I think I did much the same as you in Zagreb except that I stayed (also for just one night) in a room in a house on a street off the main drag and had a hard time finding it! Very eccentric place but full of character. Loved the trams; you seem to have bumped into the blue one quite a bit!

<b>Baska Voda (1 night)</b>

Pictures: http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,5D...0-croatia.html

In planning my trip, I was nervous about driving in Croatia (though I need not have been - it was fairly easy), so when planning how to get from Plitvice Lakes to Mostar, I worried about driving straight through (about an 7-8 hour drive I believe). I decided to stop in between and I picked the Makarska Riviera as a convenient place. This also gave me two fairly relaxed days of driving - so I could spend more time at Plitvice Lakes the first morning and get into Mostar at a decent hour the second day and not feel rushed, with the ability to stop along the way whenever I felt like it. For the night, I really just needed a place to crash, so my hotel search was based mostly on price - and I wound up in the Makarska town of Baska Voda, at a little place called the Pension Palac (rooms above a restaurant).

I had an easy drive (mostly the A1 highway) down from Plitvice Lakes down past Split to Makarska. The A1 felt empty in October - very modern, almost new, and well marked. I stopped a few times here and there. I arrived in Baska Voda about an hour before sunset - my first sunset on the Dalmatian Coast and wow was it beautiful!

(Random pictures of driving, bus, and train travel in Italy and Croatia: http://www.portlandbridges.com/00,SD...,0-europe.html )

Baska Voda is a sleepy little tourist town (originally a fishing village) with a little town center, the ubiquitous church bell tower, and a marina full of boats. (Some of them had US markings - e.g. one from Delaware.) The Pension Palac was right across the street from the marina; I was able to park my car right behind the hotel. It was a fun area to stroll town and the marina around but nothing special. A nice place to relax and enjoy the quiet pace. It was fairly dead in early October, probably busier in the summer.

I had a decent dinner at the Palac, served by the woman who also seems to manage the hotel. The room was OK for the price - I think it was a whopping $35/night - EXCEPT for the incredibly musty bathroom - disgusting!!! Oh, well, you get what you pay for.

Great trip report and lovely pictures.

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

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

I'd heard it was easy to drive into Mostar from Croatia. It was. Just drive south on the A1 til it ends (currently around Ploce), continue on the coast road to Opuzen and turn east, following the signs to Mostar. I never worried about which direction to drive - plenty of signs for Mostar, just follow them. (at the Croatia/BiH boarder I flashed my US passport and was waved right through the checkpoint). The roads were fine (moreso in Croatia, still OK in BiH), though I had to wait for road construction crews in BiH who closed the road for brief periods - just like driving back in the states! I got into Mostar about noon without much stress.

I had booked the Hotel Pellegrino (on the east bank, the "Croat side" of town), which was easy to find (signs for it everywhere as you are driving into Mostar) but parking a car near it was a challenge. The hotel advertises free parking but they don't actually have a dedicated lot; they have to find you a space nearby. The Pellegrino is in a sort of strip mall adjacent to the old town, and there's a crowded little parking lot a block away that serves the stores in this little strip mall. ("Strip mall" is one way to describe it - but it's more urban than an American strip mall.) When I drove up to the last Pellegrino sign (You are here!) there was nowhere to park in the lot or elsewhere; after driving around in circles along the narrow streets for a bit I finally parked along the side of one of the narrow streets so I could dash a block to the hotel and say, "I'm here! Where shall I park so my car isn't towed???" One of the people working at the hotel had parked in that little lot and I just took her spot. So we worked it out. I didn't move my car the rest of the time in Mostar, lest I risk losing this coveted spot.

The Pellegrino is a really nice place - though it seems like a hybrid between an apartment and a hotel. One downside: no elevator and there are a few flights of stairs up to some of the rooms (not a problem for me though). The location is great, in an urban part of town - modern with plenty of retail and eateries but really close to the old town and famous Stari Most (old bridge). Excellent wireless internet. The hotel staff handed me a list and map of local tourist sites within driving distance, but I chose to limit myself to walking around and near the old town. A hot breakfast the next morning was included in my rate and was whatever you wanted - quite nice. Everyone seemed to speak English well enough and were very nice. Most of the other people there seem to have been business people. The Pellegrino may have been the most expensive place in town but like everything else in Mostar, it seemed dirt cheap (something like US $70/night). Croatia seemed cheap compared to Italy, but BiH seemed cheap compared to Croatia.

