week 3 - history classes, wine culture and quality time with friends

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
— Albert Einstein

We enjoyed our time on Korčula with Ladina and Yves very much! It was actually the first time on our trip where we didn’t rush from one place to the next one. Finally, we had time to put up our hammocks and read a few pages in the books which we’ve brought with us - we even installed our outdoor cinema and had a movie night. The camping site was just across the street from the beach and we went for a swim and laid in the sun all day long. Yves and Tom couldn’t believe their eyes when they were sitting at the little peer with their feet in the water and suddenly an octopus held on to Yves’ foot. Of course, he was very surprised and scared at first when he felt something holding on to him in the water, but then, when they realized what it was, they started playing with the octopus in the water and it was amazing to see how he interacted with the two of them, we all couldn’t believe what just happend! We spent the rest of the day being lazy, wandering around our camping site which was in fact huge - it looked like an enchanted garden with old ruins of stone walls which must have been used earlier to build terraces for farming. Later that night we lighted a fire and grilled some delicious Ćevapčićis. The next day, we went on a short trip to visit Korčula, the small town on the island. Since it was off season, there weren’t many tourists. The sun was out but it was a bit windy. We still treated us to some ice cream and pizza. Instead of walking back we took a water taxi and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the city from the seaside.

Farewell…

They next day, Yves and Ladina unfortunately had to head back home, so we all took the ferry back to Pelješac, a croation peninsula. We went for a drink together in Orebić and drove to the other side of the peninsula, from where Ladina and Yves had to take another ferry to get back to the mainland. We decided to stay another few days, since we really liked the layed-back vibe our journey had taken on. Besides, we were well ahead of our planned schedule since we rushed through Croatia a little bit in order to get to the warmer weather - and now it was supposed to stay nice for the next couple of days, so perfect for camping. We looked for a camping site and decided to drive further south to Vucine in Zuljana. We got a spot with an amazing view, we arrived just in time to watch the sunset and cook a small dinner. The next day we went for a stroll along the beaches, it was low tide so it was possible to walk from one beach to the next one. For dinner, we bought fish from the son of the owner of the camping site. He went out that day and catched some snappers with his fishing rod - a condition for Tom to eat fish after he learned about the problem of excessive fishing on his expedition with KYMA sea conservation & research this summer. We also got a bottle of wine from the vinyard of a relative of the owner and it was delicious! We liked the people at the camping site and the spot a lot so we decided to spend a third night - the freedom of having no time pressure is just amazing! We went to eat at the only restaurant still open in Zuljana - it was called Riva and they served nice croatian meals for a very low price.

Yet another new country and just a little booze…

On Friday, we finally decided to leave Croatia and drive to Trebinje, a small town in Bosnia - Hercegovina. To be honest, we didn’t plan to visit this country at all because we weren’t even aware that you have to cross it if you want to drive to the southern tip of Croatia. It is a very short section only and since we went to Korcula, we didn’t even came across that part. However, a colleague of mine suggested to visit Trebinje if we would have some time, and we did, that’s why we decided to go and it was a great decision! Since the weather forecast showed some rain again, we got an Airbnb again. Also, we had to do some laundry and therefore we looked for a place with a washing machine. We were surprised at the very low prices and booked ourselves in for 2 nights. Before we drove to the Airbnb we went to vist the Tvrdoš Monastery on the way, where they also produce and sell wine. It was just about noon when the guy working there encouraged us to taste some wines. He showed us the ancient wine cellar, which was built in the sixteenth century and he was telling us a lot about the monastery, their wine (little did we know that Bosnia is an amazing wine producer) and he also told us about Bosnia in general and about their culture as well as his story of the war which happened there not so long ago. We enjoyed chatting to him a lot. He suggested the restaurant Motel Studenac for lunch and we went there and had our first taste of the Bosnian cuisine. It was delicious but very heavy :D Also, were surprised that everyone was smoking inside the restaurant, something that wouldn’t be possible probably in most western countries (and it was even worse for me, since I actually pulled through with not smoking since we left, and now I was stuck in a restaurant where literally everyone besides the two of us was smoking - note to self: do not go to Bosnia if you want to quit smoking lol). We had to bring half of the Ćevapčićis home with us because we just couldn’t finish them all (second note to self: unless you are starving, do not order a big portion of anything in Bosnia). After we checked in to the Airbnb - a very modern and new apartment - we started doing some laundry. At 6 pm, we met Marko, our tourguide, who gave us a private walking tour through Trebinje ( I think we were the only two tourists in all of Trebinje) . We got the chance to ask so many questions and Marko took a lot of time to answer them all, he even invited us for drinks at his favourite bar after the tour and told us about everything we wanted to know.

