My Conversation with Liz

I just had a long converstion with Liz, she was a wealth of information. She said at the airport, in Zagreb, just go out to the taxi stand and ask for someone that speaks English, then tell the driver to take you to the Hotel Dubrovnik and if he carries in your bags you will pay him at the concierge desk. It will probably be about $30. At the concierge dest they have a daily exchange rate with no service charge so it is a good time to exchange for Kunars. While in Zegreb there are 3 "must do's" Lovely and facinating History of Croatia from the dawn of time at the Zagreb City Museam Market, Millenium Gelato and most importantly the market. She said if you want to buy souveniers, the Zegreb Market is the place to do it. It is much cheaper the Dubrovnik with be as it is not a touristy, the market is more for the people that live there. So if you want carved wooded toys or an embroidered table cloth this is a the place to buy it.
and I did get the travel insurance.

money

one croatian kuna = 18 cents, today

An Interesting Story from Rick Steves' Travel as a Political Act

Rick's friend Honza took him on a walk through Prague, it was a route that he had taken every night for a week in 1989. 100,000 Czech's walked the route each night culminating in front of a grand building. Every night they would take out their keys and jingle them beneath the presidents window and call "it's time for you to go now" One night they came, and he was gone. They had won freedom from their soviet overlords.

I googled "czech jingling keys" and I found out this was called the Velvet Revolution
Sigh... I still feel I have a huge blank stop in my knowledge when it comes to the former USSR and Eastern Europe. Well, that is about to change.

ok this isn't about Croatia but it's near.

Dubravnik

Interesting link Courtesy of Carbo

Croatia With Rick Steves

Here’s an older TV show with the Rickster touring Croatia and Slovenia. He travels thru some of the areas we will.

 

We need to learn this Croatian Dance.

10 Reasons Why CROATIANS Can't Be Terrorists

Time to get to know the Culture!

10. 8:45am is too early for us to be up.

9. We are always late, we would have missed all 4 flights. (Croatians are in their own time zone)

8. Pretty people on the plane distract us. (anything distracts us)

7. We would talk loudly and bring attention to ourselves. (cursing everyone who is not Croatian)

6. Food and drinks were on the plane. (We would be dancing kolo or singing GANGE because we only drink rakija & Spek) and roast pig might take a bit longer to roast at 40000 feet. (mind you we eat anything) of course we would pack our own meals.

5. We talk with our hands, we would have put our weapons down.

4. We would all want to fly the plane.

3. We would argue and start a fight in the plane.!!!!!!!!! (and fight the entire time) cursing each other's relatives back 700 generations.

2. We would have put the CROATIAN flag on the windshield. (and have to paint the entire plane red, white and blue of course not leaving out the checkers)...

1. We would have told everyone a week before doing it. (and asking them to watch and tape the news brief for us)

Therefore we would not be good terrorists.

Nifty Map!

View Croatia Trip in a larger map

Dalmatia

When we are on the coast of Croatia, we will be in the region called Dalmatia.

Dalmatia was an ancient Roman province. Its name is probably derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae which lived in the area of the eastern Adriatic coast in Classical antiquity.

The Dalmatian dogs got their name from this area although where they first came from is somewhat in dispute. This website mentions the Dalmatian dogs long history with the Romanies (gypsies) who moved around frequently.

Climbing In Paklenica

This video is a little long but it gives a good idea of the rock and the climbing in the park.

Tour of Croatia

Let’s follow Keith and Ulla on their honeymoon around Croatia in October. We will be retracing most of their trip when we go there.

They start in Zagreb.

Then travel to Plitvice Lakes National Park.

 

Unto Paklenica Park and Zadar. We don’t go to the island of Pak but we do stay in the town of Zadar with its sun salutation and sea organ.

Thank you Keith and Ulla.

Just Added To Our Trip

This activity has just been added to our trip as part of our Paklenica Park tour. Except for all the bats flying out of the cave, it sure looks like fun.