Hotel Corinthia I Baska

... old Pension/pub for a couple of nights.

Back to Czech for a couple of days to regroup and copious amounts of laundry! Road trip to Croatia was pretty long - took us around 10.5 hours..sure it seemed a lot longer for Jarrad who drove the entire way.

Well worth it though. We have decided to leave the main island and Island hop to the bottom of Croatia ...

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 ...

... le tout dans une charmante maison avec jardin tenue par un couple de retraité italo-croate, à 5 minutes du centre.

En septembre, le soleil se couche à 20h. Difficile pour nous car en France, c'est plutôt 21h. Tanpis, nous savourons notre 1er bain dans la mer un peu fraîche!

La journée a été longue, nous rentrons "chez nous" pour un petit pique-nique improvisé et une bonne nuit.

... nous sommes en fait à 10 kilomètres de Opatija et que la ligne de bus ne passe pas du tout par là. Finalement, nous rejoignons le centre ville par un chemion caché située de l'autre côté des rails et nous nous rendons à l'office de tourisme pour nous renseigner.

Après avoir rejoins Rijeka en bus local, nous fêtons nos premièrs instants en Croatie autour d'une bière ...

... s.d.) I arrived just fine, and had drawn a map and written directions down from google map. And, it was a snap finding the hostel. Unlike the 3 hr trudge I took in Venice to go less than 1 mile! I used Google map, but I believe the hostel had an incomplete address. And Google map led me almost right into the ocean!

There isn't much to see ...

... 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 ...

What a wonderful way to spend a day on an island. We walked for miles along and in the water, stopping often to admire the view and marvel at the colour of the water; found a local man to talk to about his little bit of paradise and a local ice cream parlour with thatched coverings and amazing views to enjoy our ice cream just out of the midday sun; the local park for a lunch picnic; and later an obligatory espresso at one of ...

... Our swim and lunch stop was at a really beautiful island with a cruel and sad history of being Goli Otok men's political prison which must have made the Russian Gulag’s seem almost tame. From bitterly cold winter to unbearable, blinding heat in summer and no protection. This, along with hard labour to construct the prison buildings must have been devastating. And all this for the wrong political beliefs!

Another magnificent swim stop was in one of the ...

We stepped off the ferry into a medieval marvel. Beautiful old stone buildings right on the water's edge, plenty of boats offering to take us out to glorious looking beaches and islands and, best of all, the sun was shining brightly again!

We found a hotel with a room ...