We must take advetures.

We must take advetures.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Croatia: Europe's Best Kept Secret

This weekend I fell in love. Some people want to marry the Eiffel tower, I want to marry the entire country. Split, Croatia is comparable to Miami beach. Our hostel was located right on the port, overlooking the coast. Restaurants, bars, & live music lined the streets.


I decided to take my second trip with Bus2alps, but this time I went not knowing anyone and it was the best decision I could have made! 

Day 1: A 12 hour bus ride later and we finally arrived in Croatia at 9am. We checked into our hostel and 2 hours later I was on a bus headed towards the Cetina River for white water rafting. It was 75 degrees out and we had to wear wet suites and water booties. At first we were a little confused, then we felt the water and understood why we had to wear this. Our rafting "skipper's" name was Marco, he is a semi-pro soccer player and a white water rafting guide, hard life? I think not. He was explaining to us that Americans are his favorite people to work with and Italians are his least favorite (this is the first time I've heard good things about Americans in Europe). Half way through our adventure we reached a cliff that had fresh spring water flowing off of it. Marco taught us to all put on hand in a fist and hold it against the rock and it served as a water fountain. Croatian water is the official water of Madison Square Garden, how cool is that and we got to drink it fresh from the mountain! At the end of the river Marco surprised us with a cliff jumping experience. As we approached the cliff it didn't look very high, but once we were on top of it we all wanted to turn back. Marco did not let us, and I'm very happy he didn't because it was so much fun. The river wasn't as intense as I expected, but the scenery blew my mind. At one point marco had us stop paddling and just sit and take in the nature around us for. The rippling of the water, chirping of the birds, and rays from the sun  were so relaxing. Our adventure ended at a delicious restaurant right on the river. When we got home we had to get ready for the pub crawl that was organized for our bus2alps trip. I had never been on a pub crawl before, but this one definitely set the bar. The crawl began with 2 hours of unlimited drinks on a boat that was docked on the port, it then went to three different bars that lined the coast. 



Day 2: After a bright and early wake up call we were on the boat about to begin our day of island hopping. We thought it would be a good idea to sit at the front of the boat.  We were wrong. 5 minutes into the boat ride we were soaking wet from the waves hitting against the boat. The boat crew came around with shots and donuts for everyone. What a wonderful start to our day. The first island was little and cute, while the second island was big and beachy. When we got home from island hopping we went to a city nearby named Trogir, It was a beautiful city on the coast and has wonderful calamari. 






Day 3: We packed up our bags and left our hostel. We headed to Krka National Park, otherwise known as the land of the waterfalls. We headed 2 hours north and reached the anticipated destination. We has 3 hours to explore the parks natural beauty. We took a scenic trail that led us to the parks renown waterfall into the Visovac Lake. After a couple minutes of taking pictures of the falls we decided to take a dip. The water was freezing, but there was no way I was leaving this beautiful place without swimming under the waterfall. After 30 minutes of attempting to walk on the rocks on the water we decided to jump in and swim. There was a rope in front of the waterfall that was clearly there so no one would cross it, but the daredevils that we are we all crossed the rope. After 15 minutes of climbing rocks and swimming under the falls one of the park rangers came and told us to go back to the swimming side. The waterfalls were the highlight of my trip. 





Overall, Croatia is one of my favorite places I've ever been to and I will definitely be back!