Mostar itself was a lot more touristy in the old town area than I'd expected. It was fairly busy with tourists and this was October! I imagine in peak travel season in Croatia that Mostar is positively mobbed during the day. Day trips from Dubrovnik, etc. have become very popular it seems. At night (at least in October) the old town is dead - all the shops close but some restaurants stay open, though you'd barely know without looking carefully. The more modern strip of retail near my hotel (walking back from old town) is much more alive at night, though, with a few bars and even a sort of little casino thing (never ventured intisde). I walked numerous times from my hotel through the modern part through the old town, across the bridge and beyond then back. In this part you can barely see any signs of the war anymore - except a cemetery full of people who died in the 90s, clearly from the war. Beyond this core area, though, you can still see some bombed out buildings, and further away the area is still rebuilding.

I'd never been to a "Muslim country" before - I guess that made me slightly wary. Mostar is split (mostly) between Catholics and Muslims. But clearly, the Catholics (Croats) hold sway in Mostar over the Muslims (Bosniaks). The Croats dress like any other westerners, and Croat women dress in modern, stylish clothes, sometimes not so modest clothes. The way you know you are also in a Muslim country is from the minarets from mosques sticking up everywhere - and from the sweet-sounding call to prayer heard from mosque loudspeakers five times a day. Compared to all the Croat women, I saw very few Muslim women out and about, and those few were usually wearing veils. Mostar is really a city with a split personality.

As a photographer, the rebuilt Stari Most (old bridge) was by far the highlight of Mostar - I shot it at different times of the day. (The reconstruction was done so well that no non-expert would have a clue that it wasn't still hundreds of years old.) The minarets in Mostar made the city seem very exotic, too. As everywhere else, mostly I just wandered around and shot pictures of everything, from the bridge in different framings to a perfectly-preserved Yugo to the stone structures of the old town. I wandered away from the old town a bit to photograph some of the bombed-out buildings too.

I had considered two nights in Mostar, but one really was enough for me. I got a feel. However, I wound up liking Bosnia and Herzegovina in general and really wanted to explore more beyond Mostar. I really wish in retrospect I'd been able to fit a few days in to visit Sarajevo. But I was also put off by fear of driving in a Muslim country - when even driving in Croatia made me nervous at first. I hope to be more bold next time and branch out and see more.

Looks like they have put guard rails up along the bridge since I was there 2 years ago. No macho guys diving off the bridge to gasps of admiration?

I noticed the same thing that gertie did about the guard rails on the bridge. Fellows were jumping off the bridge for fifty euro when I was there in 06.

Wonderful photos and a great trip report

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

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

I took my time driving back to Croatia from Mostar. In BiH, a few miles east of the Croatian border, I detoured over into the wetlands of Hutovo Blato Nature Park (Park Prirode Hutovo Blato) for a little while, got out of the car at the park entrance to check it out a little, and walked up a trail until I saw several snakes! I then chickened out and got back to my car and headed back to Croatia! A beautiful area, though - with time and planning, it would be on my list to explore on a future visit. I also stopped along the coast in Croatia a few times in little towns and at viewpoints.

Once I got into Dubrovnik, I had to figure out how to return the car. (Plus finding a gas station before returning the car was another fun adventure!) I'd been told the Sixt office was at the Hilton Imperial; the hotel is easy to find, right outside the Pile Gate, but when you drive by the hotel, there are no signs that say "Sixt" - unlike the Sixt office at the Four Points in Dubrovnik. And there's nowhere obvious you can pull over near the Hilton and just leave your car for a few minutes! Driving in Dubrovnik in fact wasn't all that fun - quite stressful, with a lot of fast traffic along curvy, sometimes narrow roads. I finally used the remaining minutes left on my Italian mobile phone to call the Sixt office and ask them where to drop the car - only to be told there was no one at the Hilton's Sixt office. Just drive into the Hilton parking garage and LEAVE the car, they told me, with keys in it - ha! That made me a bit nervous! But once I drove into the gated, secure garage at the Hilton, I found an area for Sixt cars and an open spot, so I figured this was routine. Still, when I return a car, I like to make sure there are no unexpected charges on the car, no dispute about the fuel level, no charges for damage that I didn't cause, etc. But I just left the keys in it and left it - no problem, no extra charges later. I guess this is just how they do it.

