Andrew

<b>Itinerary and Planning the Trip</b>

My trip to Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina - and Paris at the end! - in September-October 2009 was a solo trip, primarily for scenic photography.

Just to establish what kind of traveler I am, I don't particularly care for museums (though I force myself to go to them sometimes), but I love cities and prefer using public transit when possible. When I visit a city, I enjoy just walking around and taking pictures, soaking in the vibe, and people watching. I also don't drink (so no wine) and am not exactly a restaurateur - I tend to eat most of my meals as casual as possible: self-service places, take-aways, pizza, even (shudder!) McDonalds at the end in Paris. I don't enjoy dining alone at a restaurant in Europe where service is intentionally relaxed whereas I'm usually just hungry and want to eat ASAP and then go back to my hotel and crash. I still eat at sit-down restaurants now and then when I travel - sometimes it's hard to find anything better.

I began my first trip to Italy in 2007 in Venice and headed south from there. I've had Slovenia and Croatia on my radar for future trips, and somehow I've always assumed I'd start a trip to the Balkans with a return to Venice. So that was the rough basis for planning this trip. From there I constructed the most logical itinerary that included the major cities: Dubrovnik, Ljubljana, and Venice were the top three spots for me. I considered a whole bunch of different scenarios, really, such as starting in Dubrovnik and going counter-clockwise back to Italy. But I also wanted to pin my trip on convenient direct flights between my home airport in Portland, Oregon, and Europe, hoping to avoid troublesome connections in the domestic US. My only choice for direct Portland to Europe flights was a Delta flight to Amsterdam. Flying to Croatia from the states is not always easy without numerous stops and connections, anyway. Eventually I decided to start in Italy (Amsterdam to Milan), work my way up to Venice, go clockwise/east by land to Slovenia and Croatia, then fly back to western Europe for a few nights from Croatia before heading home.

As I continued to plan, I expanded the Croatia portion and added Mostar, BiH. I wound up with three weeks total, starting end of September in Milan:

<u>Itinerary:</u>
Fly into Milan
<b>Milan, Italy - 1 night</b>
Train to Parma
<b>Parma - 1 night</b>
Train to Venice
<b>Venice - 3 nights</b>
<i>including a day trip to Verona</i>
Bus (from Meste) to Ljubljana
<b>Ljubljana, Slovenia - 2 nights</b>
Train to Zagreb
<b>Zagreb, Croatia - 2 nights</b>
Pick up rental car in Zagreb
Drive to Plitvice Lakes
<b>Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia - 1 night</b>
Drive to Baska Voda
<b>Baska Voda (Makarska), Croatia - 1 night</b>
Drive to Mostar
<b>Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina - 1 night</b>
Drive to Dubrovnik
Drop rental car in Dubrovnik
<b>Dubrovnik, Croatia - 3 nights</b>
Bus (with ferry) to island of Korcula
<b>Korcula, Croatia - 2 nights</b>
Catamaran to Split
<b>Split, Croatia - 2 nights</b>
Fly to Paris (Croatia Airlines)
<b>Paris - 2 nights</b>
Fly home


Some people roll their eyes when you mention "Rick Steves," but I've used his books as guides for several European trips, and I really like his style and take on things. (I don't always agree with him, but at least he gives you a subjective point of view - I know where he's coming from.) I used his Croatia/Slovenia book as my primary trip planning resource, and that was the only guidebook I took with me to Europe (other than pages copied from a few other books, for Italy). Of course, I used Fodor's and Trip Advisor exhaustively to get questions answered about all kinds of things.

I am not really a "hostel" person and prefer the privacy of a hotel, but on this trip I went for a few sobe (private rooms) and even a hostel (private room) in Ljubljana. I also used Starwood hotel points in Milan, Zagreb, and Paris to book hotels and save money. I used booking.com for a few places and also the hostel booking websites hostelbookers.com and hostelworld.com for sobe. I booked most of the lodgings ahead of time but booked a few (Korcula, Split) while I was traveling, since I wanted the flexibility to change if needed late in the trip. I used Cross-Pollinate.com to book an apartment in Venice where I'd stayed previously in 2007.

