Sailing the Dalmatian Islands

I just spent one blissful week on a boat cruising up and down the coastline of Croatia.  Words cannot describe the beautiful scenery of this part of the world.  The water is impossibly clear.  The islands are stunning mountains rising straight out of the sea.  The people are warm.  And the food and wine is delicious.

Swimming hole at Maslinica

Our boat: reefed, heeling, and loving it!

This week, I joined an ASA (American Sailing Association) flotilla with 14 other people and we chartered 2 boats and sailed them ourselves.  I lived aboard a 54ft Beneteau with 6 of these folks as we island hopped for a week. It turned out I was almost the youngest member of the group, but we all loved to sail and to eat so we all had a great time.  Everybody ended the week feeling stuffed, tanner than we have ever been in our lives, and scheming about how soon we could come back.  


I have done this type of trip with friends in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).  That first trip was the event that initially piqued my interest in sailing.  There is nothing more relaxing than skimming across water with no sound except the wind and no feeling except the sun on your face.

Exploring Tito's submarine tunnel
psst - there is a secret passageway!

The surreal Blue Grotto from the inside

 On these week-long boat charters, each day is spent swimming in beautiful water, relaxing in the sun on some island beach, sailing from one island to the next, and/or eating great food with friends.  Your boat makes its own itinerary depending on what everybody likes . . . "Want more swimming time?  Here is another beautiful cove or beach where we can park for lunch and swim."   "Do you see that thing on shore?  Let's take the dingy to that island and go hike to it." "I hear there is a really good restaurant on this island.  Let's sail there today and make reservations for tonight."  There are so many things to do in these islands that you could sail around them for months and never run out of new experiences.  and the best part is . . . Its just you.  There are no cruise ship crowds.  There are no tour directors hurrying you back on board.  You can do whatever you want to all week long, stay as long as you want, and enjoy everything at your own pace without anybody else spoiling the party.

Traditional Lamb Dinner at a small
winery on the island of Vis

Dolphins decided to join us during our sail around Vis!

The Carribean and Dalmatian Islands both offer this kind of relaxing adventure from a boat.

Walk right off the back of the boat
into a quaint Croatian town

But the Dalmatian Islands enhances the experience by providing some of the most delicious food and wine I have ever had.  This week also differed from the BVI because we docked most nights at marinas.  That means we could walk off the back of the boat into a centuries-old town with showers and gourmet restaurants. Ken didn't have to go a night without his Croatian gelato.

Gourmet Dinner at Palmizana

Our ASA group had the distinct advantage of being led by Captain Jean De Keyser and his beautiful wife Mila.  They love to sail and to eat good food and the rest of us benefited hugely from their experience!  This was their 7th year to lead an ASA flotilla in Croatia and they seem to know all the restaurants and sometimes the people in every port.  Thank you for an amazing week!

Magic Winery

Hvar Town at night

FRESH fish prepared well

Exploring the fortress in Hvar Town

Views from Stiniva's Beach

Swimming in Stiniva

Sunset while sailing

Anchoring off the famous Bol beach

The windsurfers were having just as
much fun as we were having sailing

Sunset from town

Here is a rough map of how we chose to spend our week in the Dalmatian Islands.  

Please excuse my lack of artistic skills.

Trogir --> Docked at Maslinica
Maslinica --> Anchored at Submarine Tunnel --> Docked at Kut/Vis Town
Kut --> Anchored at Stiniva to swim --> Moored at Komiza
Komiza --> Anchored at the Blue Grotto --> Docked at Palmizana
Palmizana --> Anchored at some small cove on Hvar Island --> Moored at Stari Grad (dinner in Hvar town)
Stari Grad --> Anchored and swam at Bol --> Docked at Milna
Milna --> Trogir

Who is up for a trip in July of 2016?  I have a birthday coming and can think of no better way to spend it than with friends in Dalmatia! 

 I can captain the boat or I know a guy . . .

Croatian Ramblings

I was blessed to spend almost 2 weeks in Croatia, over 5 of those days on shore.  During those days, I spent time coming and going from 4 different hostels, and was fortunately enough to talk with the owners of 2 of these hostels in depth.

