We are traveling with Smartours on their Oct.4 "Jewels of the Adriatic" tour and would appreciate suggestions from viewers who have been to Slovenia and Croatia. Any special foods, restaurants or drinks. Any information would help.

What fun! You'll no doubt be going to Dubrovnik. Be sure to walk the wall. Do a search on Croatia and you'll find some great trip reports here with good tips.

I just got back from Croatia this past Saturday and am working on a trip report which you may find useful once I get it posted. I had such a wonderful time there. Dubrovnik is a very special place, as is Trogir and Brac. I was sad to leave. More later.

Definitely do the wall walk as Grasshopper suggested. I loved it so much, I did it twice in one day (once with color film, again with b/w). My girlfriend wasn't too pleased but there are a number of shops, vendors, cafes, etc up there. And the views are simply magnificent.

As for food and drinks, you will undoubtedly sample the seafood (excellent) and every restaurant has its house liquour - be sure to sample them, they can be very interesting.

Have a great trip!

Regards, Bruce
Croatia Travel Photos - http://www.brucegcollier.com/galleri...level2_all.htm

I have a few suggestions for Zagreb. If you want to taste real local food (which is btw very opposite to Mediterranean southern Croatian cuisine) go to Kaptolska Klet restaurant which is located across from the Cathedral.
At the moment two wonderful exhibitions take place in Zagreb. Dora Maar and Picasso in Klovicevi Dvori Gellery and 7000 Years of Persian Art (first time outside Iran) in Mimara Museum.

Jacob, can you tell us something about local Zagreb cuisine?

Bruce, what wonderful pictures! Mathieu, I am waiting to read your report!

Bruce,

Your photographs are outstanding !
My goodness. Having just been there, they have added resonance for me.

Pat, I'm doing my best but it is not an easy task. I hope to have it out soon.

M.

Grasshopper,
Zagreb cuisine is similar to those of Central Europe. Because of thousands of years of mixing different influences, it is a complex mix of mostly Austrian and Hungarian food with a little bit of Italy and even Turkey.
Food is mostly simple and hearty, usually meat dishes with simple vegetable, potato or pasta accompaniment.

Some usual dishes are turkey, duck or goose with mlinci (a sort of pasta), strukli (sort of cottage-cheese strudels), bean soups and in generally all sort of soups (vegetable, mushrooms, meat), sausages with sauerkraut, grilled meat, goulash, kotlovina (it can't be really translated but it is mixture of meat and sausages grilled on easy fire for quite a long time), lungici (pork fillet), many different venison dishes, vegetable stews, sarma (minced rice and meat rolled in cabbage leaves - sauerkraut), punjena paprika (peppers stuffed with minced meat and rice and cooked in tomato juice), fried food - meat and vegetables, breaded meat (Zagreb steak, Vienna steak, breaded poultry), pancakes, cottage cheese with cream, pastries, fancy breads and rolls, cheese, apple and cherry pies and strudels, kremsnite (cream cake), nut-cakes... Schwarzwald and Sacher cake are considered to be local and typical desserts, although we all know where they came from... Just "few" I can think of now.
The bottom line, everything has to be organic, fresh, prepared on traditional way so it looks like (and taste) like it is homemade.

Pat, Mathieu,

Thank you for the nice comments regarding the photos. In a place as beautiful as Croatia, it wasn't very difficult.

Regards, Bruce
www.brucegcollier.com