Honeymoon Day 24

The fish dinner was another success, fish platter for 2, demolished.

After dinner we headed to town to check out the renowned night life, it was fun but their in serious need of some cocktail training (a mojito without mint!!!! make that a lot of training!!!!). Sarah's latest business idea a proper cocktail bar in Novaji, if it means spending more time out here I'm in. 


Had a lazy day sitting on the beach yesterday, we were hoping to dive but all the centres seem to be shut so in need of excitement we hired a jet ski and scared the life out of Sarah. She loved it really but her role as action photographer was a bit of a failure.

Finally got round to cooking for ourselves last night and finished the first of our gas bottles so the load just got lighter. After dinner a lovely Dutch couple from next door introduced us to mish mash, a local drink for the ladies. They have travelled Croatia extensively so imparted their knowledge of the best thing to see and best places to stay, which has saved us a couple of hours of research (so time for another jet ski I think).

A nice surprise yesterday was the arrival of the official wedding photos from Andy. Was great flicking through them on the beach.

There are some awesome shots.

Jon has uplaoded them to: 

https://picasaweb.google.com/joncaines/ChrisSarahLRauthkey=Gv1sRgCPDCiLyk1PaUgQE&feat=email

Honeymoon Day 23

Left the beaches of Nin (nr Zadar) today. We had a cool time there, the water was lush and the food fabulous. 

We also found some lovely Croatian wines. 
Last night the local restaurant made us Steak Tartare at the table to follow the chef's seafood platter, we ate so much we have missed breakfast and just had a bag of crisps for lunch.

We have now arrived in on the Island of Pag, which is gorgeous but we'll let it speak for itself

Set up a new home and, as seems to be the trend in Croatian campsites, have had lots of lovely German people introduce themselves and offer us things (mostly booze). They call us 'the camping poor', as they mostly have RV's with all kinds of mod cons (Sat TV, bathrooms, full kitchens, verandas, boats and carrying smart cars or mopeds) and we have a little tent and a double burner. 

Took a swim in the sea as the sun got very hot whilst setting up, but now it looks like we might be in for another storm. The people next door have offered shelter for the night in their RV incase lightning comes. However we have found what looks like a another great seafood restaurant and having promised to cook tonight look set to break that promise. The place is on the beach has platter for two made up of the days various catches for £16!!! It's not worth wasting the gas on our own food.

Honeymoon Day 21

Spent an amazing morning seeing the second area of the national park, was fun to have a couple of city day's in Zagreb but this was more like the adventure we had planned. 
We hired a rowing boat, can't do the views justice with words so check out the photos. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58792688@N06/sets/ 

After lunch we set off for our next destination and we're now in Zadar. It was a great drive through mountains on empty roads, an hours worth of twisting bends to throw the car around as we left the park area.

Arrived in Zadar and drove around a while to find a decent campsite, fearing our chosen place was going to be like the Venice campsite. After viewing the alternatives decided to return to the first choice and it's turned out to be great. 

Found another great seafood restaurant and ate far too much. You order fish by the gram here which makes it difficult for us, there was two options for the squid and we ordered 350g. 3 massive squid's arrived (1 would have been enough) The other option was 1kg, which must be a weeks worth. Considering starving ourselves for the day to get the 1kg of lobster tonight.

We're right on the beach and can go diving, white water rafting, hire jet ski's etc. So looking forward to a couple of action packed days. 

Its 29 degrees so plenty of sunbathing for Sarah as well.

Honeymoon Day 20

We arrived in the Plitvica National park for lunch today and found a restaurant built from an old mill that ran off the surrounding waterfalls. On the menu was fresh trout caught in the river and cooked on a BBQ pit.

After lunch was time for a hike into the main sights of the park which is a world heritage site and we immediately found out why.

We spent 2hrs trekking the gorge's and viewing amazing waterfalls

wifi here rubbish so signing off as this has taken an hour. will post the photos to flickr ASAP as their amazing 

Honeymoon day 19

Just woke up in our luxury hotel following another great night out in Zagreb. It was hard work though as the night before still lingered but it was hard not to party in such a lively place. 


The night before:

We stayed at The Regent, Esplande - was only 140Euro a night, the same in London would be £400 easily, it made us feel like honeymooners again.
When we arrived there was a group of English chaps doing a cannonball run for charity (Build Aid for Haiti). The concierge assumed we were a part of it and parked us in the line up.

They invited us along for their last leg to Hungary, but we would have to get rid of the luggage (and wife) to keep up with them. When the concierge, realised we were new guests he took the keys and drove off, this wasn't easy to watch but the cannonballers assured us he had done a great job with their machines.

Checking out soon and back to camping. We are moving on to The Plitvica national forest (where we should have been 2 days ago) Its a 2 hr drive (1.5 if Sarah falls asleep) The sun is shining again and here is what we have to look forward to:

Will spend a few days hiking and 'drying out' as technically we must be alcoholics by now. Last night over our 5th schnapps we realised how long our trip is and that we can't possible drink everyday, but Croatia does have some great wines.

Honeymoon day 18

Arrived in Zagreb yesterday, looking forward to some city life. We checked into a very kitsch hotel with a very eccentric owner who had us rolling with laughter. 

The hotel was right in the city centre and there was a street festival going on so we headed straight off. Driving through the outskirts we were worried about the city but the centre is full of grand traditional architecture.

Sat watching some Kenyan dancers who where staying ion our hotel over our first glass of Pivo. The city has a great atmosphere and is full of busy cafe's and bars we found a great restaurant for dinner.

We have been amazed at the quality and price of the meals we've had in Croatia (particularly the fish, which is lucky for us). The cooking equipment hasn't left the car since we crossed the boarder and as long as we keep finding such great food will probably stay there.

Ended up in a great bar called Cica, which was no bigger than our lounge. Fantastically styled, brilliant music and the people are awesome fun. Spent a while there sampling the variety of home made schnapps and grappas.

HOneymoon day 17

Left Italy today having spent 2 days in a cabin on the Slovenian boarder, had blazing sunshine on the first day and we where loving a proper bed and our own bathroom. We had to hire the cabin for 3 nights minimum and so couldn't resist staying the whole time. However yesterday was storms all day so we pretty much ate all day, lighting was crashing all around though so it was exciting (or scary, depending if you where Chris or Sarah). It was a proper storm, not like at home. Caught some of it on video and what looks like a fish thrown from the sea. 


Got up early this morning and headed into Slovenia and was looking forward to a leisurely drive and maybe a stop for lunch but before we knew it we had hit the Croatian boarder. The control man loved the car and whisked us straight through whilst others waited.  

Stunning backdrops to the roads as we headed toward Rijeka.

Arrived at our campsite near Opatija ready to sleep in the tent again. 

We found a great sea food restaurant nearby with the offer of a mixed platter of the daily catch which we couldn't resist and some sort of schnapps made from honey which they owners gave us on the house. The veranda sat out to sea and provided the perfect backdrop.

Looks like another storm might be coming as the sky above the mountains is lightening up and the sound of rain is not far off so need to sign off now and get cosy before we get soaked.

Off to Zadar tomorrow and a 5hr drive along the coast.