Techy Notes: Because the primary purpose of my trip was (digital) photography, I traveled with a nice (Canon 5D digital SLR with assorted lenses), and a "pocket camera," a Canon Elph SD880. (A light pocket camera good for self-portraits and also occasional video, not to mention I could take walks once in a while without the SLR always hanging around my neck.) And because I need regular internet access for my business and want to process my photos daily, I needed a laptop of some sort. I wound up buying an Acer 11.6" netbook (full size laptop keyboard) into which I was able to stuff a 500GB hard drive. I brought along a second 500GB drive as a backup. This way, I had plenty of space for pictures, and I would always have a backup. (I wound up shooting about 110GB worth of pictures - about 7500 total - and videos in three weeks.) Hard drives can and do fail all the time, so you HAVE to have backups.

I also hoped on this trip to pack as lightly as possible. I set what seemed like an impossible goal for me: travel with carry-ons only. I'd NEVER done that before, since I've always got a computer, tripod, and camera and lenses with me! But with a netbook and a newly-purchased light tripod, I was able to get everything into two new bags: a carry-on that expanded to the approximate maximum size specified for carry-ons on the average airline website (they all differ slightly) and a smaller carry-one camera bag that I called my "personal item." Having only carry-ons allowed me great freedom in not needing to worry about losing bags or waiting around for them after flights, of course, but also forced me to pack lightly(!), making it much easier to get around, especially without a car most of the time. You really don't need three weeks worth of clean clothes for a three-week trip, do you? Of course not!

<i>Many parts to follow, stay tuned!</i>

Andrew

<b>Milan (Arrival - 1 night)</b>

Pictures: http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...lan-italy.html

I took the long flight from Portland to Amsterdam and then connected to Milan. Everything was on time, connection was only about two hours, very easy and efficient. I got into Milan around noon local time.

Let me admit up front that I didn't have a great interest in Milan, except that it's one of Italy's most important cities. Because I was flying into Milan anyway, it was convenient to stop there and "check it off my list." Perhaps that's unfair to Milan and I know some people love the city - sorry, that was just my take on it.

For my single night in Milan, I wound up staying at the Le Méridien Gallia (Starwood points; hotel was quite nice, really more than I needed) near Milan's central train station. Numerous sources recommended that I take the direct bus from Malpensa airport to the train station and hotel but I wish I hadn't; though the airport train would have required me to change in Milan to the subway back up to Milan's central station, I found the bus ride from the airport uncomfortable and bumpy, and our bus got stuck in traffic too many times. I'll take a train anytime over an uncomfortable bus ride; I don't mind navigating train and metro stations.

Milan was OK - it met my modest expectations. I took buses and the metro everywhere (day pass) and walked endlessly. Even as a pedestrian, I found Milan's streets confusing, constantly changing names and directions, and I got lost repeatedly even with my map. I spent time wandering around the Duomo area and some of the trendy neighborhoods, just people watching in this fashion-conscious town and taking pictures. I also toured the Milan Monumental Cemetery, which was very interesting - it reminded me a little of the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. I didn't even bother trying to see The Last Supper because I'd made my arrangements so late, and I had heard you need reservations months in advance. I ate dinner at some forgettable Rick Steves-recommended pasta place that was OK, with typically slow European service.

It was raining the next morning when I went out to take some pictures again before departing for Parma. I had intentionally left my umbrella home as I packed extremely light, figuring I'd just "wing it" and buy an umbrella if needed. But where to buy an umbrella on a Saturday morning in Milan? The answer: on the floor of the metro station! There were numerous vendors selling cheap umbrella for about US $4.50. Perfect! Totally better than dragging one alone. (Cheap umbrella or not, I'm still using it months later at home.)

The people in Milan were generally friendly. In the morning as I was trying to stand far back in the Duomo Square to shoot the Duomo (in a slight rain), a vendor shoed me away from standing in a spot near his storefront. At first I thought he was being rude and was annoyed, but then he pointed out with appropriate hand gestures that I was about to stand in a puddle of urine from some drunken partiers from the night before. Sheeplishly, I smiled and thanked him. (Lesson learned: don't be too quick to judge people's intentions!)