I continue to be very humbled every time I step out of my American bubble.  My brief time interacting with non-Americans on shore in Croatia re-emphasized lessons I had learned from studying abroad years ago.

1. Texans enjoy a very good reputation around the world.  I love my state.  And foreigners love cowboys.  I should pack my boots next time just to win brownie points. 
2. The eyes of the world are on America.  Our country's whims often affect their daily lives.
• My host in Zadar watches enough American news that she knew Chicago and New York got a lot of snow this year.
• The teenage Brits I met in Split knew enough about the American tax and health care system to have a really good debate about the pros and cons of our two systems.  Our health care advances drive the standard of care in the rest of the world.
• The two Swedes I sat next to on the plane from Croatia knew more history about America than I did . . .  why do the Swedes care about our Civil War??  I know nothing about their history.
• Did you know Real Housewives and the Real World make it abroad?  Think of that if you ever consider what the rest of the world thinks about us.
• Our presidential elections are all over the news here.  We may elect Donald Trump.  *sigh*   . . . Americans elect our presidents based on how we feel about taxes, education, gay rights, and a dozen other domestic issues that affect our lives as Americans.  But as soon as you step into another country, you realize who we're really electing is is the person who will change millions and millions of lives around the world. Who has foreign policy on their list of qualifications for a president?   I do. 
3. Americans are very isolated.  This is a luxury most of Americans don't appreciate and most foreigners don't understand.
• How many times in the last year have you checked up on elections for another country - even our next door neighbors?  I am embarrassed to say I don't know who the president of Mexico is or the Prime Minister of Canada.  It just doesn't affect me.
• How many time in the last month have you personally been affected by policies made by another country?  In Europe, this would be counted in hours.
• Everybody speaks English for us.  How many languages do you speak?  I rarely feel so stupid as when I meet one of many Europeans who speak 3 languages fluently and know more about my country than I do.  
4. Americans have the good life
• Everywhere I travel, Americans are known to be wealthy.  Even if you don't feel wealthy . . .  I'm betting you took a vacation last year.  I bet you haven't worried about how your going to feed your children.  We are very fortunate.
• My host in Split mentioned that the country of Croatia will enjoy a >50% unemployment rate after the tourists leave in September.
• My host in Zadar told me the last few years are much improved because she can now count on getting her paycheck after her weeks of hard work at the office.
• A fellow traveler in Dubrovnik didn't know how he was going to get home because they've shut down the border to Hungary, where he was supposed to fly out of.  One of many things Americans don't have to worry about every day . . .
5. The American Dream is alive and well.  
•  Both hosts in Croatia talked about this - They each knew one person who had moved there a generation ago and talked about this person like they made it to the promised land.  Our country is like a mystical destination. 
• Americans don't have to be resigned to remain in the social or economic class we are born into.  It is not until you see the rest of the world that you realize just how rare that is.

I left Croatia feeling thoroughly vacationed and grateful to be born in the country and the century I was.  As Buffet would say . . . I've won the ovarian lottery.

Croatian National Parks

Two of the five days I spent on the Croatian mainland were dedicated to the Croatian National Parks: Krka (pronounced Kirk-a) and Plitvicka (pronounced Plit-yich-ka).  They are both works of natural beauty created by the same geological force.  I have never seen anything like them.  Both also required a significant time commitment because they are buried in national parks that are a significant drive away from any major cities.  Krka was over an hour from Split and Plitvicka was over 3 hours away.  They are still some of the most popular tourist attractions in this small country - Plitvicka hosts over a million people every year!  You could hire tours to Plitvicka from as far as Dubrovnik.

The large waterfall at Plitvicka.  The first vista from the park entrance.

The lakes and waterfalls in these parks are formed by rivers created by mountain snowmelt.  The rivers collect and flow through a limestone valley.  So the river water disolves the karst rock upstream, and deposits some of it downstream, making travertine.  Gradually, natural travertine dams are formed, creating lakes.  Waterfalls connect one lake to the next in an endless series of dramatic lake-waterfall combinations.   Our Plitvicka guide explained all this to us, and I stole a cross section picture from Wikipedia to illustrate the phenomenon.  The natural dams gradually change, so that the area is forever changing.

