We had a ship booked with a few mates from the 10th of September (Sail Croatia)
Its cheaper than western Europe
Its out of the Schengen Zone.
Stunning coastline, calm water and a lot of history.
A good introduction into Eastern Europe.
Other then booking Sail Croatia before we'd left Australia, we hadn't planned how we'd get to Croatia, what we wanted to see or what it had to offer. A few of our mates back home have done the Sail Croatia thing and from what we'd seen via social media it look the goods. At the time of leaving Switzerland we'd spent 73 days out of a possible 90 in the Schengen Zone of Europe so we had to think about exiting soon - and to keep a few days up our sleeve meant maybe we could visit Greece, Hungry or other Bulkan boarding countries over the next few months.
We snagged some flights via easyjet - about 50 euros each including luggage - to fly from Geneva to Split so we decided to take the attractive price and head down to Croatia a couple of weeks before Sail Croatia and see what it had to offer.
Our Sail Croatia itinerary takes us to islands and southern coastal areas of Croatia for seven nights so we decided to head up the northern coast line on a six hour bus ride (costing 15AUD each) to Zadar with nothing other than rest and relaxation planned. Thankfully we had an air conditioned, self contained apartment where we could catch up on sleep and take it all in for a few days.
Zadar is famous for its sun sets. Tourists and locals alike flock down to the edge of the esplanade each night during summer to watch. Earnest Hemmingway quoted "best sunsets in the world". Also featuring the sea organ which is a musical instrument built into the walls of the marble steps. The waves create a lovely tune while watching the sunset..
The port of Zadar - to the left is the banks of Old Town Zadar - to the right 'new town'.
The beaches are lined with pebbles - sand is something we take for granted back home. The pebbles hurt to walk on and lie on.
The Landward Gate - with the lion of Saint Mark and a symbol of the republic of Venice atop. Gate to the fortified old town.
This bloke, dog up the top - living the dream.
Morning run - this is the Zadar Sea Organ, an organ constructed into the pavement such that when a wave hits the wall a tune is played.
Our accommodation was roughly 2km from the Old Town centre of Zadar, parts of the old town date back to a couple of thousand years and the Roman Empire. This was our first introduction to coastal Croatia and first impressions were pretty good. The old town streets are lined with polished stone (slippery when wet) and is fortified with a massive stone wall.
Amy standing on roman ruins with a 9th century church in the background.
We climbed the clock tower pictured in the background of the above few images. I think it cost about 15 kuna or 3 AUD each.
Looking over Zadar
Looking over to the Island Ugljan, about a 20min ferry ride
Lounging at The Garden Lounge bar - a must visit when at Zadar. Expensive comparatively with what you can pay for a beer at a pub or supermarket but a ripper vibe and location.
Our first swim in Croatia - dive off the esplanade into the salty (significantly more salty than Australia) warm water.
After a few days in Zadar we hired a car and visited Krka and Plitvice National Parks - over night before returning to Zadar. Then we caught the ferry to Ugljan Island and the village of Kali for a further lazy four nights of more beach and relaxation before Sail Croatia.
Bringing up the 100th day of traveling!
water so calm and clear
Kali is know as a famous fisherman's village and some of the most successful fishermen around the world (apparently). Our four nights here included swimming, sleeping and sun-baking. We were entering Autumn and hadn't really capitalised on the European summer so we took a few days just to soak it up and relax for the first time of the trip.
Kali is small and pretty authentic coastal Croatian village. Full of locals and only a couple of tourists. We paid 25kuna or $5AUD for a hamburger at the cafe/bar at the local swimming area and about $3AUD for a pint of Croatian beer which is pretty dam good - better than any Carlton United stuff from home.
out for dinner
Every garden front and back was used for growing fruit and vegetables
walking to the beach - narrow concrete streets with large houses.
Local
Not sure what happened here, but an interesting sight in the port of Kali - looks as through it has been there a while.
The political capital of Switzerland, like what Canberra is to Australia. We've been aware of Geneva throughout our travels as people we come across have flown into there, or had a connecting flight there etc. The city itself consists of about 200,000 persons and is where a lot of UN, world political events happen... They speak French and dress real flash with boat shoes, shirts and moleskins.
Our stay here was just a vessel to wait for our cheap flights to Split.
We stayed at an AirBnB for two nights next to the train station in Down Town Geneva, lets just say it was an eye opener... Bloody easy to get to from public transport! Our first impressions of the Swiss is they have money and arrogance.. Down Town Geneva had a hooker or two working most of the corners. Went to the laundromat and that was certainly an experience.. no one at the laundromat spoke English but they demanded your help, not sure what they even wanted..