Andrew

<b>Parma (1 night)</b>

Pictures: http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...rma-italy.html

The reason I originally wished to visit Parma at all was that, way back in 2001, when I was first planning an Italy trip (put off until 2007), I was carrying an Italy travel book on the train in Portland, and an Italian guy who noticed my book introduced himself, said that he was from Italy and asked me about my trip plans to his home country. He said he was from Parma and implored me to go there since tourists, he claimed, rarely visited his hometown. I promised him I would try. I didn't make it to Parma in 2007 (only to Bologna), so in 2009 I had a chance to check out Parma so I put it on the itinerary. Bologna offered some amazing food, so how could I go wrong visiting another city in Emilia-Romagna!

Because I started out in Milan staying across the street from Milan's central train station, getting to Parma was easy - a quick, direct ride on an uncrowded Saturday morning regional train. (Love the trains in Italy!) At the Parma train station, I took the #8 bus into the center of town, to Piazza Garibaldi. I stayed at the Hotel Button, just across the street from the Piazza. The Button is a well-regarded hotel right in center of town and really one of your few choices if you want to stay at the center without a car. Parma is very pedestrian-friendly but not so car-friendly in the center.

Parma is not heavily touristed by Americans, probably because it lacks the attractions of the "big three" of Venice, Florence, and Rome. Parma isn't even mentioned in Rick Steves' books. Instead of tourists, Parma is full of locals, who were out on the Saturday afternoon and evening of my visit enjoying the warm fall weather, strolling around the pedestrian friendly streets near Piazza Garibaldi where there are plenty of restaurants, bakeries, and trendy stores (even a Nike store of some sort). Not a McDonalds or American restaurant in sight. In addition, there was some sort of celebration going on on this particular Saturday night; the streets around the Hotel Button in particular were mobbed with people, until at least midnight.

Indeed, there isn't much for the typical tourist to see in Parma proper - beyond the obvious Duomo and the Bapistry. Parma has museum or two I'm sure - I declined to find out. Instead, I simply wandered around taking pictures, taking in the vibe, enjoying hearing almost exclusively Italian spoken. I strolled across the narrow (and fairly dry) Parma River over to the Parco Ducale. There was also some sort of renaissance festival going on - just a lot of events.

I had a nice lasagna somewhere for lunch; sadly, I waited too long for dinner; everywhere was a minimum of an hour wait and I was hungry and tired so I opted for some take-away pizza. People really were out in droves on this Saturday night. One interesting note: it appears that walking your dog is a common social activity in Parma - I saw lots of well-dressed people out walking their dogs, part of the social ritual.

Finally, back to my hotel! The Hotel Button was decent - a bit overpriced, modest charm, but the location cannot be beat, right in the center of everything. Even though it was not hot outside, I would have preferred that the air conditioner in the room work (it was not turned on or was broken - I complained several times) because I needed to keep the windows closed, because there was a big celebration going on in the streets (plus it was Saturday) late into the night. That and the combination of being jetlagged meant that I basically didn't sleep at all.

I'd go back to Parma in a heartbeat - but maybe not on a weekend! It's a great walking town. It would be nice to wander around and be able to eat in even a modest restaurant more easily without waiting an hour or for a table wading through thick crowds. Saturday night meant that Parma had a great social vibe but also made it very crowded.

Techy note: I brought an unlocked Motorola GSM mobile phone with me to Europe; I made sure it had the right frequencies to work in Europe and then bought a European SIM card (at a TIM store, like a T-Mobile store)_ in Parma for about US $16, which included some free minutes. In Italy that included free incoming calls. I was able to use a London-based call forwarding service called Local Phone to let friends call me via a US phone number for not cost (to them!) if they had free US long distance and costing me only about 15 cents/minute. This was an easy way for people to call me from the states without fumbling with country codes or worrying about how much their call was really going to cost them! To get the SIM card, I did need to show my US passport but otherwise it was easy. The keys were knowing that the phone REALLY WAS unlocked plus that it would work in Europe - some American-market GSM phones do not! I used my phone mostly in Italy but also in Slovenia and Croatia a few times - where roaming got expensive! It was super nice to have an emergency phone to use while driving in Croatia especially. I smartly programmed some phone numbers of my lodgings and rental car companies into the phone memory ahead of time, so I could make a quick call in a pinch!

Barb

Andrew, so glad to see your much anticipated report! Looking forward to it.