Cascades at Krka

The first park I visited was Krka.  I went there with friends I made the night before and we got a private tour of sorts from our hostel host, Joska.  Krka turned out to be a lot more laid back than the more popular Plitvicka.  For example, they didn't care if you wandered off the boardwalks that guided tourists to the popular sights.  They also clearly encouraged you to swim at the base of the most famous water fall there.
We swam first, and I unfortunately do not have a waterproof camera so can't share those pictures, but the water was cold!  We had to walk across some of the natural travertine barriers to get to the deeper swimming holes.  Those rocks were really slippery and only a few inches below the waters surface so there is no cushion if you fall.  That means everybody ends up tip-toeing gingerly accross them, trying not to eat it. This made for very entertaining people watching  . . . some people just crabbed it all the way accross while other started out walking upright with bravado, but almost always slipped and ended up waving their arms wildly to keep from falling.

The famous Krka waterfall and swimming hole

We swam, surrounded by tourists from all around the world, ate lunch at the park's cafe, sunbathed and and then went exploring off-piste.  There were countless natural waterfalls and caves that you could climb to off the beaten path.  Hana led the way and we ended up hanging out in our own private pool with our own private waterfall.  It was great!  Our gang of 7 had a great time goofing off and relaxing all day.

Beatrix showing Hana how to flex
during lunch

The water was so clear you could see
the lazy fish swimming feet below
the boardwalks

A close-up of a waterfall
under the large waterfall at
Plitvicka. The boardwalk
gives you a sense of scale.

The last day I had on the coast was spent in Plitvicka because I kept hearing from other travelers that it was even better than Krka.  So I bit the bullet and hired a tour company to take me there.  The tour company was efficient and the tour guide was informative enough, but the whole tour pretty much treated us like cattle . . . "Move along please", "Don't get seperated please", "Rest here for 30 minutes and then we all get on the boat", "We have to be back to the bus by 3:00 so we can get you back on time".  (We actually got back a whole hour ahead of schedule.)

Plitvicka does not allow you to get off the boardwalks, probably due to its protected status.  The result is throngs of tourists squeezing past each other on the narrow and uneven boardwalk, pausing every time somebody ahead of you wants to stop to take a picture.   The natural beauty of the park is unquestionably more stunning than Krka, but the experience was lacking.

Julie at the base of the large waterfall

Fortunately for me, I made friends with an older French couple and two fellow English-speaking travelers, Suman and Sarah.  So we got to ooh and aah at each turn in the boardwalks together.  I love comparing notes with other travelers-addicts!  Some of the best suggestions for where to visit next have come from fellow travelholics.

Here are a few pictures of Plitvicka, just to give you a feel for what we saw.  Next time, I will get a car or bus and spend the night at one of the hotels near the park because 3 hours was simply not enough time to explore this amazingly beautiful and huge park!

The water is an unbelievable shade of blue

One spectactular waterfall after another

This lake was large enough to take a
ferry across it

One of many mini-cascades

Split

Croatia: land of sun and sea.  The plan was to spend 5 days on my own on the mainland before boarding a boat that will sail the Dalmatian islands.  The stoney faced natives are a beautiful tan people who sound like they are speaking Italian (musical lilt) with a strong Russian accent (hard consonants).  Croatia is a long, thin country with mountains on the East and the Adriatic sea forming the long coastline.   Most of the cities are perched on the thin strip of land between these two natural barriers, so you have good views of both at all times.  According to my host in Split, his land is also blessed with 250 days of sun per year. I flew into Split, spent a day in Dubrovnik, and circled back around to Trogir where I met the rest of the boat crew and set sail.

Prepare yourself for a long post because I am in love with this country.

Split actually ended up being my favorite stop, despite the fact Dubrovnik and Trogir are unquestionably more beautiful cities.  It is because of the people I met there.  Let's start with Josco.  Josko is the owner, host, chef, driver, Croatian encyclopedia, and tour guide extraordinare all in one person.  He makes it his personal mission to ensure everybody walking through his hostel's doors is taken care of and treated like family.  His reviews all attest to the fact that he is very very good at his job.  Because of this, his hostel attracts other fun loving people, like Kathryn, whom he introduced me to within seconds of walking through the door.  Another Texan, Kathryn and I enjoyed a lovely night on the town, after delicious Croatian food and bottle of wine, we join the crowd ringing the main square inside Diocletian's palace, drinking wine on the steps and singing along to the music of a guitarist late into the night.  It was pretty perfect. 

