Westforth Travels: "Holiday" in Croatia

We went on a week vacation to Croatia with my mom and dad. We had an absolutely wonderful time and it was so good to get away for a whole week to explore Croatia. We also had a very good time with my parents that was filled with great memories that we will cherish forever. There is so much to share, including a visit with my mom's relatives, and between my mom and I we took almost 1,000 pictures. I have sorted through them and have picked the best ones that highlight our trip!! We chose to visit three different places in Croatia: Zagreb (stopped at Plitvice Lakes), Split (visited the island of Hvar and Brac) and Dubrovnik.

I can't believe my dream to go to Croatia finally came true and it was as beautiful as I had imagined! I'm so fortunate that I got to travel with my husband and parents too!

Leaving London...

and arriving at passport control in Zagreb, Croatia.

Dad and Chris trying to find the way to our hotel (our flight was really delayed and we didn't arrive until midnight...thankfully the rental car company stayed open for our flight to arrive).

{Zagreb}

Regent Esplanade (the same hotel that my great grandma stayed at)

The view from our hotel room.

The views inside the hotel...it was very grand!

We set out to tour the city of Zagreb. One of Chris's colleagues and his girlfriend, who are from Zagreb, were gracious enough to meet up with us and give us a personal tour of their homeland! It was an awesome day with them!!

Zagreb Cathedral

We walked through this cave-like walkway in the street that had a chapel inside it...here's one of the ways in/out...

the other way in/out...

and we even took a picture inside.

This is my grandma Betty's favorite spot in Zagreb!

Here is our tour guides!

They took us to the top of the white building to get a overhead view of Zagreb...

which was after we walked up these stairs and then had to walk up to the top of the building!

The views of the city were great, even in the cloudy and rainy weather!

After we saw the views, there were more streets to explore...

Art Pavilion

They saved the best for last...they took us to the top of a mountain in Zagreb where you can get amazing views of the entire city. It was a pretty yucky day, but we still wanted to check it out as there is an old fort on top of the mountian.

As the four of us were exploring the fort, we saw Mario (Chris's colleague) coming towards us and he had quite the grin on his face...

and then he opens his backpack (which we soon realized why he brought it with him) and takes out some shot glasses and Croatian booze, which apparently was SO good!!

We all look happy here, but it was nasty...worse than tequila!! Those Croatians know how to bring the excitement!!

It was time to head back down the mountain and find a place for dinner, which was harder than we thought as a lot of places that Mario wanted to take us ended up being closed because it was Sunday!!

We did end up finding a very good restaurant that stayed open later for us, it was seriously 6pm when we got there, and we had our first Croatian fish/seafood meal...it was delicious and we weren't even on the coast yet!!

I had just had to get a picture of this...my dad's "classic" look the entire trip, toothpick in his mouth and always had that crazy rain hat on if it was the slightest bit cloudy!

{Plitvice Lakes}

After we left Zagreb, on our drive to Split, we stopped off at a National Park that had the most beautiful nature walks filled with waterfalls and lakes. We took about a three hour walk around this park and I couldn't stop taking pictures, it was breathtaking and again, it even was a cloudy day!

Of course everyone was hungry so we thought we should stop to eat before we went on our walk. We ate at a restaurant at the park, which had the best tasting lamb!

Here was the "view" as soon as we entered the park...aMaZiNg!!!

As we finished our walk, there was this bench on top of the rushing waterfall and Chris wanted a picture. It was classic, my dad started getting really upset with us because my mom was taking forever to take our picture (this was the fourth one she took) and he was worried this was dangerous...it was pretty funny, well he didn't think it was!!!

We were finally on our way to Split and my mom was "trying" to get the map open to find out where we needed to go...it was a disaster and absolutely hIlArIoUs!!

This was rather funny too...as I was looking for the map in my mom's bag, I came across this mask...apparently she wanted to be extra careful in case she got sick while traveling...are you serious??

We are almost to Split...

but can't say we made it there entirely safe (well at least the car making it there safely). As dad was parking the car on the streets of Split he got in a little "accident" and we had to use that word carefully as he claims it was not an accident...well, I thought it was an accident it just happened to be with a cement pole on the side of the road!!! Good thing he got all the "bells and whistles" they sell you with the car rental (mind you, I was trying to talk him out of it when we got the car as I think it's a complete waste of money...not so much in this case)!!!

{Split}

Here's our hotel, right in the heart of Split...the walls outside of our hotel were over 1,700 years old!!

This was a little "trap door" right next to hotel's main entrance.

The markets...fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers, lavendar. It was pretty intense, they set up the markets each and every day and you could find everything there!

Chris was in search for his now favorite activity...walking tours.

We went on a walking tour to explore Diocletian's Palace, which is a palace that was built by the Roman emperor, Diocletian. He built this massive palace for his retirement in 305 AD. The palace is situated right on the bay that leads out to the Dalamatian coast.

However, there is now an entire boardwalk in front of the palace, called the Riva. The city of Split is a harbor city that has built up all around the Diocletian's Palace.

