Rewind… Istanbul to Zagreb to Split to Dubrovnik

(Catching up on old blogs.  This one is from Monday, 17 Sept)

Late last week Sunday night we caught a flight on Croatia Airlines from Istanbul to Split with a layover in the Croatian capital of Zagreb.  We had a 1/2 hour layover in Zagreb and, while we knew it would be tight, figured it was manageable because the Zagreb airport isn’t all that big.  We forgot that it was an international flight and we would have to clear customs during that 1/2 hour!  Our flight was 10 minutes late getting into Zagreb which caused a few more heart palpitations.  Fortunately, the outgoing flight was also 10 minutes late, the Zagreb airport is really, really small, and it’s practically deserted at 10:30pm.  We cleared customs, ran down the concourse, re-entered security, and made it onto the flight.

The lovely staff at Villa Paula met us at the airport even though it was 11:45pm and drove us to the hotel.  It was sparse but was clean, crisp, had a beautiful view and the staff was wonderful.  And only 39€ per night!

Monday morning we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and then went back to the airport to pick up our rental car.  I think the manager at the hotel thought we were a little crazy.  "Two American girls driving around Croatia by themselves!  Oh my!"  Maybe we were :-)

 

"You want to go where?"

So off we went down the Croatian coast from Split to Dubrovnik.  It is a beautiful drive.  The mountains were taller than I was expecting and the vegetation more sparse but since it reminded me of western Colorado that was OK with me.

 The coast is peppered with beautiful small towns clinging to the hills along the coastline.  We pulled off in one of them for a lunch along the beach.

(Click on the picture for a larger view)

A quick geography lesson ... did you know that to drive from Split, Croatia to Dubrovnik, Croatia you have to go through Bosnia and Herzegovina?  Fortunately the border checkpoint is very simple.  You'll have to take our word for it though because we decided taking pictures of the border was perhaps not the best idea.

After about 6 hours, we arrived in Dubrovnik.  It's really only a 4 hour drive but we stopped a lot along the way for pictures.  We were booked at a place called the Hotel Adriatic - Annex.  A little bit cheaper than the Hotel Adriatic proper but with the same beach access and decent looking pictures on the website.  Let's just say the pictures lie.  The carpet was thread bare, the walls were in serious need of paint, the cleanliness was questionable, and the bedding and decor looked like it was left over from the former Yugoslavia.  So after 5 minutes standing in the room trying to decide if we dared to lay down on the bed, we headed back to reception.  They graciously agreed to upgrade us to a room in the Hotel Adriatic (not the Annex) for a 50% upcharge.  We paid it.   The main hotel was about 100% better than the Annex (which I guess is a good deal considering we only paid 50% more) but that's still not saying much.  In a nutshell, don't stay there.  The only redeeming factor was that our new room had a balcony and this was the view.

 

Finally, we walked along the water to some much nicer looking hotels and restaurants for dinner.  The food was decent, the view was great, and the dessert was delicious.   Overall, still not a bad way to spend your birthday.

#ibmcsc Turkey 8