Andrew

Hi, Barb! I've been writing this thing and working on the pictures on and off for months! Just hope all of this doesn't seem hopelessly out of date by now - !

Andrew

<b>Venice (3 nights)</b>

Pictures: http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...ice-italy.html

I had been to Venice once before - in fact, that earlier visit had sort of inspired me to return and plan this whole new trip. I found a great apartment the last time using a small room/apartment booking service called Cross-Pollinate.com and because of their pricing (per person), the apartment was a good deal for a solo traveler. (About US $100/night).

In Parma, I took an early Sunday morning bus from the Button back to the train station. I got to Venice from Parma using two regional trains - a connection that showed up on Trenitalia's website but, oddly, not on the Trenitalia ticket machines the morning I got to the Parma station. So I had to buy my tickets from an actual human at the ticket counter (he knew exactly which trains I wanted - didn't really have to explain). I saved about $15 taking the regional trains and got in to Venice about the same time, with a shorter layover in Bologna. Big deal. I don't mind traveling second class on regional trains at all.

I was groggy from basically not having slept the night before but I got into Venice awake enough, excited to return. The apartment owner's father had met me at the train station two years earlier and I barely remembered him - but he didn't remember me at all! Oh, well - I guess he has met hundreds of people who rent the place, how can you remember them all? We met and we walked with my two bags along Strada Nova, dodging the crowds. The apartment is in a quiet area in Cannaregio right off Strada Nova, very close to the church of the Maddalena (Santa Maria Maddalena) roughly in between the train station and Rialto - which is to say, less trendy and exciting but also a bit less crowded (compared to Rialto and San Marco!) and still well located to restaurants and stores and a grocery store. The apartment (called the Ca' Maria) was a small 1-BR affair with a little living room and even a full kitchen. Venice isn't exactly known in Italy for its cuisine; the kitchen would be ideal for those who might enjoy cooking a meal and saving their restaurant budget for elsewhere in Italy. One downside of the apartment, though, is that it had absolutely no view.

If you haven't already gotten this by now, I should point out that my Venice experience is most likely NOT what your was like or will be like. I didn't do a single museum in Venice (I did exactly one, Morano's Museum of Glass, in 2007), and I ate almost every meal as take-away pizza or at Brek (self-service). Almost all my time was spent wandering around taking pictures and really, just soaking in the vibe, thinking, "Wow! I'm in VENICE! Cool!!!!". In 2007 I bought a Vapporetti pass for my entire three days to get around the canals but found using the boats sometimes frustrating. I often found myself running for the wrong boat or waiting too long for one and wishing I'd just walked and often doing so anyway. (You need a boat to get out to Morano though, something I enjoyed in 2007.) So in 2009 I never got on a single boat in Venice, not once! I walked absolutely everywhere. After the third day, my feet were quite sore! Actually, this was as bad as it got.

Venice has been kind of a challenge for me as a photographer; while it's an amazing, unique place full of irresistible photo ops at almost every turn, it's also a very frustrating place to photograph! One reason I wanted to return after my first trip in 2007 was to do better this time, because looking at my 2007 pictures I felt like I hadn't captured the place very well. Somehow, getting those nice golden hour or sunset shots was really hard to work out. The orientation of the place for one makes it challenging to judge where the sun might be at sunrise or sunset. I got up several mornings early, tripod in hand, looking for sunrise and never really found it. I think my 2009 pictures are better on average than those from 2007 but I was STILL a bit disappointed at what I got - and didn't get! (sigh) Photographers are perfectionists, you know...

(See my 2007 Venice Photographs if you like: http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...ice-italy.html . A lot of the same kind of shots, I guess...)

As most people who have been there can attest, Venice is like Disneyland during the day, particularly between Rialto and San Marco - just wall to wall people! It's almost like wading through a crowd at a sporting event and it can be very frustrating. At night things improve as the tour groups head back to Mestre - but it's the MORNING, that I've decided is really the best time to see Venice! The tourists mostly aren't awake, the tour groups haven't arrived, and you can see the "real" Venice: shop keepers sweeping in front of their stores as they are opening, chatting with each other, or parents sending their kids off the school. (Yes, some real people actually DO live in Venice!) And if you are a photographer, not only is the early morning light often the best but there are almost no people to have to shoot around. When I got up one morning before 6am, there was literally NO ONE on the streets and it was still dark! It was almost like an abandoned movie set - a little eerie, at least til it got light again.

