We did a trip to Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia in about two weeks. The London Dubrovnik flights is two hours and we took a rental car and checked into the Airbnb, which was about half an hour walk from the Old City. The Old City walking tour covered the Old City walls, the history and other interesting ideas. Saint Blaise is the patron saint of Dubrovnik and is revered and respected, has a cathedral in his name inside the Old City and there are several other similar ones across Dubrovnik, including smaller chapels. Dubrovnik became famous because the old walls were used as a for Game of Thrones shoot, with the most famous being the Walk of Shame, which was quite a bold concept at that time. Dubrovnik also got bombed in the early 90s when the separation from Yugoslavia was happening and you can see some marks on the Old City. Interestingly prior to that, Dubrovnik has never been harmed. I think as a trading port, possibly next to Venice, it understood that trade will continue irrespective of who the rulers are and was more often than not willing to accept sovereignty of other rulers instead of putting up a fight.
We went to Lapad beach, which has a very nice boardwalk, you can go on the seafront, go on the beach, do remember if you are from India, these are not sandy beaches, they are pebble beaches, so you need to possibly wear the right kind of footwear and definitely carry towels to the beach wherever you go. We did a day visit to Medjugorje, which is in Bosnia, from Dubrovnik, there is a checkpoint where if you have a multiple entry Schengen visa, they let you in and obviously you check back as well on the way. Medjugorje's Apparition hill is where we went and climbed up the very rocky path. There are people who do this barefoot and some have done it on knees as well apparently. There is a steep one and a slightly slower slope, you can choose any of those routes and for Christians it is a pilgrimage point which is visited regularly.
On the way back from Medjugorje we stopped at the Krevica waterfalls, which is like a semi-circular waterfall with a little boating, a nice scenic place, you can sit, it's good for a day picnic and after that we headed back to Dubrovnik. The second part of our Croatian journey was at Podstrana, which is about 30 minutes drive from Split. It is on the Adriatic sea with pebble stone beaches and a nice boardwalk going a few kilometers. Shopping, everything is convenient, the only thing that you need to be careful about is how close you are to the road. A lot of places have a sea view but it is challenging for people who want to go up and down as it is tough on the knees.
From Podstrana, we also made a day trip to Zadar island and tried to do Plitivice lakes as well on the same day, which we were unsuccessful. Zadar is nice, beautiful island, nice pictures, photographs, clear skies, but I mean the rest of Croatia is almost similar to that. It gets written a lot, so we did visit . Then we had a nice dinner at Sug, which is a decent restaurant in Split. and visited the Diocletian's Palace in the old city, where they enacted some Roman soldiers doing a march, etc. Since these places are very close to Italy, and obviously Italian influence, gelato is something that you should enjoy everywhere, though some of the chains were less than optimal.
Finally we drove down to Rijeka, because the original plan was to go to Pula and fly out from there, but that kind of changed after we'd made the booking. So from Rijeka we made two trips into Slovenia, and we were stopped the first time at the border for checking. We visited Vintgar Gorge and did the hike, as well as Lake Bled on the same day. It started raining later in the day and we really could not get out of the car at Lake Bled. At Vinatgar Gorge please really figure out how to get back, because there are many routes, and we struggled with it, and then it started raining, so we had to take a cab to where our car was parked. So just plan out the routes properly if you're going to Vintgar Gorge. A nice little hike amongst the mountains, with small waterfalls and scenic beauty.
We also went to Postanja Caves, which was possibly the highlight of the whole trip. The cave features a train that takes visitors inside, with a guided tour and audio devices explaining the stalagmites and stalcites. It's truly a natural wonder. So do not miss the Postanja Cave, anytime you're nearby. Slovenia is interesting, though bordering Croatia, 60% of its land mass is forest, and you can make it out with the greenery and the small villages dotting the landscape. From Rijeka we drove down to Zagreb for a day, saw the city square etc. It's like any European city, beautiful city square, nice buildings etc. But you've seen one city, you've seen it all. All in all, a good trip to Croatia, the highlight being the Postanja Cave and the Medjugorje visit.
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