After spending a few days hiking in Bled, Slovenia, I headed to the capital of Croatia: Zagreb.

City: Zagreb

How Long: 3 nights

Accommodation:

I stayed at the Swanky Mint in Zagreb. It was a larger hostel with two separate bars that were filled with both locals and guests staying at the hostel. It also had a common room attached to the guest kitchen, which was just for guests. I did find it a little hard to meet people but that is to be expected at a larger hostel with a bar in the building. The beds were comfy and the lockers were big enough to hold my backpack. I will say that the staff were spectacular! I was sick and asked for extra blankets and they were happy to help me. They also made sure the heater was working. I just felt they consistently went above and beyond!

Where to eat:

One of my favorite meals from this trip was at La Struk in Zagreb. WOW it was so good. They serve a traditional Croatian meal called strukli. It’s basically dough and cheese + whatever variation of flavor you choose and then they throw it in the oven and it comes out piping hot. SO GOOD. I had the truffle strukli and the blueberry strukli because yes I came back twice. HIGHLY recommend a stop here if you are in Zagreb. Other than this I used leftover groceries from Lake Bled to save money.

My blueberry Strukli

What to do:

I arrived in Zagreb feeling fairly sick so unfortunately I did not do much while I was there but I did go on the free walking tour, which as always was a great way to orient myself and get a flavor for the history and culture. ALSO, after my walking tour I ran into Tom, a Brit I had met at my hostel in Bled. He had come to Zagreb with another girl I had met at Bled so we decided to grab drinks later that night. Always so much fun to randomly run into people you’ve met at previous stops along your trip. I’m so glad we ran into each other because Tom and Sam, the Kiwi he was traveling with, decided to come with me to my next stop!! The three of us took off the next day for Plitvice Lakes National Park.

Viewpoint of Zagreb

St. Mark’s Church, and no it is not made of legos 🙂

Walking through town

Zagreb Cathedral (Tallest building in Croatia)

Overall thoughts:

Because I was sick, I didn’t really get a full chance to explore Zagreb as it deserves. Although, from what I saw I don’t know if I need to go back. It was a capital city that felt not all too different from any other metropolitan capital city. I keep finding that I like smaller towns and this felt a little too industrial for me.

City: Plitvice Lakes National Park

How Long: 2 nights

Accommodation:

I stayed at the awesome Falling Lakes Hostel while exploring the Plitvice Lakes National Park. This hostel was GREAT. I was in a 10 person room and there were large locker under the bed (my favorite type because it’s so easy to just grab what you need!) Nice guest kitchen and plenty of bathrooms/showers. There was a common room with plenty of seating. My favorite part of this hostel was all the board games they had!! Tom, Sam and I played Settlers of Catan on our table while others at the hostel played other games, and others still were playing guitar and singing. Such a fun scene.

Where to eat:

The three of us went to the store for both dinners and made pasta one night, and pizza the other. It was a fun struggle because Tom is vegetarian, but I don’t like tomato sauce so both nights the three of us had a slightly deconstructed version of the meal. Sam and I would have meat on ours, while Tom and Sam had tomato sauce other theirs. Nevertheless, it was delicious! On our hike at the national park, we just bought lunch at the restaurant in the park.

What to do:

The main/only reason to come here is to go to the Plitvice Lakes National Park. IT IS INCREDIBLE!! Basically it’s a magical place filled with waterfalls around every corner. The photos below do not do it justice!! Highly recommend a visit here. This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

Beginning our hike though the most magical place 🙂

Look at this water!!!

The waterfalls begin

Up we go

WOW

SO MANY WATERFALLS

Tom, Me, & Sam

Friends 🙂

Unbelievable

Look at that water flow

The tallest waterfall in the park

Overall thoughts:

Please visit this incredible spot! I can’t say enough good things 🙂

After this awesome spot, Tom and Sam decided to follow me again, but this time to Split!! We decided to try out hand at hitchhiking, to the dismay of my mother (my dad was fully supportive, which is why I told him beforehand and not Mom 🙂 ) Unfortunately it was raining, which means it is much less likely that someone will pick you up. BUT someone did stop while we were waving our “SPLIT” sign around. However, he was going to Zadar not Split. We made a group decision to take him up on his offer, figuring we would at least be that much closer to Split. He was a super nice guy who was on his way to work in Zadar. We arrived in Zadar and walked around until we found “Crazy Pizza” which was an indeed pretty crazy as the pizza’s were HUGE. After lunch we found the sea organ that is famous in Zadar, which is essentially an organ that makes noise as the water hits it (?) It was pretty cool even if I don’t totally understand how it works. The rain started coming down so we decided to give up on hitchhiking and took a bus the rest of the way to Split.

Anyone wanna take us to Split???

City: Split

How Long: 3 nights

Accommodation:

I stayed at the Backpackers Fairytale hostel in Split. While the facilities were for the most part adequate as there was a guest kitchen, nice sized lockers, and a common room, my experience here was ruined by the staff. They were unavailable, rude, and seemed annoyed to help me whenever I had questions. Also there were not enough showers/bathrooms. The beds were also super squeaky so whenever someone turned over the whole room could hear it. Also, security was sorely lacking, as a girl turned up around midnight, somehow got into the hostel and crashed in the bed above me, without having a reservation. There was no staff around to stop this so I think she just left in the morning and the staff were none the wiser… Would not stay here again.

Where to eat:

Our favorite spot ended up being a restaurant in one of the main squares called Bepa! We ate there for breakfast twice and wish we had time to eat there again. The first time I had a delicious chia pudding with a hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was one of the best I’ve ever had… seriously. It was so thick and rich. It almost felt like a chocolate pudding. I wish I could have another one right now as I am writing this. We also went to Fife for Tom’s last dinner before he left to go back to England. It was a great spot with cheap, yummy food.

Chia pudding at Bepa

Tom feat. his fruit infused water at Bepa

What to do:

We walked around the old walled in city in Split, which is super cool. No matter how many “old towns” or “walled in cities” I see, I still think they are awesome!! Maybe it’s because we don’t have any in the States, but I just love an “old town.” We also walked along the beach and found a spot to lay down and read for a bit. On Tom’s last night we went to grab a drink at a bar that turned into a nightclub as the night went on. We had fun singing and dancing to the music until it turned into very clubby music and we decided to leave. Tom caught a flight early the next morning, leaving Sam and I to our own devices for out last day in Split. We decided to catch a ferry to a city called Supertar, which is on Brač, the third largest island in the Adriatic Sea. Supertar has 3,300 habitants, but apparently it is a growing population as we saw construction of a lot of new houses. We enjoyed wandering the old streets and then plopped ourselves on the beach to read for a couple of hours. We ate a yummy lunch before heading back to the port to grab our ferry to Split.

Split

Tom pondering his life as sailboats sail on by

So pretty

Can’t get over this water!

Tom testing the water

On the clock tower

Split from the clock tower

Relaxing in Supertar

Overall thoughts:

I really enjoyed my time in this city. It was definitely touristy and busy, so I can’t imagine what it’s like in August!! But I still have a blast walking around and finding my favorite ice cream places and bakeries. I also bought a punch of lavender so now my bag smells amazing! Definitely would go back to Split!

Now off to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina 🙂