We ended our tour inside this dome area inside the palace with some Croatian singers.

Did you know that the neck tie was originated in Croatia in the 1600's?

After our walking tour, we decided to split up from my parents and do some exploring on our own. Chris really wanted to go to the top of this church steeple...

Here's our first set of stairs up...

and here's the rest!!

The views were breathtaking...

On our way back down...

We then decided to walk around the Riva and do some exploring!

{Brac}

The next day, we wanted to go venture off to some of the islands off the coast of Split. We heard that there was "the most beautiful beach" on the island of Brac, so Chris wanted to head straight there!!

We had to take an hour ferry boat ride to get to the island.

We made it to the island of Brac, but soon realized it would be another 45 minute bus ride to get to a town called Bol where the beach was.

Here's our bus and it was a crazy ride as we went UP and down the mountain, there were times when I thought we were going to go right off the cliff!

We arrived in Bol, only to find out it was still a walk to the beach, it would have been too good to be true if the bus dropped us right at the beach!!

Our walk to the "most beautiful beach (in Croatia)"...

When we got there it was pretty beautiful...

and the water was so BLUE!!!!

So we ditched our shoes and decided to make the best of the few hours we had to just relax!!

Yes, my feet are in the water!!

We are back at the harbor waiting for the ferry to leave to go back to Split.

The views leaving Brac...

and the view coming back to Split!

{Hvar}

My parents went to the island of Hvar, which is where my mom's maternal great-grandparents lived. She was actually able to get contact information of family that still lived in Hvar. Once we arrived in Split, she initiated a phone call to them with the help of the people at our hotel who spoke Croatian. The family in Hvar said to come over, that they would pick my parents up from the ferry and tour them around. We were not with them, but they had a wonderful time with my mom's relatives, who were so grateful for the visit and took such good care of my parents!

Once they got to the island, they had to go to Jelsa, which is where the family lives.

This is the church where my mom's great-grandparents are buried.

The relatives...

My parents view from the ferry heading back to Split...what a beautiful sunset!!

Once my parents got back from Hvar, my mom and I got to visit with more relatives that actually lived in Split. One of them actually spoke English so that we were all able to visit. Although, it's amazing to have a conversation with people that don't speak English and you really can read people's facial expressions and emotions quite well!! We had a really lovely time and my mom was very touched to meet all her relatives over the day!

I'm still not sure all the links in the family tree, my mom was drawing it out for all of us so that we could see the connections

Since it was our last night in Split, we ventured away from Diocletian's Palace as well as the Croatian cuisine and found an Italian restaurant!!

While we were eating dinner, we heard a party going on across the water and clearly my dad and Chris were very interested and wanted to head over there after dinner!

{Dubrovnik}

On our way to the last part of our Croatian travels!

My dad drove the entire trip, BUT on our way to Dubrovnik we drove through a lot of switchbacks in the mountains and it was getting pretty intense for him (I found out he's afraid of heights too) so my mom had to take over the rest of the drive. Chris and I conveniently forgot our licenses we have got so used to traveling with only our passports!

Almost there...

We made it and it was just what we needed...a hotel for some rest and relaxation!

The view from the hotel lobby.

The view from our room.

We decided to find our way around the hotel, obviously headed straight to the water...

and here is what we found...AAAHHHHH!! How about that view?!

You better believe Chris didn't waste any time getting himself settled by the pool!

Although, before long we were headed tooooo...a walking tour!!

In old Dubrovnik, there is a huge fort right on the coast and it has been converted into a very popular tourist spot. The entire inside of the fort is filled with restaurants, shops, and tons of history. On our tour, we learned all about the meaning of all the architecture of the fort.

The BEST part of the tour was a little hidden gem that we would not have known about without the guide telling us about it...cold drinks with the most beautiful view!

Here's the place, right outside the fort walls with the tables and chairs all over the rocks...it was pretty awesome!!

Then we stopped for dinner AND Chris ordered shrimp scampi (a safe seafood dish that he had been sticking with the entire trip) BUT he got a little surprise...the shrimps were still whole (eyeballs and all) and each of them had to be peeled. He was a good sport about it though!!

Our last full day in Dubrovnik and we went on a WALKING TOUR!! This one was just a self-guided walk around the top of the walls of the entire fort! It was about a 2 hour walk all the way around and sure had some lovely scenery from up there!

While Chris, my dad and I did the tour around the fort, my mom got a driver to drive her to Medjugorje. It is a town located in western Bosnia and is best known for the claims of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to six children in 1981. The shrine of Our Lady of Medugorge is visited by thousands of people around the world.

This really made St. Helen's day being able to see this place that has such a strong following among Catholics across the world.

However, after our tour we spent the rest of our day relaxing by the pool!

Our last dinner in Croatia...and we got some complimentary shots (just what we needed after our week of binging on wine and beer)!!

Even mom took a shot AND she liked it!! Not sure what Dave thinks is so funny??!!

We were trying to get one last group shot before we left...

NOT the background I was hoping for, BUT it was so early in the morning that it was hard to find someone that seemed like they could take a good picture!!