My two brothers, sister and I went to Croatia in August earlier this year. I took my GoPro and did a fair bit of snorkelling. I’ve been sitting on several hours of footage ever since. I’ve made a point of editing it over the past couple of days because I’m going to Egypt at the end of the week with Karis, again with my GoPro and undoubtedly coming back with a shed load of footage again! We landed in Split and made our way down to Dubrovnik via some of the islands along the way by ferry.
It’s a pretty impressive place to be as far as views go. The sea is crystal clear, the landscape is impressive and some of the old buildings are really awesome. There’s not a great deal of marine life to look at but having not been in waters this clear for a long time I was pretty content. I love being in clear, warm sea. The food in Croatia seems to be relatively bland so that’s certainly not its strong point but what it lacks in cuisine it makes up for in other aspects. The locals seem to have plenty of character. One small town we stayed in didn’t have a restaurant. They did have local family who have a son that goes out fishing during the day which caters for visitors / locals in the evening. That was the most memorable meal I’ve had for a while—really fresh fish that was delicious. We hired a car for a few days at one stage which was funny at times. Attempting to climb a single track road which basically comprises of rubble put the Chevrolet Aygo through a tough test. It failed…. and we turned around. We certainly saw some parts of the small island we were on that we wouldn’t have got to see otherwise. Some of the tiny beaches and houses on the jagged coastline are amazing. We even swam to a tiny island that is uninhabited at one point. The water is so clear you could just about make out the sea bed all the way across. Our hosts at the apartments we stayed at were really relaxed and helpful. Couldn’t have asked for more really.
We went to an old fort at one stage and met a couple of blokes who were using the tower to lookout for a fire that had been reported on the island. So they say anyway, they could have been taking the afternoon off to sink a couple of cold ones for all I know! One guy was particularly interesting; he was telling us about the history of the fort and his life in sailing and shipping goods around the world for 25 years. The old city in the centre of Dubrovnik is definitely worth a visit too. It’s pretty overrun with tourists, as you’d expect, but it is amazing. It’s hundreds of years old and is all pretty much intact. You can get a ticket to walk along the top of the city walls—definitely a good way to see it I reckon. Beyond that it’s worth a walk round the tiny passage ways around the edges of the old city.
Most of the video below is snorkelling really To be fair, most of the holiday was snorkelling—perfect if you ask me! You’ll notice the camera comes off my head and sinks to the bottom at the start of the video, a good few metres down. Without the use of flippers I would never have got down to it and back up again. It was very close as it was. Liz pointed out it had gone before I realised. I’ve invested in a Bobber for next time so I don’t lose it! That was the first of three things that could have potentially been a disaster. The second was losing the apartment keys. They were in Chris’ pocket before he went in the water and they had gone when he got out. Problem is we didn’t realise until we’d climbed the 200 steps back up to the apartment. Luckily I spotted them the moment I dived back in to look for them. I also left my SLR at a cocktail bar at one stage and didn’t realise until about 1km down the path—I ran all the way back to get it. Fortunately someone had given it to the bar staff and I got it back. Close one.
This was also my first go with some of the new tools in After Effects CS6 for the title which are pretty cool. This title is a bit sketchy in places but I’m looking forward to having a go with those new features again soon.
Rick and I left Dubrovnik for home. Chris and Liz went on to Bosnia and visited Mostar for a couple of days.
There’s a lot of Croatia that we haven’t seen still—mainland Croatia has probably got a few gems worth seeing. Croatia feels fairly untapped in terms of tourists for the most part which makes now a good time to see it. Hopefully I’ll make it back there one day.
Egypt, here I come…