll never eat Dominoes or Little Caesars again 

Goodnight, Rovinj!

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Foodie Tour Part 2: Rovinj, Croatia

The plans we had to camp in Croatia dissolved in the scads of rain that ended up falling incessantly. We hightailed it through Slovenia under ominous grey clouds to get to Rovinj before dark and find accommodation that would keep us dry.

Picturesque even in gloomy environs

Thankfully, we spotted an adorable family-owned pension tucked into a side street. Two other couples staying at the pension, Americans and Poles, were drinking wine on the balcony and invited us to dinner with them. We nodded like bobbleheads after having eaten Czech rohliks (breadsticks) and Nutella in the car all day. It ended up being a raucously fun night and we got to indulge in truffle pasta:

The next morning, which brought some sun, we wrapped ourselves in Croatian culture:

Peppers at the Rovinj markets

The city still functions as an active fishing port, though the biggest trade is tourism 

Ancient buildings dip right into the water

St. Euphemia's Church sits atop the city, named after a martyred young woman who floated ashore in a sarcophagus in the 6th century

Navigating the winding streets

Kids outside a school

Where St. Euphemia washed ashore

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Foodie Tour Part 1: Gmunden, Austria

Our stomachs led us to choose our first Euro-trip destination: Camping on the Istrian Peninsula of Croatia. Here's how we reasoned the location for our midterm break journey:

1) It's currently truffle season there. When are we ever going to afford to eat truffles again?

       But it's kind of far, especially for a few days...

2) And it's famous for wine. Wine is good.

       We'll have to rent a car; there are no direct trains/buses/flights.
 
3) The drive will be beautiful; it's on the Adriatic Sea. And just think: Fish! Squid!

       We DO miss seafood...   

4) Istria was once a part of Italy, so it has excellent Italian/Croatian cuisine.

       Sold!

To get to the peninsula, we had to pass through Austria and Slovenia. So we planned a route that allowed us to visit Cousin Liv in Gmunden, Austria, where she's working as an English teacher. Here are a few shots of the idyllic little community she lives in, on Lake Traunsee:

Posed in a cobblestone intersection 

Even the doors are cute

St. Nepomuk keeps an eye on the lake

A pretty city... and lots of coots

We ate a traditional Austrian dinner at a fancyish place on the lake that, of course, let Jayda sit with us. I didn't get pictures of the food, but BW had a porkbelly hash, Liv ate spinach knodel, and I had a meat version. The owner has published a line of cookbooks; here's a picture of the knodel from her site:

It was good

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