History we did not quite know about…

We must admit, we did not know a lot about the history nor the war in the (Ex-)Yugoslavian region. Of course we knew it happened and about when. During the nineties, there were a lot of people coming to Switzerland from this region due to the war, therefore, we have friends as well who originally come from here. However, I guess we were to young back then to understand what really happened, and later in school we never learned about the conflicts here, maybe because this “history” was too young for history class. When we were travelling through the Balkan countries and talking to the people who have experienced this time and have lived here during the war and who were telling us their stories, we got very curious and wanted to learn more. The next day, we went for breakfast in the city and afterwards to the museum, where we could read a lot about Bosnia’s history. Then we headed back home to finish the laundry and since it was raining all day, we watched a documentary movie about the history of the last century in (Ex-)Yugoslavia.

Change of plans…

Einstein’s quote pretty much reflects how we felt - but we were interested. And therefore we decided to learn more. We changed our route and instead of driving onto Montenegro directly from Trebinje, we headed north. We even accepted the colder temperatures, but we wanted to see more of beautiful Bosnia - Herzegovina and learn more about its history but also todays life and culture. We ended our last night in Trebinje after a delicious dinner at Vinska galerija Vukoje with a bar tour and when we walked towards our apartment, there were some younger girls walking in front of us who were obviously going to a bar or night club (we could tell by their style). We decided to follow them and ended up in a Bosnian nightclub called Station. Even though the average age in that place was probably around 22 we had a lot of fun. The music reminded us of younger days when we went out to parties like 15 years ago - it was terrible but amazing at the same time! Since the nightclub was right next to a shopping mall, we found a shopping cart on the way out and Tom gave me a ride home :D we took the cart into the apertment, which was quite handy the next day when we had to move out of the apartment and back into the car, since we didn’t have a suitcase, so we put all our freshly washed clothes in it - of course we brought the cart back before we left Trebinje.

 

week 2 - private beaches, broken bed and a city love story

“All roads do not lead to Rome.”
— Slovenian proverb

Since neither of us had been to Slovenia, we were excited to explore this place. Our first destination was Bled; however, instead of taking the faster route on the Slovenian highway, we chose the Austrian road towards Villach, since driving over 100km/hour in a Defender is not very comfortable, and crossed the border just before Bled. The weather was better, still cold but at least it stopped raining. For our sleeping spot, we chose Sava Camping Bled, an excellent camping site at the lake opposite Bled. They also offered small huts, and we debated getting one instead of sleeping in the Defender; since the weather forecast didn’t show any rain, we settled for a camping spot. However, we treated ourselves to the premium spot, including a private hot tub. It was already quite late in the afternoon after we set up our camp; there was just enough time to walk around lake bled and go up to Bled castle, from where we had a fantastic view over lake Bled with the tiny island with the church. When we returned, we prepared a delicious dinner, pasta-gratin in our oven (yes, we have an oven!), and enjoyed a nice bottle of wine. The next day, we got some fresh bread from the bakery on the campsite, and after breakfast, we started a hike to the Vintgar, a 1.6km long gorge. The scenery on the way there reminded us a lot of home; if we hadn’t known better, we would have thought we were back in Switzerland. Everything looked a lot like home in the houses, villages, meadows, and cows and sheep. The gorge itself was beautiful with the different colors of the water, trees and bushes, and rocks. We treated ourselves to a Bled Cream Cake and tasted the first Slovenian beer - Laško. We returned to the campsite where the hot tub was ready for us; we jumped right into the warm water. After another homecooked dinner, we went to bed super tired.

The next day we left Bled in the morning and headed to another camping site named domacija-vrhovc that looked very promising from the pictures, and it was indeed! Unfortunately, the weather changed, and it started raining just when we arrived. It’s a private camping site in the mountains south of Triglavski Narodni park. The owner came outside to talk to us; there were no other campers. He invited us inside the house for some coffee and schnaps, but we decided to move on before we started drinking and driving to Ljubljana since it was freezing up there. On the way to the capital, we stopped at Franja Partisan Hospital, a hospital built during World War II in a hidden gorge. It was very impressive to see how and where they built this hospital and to read about different stories of doctors and nurses who worked there and wounded soldiers from many nations who could be saved.