I'd booked a soba (private room) just outside the Pile Gate, at Edi's Sea View Rooms, and that was only a short walk from the Hilton; I've carried my bags in airports longer distances. My room at Edi's was small and very basic, perhaps a bit rundown, but clean, at least. The "sea view" of a shady cove was pleasant but not particularly memorable (no brilliant sunset or anything and no view of the old town). I asked for a sea view room anyway because it was the same price as without; I chose Edi's because it was close to the Hilton and Pile Gate and had free WiFi. I'd stay there again (but hope to pay less) because the location was excellent: no stairs at the Pile Gate! Edi himself is quite a character - he speaks English well from having spent time outside Croatia so you can ask him anything, plus he's full of stories and recommendations. I even went swimming with him in the cove below his place one afternoon; it's an easy walk from the rooms down to the cove.

Once I settled into my room, by now perhaps an hour before the sun went down, I was anxious to find a place to shoot the sunset as quickly as possible. I'm here only three nights, sunsets are few! I grabbed my camera and tripod and headed into the old town to find a place to shoot. And then I got really lucky. Even though I really had no clue where I was going, I around wandered inside the city walls and sort of stumbled upon the Buza Bar at the absolutely perfect time to catch an amazing sunset! I got a few nice shots from above the bar. Pure luck - timing was ideal, because had I taken another turn I probably would have missed the sunset entirely.

There is something magical and unique about the walled city of Dubrovnik; people compare it to a "Venice without the canals" for a reason (though the Dubrovnik old town is far, far smaller than Venice.) Almost no cars, save an occasional delivery van or emergency vehicle, are allowed inside the old town. Not that cars would be able to navigate most of the narrow "streets" (other than the Stradun) or steep stairs anyway. Walking around Dubrovnik is almost like walking around a maze - it's more "grid-like" than Venice for sure plus most pedestrians streets are narrow and the buildings tall. The city was built on a hill; much of the center is flat but away from the water the "streets" turn into steep staircases. Claustrophobics, beware!

Yet Dubrovnik didn't quite grab me the way Venice had. Venice is full of tourists too, but if you get away from Rialto and San Marco you can temporarily escape them, in part because Venice is huge. Dubrovnik is smaller and seems more overwhelmed by tourists, less by locals. I enjoyed my time there and would have been disappointed to have missed it (and I shot more photos there than anywhere else), but I haven't put it on my "must return" list. Like most people I "take" to a place or not depending personal bias, I guess. Dubrovnik was great, it just wasn't a favorite.

Dubrovnik in early October was quite warm - "shorts" weather. Several people I talked to claimed it was unseasonably warm. The day after I left, it turned colder and started to rain, so my timing was perfect!

As in Venice, amazing photo ops were everywhere in the old town of Dubrovnik. The best shots can be had from walking the town walls, which you can pay to do; it takes about an hour or so to walk around the entire city. From the walls you can get a different view down into and around the city or out to the sea at every turn. But I wanted to shoot the town itself. Fort Lovrijenac gives you a nice side view of the city but I wanted to get above it. Without a car, how to get up there to find a good location looking down? Some people take a taxi to a high viewpoint, I guess. Instead, I wound up hiking above the old town amongst the view homes and found a nice, unobstructed viewpoint to shoot the old city. I hiked up there three times at different times of the day. (Afternoon, sunset, and daybreak.) The sunset with the old town in the foreground was gorgeous; I couldn't see the sun rise from up there but did get to shoot Dubrovnik at first morning light, which I think is the most flattering. Later, down in the old town itself, I enjoyed shooting long exposure photographs in the early evening; the stone streets kind of glisten in the lights awith people milling around on the way to a restaurant.