On my third day in Venice I took a day trip to Verona (I daytripped to Padua in 2007). Day trips rarely seem to work out well for me in Europe. Most places seem more fun at night or in the morning. Verona was fun to a degree but as a simple day trip it didn't greatly appeal to me. I kind of wish I'd stayed overnight there for a night instead of just doing a day trip - the river created some nice photo ops. I'll bet an evening stroll in Verona would have been fun, but I was too tired by the end of my day to wait for nightfall and just wanted to catch the train back to Venice.

Verona Pictures: http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...ona-italy.html

(Techy note: there was no internet at my apartment in Venice and no WiFi nearby. The most convenient place to get it was at McDonalds a few bridges away. Sometimes I picked up open WiFi signals just sitting on a canal somewhere.)

Barb

Not at all out of date and your photos are stunning.

zeppole

Andrew,

Glad you enjoyed the all- Italian life -- with the dogs! -- in Parma despite your jet lag.
I hope you don't mind my embedding into your thread a note that inside Parma, apart from the Duomo and bapistery, there are a number of sights of artistic and historic interest to people with particular interests - including sites for Verdi lovers, Stendahl lovers and theater lovers -- and some legendary shopping and tours of Parma's most famous products: parmesan cheese, parma ham and parma violets (and violet products). The rural area just around Parma is filled with castles and other interesting sights:

http://parma.arounder.com/en/city-tour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parma

http://pcfarina.eng.unipr.it/Farnese/Farnese.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/20/tr...l?pagewanted=1

http://www.artcityemiliaromagna.com/...und-parma.html

Hope you get back "in a heartbeat"!

zeppole

Oh -- and one more reason to visit Parma:

The town really is Parma yellow.

irishface

I enjoy your style of writing. The little incidents which make me laugh are great (for instance the street vendor who saved you from the nasty puddle). I have been looking at your pictures as well. You have some real stunners in the lot! Thanks for sharing your adventures and pictures. I look forward to more!

Andrew

Thanks guys! More to come...

Leely2

Agreed--great photos, great report. Hotel Button is cute as a...guess. Parma looks very appealing. Many moons ago I used cross-pollinate to get a cheapo apartment in Rome. Glad to read they're still reliable. I like the "less trendy" parts of Venice (if there are such things) better because one tends to have a bit more breathing room.

Thanks and looking forward to more!

Andrew

<b>Ljubljana (2 nights)</b>

Pictures: http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...-slovenia.html

Getting from Venice to Ljubljana by public transport isn't as easy as it once was, apparently. The most direct way these days is a highly inconvenient night train (arrives too early to be able to skip a hotel but perhaps too late to check in somewhere). If you take a day train, you have to change once at least (probably in Austria) or take a train to Trieste, Italy, and change to a bus to Ljubljana. Luckily, just a few days before leaving for Ljubljana, I found out about a direct bus from Mestre to Ljubljana operated by a service called DRD (Slovenian-operated). I think it cost 25 Euros one way - direct service, only one stop for a rest about halfway through the three-hours-or-so ride. That worked out quite well though the bus driver was a bit crazy and should have been paying a bit closer attention to the road...

Ljubljana - wow, what a beautiful town! Everything I'd read about it was true: it's a delightful, charming place to stroll around, stop and get a pastry and just wander. The core of Ljubljana is split by the tiny Ljubljana River (more like a big stream or canal) with quaint bridges crossing it, willow trees here and there, and sidewalk cafes all around. Ljubljana is also a huge college town (no central campus - it's spread all over town), and students fill those riverfront cafes at all hours, making the place feel young and alive, dwarfing the tourists (so you can almost pretend you aren't one). Yet the architecture of the place - people say it reminds them of Saltzburg, a place I've never been - somehow makes the city itself feel warm and welcoming, too. (It does feel Austrian.) Great photo ops abound - the place seems made for taking pictures. Ljubljana is adorable.

