Croatia

During my time abroad, I had the ability to travel around Europe from country to country uncovering cool facts and having some great meals along the way. An impromptu weekend trip landed us in beautiful Split, Croatia. Upon arriving in the morning, we hopped off the bus and immediately went to breakfast. I think I can safely say the three days of breakfast in Croatia we had were the only three meals of my 4 months that I did not enjoy. Dry yellow cake, boiled hot dogs, and cheese squares were on the menu for breakfast.. Sounds good huh? It wasn't but I sure did eat a lot of hot dogs. 

After eating breakfast and getting settled, we wound up walking to a semi-hidden beach just a couple minutes out of the main square of Split. What a cool area it was. Lawn chairs lined the sanded beach and babes on babes walked through the ankle deep water. Of course the day started well with super cheap Croatian beer and snacks we had brought for ourselves. A group of about 12 of us ended up staying there all day and just hanging out in the water under a partly cloudy, gloomy sky. After we had had enough of the beach, we walked back to find a place to eat dinner. After just a few minutes of looking, we landed at a small local restaurant just down the pier. One of the waiters walked by us with a gigantic plate of calamari and fries. It looked like 4 portions but nope, one. Instead of indulging in the mountain of calamari, I decided to choose the seafood risotto. Pieces of fresh crab, white fish, and medium sized shrimp made this an easy choice. Along with another large beer, our food came out in only a couple minutes and boy was it good. After dinner we got ready for an adventure we were not ready for. A tropical storm rolled through Split just before we started a bar crawl through downtown, which kind of threw a wrinkle into things. However, when you are with a group like this, nothing gets you away from an open bar, even a huge storm. We battled through it and eventually had to battle through waking up the next morning. 

Wake up was at 7:30. Why so early after a night like that? Simple, a all day booze cruise through the Adriatic with snacks, island hopping, and lunch. Best day of my life. All we did was cruise through the Adriatic on a pontoon boat, drink cheap Croatian wine and vodka (homemade 120 proof, basically rubbing alcohol), and eat delicious food. After about 4 hours of relaxing and swimming, we stopped at an island for what I thought was a simple lunch. Boy was I wrong. Local fisherman and boat crew were docked at the island cooking us an unforgettable feast. Whole, indigenous fish cooked low and slow over an open wood pit served with warm bread, wine, and shredded salad, it truly was a meal worth remembering. Somewhere there is a picture of me kissing a fish right after I had eaten it's eye. Gnarly? No actually not bad. Kind of had a circular sunflower seed texture with a fishy inside. The rest of the afternoon was spent cruising back to port alongside a $20 million yacht and seeing some of the coolest islands in the world.

After returning from the cruise, everyone was exhausted and drained from being out all day in the sun. Instead of trying to find a new restaurant, we decided as a group to return to the same restaurant. Again, not disappointed. I had slow roasted veal in a mushroom sauce with a heaping portion of gnocchi and, yup, another large Croatian beer. (Croatia is on the Kuna currency, don't freakout if the bill is somewhere near 800, it isn't dollars and is a pretty darn cheap country for how awesome it is). 

On Sunday, our final day in Croatia, we spent the morning driving through the countryside to Krka National Park. During this time, California was in a drought. Croatia, the opposite. There was so much water I thought I was dreaming. In fact, we weren't allowed to swim under the waterfalls because there was TOO much water. One of the coolest parks I had ever been too and some of the best food too. Lunch was a Nutella crepe along side chicken and french fries (not all together, I just love Nutella crepes). 30 GoPro videos, 200 pictures, and a huge lunch later, we were back on the road headed for Florence. 

A cool side story, they were filming Game of Thrones during our tour of the castle in the center of town. 

Croatia was like no place I had ever seen. For most of it actually, I thought we were on the Mediterranean but nope, Adriatic. Split, although not the greatest city ever, gave us one hell of a weekend. The entire ride home I watched movies and thought of how I would one day be back to Split. In just 5 days, I would be headed to Munich for one of the world's biggest festival, Oktoberfest. Ciao for now.