There are, as previous visitors to Dubrovnik know, lots of stray cats around the town, more obvious than anywhere else I've ever visited. Kind of sad for animal lovers. The cats survive by the kindness of both locals and tourists feeding them. I especially fell in love with a beautiful calico kitten who hung out at the entrance to the Pile Gate - she looked exactly like a friend's cat back home, and I wound up feeding her lunch meat and dry food every day (fun trying to ask for "turkey breast" at the lunch meat counter at one of the markets; I settled for ham.) I felt so bad for her - until the last night I saw a local woman dropping off a can or two of wet food for her and a few other strays. Turns out this woman feeds them every night as she walks home! There really are animal lovers everywhere, thank goodness. I really wanted to take my little calico home with me and seriously would have considered it (my mom begged me to!) had I been flying directly home from Dubrovnik - but I had too many stops including Paris to make, I'm sure I would have needed lots of health papers, and I'm sure it would have been super expensive. Oh, well - I hope someone adopted her! She was really friendly compared to some of the other strays.

I found something else unexpected in Dubrovnik: the local swallows - like barn swallows - who at dusk fly above the old town corridors hunting bugs, I guess, before finally settling into the nooks of the buildings themselves to spend the night. Swallows are skilled fliers and fun to watch as they swam around at high speed above you. I looked forward to them every night I was in the old town when they were flying around.

My one museum visit in Dubrovnik was to War Photo Limited, an exhibit of war photos photos not just from the Balkan war but from elsewhere. There were definitely some haunting photos there - so different and much more daring than what I shoot!

As with everywhere else I visited on this trip, I looked for casual food, bakeries, pizza places. Casual food options seemed limited compared to the other places I visited, though - most sit down restaurants than anything else. There were plenty of grocery stores in which to purchase snacks and diet sodas; even though there were two conveniently located outside the Pile Gate by my soba - including the ubiquitous Konzum (big chain of supermarkets), I preferred a store inside the walls - seemed to have the best selection and prices. I had some delicious gelato at La Dolce Vita - a great gelato place that was worthy of its reputation. And after weeks of eating alone, I finally had a "real" meal and had the pleasure of dining with Fodorites Julia and Barb at Rosarij, a Dubrovnik seafood restaurant they knew well. What a treat to be able to enjoy some dinner conversation for a change! Actually, I had met few Fodorites before - at home once, so this was I suppose my first "get together" and it was great, even if there were only three of us. Julia and Barb both knew Croatia better than I did and it was fun to swap travel stories (and Fodor's stories) and get tips from them. While I had to endure a little probing about my picky eating habits (sorry, I know I was in Dubrovnik, but I'm just not a big seafood fan!), they coaxed me into trying a delicious meat dish. Thanks for a pleasant dinner, ladies!

On my last full day, I wasn't quite sure what else to do. Day trip to Montenegro? I just didn't feel like hassling with a tour or renting a car; staying put in Dubrovnik seemed easier. By now I guess I was starting to feel a bit weary. I was too late in the season for some of the island excursions you can take in the summer. After walking the walls in the morning, I wound up taking a bus over to the resort area of Lapad, which was a slower pace, a nice place to relax on the beach or something, but not particularly interesting to me. I probably could have planned my time better and walked the walls my last morning in Dubrovnik (before heading to Korcula), but walking the walls was at the top of my list - so I did that earlier. With another day maybe I would have given Montenegro a shot.

Fantastic pictures!
Looks like you were lucky and there was only one cruise ship in. I think there were 3 when I was there and there were queues to even get up onto the walls. Isn't walking the walls a great experience.

Yes, walking the walls was great!

I apologize that this report has become so long! Only three more sections, almost done...

Thanks for a very informative report. I will be there in July and am also a photographer so your photos and info are very useful to me. Couple of questions - those first few photos, the "classic" shot of the old town, where did you take them from? And the over view shots (about half way through your gallery) - is that the one you had to walk up the hill "amongst the view homes" to get? Is it pretty obvious how to get up there? Your night shots are great. I hate carrying a full size tripod so I take a mini one that needs to be balanced on something. You did use a tripod for most of those didn't you?

Also interested in your comment about food. We also prefer to find pizza, sandwich shops etc for most meals. I had feared Croatia might not be as easy to eat like that than some places. Those grocery shops you mention, can you get picnic type food there? Any other tips on inexpensive, quick eating?

We are also going to Korcula and Split so keep the report and photos coming.

Hello Andrew!

Great to see this, though I think I remember reading some of it on your blog, especially the bit about the cats.

I just got back today from my road trip through Bosnia and Herzegovina. I had a terrific few days (though it was terrifying at times!) and will be posting about it before long.