I stayed at a hostel (Alibi M4) in Ljubljana, because all the hotels seemed way overpriced. The Alibi M4 hostel, only a few blocks walk from the train/bus stations, had a private room - a modest, funky, but clean room to be sure but it was a decent place and a better value for sure than the nearby hotels. (And it was quiet; if some hostels can be rowdy, this one wasn't.) I basically used the hostel as a hotel (no curfew) and didn't interact much with the other guests. If you are considering a visit to Ljubljana, keep a few things in mind: first of all, the core downtown is quite small, which also means it's easily walkable without a car, plus many of the hotels and hostels are a lot closer together than they might appear on a map. Second: Ljubljana gets COLD outside of the summer/late spring/early fall months. In early October the city was just starting to turn cold; by the end of October I'd expect it would be quite cold indeed.

I arrived early enough the first day to catch a walking tour that I picked up at the main tourist office downtown, near City Hall. Our young tour guide was an ethusiastic engineering student who positively gushed about the town. Our tour included a trip up to the castle (seasonal) but sadly, it was a bit hazy to take nice pictures from up there - great views on a clear day, though. Unfortunately, much of the old town (near City Hall) was under massive reconstruction in September 2009 - they were ripping out the old street and putting in the old cobblestones. A year later the place will probably be much more fun to visit. Ljubljana seems to have excluded most cars from the center now, making it even more pleasant as a tourist walking town. Very smart.

The first night I was in town, a big stage was being put up in the main square for a concert the next day - something to do with the start of the fall college term, I take it. Lots of loud rock music. Lots of people. Unfortunately all of this sort of ruined my pictures of Preseren Square - doh! But it was a festive vibe.

I'm big fan of bridges (not a surprise to anyone who has seen my photography). Ljubljana's little river is spanned by several notable bridges, particularly the famous Dragon Bridge, with two of Ljubljana's famous mascotts guarding each side. But the triple bridge at the center at Preseren Square is more elegant. The Cobbler's Bridge nearby has its own sense of beauty. Away from the center a bit (near the Pletnik house) is another interested bridge - called the Mol Bridge I believe (the tour guide referred to it as such).

I even did a couple of museums in Ljubljana. The Josef Pletnik house (a museum of sorts) was fantastic. It's the house the famous architect lived in in the years before he died, but it was really cool - only a half hour tour but the tour guide (I was the only one on the tour) made the place truly come alive. I could almost see the old man himself still sitting there in his rooms, busily working on his next project or invention. Pletnik really transformed Ljubljana as a city - you can see his work everywhere. On my last morning (raining) I took in the City Museum, which had everything from Roman ruins in the basement to Cold War exhibits on the top floor - and a "Napoleon in the Balkans" exhibit. The City Museum was OK - a fairly nice museum but not an unforgettable experience (whereas the little Pletnik house seemed like something unique and special). I was definitely past my attention span by the time I reached the top floor of the museum.

I tried some burek from a vendor at one of the markets (meat and cheese I seem to recall) and it was...OK, probably not something I'd want again. I had pizza at Pizzeria Foculus, a renowned sit-down pizza restaurant. Actually, if you want something casual, a pizza-by-the-slice place called Pizza Šestinka on Miklošičeva (same street as my hostel) had excellent pizza slices - if you want to grab a slice and sit in the park across the street on a nice afternoon...

gertie3751

Hello Andrew. I am enjoying this. A trip down memory lane from 2008 for me. When I was in Ljubljana the Art Museum had a great exhibition of Slovenian Impressionist stuff. I too did the City Tour and we saw a lot. I stayed in a little hotel in downtown but would certainly try your recommendation for the hostel next time.
Loved your pictures too, especially the ones of Parma. I was there about 10 years ago. Like you say, not many tourists and a very attractive city.
Venice goes without saying.
Next??

catcrazyaf

Andrew, gorgeous photos and a wonderful read. I saw that in '07 you visited Burano - didn't you just love the brightly painted houses? Made me feel like dancing!

Andrew

Thanks, gertie. I'd stay at the Alibi M4 hostel in Ljubljana again only if one the hotels were again expensive. Nothing wrong with the hostel, though, but my next stop was at the Westin in Zagreb so quite a step-up in lodgings!

Yes, catcrazyaf, I enjoyed Burano too! Tempting to go back on my 2009 Venice visit, but as I recall it was a fairly long boat ride out there, so I concentrated on other things. I do enjoy re-visiting places I've liked before. So many places, never enough time...

