Camping and Climbing in Croatia

English version below.

Our journey continues and every day brings so many new experiences that we hardly have the opportunity to write them all down. When we tell Alex, our roommate in Rijeka, about our journey, we realize how much we have actually experienced lately. But let's start from the beginning...

First, we went to Zagreb, where we originally planned to just plan our further travels. In the end, we extended our stay there twice and stayed for almost a week. It was simply a wonderful city to wander around, partly due to the wonderful Mali Mrak, the hostel where we stayed, and Igor, its owner. If you ever come to Zagreb, this is the place you want to stay; be it because of the artistically designed rooms, the shaded outdoor kitchen, or the many good conversations we had there. Here is the website: http://www.hostel-zagreb.com/

What else? Canon shots, Art Park, Strukle, an abandoned hospital, bunker tunnels, Gin Tonic Night, fresh fruit and vegetables from the market, the Yugoslav War, swimming in the river with wild turtles... More than can be described in a few sentences.

Afterwards, we headed south to the island of Cres, where we spent a few days in the paradise of Beli. After sufficiently recovering at the beach, we hiked up the hills on old Roman roads, following small stone artworks along the way. We crossed oak forests with wrinkled old trees and the stone ruins of settlements that were abandoned about 100 years ago. In between, we also came across stone labyrinths and meadows with apple trees that had been 'mowed' by the wandering sheep. The day ended with a Croatian hit party, to which we were dragged by two crazy Czechs, and a night swimming session, during which a thousand glowing sparks suddenly flashed around us in the water. Bioluminescent algae! It was like swimming through a massive swarm of fireflies.

The next day, the two Czechs took us back to Cres, a harbor town that has preserved much of its original Mediterranean charm, from where our ferry left the next day.

Back in Rijeka on the mainland, we continued our journey by train to Hungary, the country where a strange language is spoken. But more on that later...

Our journey goes on, but everyday we make so many new experiences that it's impossible to write about all of them. When telling Alex, our roommate in Rijeka, about our travels we realize how much we have already experienced in the past month. However, first things first...

Our first stop in Croatia was in Zagreb. Initially we wanted to stay there only for a short time to plan the next steps of the journey. However, we liked the vibe of the city and of the Mali Mrak, the hostel we stayed at, so much, that we stayed there for a week, together with Igor, our host, and the other travellers who came and went everyday. If you should ever get to Zagreb that's the place where you want to go. Here's the website: http://www.hostel-zagreb.com/

What else? Canonshots, Art Park, Strukle, an abandoned hospital, bunker tunnels, Gin Tonic night, fresh fruit and vegetables from the market, Yugoslav War, swimming in the river with wild turtles... too much for only a few sentences.

Then we went south to the island Cres where we spent some days in the paradise of Beli. After chilling at the beach for some time we went for a hike up the hills, following an antique Roman road through old oak forests and stone ruins of settlements that where abandonend about 100 years ago. Between the trees we found stone labyrinths and huge plains with some apple trees, trimmed by the local sheep that roam the island. The day ended with two crazy Czechs leading us to a Croatian country music party and a nightly swimming session through glowing sparks in the water. Luminous algae! It felt like swimming through a pond of thousands of fireflies.

The day after, the two Czechs took us back to the harbour town of Cres, that still felt like an old mediterranian port. From there we took the ferry back to Rijeka the mainland.

Afterwards our journey went on by train to Hungary, a country where they speek a peculiar language. But this is a story another time.