Franchu’s lair

We went to visit Split, Brela, and Dubrovnik in Croatia and Kotor in Montenegro.

Split

From all the cities in this post is the one I liked less. The part of the old city next to the sea is nice with a superb pedestrian walk but it is way too commercial for my taste. The old Diocletian Palace is full of shops for tourists and restaurants, destroying totally the ambience. The views from the church tower are worth it, but the catacombs of the church are not interesting at all. So, as the entrance is different for each, you can safely save some money by skipping the catacombs.

Out of the old city, Split is an ugly grey industrial city with not much to see. You can visit the old city in a couple of hours and then move on to other less touristic places more south.

Brela

Brela is a very little town hanging on a cliff next to the sea between Split and Dubrovnik. Being so small, the beach was surprisingly crowded with tourists, although you still had plenty of space around you and you were not risking stepping on your neighbors as soon as you stood up. We have some friends that have a house there and we accepted their offer to stay for the night. The day on the beach was wonderfully complemented by an abundant barbecue for dinner

Dubrovnik

It is one of the most famous destinations in Croatia, and although I am often wary of hyped places, I can safely say that it deserves every praise it gets. In order to arrive there by car from the north, you will have to cross the Bosnian border as the southern tip of Croatia is detached from the rest of the country by a 2 Km stretch of land that is the sole Bosnian access to the sea. Passport control can happen but shouldn’t pose any problem as many people are taking that road just to go again to Croatia. The Bosnian city on the coast is called Neum as it looks as an expensive resort with cheap shops, casinos and hotels. Kind of a little Monaco but several orders of magnitude less luxurious that just shares the fact of being a singularity on the coast.

Once you arrive in Dubrovnik, parking can get tricky, although if you arrive early enough in the morning you can park next to the citadel.

My first impression from the outside was the same I had when I first saw Carcassonne in France. A big fortress with astoundingly thick walls. Nevertheless, as soon as you enter, you have the feeling of having arrived into another world. You don’t feel anymore that you are surrounded by a fortress and you find yourself in a bustling city in which time seems to have stopped. The feeling I had was that I had jumped in space and landed in Venice as the architecture is very similar. It is not that strange taking into account that Dubrovnik was an ally of Venice!

You can easily spend your day in Dubrovnik walking in the city and on the walls, but you will need at least half a day to walk around the walls and see a little bit the inner city. If it is warm you can even get to swim next to the walls! We didn’t have enough time but there is a chill-out pub with puffs accesible from the wall that looks like a very cool place to hang out for a drink while admiring the Adriatic.

As you get out of the city towards the south, you will climb up on the Magistrale (the road that borders the Croatian coast) and you will get amazing views of the city. There are parking areas where you can just leave the car and enjoy the view for a few minutes.

Kotor

Kotor is a little city in Montenegro that we discovered by chance when we decided to venture into Montenegro without a map It has a very nice fortress on top of the hill that you can visit. The building by itself is not particularly outstanding, but the views you get until you reach the top are for sure worth the effort. You will have unobstructed views of the Bay of Kotor which is protected under the UNESCO World Heritage.

Although they use the Euro as the official currency of the country, the prices are according to the living standards of the country, and we could eat a huge pizza for 2€! Well worth the experience.

On the way from Croatia to Kotor you will pass by Herceg Novi which is just a touristic posh city for Serbians. Not much to see (or at least we didn’t manage to find it) and quite elitist people.

For sleeping in the area, we stayed in a camping not far from the Croatia-Montenegro border but in the croatian side. The camping is called Autocamp Monika and is in a village called Molunat just before entering in the Prevlaka peninsula. We arrived late in the night in the summer season peak and Bozo managed to find a spot to put our tent and offered a place at their table to have some dinner. Hvala, Danke!

You can watch some of the pictures we took in those places to get a better idea:

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