For those who are tired of the monotonous lazy rest in Turkey and Egypt, but who loves the affectionate sun and the clean sea, I advise you to visit Croatia. It is impossible not to fall in love with this country - the purest Adriatic Sea with white triangles of the sails of numerous yachts, the incredible beauty of the mountains, abundantly covered with mighty pines, vineyards, descending with cascades directly to the coast and mounted by mature ripe closes, many historically significant places, ranging from Dubrovnik's fortress wall and Finishing the old town of Hvar, a whole cascade of excursions, delicious kitchen and honey, driving mountain air.
We started planning a trip in advance, since this time we decided to go "savages". This meant that we ourselves organized our holidays, they themselves found housing, they themselves fed and decided that when and how we would visit. Fortunately, the Croatian language is very similar to the Russian and Ukrainian. For example, "Good afternoon" sounds like "Doban", and there are a lot of such similarities in languages, and many studied in the USSR, they learned Russian, therefore there were no problems with communication. Our route was thought out in advance. In Croatia, we decided to fly by plane to zagreb. There are no direct flights, so flew with a transfer to Budapest. Here is a photo of beauty on the adjustment to the desired country (we were lucky and the sky on our arrival day was cloudless):
As I wrote above, we thought over the route in advance. By arrival, we took a pre-booked car and went to a pre-booked hotel. We deliberately did not use hotels - they are more expensive and all flavor is lost. Of course, in Zagreb, as in the capital, our accommodation was one of the most expensive. Here we spent a year and a half and two nights. The town is small, but see what.
The next on our traveler map was the highlight of our journey - Plitvice Lakes. They are considered to be "the eighth miracle of the world", because it is one of the few places on Earth, where a new lake is born every year or a waterfall. Water in these 92 waterfalls is striking with its color shades - from transparently white - blue to rich emerald, deeply turquoise. The photo cannot transfer all the beauty and juiciness, but still:
We passed 12 kilometers in 5 hours, but amazingly not tired at all. Probably miraculous air and music of the flowing water endowed us with supreme. In the lakes (and their large 16 pieces) swims freely fish, and it is so accustomed to tourists, or rather, that it is fed, which was sometimes ridiculous from her arrogance:
Next was the Istra Peninsula and Lavender Fields. Rovinj's city is considered to be a Croatian Venice - small narrow streets descend right into the sea, between the houses there are many aisles to the sea coast - left the house, sat down on the boat and swam.
Long-awaited Dubrovnik, unfortunately, disappointed. Many tourists literally sisite on the streets of the city, paid entries everywhere and everywhere, crazy prices in stores and cafes. The only joy was the rise in the cable car. Dubrovnik view from above, climbing the cable car:
Another disappointment was the absence of beaches in Dubrovnik. We hardly found the only one, like most Croatian beaches, was paved with concrete slabs, but his most terrible fill in people.
I want to separately tell me about food in Croatia, since for our family a dinner question is almost in the first place. In Croatia, very tasty, the kitchen is close to Italian, a separate word about wines - there are no powder wines. Many seafood. For example, we ordered a living octopus (it was worth this pleasure of 20 euros), when we were drunk and got it on the table:
I do not advise you to walk on sputted restaurants - expensive and the kitchen is not much different from the nearby cafe. Portions are huge, you can safely take one dinner for two. Be sure to try the Truzer's tincture (and better buy another bottle home) and Rakiya (Moonshine, infused on herbs, is considered a healing drink), goat cheese and homely Croatian bread.
From the Soviets: Be sure to take a currency card with you, it will be needed when removing housing, when renting a car, and even cheaper and easier to pay the card in the stores than cash. Take aquauze and big beach towels with you - all the beaches of Croatia are pebble, many are lined with concrete slabs, for sun loungers and umbrellas fighting mad money, and with their litter will be free. If you decide to go "savage", be sure to think about the route to the smallest detail, do not miss these parts as insurance, prepayment for housing and auto, transfer from the airport, visa.
In general, Croatia remains in the heart of everyone who at least once visited it, well, how, say how, you can not love such beauty (our sea walk):