Andrew

<b>Zagreb (2 nights)</b>

Pictures: http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...b-croatia.html

The afternoon train from Ljubljana was about an hour late so I didn't get in to Zagreb til about dusk. That was the plan though - to have more time in Ljubljana. Otherwise, it was an easy train ride, with some beautiful scenery in Slovenia. The border crossing into Croatia seemed to take a long time, though for me it was just a quick scan of my passport.

I didn't necessarily need two nights in Zagreb, but it was convenient to arrive late the first night and pick up my rental car early after the second night to drive to Plitvice Lakes. Plus I got a great price (with hotel points) at the Westin - a luxury especially compared to the modest hostel room in Ljubljana the previous nights. The hotel was easy to get to by tram from Zagreb's Glavni Kolodvor Train Station; it's on the "horseshoe" (so called because of green parks and museums shaped on a map sort of like a horseshoe).

Once I got checked in, past dusk by now, I took a tram to Jelačić Square to shoot some pictures at night with all the people mulling around and the trams moving through. The Square is a lively place, with all the people and huge billboards, etc. Some kids got in front of my camera on its tripod as I photographed the square, waving at me and fooling around; that happened a couple of times on my trip (fun for a few seconds...then, OK, OUT OF MY WAY, please!).

The next morning I took a quick little walk around the horseshoe (and got a diet coke and a pastry at a local bakery to start my day! The price of diet soda in bottles declined the further I got away from Italy), took a few pictures, then headed back into the center to see more. As a city, Zagreb met my modest expectations. Compared to where I'd just been in Venice and Ljubljana, Zagreb seemed more "ordinary," much larger, and less charming especially considering...but it was still an interesting place to spend a day. Zagreb is full of trams (streetcars), which go everywhere. Some are old, some look brand new. In the center, there's a "free tram" zone (we have the same thing at home in Portland) where you can ride the trams for free, only one stop from the Westin, though I still wound up doing a lot of walking.

On my single day in Zagreb, I did the usual tourist stuff: wandered through Jelačić Square and the nearby markets, walked up to the cathedral, and of course took tons of pictures wherever I walked. I even visited one museum in Zagreb - the Museum of Native Art (Hrvatski Muze), a museum of paintings by peasant (untrained) artists; it was interesting enough (and small enough) to hold my interest for a half hour. I also visited the Botanical Garden, a nice short walk from the Westin and a pleasant diversion. At dusk, I tried to shoot pictures from the Upper Town down on Zagreb's city buildings, but they simply weren't lit up enough to make flattering pictures. In the end, the best shots I took in Zagreb may have been from my room at the Westin with my tripod pointing out the window; I had a nice view of Zagreb at daybreak there.

One other little detour late in the afternoon was a walk over to the Four Points by Sheraton (hotel), where I'd be picking up my car the next morning at the Sixt office. It wasn't easy to get to by tram - should I take a taxi in the morning? I'm usually too cheap to take a taxi unless I have to. The front desk woman at the Westin assured me it was far too far to walk, but it didn't look far on a map, so I decided to try it; I think the walk took 15 minutes tops and I didn't get lost, though it wasn't a particularly scenic walk. (I could have stayed at the Four Points instead of at the Westin and saved some money - but the Westin was in a far better location, on the horseshoe close enough to walk to Jelačić Square and the trams, plus the Westin is supposedly a much nicer hotel.). The next morning I walked back to the Four Points, picked up my car, then drove back to the Westin to pick up my bags, and for me that was all very easy.

I ate both evening meals in Zagreb at the same restaurant, Nokturno, an Italian place (recommended by Rick Steves) up from Jelačić Square. The lasagna turned out to be quite good. For lunch the one day I was in Zagreb I had some pizza slices somewhere forgettable.

Andrew

<b>Plitvice Lakes National Park (1 night)</b>

Pictures: http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...s-croatia.html

I booked my car in Zagreb from Sixt using a US agency called Auto Europe. It seemed the best price I could find - for an economy car with a 5-speed transmission, the cheapest kind of car you can get in Europe, usually. My orange Fiat Punto (gas, not diesel unfortunately) smelled like an ashtray and felt more used than its 36,000 km, but it was fun to drive. Lucky me that it had papers to drive into Bosnia and Herzegovina! I had forgotten to ask, and this was the last car they had on the lot. (I obtained an International Driving Permit from AAA before I left; it was nice to have but I think a valid US driver's license would have been sufficient in Croatia.)

