(Sidebar: For those who don't remember, you can catch up on the first part of the post here.)
The Five Best Things About Croatia!
Number Five: The Food and Drink
Surprisingly, Croatian wine is really quite good. During the better part of our disastrous trip to Korcula, we stopped off at a local winery for a tasting. We had already had several fantastic wines over the trip, so we weren’t surprised at how good the wines were. They also complemented some of the great meals we had over the course of the week. Living in Israel this year, pork products have understandably been at a minimum, so we took full advantage of the Dalmation smoked ham that was readily available. We also found a fantastic restaurant that I mentioned yesterday for our 6-month anniversary dinner, which had amazing seafood and one of the best steaks I’ve ever tasted. (Unfortunately for me, Allie was the one who ordered it!) Besides the big dinners, Croatia is apparently known for both pizza and ice cream, both of which lived up to the hype. It wasn’t uncommon to see crowds of people, both local and tourists, walking down the streets of the old city with a large ice cream cone in their hand. Great stuff!
(Chocolate soup!)Number Four: The People
Something that really stuck out to both of us was how incredibly friendly almost everyone we met was. They were nice, accommodating, helpful, and this includes people who weren’t going to make a buck off of us! I love Israel, but it was nice to have a break from people who have absolutely no sense of other people being around them in a crowded space. (If any of my Israeli friends are reading this – sorry, but you know it’s true.) Really, there isn’t a whole lot to say here, just that Croatians really are some of the friendliest people you’ll meet.
Number Three: Montenegro
Not all of our trips were as bad as the Korcula visit! In contrast, our day trip to Montenegro really was a great time. We decided to take a trip to the country based on the idea that, well, when else would you ever go to Montenegro? And we didn’t regret it.
First off, as beautiful as Croatia is (we’ll get to that later), Montenegro is even better. In fact, some of the sights in Montenegro are simply some of the most gorgeous I’ve ever seen in my life. We stopped at one site just to take pictures of the sea and the mountains, and for a second I was actually speechless. Really spectacular stuff.
Second, one of the towns we toured, Kotor, had a pillar in the center of the town square that, in the olden days, was used for public punishments. You see, the town was small enough that when someone committed a crime, they were tied to the pillar so that the townsfolk could throw fruit and laugh at them. The name of this site? The Pillar of Shame. That’s right. THE PILLAR OF SHAME. The official name of the thing sounds like it came right out of a Monty Python skit! How awesome is that! No? Just me? Oh well…
(I am shamed.)We also were taken to a great seafood place in the town of Budva… however, when we arrived, there weren’t any tables left! There were some outside, but Allie (understandably) was set on eating by the water? The solution? Take a table from inside and move it outside! In fact, why don’t we put them, oh, 5 feet from the sea?
That was taken from my seat at the table. Cool, huh? The food was great too, but the view made it. In fact, the views were really why Montenegro was so amazing. Which, I suppose, leads us into our next topic…
Number Two: The Views
I’m not kidding when I say Croatia is stunningly beautiful. It seems silly to talk about it, so I’ll show instead of tell…
Amazing, huh? Without further ado…The Number One Best Thing About Croatia…
The Old City and the Fort Walls
Seriously, this old city was amazing. (Sidebar: No Kotel, but no one’s perfect.) Allie and I spent several days on the trip just wandering around and exploring, and it was amazing how many things we found. For example, we found the local synagogue, which claims to be the 2nd oldest in Europe! But the main attraction of Dubrovnik is easily its City Walls, which span the entire old city and take several hours to walk around. Seems simple, yes, but when you’re there you realize how great it actually is.
Allie and I spent about 2-2.5 hours walking around the entirety of the walls, stopping to look at every nook and cranny. My favorite part was when we found one of the windows without bars on it, allowing us to crawl inside of it (the wall was about 5-6 feet thick) and sit close to the ledge, looking out on the harbor and the sea. Really took my breath away – and not just because I’m scared of heights!
The walls were one of the first places we went, and they really set the tone for what was a great trip. Full endorsement from me! Now, next stop Istanbul…
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