The harbor of Split

The next morning, I set out to see the city by daylight.  Diocletian's Palace contained many wonders, and has recently gained fame as a set for the Game of Thrones HBO series.  Locals dressed as Romans in togas or armor walk around and pose with tourists.  Tourists wander everywhere, taking pictures and forever eating ice cream.  

The remains of this extravagant Roman palace are side by side with Mideval architecture and any gaps are filled in with modern buildings owned by the locals.  The palace is built from white stone from the island of Brac, which reportedly is the same island that supplied stone for our White House in Washington D.C.

Men started singing in this round
room with perfect acoustics. 
The Kalise may have also
released her dragons here.

Entrance to the temple of Jupiter
Lions and Sphinxs were imported
from other countries for the grand hall

Views from the bell tower

The famous statue of Gregorius
of Nin. Make a wish while 
rubbing his toe for luck

Views of Split from the bell tower.
The park in the background was
my next stop

I then head to the huge park that Josko has advised me is a good hike and provides good views of the city.  There are a few pebble beaches in the park, and cliffs you can jump off of into the sea.  Beaches sounded boring.  But I was on my own for the day so I packed a couple of books and some water and set out on the hike, thinking I would curl up somewhere with a good view of the sea.  Instead, I ran into Arnaud shortly after starting the climb.  We spent an enchanting and hot afternoon hiking all around that park, admiring the views, crystal clear water, and exchanging traveling notes like "Why don't the Croatian people ever smile?"  At one point, I joined him swimming in some of the most beautiful water I have ever seen, even though I had to go in with shorts and a T-shirt because I was an idiot and didn't pack a swimsuit. 

Views from the top of the park

Some of the most beautiful
water I have ever seen
until I got to the islands 

Arnaud and I parted ways, him returning to his friends and me returning to the hostel where Josko cooked us a homemade "family" dinner.  Almost everybody (except me) had just arrived in Spit that day and we got to know each other over the meal and a drinking game that transitioned into a bar crawl.  My new bunkmates were: Cornelia (a Norwegian),  Nick and Ross (two Scots on vacation from Uni), Beatrix (an easy going Brit with a level head - my kind of gal) and another girl who I never saw again. Before setting out for the night, the 5 of us commission Josko to take us to Krka the next morning.  The bar crawl was fun, eventful and included dancing, which I loved.  But I left the hostel crowd to rejoin Arnaud for a drink and meet his two friends.  The conversation made me realize that my French is passable but I really need to improve my grammar if I want to have meaningful conversations with adults in French.  We talked, sometimes in French and sometimes in English until 3 in the morning when we parted ways again.  All in all, it was a really good night.

Exploring Krka waterfalls

Josko and Hana

The next morning, after "Grandma" cooks us breakfast, Josko piles us into his car and we set out for Krka.  I will describe this very cool National Park in the next post, but again, it was the people made this day a great one.  Josko brought his daughter, Hana, along for the first time and she turned into our 5 year old mascot and adventure leader for the trip.  She was bubbly, cute, talkative (as long as it was in Croatian) and eager to show Josko every inch of this national park she was visiting for the first time.  If all kids like this, everybody would have 10 of them.  Josko, for his part clearly dotes on his family and he had eyes only for Hana, which was really sweet to watch.  The 7 of us walked the boardwalks, swam at the foot of the grand waterfall, laughed at each other as we wobbled across the slippery travertine barriers underwater, and wandered back into the forest to find more hidden falls and crystal clear pools.  We had a blast.  On the way home, Josko takes us by an old fort that also has been the backdrop for the Game of Thrones series.  It offered splendid views of the city at sunset.  We get back just in time for me to catch the bus to Dubrovnik.

It was an action packed two days! 

Do you see the guy doing a swan dive?

