Come Back to Croatia ver. 2.0

 Dober dan.... from the Wandering Berkmans! 

After a 2 year absence, we were back in Croatia for 3 weeks in May. If Croatia is on your travel list, check out the posts from June and July 2021 for more details on staying there.  Here are just a few new experiences we encountered--

The week-long festival of Sveti Duje (Saint Domnius, the patron saint of Split) included a marketplace where all manner of wooden products were sold.  Apparently the tradition is to buy something made of wood.  Unfortunately, one of these sledge hammers would not fit in our carry-on so we opted for a pastry brush.  

In Montenegro it was too early in the season for mussels so I wasn't going to pass them up in Croatia.  Also shown-- Don's beloved grilled chicken boosted a notch by replacing his chicken condiment of choice, applesauce, for ajvar.  

The brilliant color of The Blue Lake  in southern Croatia is almost as lovely as Don's baby blues.  

For all you animal lovers out there (and you know who you are) the city of  Šibenik makes sure their 4-footed friends are always well hydrated.  This is but one example of an architect including a public drinking bowl for passing pets.  

Croatia part 2 was made even more special by a great 2 week-ish visit from the kids!  We had some great first days with just J as we took them to our old haunts, even when days of rain came in -- 

We took advantage of a couple of hours of sun and strolled through Marjan Park -- too cold to swim but those views!

Bestie Split was in city center so we offered to take these besties for a walk to the nearby park.  My need for petting dogs on a daily basis was satiated with these sweet pups.  

Sibling #2 finally meets Sibling #3!  We've become very close to Stjepan, who we met in June 2021 in Split, and have kept in contact since then (The 3 Cevapi!).  We were really looking forward to this meeting and J and Stjepan hit it off immediately with some funny and frank conversation that had us learning things left and right.  It was great to see Stjepan again after 2 years! 

Rainy day be damned-- a local hotel day pass had us swimming in purple bubbles and cooking in a Swedish sauna ahhhhhhh

A delay in the arrival of  Zach's new passport had his visit on thin ice.  We cancelled his flight and of course the passport came in the next day urggg.   We ultimately rebooked his flight for a post Mothers' Day sweet reunion!  

Park Zudika was the perfect place to anoint Z as the new Emperor of Trogir. 

Stjepan joins us for dinner on our last night and our little family is complete!

  

A two hour drive to Zagreb for a couple of days had us meeting up with good friends Olja, Goran and so-much-bigger-after- 2-years Viktor!  Viktor took a bit to get used to the ball we brought him-- luckily we had no problem starting up a game in the meantime.  Not shown-- the 15 random kids that ended up joining us for a rousing game of "Pass Me the Balloon-y", and their perplexed parents looking on.  

Let's not wait until Viktor is our kids' age before we meet up again!  

Zach came armed with a list of Croatian foods to try-- 

Black risotto (crni rižot). # 1 on the list of things not to eat on a first date.  

The powerful fruit brandy rakia  that'll make your chest hair curl and comes in a classy glass at Bistro Ribič in Otočac.  Camera shy-- the "frito" soup that we discovered here 2 years ago and that we knew the kids would like.  Success!

Burek came on the radar for us when Don was looking for a dairy-free pastry and Zach just happened to have it on his list.  The four of us went through as many iterations of burek as possible -- apple, spinach, cheese, cherry, meat.  Good times.  

We bid J farewell (and see you in Seattle this summer!) and stayed on in Zagreb with Zach for a few more days.  We also managed to squeeze in Ljubljana, Slovenia for an overnight because why fly all the way from Mexico City and see only one country when you can see two??  And what a beautiful city Ljubljana is.

Scary dragons not withstanding.  

Between the rain and the architecture the city had a Copenhagen feel in some areas.

A raw milk dispenser off the main market square.  If they had small bottles to fill and I were not traveling with two lactose intolerant companions we would have partaken in this illicit beverage.  Pasteur be damned!

The city center at night-- postcard perfect.  

What makes up Slovenian food, you may ask?  One meal we had featured a good amount of Italian influence with its ravioli and risotto offerings although I opted to try struklji, cheese dumplings in surprisingly spongy filo dough.  With mushroom gravy, they were a little sweet, a little savory but overall just kinda meh in my opinion.  Needs garlic, if I may be so bold?? 

It was a special treat to have our wonderful foursome together for 2 weeks and to introduce them to some experiences we thought they would love.  Next reunion-- Seattle in July!  

Don and I are currently into our 2nd week in surprisingly sunny Ireland! All the locals say we chose the perfect time to be here-  the only 2 weeks of summer they get.  We suspect as our plane takes off on June 15 the heavens will open up and Ireland will be Ireland once more.  All we know is we can probably never come back here-- we could never time this amazing weather so perfectly on a second visit.  

This post's SOL --we had no idea what they were singing about but this impressive a capella group at a Split church festival was hitting all the harmonies

Off to the farmer's market today in city-center Galway-- more on Ireland next time. Next stop, Seattle until the end of July.   In the meantime, we hope all are well and that you weren't affected too badly by the Canadian wildfire smoke.  Hug a tree.

Thanks for following along!

Don and Monica 

split, croatia