I was in Mostar yesterday for lunch, and got to see my first bridge diver! They seemed to want about 25 euros for him to jump. I put 3 euros in the hat. The guard rails are the same as when I was there in 2007, they've not changed.

Hi Julia!! I've been thinking about you and your trip through BiH - I look forward to hearing about it!!!

In October, FYI, I never saw anyone jump off the Stari Most in Mostar (but I was aware of the tradition) - maybe it was too cold??

Worried now I'm getting long-term memory loss.
I'm sure there were no guard rails on that bridge and I definitely saw men of impressive physique jumping ... or was it diving?

isabel, I'm not sure which pictures you mean in Dubrovnik; the "classic" shot (the entire old town in frame) was the one I had to hike above the town to get to; I just crossed the street up from the Ploce Gate and walked up the stairs past the homes and kept walking and walking and walking...til I hit a sort of dirt road and not far up from there, I found my viewpoint. Other pictures of the town were shot from Fort Lovrijenac just north of the old town. I used a tripod sometimes (especially in low light), hand held other times. I bought a compact tripod (about 5 feet or 1.5 meters tall fully extended) that folded up to be tiny in my carry-on bag - I highly recommend one. This one cost me about $180 USD and was a great investment.

Casual food was limited in Dubrovnik (at least inside the old town) compared to other places in Croatia I visited. Take-away pizza slices I tried were terrible. I bought a whole pizza at Mea Culpa as take-out and walked over to the old port area (where all the excursions leave from) and just ate it sitting there, a sort of picnic. (Pizza was far superior to the crappy take-away place but nothing amazing.) You can buy whatever you need for a picnic at the grocery stores, though.

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

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

I really wanted to avoid the long bus ride from Dubrovnik up the Peljesac peninsula to Orebić (and quick ferry to Korcula) - because I don't care for long bus rides, plus the bus times were not the greatest: leave mid-afternoon, get into Korcula at dusk. On a Saturday in mid-October there seemed no better option to get up to Korcula. I checked into Korkyra travel agency shuttle I'd read about: called 'em, nothing running on Saturday. The daily catamaran service ended in September for the season. The twice weekly Jadrolinija ferry didn't run on Saturday, either. Oh, well, suck it up and take the bus, I decided. So I had much of the afternoon in Dubrovnik to kill, with my departure sort of looming after I checked out of my soba, but the ride wasn't so bad and it was somewhat scenic. Still feeling a tad isolated after traveling solo for two weeks and not knowing a word of the local languages, I was grateful to chat on the bus and at breaks with a nice couple from Minneapolis. That definitely helped pass the time. Once we got to Orebić, there was another short wait for the ferry - the bus just takes it across to Korcula Town.

It was interesting to see how regional bus service works in Croatia. The buses keep schedules and regular stops, of course, but the drivers seem to operate in an "ad hoc" manner and seem to stop basically for anyone who flags them down. Our driver stopped simply take a guy up a few kilometers to where he needed to go, to and from unscheduled stops. The passenger simply worked out where he needed to go with the driver. Other times, you could tell people regularly commuted home via these buses that were not officially "local buses;" at one of our rest stops, one of the servers at the local watering hole getting off work got on our bus toward Orebric and got off a few miles later. Very informal. I can't imagine Greyhound in the US operating in such a fashion, but it seems to work in Croatia.

Our bus arrived in Korcula via ferry about dusk. I had booked a place at the Apartments Lenni. One of the owners met me at the bus stop, and we walked a short distance to the apartment which was up in the old town in a nice but quiet location. The apartment owners rent out a few rooms as well as apartments; a room would have probably have been fine for me alone, but I chose to pay a tad more for an apartment that had a small washing machine (since I figured I'd need to wash some clothes by this point). The studio apartment was tiny with one double bed, one twin wedged behind the dining table, a tiny kitchenette, but a nice place - tastefully decorated, with a fish tank, even! Small but very comfortable - I'd definitely stay again.