I picked up the rental car at the Sixt office first thing in the morning and promptly headed out to Plitvice Lakes, about two hours away. I'd driven in Europe only once before - in France, in Normandy for a few days, which was super easy - but I was still nervous about it. Driving in Croatia turned out to be fine, though. My only worry was the aggressive passing techniques of the local drivers. Impatient drivers passed on two lane roads with very little sight distance. Numerous times I'd see an oncoming car coming toward me in MY lane passing cars and swerving out of my lane seemingly at the last second! But I kind of got used to it and found myself even passing like that a few times!

The two hour drive to Plitvice from Zagreb was fairly simple - it could be done as a day trip without a problem, if you don't mind about four hours total driving in one day. The only issue really is how crowded the park is by late morning. The best way to avoid the big tour groups, it seems, is to arrive first thing in the morning, and that's hard to do if you are picking up a rental car in Zagreb first thing as I did. If you were going to do this as a day trip from Zagreb, I'd consider picking up the car the night before, driving down super early to the park the next morning, then heading back by mid-afternoon and return the car in the evening - rather than trying to get the car when the rental place opens (like I did), the most obvious way to do it.

The park is all people say it is: amazing! (And I live near the beautiful Columbia River Gorge in Oregon, so I'm familiar with natural beauty.) The best way I found to describe the lake: imagine turquoise lakes full of trout (no fishing allowed!), surrounded by hiking trails, man-made wooden walkways, trees, and, of course, dozens (hundreds?) of waterfalls! It's a huge park, but you can see it relatively quickly, at least the highlights, if you are a half decent hiker. The park runs some shuttle buses to get you from point to point and also a few boats to cross the lakes. On a map, it seems all rather confusing, but several possible tour routes are numbered/lettered and you can just follow the signs for one particular route if you wish. (Beyond this, it's sort of pointless to try describing the park itself in words - just look at the pictures.)

I spent hours that first afternoon marching through the park - it was beautiful but grueling in a way, trying to take pictures around the numerous tour groups and keeping an eye on the sun (the buses and boats stop running at some point - didn't want to get stuck on the wrong side of the park and have to hike hours back to the hotel). Because I was staying at one of the park hotels, I had the added benefit of being able to re-visit the park a second day for no extra entrance fee - just have the hotel front desk stamp your previous day's pass. So I spent the next morning back in the park - what a contrast to the previous day! Almost no tourists in the morning!

Stupid photographer mistake: waterfalls are often most flattering when shot in long exposure with a tripod; you can get that "misty" effect in the falling water. I was well aware of this, but the first day, trying to shoot a waterfall with my little tripod was almost impossible because of the constant crowds of people in the sometimes narrow paths. You'd either get in their way or they'd get in yours. Eventually I gave up and shot most everything handheld, without that "misty" effect. I was so frustrated about this that I didn't even bother to bring my tripod the second morning (since I'd lugged it all over the park the previous day and almost never used it), but there was NOBODY in the park that morning! I could easily have used my tripod then!

My hotel, the Hotel Plitvice, was the mid-ranged hotel out of the three(?) the park operates. It's overpriced, like a communist-era Motel 6 with a bigger lobby and big dining room, but still clean and...decent. (wouldn't call it "nice") And convenient. And it has that kitschy former communist flavor that's kind of fun. (The hotel had no internet service at all, but I was able to go nearby to its sister hotel, the Jezero, and use the free Wifi in the lobby there.) Breakfast was included in my room rate (cold cuts and bread mostly), but on a Monday morning in early October, I was about the only person in the huge breakfast room. Perhaps in August on a weekend it's packed. I drove slightly away from the hotel into a little village and found a bar that had decent pizza for dinner - wound up eating lunch there the following day as I left town as well.

isabel

Looking forward especially to the Dubrovnik, Mostar, Korcula and Split portion as I am in the final planning stages for those places.

maitaitom

Good report. We loved Ljubljana, too. Sitting out on the balcony at Hotel Plitvice, sipping a cocktail and looking out at the park, was nice. What, no slivovitz??? Well, that was probably a smart thing.