Get on an aeroplane in Birmingham at just after mid-day on a Sunday. Fly south for 2-3 hours. Stay for a week whilst taking pictures. Reverse the journey (only to arrive back from 30°+ every day into a downpour) and upload the pictures to your website. You might end up with something like this.
first sightings of croatia
So I was sat on the right hand side of the plane which unfortunately meant that when we were flying down the coast of Croatia, the only view from my tiny window was the Adriatic. Until we got close, that was – then islands started to appear. Finally, we neared Dubrovnik airport, made a 180 crossing over onto the land, flew through a valley and landed (which is always a good plan after flying I find).
the villa and it’s views
We got in a hire car and drove up the coast to a small village just a shade north of Trsteno (get used to the lack of vowels, Croatians don’t seem to use them all that often).
trsteno
Like most of the towns which we saw, Trsteno was small enough to be compared with an English village. But not in the amount of life going on. Apart from its size, there was nothing village like about the place.
gardener’s world
Too many new things to look at! Plants that should be small are very tall. Cacti, Bamboo, the smallest flowers I’ve ever seen. They all live in Croatia.
mountain climbing (and accidental trip to bosnia!)
They’re probably not technically mountains, but I’m going to call them mountains, OK? Good.
It would have been rude to have been surrounded by such great scenery and not venture into any of it. Me and Sean decided to scale one of the lower peaks one morning while everyone else was sleeping. It involved a lot of sweat, but it was worth it for the views.
at the beach
The beaches in Croatia were like nothing I’ve seen. The water was clear and blue. There were actually fish swimming in it. The beach was white (although pebbles, not sand). And best of all, the sea was so calm that it was easy to confuse it with a pool. Which is great for snorkelling.
the pirrrrate ship
After a meal in Zaton Veliki, we went walking down the harbour. We stumbled across the most unexpected of unexpecteds…
the grand boat trip
…which is how we found out about an island hopping boat trip to the Elafiti islands. The Elafiti islands being the three islands which we could see from the villa. Which is as cool as the coolest thing you can think of. Times ten.
the big fireball in the sky finally disappears
Sunset over the rolling hills of Croatia is really quite an amazing sight. The camera on my iPhone didn’t really pick it up too well, which is a shame, but you can get a rough idea.
dubrovnik by day
So I was expecting Dubrovnik to be a relatively normal middle sized airport town. I didn’t know what all the fuss was about. Then we stumbled across the old city. It’s like a place which Disney had built. I highly recommend it to everyone.
dubrovnik by night
You thought Dubrovnik was good by day? Wait until the evening. That’s where all the action lives. All of the restaurants spill out onto the pavements with people playing guiter and piano outside, elsewhere there are buskers, and it seemed like there were enough trendy bars and clubs to keep the entire population of central London – and more – happy. Yet at the same time, it felt warm, welcoming and family friendly.
ston, mali ston and the great wall of croatia
It would be irresponsible of me at this point not to mention the words veliki (remember that from Zaton Veliki?) and ston (as in Mali Ston). Veliki is similar to the english ‘Greater’ (as in Greater London) and ‘Ston’ is the same as ‘little’ or ‘lesser’. So there you go, I bet you didn’t know that.
there’s a storm-a-brewin’
These are virtually the only clouds we saw while on holiday. It was breath-taking. Unfortunately, it didn’t rain (we were looking forwards to a good cooling off), but I did witness one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen.
jet-skiing. the bringer of pain
On the Sunday before we left, we went to the beach. After the storm, the sea was a bit on the rough side and the weather was windy. It all added to the fun, but gave me a bit of a battering. And also the legitimate claim that my last act in Croatia was jet skiing, which is quite cool, no?
last sighting of dubrovnik
Just before we left the twisty town road to got on the main road to the air port, there was the chance for a couple more pictures of the beautiful city of Dubrovnik. I think that this is where they take postcard pictures from.
the tastiest sandwich I’ve ever eaten
It may look rough, but after all the Croatian food, a plastic bread, unbuttered, rubbery cheese and fake ham sandwich was just the ticket.
the alps
The jet stream was not playing niceley on the way back, so we had to fly over Germany and Belgium. But the good news was that in return for the slightly longer flight, I saw the alps!
cool abondoned things
I think that the pictures explain it all. If you know how to take a photograph, there are almost too many opportunities in Croatia. Shame that I’m not one of those lucky people.
and holiday snaps wouldn’t be complete without a few pool shots
One Comment
loved the photos! Fantastic peek into croatia.