Although Korcula has the same "walled fortress" feel as Dubrovnik (but smaller), otherwise the two cities felt like night and day. While Dubrovnik buzzed with people, Korcula felt like a ghost town in the evenings, even on a Saturday night. (I'm guessing August would have been quite busier than October, the end of the season.) There were restaurants open in the evenings but sometimes you could only tell by looking closely as you walked up to them...are they...oh, wait, they ARE open! I ate my meals at a couple of decent Italian restaurants, which were fine but nowhere I would write home about. Sunday afternoon mid-day in Korcula was busier than the evenings, with a few tour groups wandering around, but I still had the distinct feeling of being isolated, on an island. I could imagine island fever setting in had I stayed a few days longer. It was in some ways a welcome relief from the manic pace of Dubrovnik and at the same time, unnerving. Yet Korcula was delightfully charming. It's got the same type of narrow streets, old buildings, steep staircases as Dubrovnik yet is considerably less imposing.

Since I'd arrived late Saturday and was to leave early Monday morning via catamaran to Split, I really had only a full day to explore the town. Without a car, I could have rented rented a scooter I guess to get out of Korcula Town and see more of the island, but I had my camera stuff with me, plus the weather was turning cooler and wetter. I decided just to chill, casually explore the town between rainstorms, do some wash, relax. Buy a few snacks and some laundry detergent at the nearby Konzum (which like everything else closed early on Sunday). Thank goodness I had a netbook and the apartment had good wireless internet! By now I was starting to feel weary, after a couple of weeks of solo travel. The cooling weather didn't help. Sunday was a mix of storms followed by clearing here and there, so I was lucky to get some decent pictures with good light.

I visited none of the few museums Korcula has to offer. Korcula is supposedly the birthplace of Marco Polo; I walked past his supposed house (or family's house) but didn't go in. Didn't get to see the Moreška dance - I was there the wrong time of week I guess. But I walked all over and through and around the old town more than once, up and down the stairs, trying to get to know the place and enjoying the easy walks without mobs of people blocking my way. Of course, I took plenty of pictures. At dusk I didn't exactly get a sunset but got a beautiful red-ish sky that made a nice backdrop for photographing Korcula Town.

My apartment had that little washing machine - IMPOSSIBLE for me to figure out, not one English word on the thing just symbols that made no sense to me - but somehow I got it to work to do a few loads. Unfortunately - no clothes dryer. The apartment had a drying rack so you could dry your clothes outside, like the locals...and this worked great until the first rainstorm came in. Then I had to run back to the apartment and put my clothes inside. There were still a little damp by the time I finally packed up and left the last morning...

Sunday afternoon I figured out where to buy a ticket for the Monday morning (6:00 departure) Krilo Jet catamaran to Split: turns out there was a ticket booth open ONE HOUR a day in the afternoon, near the western ferry dock near the Hotel Korcula. (I could have bought a ticket the morning of departure I suppose but I didn't want the slightest worry I'd not get on.). Another point of confusion: from which ferry dock (east or west) would the Krilo Jet depart in the morning? I asked a few people; no one seemed to know. I saw the Krilo Jet arrive at the western dock the Sunday evening but it wasn't clear it would depart from there. Guess I'd figure it out in the morning. Fortunately, it's only a short walk between docks on the opposite sides of the town.

A bigger worry though was: would the catamaran go at all the next morning? A big storm coming in was supposedly going to be bad - maybe enough to keep the catamaran from going, according to my landlords! Would I be stuck in Korcula another night? When I went to bed the 2nd night, the rain was POURING down, in buckets, and it was so loud I could barely sleep. Wow, I'm NEVER going to leave in the morning, I thought! But I was lucky; when I woke up at 5am, the rain had completely stopped. The catamaran went off as normal without a hitch (from the eastern dock). I was lucky, because the next day an even bigger storm came in and the Krilo Jet indeed did not run that day!

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

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

The catamaran ride up to Split was easy and not bumpy at all, despite the threats of bad weather. We stopped once in Hvar (no time to get off and walk around; I totally would have). On a Monday morning, the catamaran was full of commuters up to Split and Hvar. I imagine students in Korcula take advantage of the better educational opportunities up in Split and commute, maybe once a week or daily, not sure. Anyway, by the time I got to Split (early in the day, by 9:30), I was just feeling weary, as I felt like my trip was winding down - and the weather had turned cooler and more rainy, less fun for taking pictures. But I was still looking forward to Paris!

