Croatia
04 July 2007 | Murter
Alison
Ahhhhhhhhhh Croatia..... the beautiful Dalmation Coast with over 1100
islands to cruise around in..... crystal clear water, tons of anchorages,
wonderful little towns, incredibly well preserved medieval cities and towns,
roman stuff, greek stuff, pretty good food, a cruiser's paradise!
............................... A RICH cruiser that is. Croatia has turned
out to be very expensive, more so than we even anticipated. We expected to
pay lots of money to stay in marinas, so we've avoided them whenever
possible. (a one night stay at the marina in Zadar cost $90 usd!-- that's a
new record for us.) To put that in perspective, in spain it was about
$15/night...or maybe $25 during high season.) And with the constant erosion
of the dollar, it's making it even more painful. "But," you say, "what
about all those fabulous islands to anchor in?" True, and we do.... but
more often than not, we have to PAY the local town to put our own anchor in
their waters. unheard of!!!! So, that sense of freedom that all cruisers
experience to find a neat town and a good secure harbour to anchor in for as
long as we like is rare.... All this to say that we've decided to shorten
our trip to Croatia. Instead of 3 months here, we're going to leave after
about 5-6 weeks, i think.
Now the good things: Croatians are friendly people, and they've reacted
to our Zoey more enthusiastically than any other nationality, so far. And
most Croatians speak English, too. Thank goodness, since slavic languages
are TOTALLY different from the romance languages i'm familiar with.
Beautiful Dubrovnik is justifiably a UNESCO world heritage site, as is
Trogir. They've done an amazing job rebuilding and restoring the
incredibly intact medieval town after their War for Independence in the
early 1990's. Unfortunately, Dubrovnik gets invaded by 3 -5 giant cruise
ships every day. We've never seen so many tourists in one place. The
old walled city was wall to wall people.... and unfortunately for the local
economy, cruiseboat tourists don't occupy hotel rooms nor eat many meals
ashore. Croatia is also a MAJOR center for charter boaters. And though it
IS good for the local economy, it's a little scary sometimes for us to be in
an anchorage or on a dock surrounded by charterboaters. Many just don't
have a clue. We need to be at our destination by 2pm so there's still
space left in the anchorage or in the marina before all the charterboaters
arrive. We usually don't cruise more than 15 or 20 miles a day. We liked
Trogir the best. It's a lovely preserved medieval town, nice setting with
a long promenade at the town dock, a somewhat secure (although UN-free)
anchorage AND they had ice cream that was ALMOST as good as italian
gelato....but not quite. Hvar town is THE Croatian destination where
people go "to be seen". Their town harbour was one of those places where
boats put fenders on... i.e., they're anchored so closely to each other,
that the fenders protect the boats in case they bump into each other!!!
Fortunately we made it through without a scratch. Additionally, we've
visisted Korcula (its walled city is like a mini Dubrovnik), Vis, Brac,
Mljet, Rogoznica (where we made friends and did some serious socializing
with 2 Aussie boats). Currently, we're in a FREE anchorage in little
Murter town, which for some reason is off the charterboaters beaten path
(YEA!) We plan to stop in Split on our way south. Croatian beaches are not
what people come here for. They're frequently rock ledges or concrete slabs
or sometimes if you're very lucky, a little patch of stone and pebbles at
the water's edge. And there are PLENTY of naked bodies draping themselves
over these rocks! Croatian food features lots of seafood. Chuck regularly
orders an octopus salad as his first course. We've also had good beef
dishes here, (which we never did in Italy).
We just reached our northern most destination, Zadar, and are now on a
southern track which will lead us out of Croatia in a couple of weeks.
Before we leave though, we want to rendez vous with our cruising buddies,
Martin and Sandy. Then it's south to Montenegro for a couple of weeks, and
then Greece where several of our friends already are and are loving it:
islands, tons of FREE anchorages, delicious food in wonderful tavernas....
YES! We'll probably spend August and part of September in the Ionian
islands before making our way east through the Corinth Canal, the Aegean Sea
and then to Turkey, where we plan to winter.
One of the most pleasant things that happened in Croatia was befriending the
daughter of my girlfriend Margaret Simeone. Her lovely 22 year old Claire
was travelling through Spain, Italy and Croatia for a month and met us on
the island of Korcula, joining the crew of ChaliVentures for a week. She
adapted easily to the quirkiness and "camping out" nature of living on a 40
foot non-luxury boat. Claire was a complete delight. Never complained
once -- not even about the illusive beaches she sought out, and she
certainly provided a very nice change of pace. My sister Jenny will be
meeting us in Kefallonia, an island next to Ithaca (good old Odysseus' home
that it took him 10 years to sail to) in late August, so that'll be
something to look forward to as well.
So, not EVERYplace can be paradise, right? Well, that doesn't sound right.
It really IS beautiful, but the high cost of cruising sort of puts a damper
on things, esPECIALLy when the alternative is to go to the Greek Islands.
XO,
Alison, Chuck and Zoey