Spring Break Part 2: Croatia

For the second part of my spring break, my friends and I headed down to the beautiful country of Croatia. We left Prague Thursday night and traveled all night and even into late Friday morning. After an uncomfortable 13 hour bus ride, we finally made it to our destination: the beautiful coast of SPLIT, Croatia. Even though we were all exhausted from the long bus ride, we knew we couldn’t sleep because we were only in this city for 4 days. We began our adventure by walking around the quaint town. We stumbled upon a few open markets, where we all were able to find some souvenirs and gifts for friends and family. After we wandered for a few hours, we had to take a quick nap if we were going to make it out that night. That night there the program we were with offered us a pub-crawl. We thought it would be fun, so we decided to do it. To start the crawl off, the first bar offered an open-bar for the first hour and a half! My friends and I used this to our advantage…maybe a little too much? We then checked out 3 more bars after that one. After a lot of dancing and drinking, we called it a night.

Island hopping through Croatia

On Saturday, Jamie, Shannon, and I went island hopping. When we signed up for this we thought it was a great idea. We imagined a booze-cruise with nice, warm weather. What we got was cold and dark weather, on the verge of a storm. The boat ride was still fun though. We stopped at two incredibly small islands, one being the island of Brac; both looked as if they were ghost towns. There wasn’t much to do, so instead we used our free time to take pictures of each other. After we returned from island hopping, we were absolutely starving so we headed over to FIFE, a local favorite. This restaurant focuses on fresh ingredients prepared simply and traditionally and for a good price! We shared many different plates, including a calamari, gnocchi, & risotto (which tasted more like paella). In the middle of our meal the weather took a turn for the worst – it began storming! Most of the time weather is never an issue for me; but as we ate dinner outside only protected by a thin tarp, the rain began to cause a lot of frustration. Not only were we getting wet, our food was too. It was not the best meal, but it was for sure one of the funniest. After dinner, at what we referred to as the RAINFOREST CAFÉ, we ran home and cuddled in our beds.

Beautiful coast of Makarska

Shannon and I in Makarska

In a religious country, such as Croatia, there is nothing to do on Easter Sunday because everything is closed. Knowing this, Shannon and I booked a day trip to MOSTAR, Bosnia and Herzevgovina. Though not one of the more visited cities in Eastern Europe, we liked the idea of adding another country to our expanding lists. Because Mostar is about 3-4 hours away from Split, we made a quick stop in MAKARSKA, Croatia. As we arrived to this little beach city, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun shined bright. Like Split, the town was pretty dead because of Easter, but it was still a beautiful place to make a pit stop.

We left Makarska and headed towards Mostar, a city filled to the brim with historic importance. In 1991, Bosnia and Herzevgovina declared independence from Yugoslavia, resulting in the CROAT-BOSNIAK WAR that lasted from 1992-1994. Today the town is divided between Croats, who dominate the western bank, and Bosnian Muslims, concentrated on the eastern side. As we drove into Mostar, the most noticeable monument in the town was clearly the OLD BRIDGE, also known as Stari Most from which Mostar got its name. This bridge is one of the most famous victims of the war and claimed 100,000 lives. The bridge was built in the 16th-century by the Ottoman Empire. The 100-ft bridge arced between the two halves of Mostar for 427 years, became a symbol of the town and represented centuries of mostly peaceful co-existence between the Croats, Muslims, Serbs and other communities that lived there. The bridge survived wars, earthquakes and floods and outlived the Ottoman and Austro- Hungarian empires and communist Yugoslavia. However it could not withstand the attacks by ethnic-Croat forces who wanted to dominate parts of Bosnia and were willing to ethnically cleanse the region of Muslims and Serbs to achieve their goals. At first when we arrived to Mostar it was pouring rain. No one in the group was prepared, so the first thing we did once in this city was run to find a restaurant. About an hour into our lunch the sun decided to come out. Though it was still windy, the fact that we were dry was a huge deal. As I walked through the streets, buying souvenirs and gifts, part of the town began to remind me more and more of Marrakesh. This is probably because of the large Muslim population that still occupies part of Mostar.

Annie and I at Krka Falls

Shannon and I were exhausted from such a long day and fell asleep the second our heads hit the pillow. On Monday we left Split early to spend a few hours at the KRKA NATIONAL PARK, a park created to protect the Krka River. One of the main attractions at this park is SKRADINSKI BUK, the most widely visited series of waterfalls in Croatia. This massive, natural waterfall flows through the park and is unbelievable. We left Krka in the mid-afternoon and headed back to Prague on another 14-hour bus ride. We arrived in Prague around 3 in the morning, giving us enough time to sleep for a few hours before our flight at 11 am.

Overall (other than the weather) I had an amazing spring break, but I was so ready to get back to Barcelona. I missed having my own space and I missed the weather. I didn’t realize how tired I would be from the endless traveling, but once I returned on Tuesday I slept the entire day, through the night. That following weekend is one of the only weekends I decided not to travel and I’m so happy I didn’t! I explored Barcelona and enjoyed a quiet weekend. This past weekend was my last weekend abroad, so I decided to end it with one last hoorah. Look out for my next post and see where I traveled!

Ciao.