My first task upon arriving in Split was to find the local Croatia Airlines office on the Riva. I'll try to keep the story of my plane ticket from Split to Paris as short as possible. I'd purchased my ticket for a Croatia Airlines flight via a company in the US called Europe by Air, which sells you discount tickets (passes really) on European airlines: $99 one way (plus tax), for each leg - so if you connect from one flight to a second one, that's TWO legs (two $99 passes). The Croatia Airlines flight I'd booked was direct (one pass) from Split to Paris, only once a week on Wednesday afternoons, so no connections and no getting up in the middle of the night to catch my plane. By booking it with Europe By Air I saved about $160 total. The only supposed hassle was that I'd need to pay the taxes at the airport before departure.

Unfortunately, Croatia Airlines canceled my flight a few days prior to departure! (Good think I checked - Europe by Air had no ability to notify me nor did anyone else.) Croatia Airlines automatically re-booked me on an early 6:00 (yikes!) connecting flight through Zagreb, which I'd painstakingly planned to avoid with that afternoon flight! But there was this flight pass thing - how would they deal with that? (one flight pass for now two flights?) I had to deal with this entirely myself - Europe by Air certainly couldn't be reached on a weekend and never responded to my email queries. Suffice to say, since I was departing out of Split at 6am, I wasn't about to risk trying to clear all of this up airport right before their first flight of the day and still make the plane. The Croatia Airlines office on the Riva helped a little by letting me pay the taxes I owed, but I still needed to head over to the airport itself to get my flight pass thing figured out. (We did get it figured out thank goodness.)

In any event, soon after the catamaran arrival and a brief stop at the Croatia Airlines office, I found my little soba in Split - a modest little family run place called the Peruzovic Rooms - that was close to Diocletian's Palace (and really close to the National Theater) and seemed an excellent value for $42/night. It was a very modest - but clean. The bathroom wasn't musty like the Pension Palac in Baska Voda, but it was also the smallest bathroom I have ever seen! My room had only two single beds (so much for booking last minute) and what was some sort of either a shower for kids or a small bathtub. In any case, I declined to use it at all. I had two nights there and managed to get a different room with a conventional bathroom (and full bed) for the second night.

Once I settled in, I started exploring Split. I had few definite plans beyond "people watch on the Riva" and "explore Diocletian's Palace." (And take lots of pictures, weather permitting.) I actually never took any sort of formal tour of the palace, other than wandering in and around it numerous times. I wandered away from the Riva and the palace more toward the outskirts of Split into the "regular" neighborhoods, some of which are a bit run down. (Fun to see "Hajduk" (local soccer team) graffiti everywhere!). Split is more of a real city not just a tourist destination that Dubrovnik tends to be, and I usually prefer that in cities. So in some ways Split was more inviting than Dubrovnik, but there was certainly far more to see and photograph in Dubrovnik.

Monday night a REALLY bad rainstorm came in (Tuesday the catamaran from Korcula really DIDN'T run so I am lucky I came a day earlier!). I ventured out in the downpour to the Riva and into the shelter of the Buffet Fife, a restaurant favored by locals for the good food and the cheap prices (according to one of my landlords). Decent enough place. Otherwise, I frequented a couple of pizza by the slice joints on the Riva (both right next to each other, basically interchangeable, cheap but good slices). In fact, after the weather improved Tuesday I grabbed a soda from Konzum and a couple of pizza slices and just enjoyed sitting on the Riva where people were out again.

Tuesday the weather cleared considerably and I got some nice sun to get some decent pictures. The best views of Split seem to be from Marjan Hill - a nice walk up a bunch of steps but well worth the views at the top! Tuesday was also the day I took a bus out to the airport to get my ticket issue cleared up. Had I planned this better I could perhaps have visited Trogir since the airport bus from Split ends up there (the city bus, not the Croatia Airlines bus). But after I was done at the airport, I had no idea what the bus schedules were, so I just took a Croatia Airlines bus back into town rather than risk waiting around for hours.

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

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

Getting up at 3:45am to catch a flight in Split - or rather, getting up to catch a Croatia Airlines bus from the Riva in Split to the airport to catch a 6:00 flight - not fun!!! I'd done everything to avoid this flight, including picking this particular Wednesday to take that once-a-week direct afternoon flight to Paris. CANCELED anyway! So I could have removed this constraint entirely and flown out any day of the week. Oh, well. The upside also was that I got to Paris a half a day earlier than originally planned. My time in Paris was already too short.

