Croatia

Croatia

Maybe we spent too much time getting wet and cold in the Alps. More likely, we spent too much time in cities looking at buildings, churches, castles, and museums. We are outdoor people after all, and at some point we needed to get back out and just relax in the sun.

We heard about beautiful vacation beaches in Croatia, and found that it is now a very safe area to visit, so we headed out. We had a couple of ideas of possible destinations, and figured we'd decide along the way.

Well, I have to hand it to the Croatian tourist agency. Or more correctly, the agency for the province on their northern border. When we crossed the border, along side of the passport control officers were tourist information agents handing out brochures to every car. They were the most complete, information brochures we had found anywhere yet, and as we drove on we decided to stop at the beach in their province. Marketing works!

We headed to the southern tip of Krk islands (yes, they seem to lack a few vowels too). Turns out that this is a popular area. The beach is huge, maybe a mile and a half or two long, and is absolutely packed with people. The campground is right on the beach, and has maybe a thousand campers. There are several loud bars and even a little circus area with loud rock music playing late into the night. We realize that our initial image of a quiet retreat on the beach isn't going to happen, but the sun, sand and water are great anyway. We find that we can get up early in the morning and do yoga and meditate. With our earplugs, we get to sleep early, and have the beach to ourselves in the morning. Rod swims and swims. The day consists pretty much of the morning routine, followed by alternating swims and naps in the sun. This is a good time for us. We just regret not having enough books to read, which we fix subsequently when we head back to northern Europe.

If we were in Asia, we would be trying to learn more about Croatia, but we really are just here for the relaxation. Later, we regret that we didn't perhaps learn a little more, since this area has had such a traumatic history recently. We probably should have gone to Sarajevo. But we had decided to give such areas a wide berth, probably overreacting to safety concerns.