We arrived in Ljubljana just before dinner time. We parked the car and went to our Airbnb place, which was directly on the river and close to many bars and restaurants. We strolled around the small city, and our first choice for a restaurant was fully booked, so we made a reservation for the next day and went to a pub for some burgers, fries, and beers - it was delicious! The next day we got up and joined a free walking tour. These tours are offered in every bigger city around the world. Liv has already joined many of them, and they were always outstanding. We weren’t disappointed either in Ljubljana. Our tour guide Marjana was hilarious and told us a lot about the city's history and culutre of the city and Slovenia and the best places to try local food. After the tour, we had just enough time to eat a gulaš, a local dish, before getting the Defender and driving to Peter, the mechanic.

No, luckily, we haven’t crashed the car already, however, we broke the bed… It must have been all the food we ate! The aluminum frame started bendin on one side. The other side was still fine, because there is a reinforcement. It is an airline that is attached to the frame to give it more stability. We therefore figured, we would attach an airline on the other side. Airlines are used a lot on Defenders, that’s why we were looking for a Defender mechanic - and we found one, just 10 minutes outside of Ljubljana. We were so lucky!! Peter had time for us, even though we only called him two days before we arrived in Ljubljana. He organised the airline and he was super helpful, friendly and good at his job. In less than 2 hours, he fixed the bed. We returned to Ljubljana and had enough time to walk up to Ljubljana castle, where we enjoyed the view over the city and a beautiful sunset. We were a bit hungry and therefore decided to go for a glass of wine and an “Apéro” and we found the perfect place: Ala Pršuterija. They claim to have the best prosciutto of Ljubljana and we would definitely agree. We had a delicious apéro plate and amaizing local wine suggested to us by the funny waitress, who also tried to teach us how to order a beer in Slovenian but we desparately failed. She served us nevertheless. At 8pm we had our reservation at the restaurant Julija, which serves local cuisine. We tried the famous Štrukli, which were delicious. On the way back home, we found a hot mulled wine, again something we know from back home.

Liv’s new favorite Guggelhopf cakes

We got up the next day and packed our things. Before we headed back to the Defender, we got a coffee and we wanted to try the Poticas - a local dessert like a ring cake (Guggelhopf). Marjana told us to go get them at the Butik le Potica where they sell mini versions of it, so you get to try many different tastes. We went for chocolate, hazelnut, poppy seeds and tarragon - and they were DELICIOUS!!! Ljubljana defintiely was another highlight, not just for the food. We both fell in love with this place and we’ll sure come back. However, since the weather forecast for Slovenia didn’t get any warmer, we decided to head down south. Before we left Slovenia, we stopped at the Postojna Caves. Slovenia has many caves where you can see various formations of stalagmites and stalactites that are formed by water dripping trhough the ground. At Postojna, a train takes you 2.5 kilometers inside the cave, there you get off the train and you can walk anther kilometer into the cave, it’s quite stunning to see this magic underground world.

secret camping spot with private beach…

Spending time in cities and going to see many touristic attractions is a lot of fun but goes hand in hand with spending money. We therefore decided to save on the camping sites and camp wild for a few nights. After we crossed the border to Croatia, we found our first sleeping spot above a village called Selce. the spot offered a great view over the sea. We cooked dinner and went to bed early, since the next day, we wanted to get up early to go to the Plitvice Lakes National park. The Plitvice lakes are various lakes cascading into another, a beautiful scenery where they also filmed the Winnetou movie. The park offers various routes for the tourists, some of them include boat or bus rides. We chose the one where you walk around the lakes by foot only - the advantage of this route was, that there were almost no tourists. In the information booklet it said that this tour would take 6 - 8 hours, we were finished after 4.5 hours including a coffee break :D Learning from our mistakes, we checked the weather for the night before, since the National Park is also a bit further up in the mountains, and we were right, it got quite cold again at night, that’s why we decided to drive back to the coast to spend the night. We found a breathtaking spot directly on a little beach close to the small town Zadar, which we wanted to visit the next day. It was definitely an advantage to have a 4wheel drive to get down to the sleeping spot and it was amazing. After taking some drone shots, we prepared dinner and went to bed.

 

The next morning we got some coffee and pastries for breakfast in Zadar and sat down at the Sea Organ, an architectural sound object by the sea. Whenever the waves hit the organ, it generates different sounds - it was a special but funny concert to listen to. From Zadar we drove directly to Split, from where we went on the ferry to Korcula. Korcula is an island in Croatia and there we were meeting Ladina and Yves, two friends from Switzerland who were on vaccation with their van. The ferry trip was quite expensive (750kn = CHF 100 = USD 110) but when we arrived on Korcula it was definitely worth it. We agreed to meet directly on Kamp Oskorusica, a camping site we found. When we called them to ask whether they have space for two cars/busses, they told us that they were actually already closed, but since the toilets and showers were still working, they offered us to stay anyways - and we did, for 3 nights straight, since it was very beautiful and the owners were super nice.