The fort by sunset

Everything is Game of Thrones here

Nick, Cornelia, Beatrix, Ross and Julie

Will I ever see these people again?  Unlikely.  I could meet up with Kathryn again since she lives in Texas.  But the rest will probably remain happy memories.  To all of them, thanks for the adventures!


The next stop was Dubrovnik, the favorite stop for almost everyone else I have talked to who has visited the Croatian coastline.  I only got to spend a day there.  The walled city is almost entirely intact, and the marble streets are thronged with tourist 24-7 . . . truly.  I arrived after 1 in the morning and there were still tourists everywhere when I went to bed at 3:00.  A day later, when I woke up at 6AM to get pictures without the hords, they were already unloading from buses as the vendors set up their shops.  And this apparently is better than peak season June - August!  Dubrovnik was already a beautiful walled city, a Unesco Heritage site, a cruiseship stop, and a popular destination in for summer tourists.  Now it is also the backdrop for Kings Landing in Game of Thrones and there are Game of Thrones tours everywhere.  No wonder the city is exploding.

Dubrovnik, unlike Split, has retained its oldworld construction, untainted by the modern buildings and clotheslines strung across the old city in Split.  The streets are polished marble and you can walk all the way around the city just by climbing the city walls.  All 3 cities that I visited, including Dubrovnik, were highly prized because of their proximity to key shipping lanes.  For that reason there were many countries that claimed them in the last few centuries, including the city-state of the Venetians.  The Northern Italians conveyed a lot of their culture with their rule, and you can eat traditional Croatian risotto and admire the Venician windows set into churches here. It makes for a beautiful destination.


After catching another bus to Trogir, where I met my crewmates for the next week, I got to spend a day in the other Croatian National Park, Plitvicka.  Suman and Sarah ended up being my companions on that tour - again, see the next post for more details.

Trogir was a pretty and walled city in a similar style to Dubrovnik, but much much smaller.  It also seems to cater to a higher end tourist, perhaps because it is a popular jumping off point for the many sailing expeditions that cruise the islands along the coast.  It is the reason I was there, and I found it to be charming.  The mega-boats that rafted up at Trogir riverside on Friday night showcased how many sailors flow through this city every year.

Trogir Cathedral Entrance

Views of Trogir from the bell tower

Trogir is also the first stop (but certainly not the last) where I got to experience the gourmet culture here in Croatia.  This country creates ham, gelato and wine like Italy, olives and seafood like Greece, and in general really knows how to cook a very good meal.  I enjoyed a wine tasting there with another new friend, Margaret, at a lovely family run restaurant in my last night before getting on board for a tour of the islands.

At this point in the trip, I have spent 5 day in this country and am already in love.  And this is without seeing the islands that everybody says are the best places to visit.

Next stop: the Dalmatian Islands

Flying to Croatia

I took a flight from Paris to Croatia on one of the discount airlines here in Europe, and fortunately got a window seat but unfortunately shared the row with a couple of loud French lovebirds.  So I leaned up against the window and did my best to fall asleep.

I woke to look out of the window and  breathe "oh!" At the view.  We were flying over snowcapped mountains, with glaciers below us.  I never understood the what people meant when they said the mountains were "cut by glaciers" until now.  You could tell the huge white masses were slowly sliding, not by their movement, but by their melting shape.

There were towns and roads clearly visible in every nook in the surrounding mountains.  It is the opposite of the wild Teton range I visited less than a month ago.  Every square acre of arable land had been taken, farmed or built upon.  Even the upper regions had roads that were visible from the plane.  I was surprised there were not roads up to the glaciers themselves.  There is no such thing as wilderness here.

A few short minutes later, we're over the foothills to the Alps, and then like a snap over flat farmland. Then, a few short minutes again and you can see the sea.  My cabinmate leans over and asks to look out the window.  "C'est Venice! (That's Venice)" He exclaimed, then, with more doubt, "Non, it's not.  I think Venice is over there." He points at a city surrounding a port.  All the cities on this coast are behind a strip of land, with even the wider parts of the sandbar fully populated.

Then, we're over the Mediterranean.

By the time I finish drafting this post, the captain comes on board and tells us in bad English that we have approximately 20 minutes before landing in Split.  Everything is so close here.

On to Croatia!

.

The double-pane foggy plane windows made it hard to get pictures