The Croatia Airlines flights (connecting in Zagreb) were pleasant and uneventful, all on modern jets, a little late out of Zagreb into Paris but no big deal. The flight attendants were women dressed and made up like stewardesses from before feminism, kind of a throw back to old times. I bought a two day full Metro pass at the airport but couldn't use my US credit card (I thought it was the magnetic strip issue but they simply claimed their credit card machine was down) so I had to use Euros left over from Slovenia and Italy. I took the RER from CDG airport into Paris, to my hotel, the Le Méridien Etoile in the 17th arrondissement.

I used the rest of my Starwood hotel points for the Le Méridien Etoile one night and then the Airport Sheraton for my final night, for the convenience of walking directly from the hotel right to CDG terminal 2. (Early Air France flight to Amsterdam to connect to the long flight home.) I left my bags at the Le Méridien for the day after I checked out late, took pictures all day, then picked up my bags early evening and took the RER train back to CDG and the Sheraton. As far as hotels go, the Le Méridien was just OK but the Sheraton was actually quite nice, nicer than I expected.

Paris is probably my favorite city in Europe, but I hadn't been back since 2002! It wound up in my itinerary in part because I needed to stop over in some city in Europe to return via Amsterdam directly to Portland, and Paris worked out best - a nice bonus after the Balkans and Italy! Since I hadn't been to Paris in seven years but had seen most of the "highlights" before, I limited my short time back mostly to re-visiting favorite spots and trying to shoot new photos. Since childhood the Eiffel Tower has been an icon of the Exotic and Exciting, and I'm still drawn to it, so I photographed it a couple of more times. I re-visited the Jardin du Luxenbourg and the Parc Monceau - all beautiful in the fall. Went back to the Sacré-Coeur Basilica and the Notre Dame and the Arc de Triomphe. I wandered around the 17th, where I'd stayed on my first visit in 2000, and wandered around the area of my old hotel - once a Quality Inn, now a boutique hotel well out of my price range - that was impossible to find back in 2000 and created a stressful but nostalgic first memory of Paris.

Another fun memory I re-lived from an earlier visit was to get up before daybreak and photograph the Eiffel Tower at first light (with a much better camera than I owned in 2002). The last time I did this I had just arrived in Paris and was jetlagged; this time I wasn't, but I had been getting up early the last few days anyway! The Tower is not lit in the early morning but there's almost nobody around and it's quite peaceful and beautiful. It was also chilly; Paris was cold. The hot days of Dubrovnik from a week ago were long gone.

Being back in Paris, though - who cares what you do? Cliche as it sounds, I did enjoy just riding around on the Metro and wandering the neighbors again taking pictures of things. It's a beautiful city - a joy to be back.

For lunch one day I grabbed a sandwich at a bakery in the 17th. I dined at a restaurant one night and got - you guessed it - a pizza. My last meal in Paris was, sadly, at McDonalds, because I needed to sort of eat and run before catching a train back to the airport/hotel. Actually, let me be honest and admit that I visited McDonalds a few times in Paris, because they had free WiFi, and I snacked there a few times while checking my email!

On my last evening, I planned to catch a certain RER train back to the airport to get to my hotel at a decent hour but also wanted to photograph one last sunset for good measure. But where to shoot? I finally decided on the Pont Alexandre III, which has a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Seine. This turned out to be a great idea - I got some nice shots with parts of the bridge in foreground and the tower in back - and a beautiful dusk sky! I actually had both my bags with me right there on the bridge while I had my tripod setup, shooting, with people milling all around me. Once I felt "done" I simply packed up my stuff and got on the RER back to CDG. My trip was basically over.

The CDG Sheraton was great - too bad I had so little time there. I got in about 21:00 and had a flight at 7:20 the next morning - but at least I could walk to the terminal in the morning! I was a bit too wound up to get to sleep early and hung out in the Starwood members lounge to use their WiFi and eat snacks - where people were buzzing about "balloon boy" back in the US, before we all realized it was a hoax.

The Air France connecting flight from Paris to Amsterdam the next morning was routine. The flight home from Amsterdam was long but surprisingly flew by (so to speak). Flying direct between the US and Europe with no connections is the ONLY way to go, if you can! I hope Delta keeps this flight so I can use it in the future!

Thanks for reading - sorry this thing ran so long!!!

Thanks Andrew. It was a pleasure. Lots of good memories for me.