We were still on a bit of a downer after all our stuff got stolen when the van was broken into..
We've really relied on our laptop to plan, book things and blog so we decided we would dip into the savings and buy a new laptop. Knowing we are headed for Croatia, and then the Bulkans for the next couple of months, this was our only opportunity in a 'more western' place to sort our shit out. So, off to the Apple store - thankfully the service was incredible. The service bloke gave us some discount on our purchases and also some free beats headphones. We needed a new camera charger, the bloke in a camera got one out of a new camera box for us, slowly our faith in the Swiss was semi restored..
Not sure what this was...but you could see it from everywhere.. so many asians standing underneath it getting wet, trying to take photos!
Old town Geneva..
Brendan strutting his stuff with his new backpack down the Old Town..
New backpack day
Very French feel... just with more glam. Walking through the streets you get a feel there is quite a bit of money around. The whole town seemed a lot quieter then some of the previous places we'd visited recently.
Lake Geneva..
Cheeky cuppa at our Airbnb
The view from our accommodation window, it was hot and loud. Hot, as in 30 degrees plus..inside..no fan or air conditioning..
Time to hit the road, Croatia awaits.. we got to the train station at 1am. flight was at 6am, but the train at 5am would have been pushing it.. got locked on a train that wasn't meant for us, lucky someone saw us or we would have been spending the night in a depot somewhere.... interesting times.. looking forward to the next adventure, time to slow down and relax for a couple of weeks on a beach before we kick it into gear again.
So, the back end of our road trip in the camper finds us here, a few km above Martigny around 1200m above sea level. Clean air, off the grid, just taking it all in with some of our best mates. We spent 7 nights ripping it up, hiking up glaciers, chopping wood, eating chocolate and cheese, drinking frothies, cooking on a campfire and exploring the area...
Chronologically ordered, the below photos represent our little adventure here.
Jake dropping those raclette bombs - first night at the chalet we were treated to some swiss cheese on spuds with a side of pickle. A perfect start to a ripper few days in the swiss alps.
nom nom nom nom - we had multiple servings of this, it was amazing!
happy days!!!! a random chalet on an ascent to one of the peaks behind the chalet.
them views
The reason we're here, Frank - Trelawny's father, and a bloke I've done some racing with back in Stawell. Happy 60th Frank for November!
pre-rissoles
During rissoles - hot work
The chalet, off gird and humble but a mass of charm.
Post-rissoles
The girls built a staircase one arvo while we chopped wood. To walk down to the chalet from the road where we'd park you'd be faced with 20-30% gradients.
Them views - photo cred. Trelawny
A few hundred meters up the road there was a 'look out' over Martigny
Also featuring in this years TdF, La Forclaz pass was a stones throw from the chalet and we managed to spend a couple of days hiking from this point.
A couple of days in we were joined by Brett (a school mate of Jakes) and his partner Brooke....legends!
not a bad place for a chop off
One arvo lunch was cheese fondue - bloody amazing and one of my favourite meals of our trip to date! Jake and Ame did the cooking and they nailed it!
Brett and Brooke during a morning berry picking
Wild blue berries were abundant, we also snagged some wild strawberries and raspberries.
the road up to the chalet over looking grape vine and the city of Martigny
Gruyère - an old village on top of a hill. World renown for its cheese!!! We paid about 20euro each for a toasted cheese sandwich and it was hell worth it!! best. cheese. ever.
The crew - another addition to the squad, Mr. Will Paddock. A workaway mate of Jake and Tarn's flew over from the UK to catch up.
An arvo swimming at Lake Geneva on the way back from Gruyère - the place our camper was broken into....
pickle club - camp out at the 'look out' this night was a beauty!!
in-joke peanut m&m's were consumed consistently while Brett was with us. The M&Ms got us through the bad times and the good!..
A morning spent in Martigny and a cooked lunch including 2 min noodles and left overs for the squad. Perks of driving everywhere in a campervan.
Hiking The Mysterious Gorge just past the pass of La Forclaz
We are so grateful to Jake and Trelawny and their family that we were given the opportunity to spend a ripper week at their chalet. We will defiantly take away some amazing memories, laughs and experiences from our time there. Hopefully another time in the future we get an opportunity to get back to this part of the world.
We are Amy and Brendan from Australia currently travelling throughout Europe. The intention for this blog is to document our adventure for family and friends. We hope you enjoy it!
