Grand Hotel Adriatic Ii Opatija

So we drive down to Croatia. We thought it would be a great idea to wear our bikins as we drive so we get tanned... brilliant plan... that was until we got to the border and thought, whoops. Luckliy there was a car in front and we quickly put clothes on. In my haste I put my dress on back to front and inside out.... The guy then asked if we had anything to declare and was in hysterics when we laughed and said only 3 beers ...

Après une bonne nuit, malgré le retentissement des cloches de 5h du matin, nous voici partis, chaussures de marche aux pieds, sur les côtes de l'île. Nous décidons d'aller directement sur le versant opposé au camping pour fuire la foule. Le temps de trouver le chemin (les croates sont assez avares d'indications!), nous commençons notre randonnée sur une ...

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Cres (prononcé "tsresse") est moins touristique que les autres îles du golf de Kvarner et c'est ce qui nous a tout de suite plu. Son petit port tranquille et son centre-ville pavé nous ont conquis!
Cette étape marque également le début de notre 1ère prospection "sobe" (chambre chez l'habitant).

Si vous choisissez ce mode de logement, voici quelques conseils utiles :

1er ...

... nous pensons pouvoir récupérer la ligne de bus Rijeka-Cres. Notre surprise est aussi grande que notre déception quand nous découvrons cette minuscule gare au milieu de nulle part. On se croirait revenu 50 ans en arrière, le contraste est total (mention particulière au chef de gare derière son bureau et sa liasse de papier, parlant un anglais impeccable)! Le problème, c'est ...

Still at the lake this morning, filling up the water, having a quick breakfast, taking last pics of this lovely place and bye. We are off to the Snežnik castle, check the pics.

Sneznik Castle - really nice building in the middle of woods, very well preserved, all newly renovated. Here we sould like to thank again to the lovely crazy man for telling us about this place. We don't ...

... a castle on the top of a hill. There are 560 stairs to get up to it. Needless to say, I stopped and rested several times on that trip. But...not much else to do, except the hostel has TV!!!!! In English! Alot of channels. And CNN! My first in months and months. And wifi is good too. So I am studying up on the Slov history. Is very interesting.

Sorry, too dark for any good pictures, but here are a few attempts. This place is HUGE, with awesome, massive caverns that blow your mind, very impressive and interesting. The remains of the original internal stairs are visible in many spots, built by the original explorers ...

... yes, FOURTY DAYS) of being inland, Rijeka, my first (albeit brief) stop in Croatia was sooooooooooooooo nice. 40 days of not seeing the coast was a little bit unfathomable for this coastal living girl. I get withdrawals when we drive the inland road to Melbourne. The point is, any sea would have been exciting, but the Adriatic was seriously nice. I only had the day there, & 80% of that time was spent wandering round the harbour & the break ...

... keep our bags while we went in search of a room. We walked down to the Kvarner Hotel and, even though our guide book was correct about old and no airconditioning, the hotel was so characterful and the staff were so friendly that we chose not to look anywhere else. There was also the added bonus of a swimming pool and a private "concrete beach". For our first night the room we ...

... were a little bit hampered but we didn't let that get in the way. Jess and I had bought a tiny Christmas tree in Split and some lightweight decorations, so the girls had some fun getting things ready for Santa, and we all did a bit of wrapping and preparing but despite all of this it was probably the most relaxed Christmas preparation that we have had for a long time. For the first time since I can remember I was in bed before midnight!