There was a holiday in Switzerland on June 2nd and 4th. I just find about it in late May, and was panicked that should plan something. Hamed a friend of mine had just cycled through Hungary, Croatia and Serbia; after a quick search I realised what a spectacular scenery Croatia has to offer. So that was it, ended up travelling with Nina another good friend of mine to Croatia and Montenegro in 6 days.
I took a train to Milan from Martigny, and Nina flew to Milan, then we rented a car from there. For first night we headed to Venice.
The plan for next day was to stay at Ljubliana, Slovenia, but we decided to shift it to the end of journey, so we headed towards Rijeka, Croatia, with a short break in Trieste, Italy. Had a good pizza with pepper olive oil there! We arrived at Rijeka in afternoon, made a quick stop and had lemon flavored Croatian beer ”Ozujsko Pivo”. Then headed towards Split via highway.
We arrived at Split around 23:00. So started to looking for our hostel, and then find ourself in the old town. We were stunned, it was amazing, live medieval town surrounded by walls from one side and sea from the other side. Which apparently was palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
The next morning, we hang out in the old town. There was a local market, and we had a whole 1kg of fresh strawberries before breakfast.
And here is what we had for lunch.
The next day we took the coastal road and headed towards Dubrovnik. The scenery and views were spectacular, you could see tons of islands floating on the sea like giant turtles.
I could not resist and not jump into blue crystal clear Mediterranean somewhere on the way. And afterwards had coffee in sea view cafe. And here what we get as treat after the coffee! Local liquor in funny glasses, the lady’s version tasted sweet, and men’s version was quite strong!
There is a small part of the coast line which is part of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s soil and there is no way to reach south Croatia unless you pass borders or take a ferry. I had looked it up before, and Schengen permit holders could travel to Croatia in summers for tourism without visa, but could not find similar law about Bosnia. Anyway we ended up being at border, and we passed the border smoothly. We even asked if tomorrow we could enter Bosnia again from another border, and they said yes you can. (Will get back to this later)
We arrived at Dubrovnik after dusk and ended up staying in a room, in house of an old lady and her family who had built a separate room for rent in their back yard. The rent was 100 kuna per person which is around 13.5 Euros. The city had an old town too, which was bigger than Split’s old town. And we had dinner there, and the morning after walked all around it from top of the walls which was magnificent, but exhausting because of the heat.
One main part of the plan was rafting in Tara river in Montenegro. The plan for 4th day was to drive to Foča in Bosnia, which is the city most rafting organizer start from there (or at least that was what I found in Internet). So we headed a bit south to find the road to Trebinje and passed Croatian border smoothly. But we got refusal of entry to Bosnia stamp in our passport and headed back to Croatia again at Bosnia border! It was quite and adventure :D
I also have read that we could travel to Montenegro with Schengen permit for 7 days, but after the incident in Bosnia was not sure anymore. Anyhow we took the risk and drove towards Montenegro. And there we were, we were in Montenegro! The coastal cities and towns all looked fancy, and at same time amazing. It felt like those photos from central America like Panama and etc.
We stopped somewhere for lunch, it was a local restaurant. And here you go, dreams comes true, meat party :D
One of the dishes was even supposed to be half portion! I had heard before that people there are meat lovers, but did not believe it till actually experience it. There were some very friendly Serbian men in the other table having a bit of party. We ended up having conversation with them, and asking about rafting in Tara and where we should go. Luckily we find out, we had the wrong destination point.
We had a long way to go to Durmitor national park. The road was amazing some parts coast line, took a ferry, and then some parts through jungles and mountains.
So we were planning to just go somewhere near Tara river in hope of finding one of the rafting organizers the day after early in the morning. We arrived to Mojkovac around 22:00 and tried to ask local people about rafting. Unfortunately most of the people could not speak English despite the fact they were very friendly and kind. Anyhow we manged to find a road towards national park. After entering the national park, it was absolute darkness and road conditions was not good in some parts. We even made a U-turn to go back to previous city for the night but we regretted it and again continued our way deep in dark. And suddenly we saw sign of a camping site and Tara rafting, moment of relief and joy! The residents of house came out surprised that what we want in middle of night. They had a teenager girl who spoke English and acted as translator, and we asked for rafting and camping. We were in the right place, the family was one of the local organizers, and they had newly built bungalows for just 25 Euros a night. (22 + 1 euro for each extra people + tourist fee). And 55 Euros for rafting and lunch the day after. The father was responsible to taking people to rafting and picking them up, the mother was responsible for lunch, and the daughter the translator. They were such a nice family and treated us like family, and we were humbled to be there. Here is their contact:
Rade Djurisic: Dobrilovina bb. 84205 Mojkovac, Montenegro
ekooazatara@gmail.com
The location was amazing, just above Tara river, in middle of unspoiled nature, rabbits jumoing around.
In morning we drove towards Tara bridge, and Mr. Rade took us to our rafting skipper. Very nice and friendly local guy, poor thing we could not communicate that much because of language barrier. The river was amazingly beautiful, blue, clean. The adrenaline rush was not as much as I expected though. I guess you get to go to more wild part in two day raftings, but even so it was so much fun.
After the rafting Mr. Rade took us back to Tara bridge, and showed us the road to Crno lake. We headed towards the lake, suddenly the scenery changed and it became like Switzerland! What an amazing country, you could find all kind of scenery in such a short distance.
Afterwards we headed back towards Mr. Rade house for lunch. We didn’t had dinner the night before and breakfast in the morning so were starving. And here comes the lunch, we were speechless!! It was awesome!!!!! All the prosciutto’s, salami’s and cheese were home made. And those yellow rolls were crispy with spinach and cheese inside.
Afterwards we headed back to road for returning back. We spend the night at Budva. It was nice city, again with amazing old town, and lot’s of casinos and night clubs around. Had the chance to swim just in corner of the old town in the morning.
The new plan for June 6th Monday was to sleep at Piran in Slovenia. But it got late, and there were 15 Euro highway fee for detouring towards Piran, so we gave up and headed towards Trieste. And at end ended up sleeping in gas station somewhere between Trieste and Venice, which saved us 75 Euros :p
The last day of trip we had just two hour window to visit Venice island quickly. It was so crowded and packed with tourists. Kind of disappointment for such a wonderful city. But in two hours we made a quick walking tour, had cafe, croissant enough to get a sense of Italy :D
And it concluded our wonderful trip which was from June 1st June till 7th 2011. Below is my facebook status the night I arrived home:
Drove 3000 km,
Crossed borders 13 times through 6 countries,
Discovered new heavens,
Met some amazing people,
Shared a journey with a good friend,
Wonderful and enchanted 6 days passed!
Here is route of trip: http://goo.gl/maps/yabU
