Church towers in Zagreb.
When I studied abroad in London the fall semester of my junior year, I was lucky enough to spend several long weekends traveling to mainland Europe. My favorite trip was to Croatia; it’s beautiful, especially Plitvice National Park, the food is inexpensive and delicious, which is key as a broke study abroad student, and it’s off the beaten track. Early this year, I learned that two of my favorite people, my college friends Kyle and Lauren, would be in Croatia in late May. I immediately made plans to meet them there. Croatia was part of a larger med school graduation trip with a few of Kyle’s fellow graduates, all of whom were happy to let me crash their travels for a long weekend.
I flew from Bristol to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, to meet up with Kyle and Lauren. I’d call it a glorious reunion, which for a moment it was, but they’re the sort of friends where we pick back up right where we left off. We spent the afternoon eating štrukli, a Croatian dish that I’d describe as cheesy dumplings in a casserole dish (yum), and wandering through the city. While none of us are big on museums, we gave the quirky Museum of Broken Relationships a chance. It turned out to be a wonderful place to spend an hour, full of happy, funny, sad, and serendipitous stories about relationships from many generations and parts of the world. Afternoon became evening as we happened upon a cluster of food and beer trucks. Among the trucks was a gazebo hosting live music, and we settled in for an night of street food and local beer.
The next day, Kyle, Lauren, and their crew got in a rental car to drive south to Split. I stayed in Zagreb for the day for a couple of reasons: there wasn’t room in their rental car, and I didn’t mind another day in the capital city. If you’ve read my blog or traveled with me, you might be able to guess the first activity of my solo travel day: a free walking tour. It was one of the better free walking tours that I’ve been on because of an engaging tour guide and Croatia’s interesting history, which includes major events that occurred in my lifetime, such as their declaration of independence from Yugoslavia. After the tour, I enjoyed the freedom of travelling alone, including a late afternoon nap followed by a jog around the parks south of the city. Antsy to meet back up with my friends after a day on my own, I went to bed early to catch a morning flight to Dubrovnik.
Friends walking the walls of Dubrovnik.
Flying to Dubrovnik instead of driving via Split meant a 1 hour flight instead of 7 hours of driving. I beat Kyle, Lauren, and co. to Dubrovnik by a few hours, which is just enough time for, you guessed it, another free walking tour. If you aren’t familiar, Dubrovnik is one of the best maintained medieval cities in the world. For much of its history, it was a city state with significant economic wealth due to seafaring trade. After learning these and many other interesting facts on the walking tour, almost all of which I no longer remember, I parroted them back to Kyle and Lauren when they arrived. I’m not sure if they listened, cared, or had any interest whatsoever in what I was saying, but I enjoyed acting as an amateur tour guide. Just as I was hitting my tour guide stride, however, I was interrupted. As we walked through the gate into the city, I saw a face that I recognized. I stopped, stared at him for a second to let my brain catch up with seeing a Madison-based Epic employee so far out of context, and finally said “hi Tony!” We exchanged pleasantries, he explained that he was on his sabbatical (see this if you’re unfamiliar with Epic’s sabbatical program), and I ran off to catch up with my group to resume my self-assigned tour guide duties.
Ambling along the walls was my favorite thing we did in Dubrovnik. The views are stunning in every direction, and there is something enchanting about every building having the same orange colored roof. Other than walking the walls and wandering the narrow, windy streets, we had beverages on the ocean and spent an afternoon hiking on Lokrum, an island a short ferry ride away featuring beaches, walking trails, and a surprising number of peacocks. Overall, I had a lovely time in Croatia nearly 8 years after my first visit. Zagreb was authentic and a place where I felt like I was able to live like a local, Dubrovnik was stunning and historic but awash with large groups of tourists, and spending time with Kyle and Lauren was the highlight of the trip. If y’all are reading this: come back to Europe!