That was Celia's summary of our weekend in Croatia. Couldn't have said it better myself!
We left late Friday afternoon with not much of a plan, other than that we knew we were headed to the coast.
It's kind of a funny story (in retrospect): We had two apartments reserved the first night that each had a washing machine. Happy to finally have an opportunity to do laundry. Our nephew Bobby came along which meant Mike had a backup driver. Because we knew we'd be rolling in late, I planned to sleep on the drive so I could quick do a load of laundry in each room when we arrived. Well, we got held up for a while at the border, then we picked up a hitchhiking couple and drove an extra half hour to drop them off. Got in well after midnight. We threw the laundry in, the others went to bed, and of course these were the type of washers that take over an hour to cycle. Checked washer #1--clothes hadn't spun so they were soaking wet. Couldn't figure out just a spin cycle, so I re-ran the whole load, pushing every button I could think of, hoping it would spin. Checked washer #2--nothing had ever happened. Just gave up on that load. Meanwhile, this is when I attempted a blog post and lost it all. Then checked washer #1 again--still no spin cycle. Took out the load and hand wrung all of it before hanging it everywhere to dry. Hit the pillow at 5 am. Had to be out of the apartment by 9 am. Gathered up our damp clothes and hit the road on our "plan-less" day. UGH.
Got loaded up on coffee and our day began to improve. Our first stop was Zadar, where we spent time on this walkway right in town. The rules seemed to be very loose about swimming areas. Anywhere along the water, we would find people laying out or jumping in and swimming.
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| These steps had an art installation called the Sea Organ. You can see the openings in the front of the steps. As the waves washed in, it would create cool organ-y sounds. The kids immediately headed to the platform down at the end where people were jumping in. |
We continued to drive along the coast, until this huge diving platform caught everyone's eye.
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| The three older girls each took a turn from the top platform. Here Celia is finally deciding to go for it. |
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| And those of you who know Bobby will not be surprised by this--the higher, the better! Jamie, it's easiest just not to look, isn't it? |
Continuing further east, we drove inland to visit Krka National Park. A big draw is this waterfall, Skradinski buk.
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| There was this huge swimming area at the base of the falls. |
A couple of other pretty views within the park:
From the park, we drove back toward the Dalmatian Coast, passing through lots of cute little towns like this one.
Another bumpy night! Ella made reservations for an apartment, we rolled in really late, and we couldn't find the right apartment number or get through by phone. Finally a sweet lady drove up to her apartment and helped us call the landlord. Turns out GPS had led us to some other place a few blocks away. Worth the hassle when we saw this view from the balcony.
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| And the same view the next morning. Too bad we only had a few short hours to enjoy it. |
On Sunday, Faith had found a Baptist church for us to visit in Split. However, when we drove up, a sign had been posted that they were meeting on Sunday evenings through the summer. Churches, let this be a good reminder to keep your websites updated :).
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| We first walked through the beautiful old town of Split. |
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| This is the entrance to Diocletian's Palace. The Roman emperor Diocletian built this in the 4th century. The old town of Split is what now remains of the 200+ buildings which made up his palace. |
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| This was the beach right in the city of Split. The water is beautiful, but most beaches were concrete or pebble. Even those that were called sand beaches were really just brown dirt. |
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| Really beautiful views |
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| Loved these colorful flowers all through the city |
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| I'm fascinated by apartment balconies and their stories--flowers or potted vegetables or what's on the laundry line or bikes or junk... |
From Split, we turned back toward the west and followed along the coast. It was so much fun to just discover little beach spots. This one was so pretty, was much less busy, and had great swimming (although it was a trick to walk into the water on pebbles instead of sand)
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| And more rocks to jump off of. That tiny black dot is one of our precious children taking the leap! |
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| Trogir, Croatia |
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| We were having such a great, relaxing day of swimming and sun that we made one last early evening stop at Okrug Gornji beach. |
Then it was time for our 6+ hour drive home. By the time we factored in dinner, another border stop, and dropping off Bobby, we rolled into our hotel around 3 am. But all worth it to see that cute little country!
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