Captivating Croatia
(1ST OF TWO PARTS)
Before I became an avid Game of Thrones fan, visiting Croatia, especially Dubrovnik, was already on my bucket list.
I attribute this to Shailesh, an Indian who owned a travel agency in Prague. Five years ago, he met us for dinner on our first night there, and I remember him telling us, if you fall in love with Prague, then you will absolutely fall in love with Dubrovnik.
Fast forward to 2018, we found ourselves on a plane from Spain to Split, the second largest city in Croatia. With Game of
Thrones entering its final season in 2019, more people have become fascinated with this country and we wanted to visit it before it became too crowded.
The modern Split has a long history starting from being founded as a Greek colony in the second century BC, surviving wars and transitions, culminating in 1991 when Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia and became an independent state. The most popular tourist spot in this city is Diocletian’s Palace built in the fourth century AD. The Roman Emperor Diocletian built this massive palace for his retirement. He had no heirs, so when he passed, this palace remained empty for several decades until the seventh century when nearby residents started to move into the palace to flee from invaders. Their descendants occupy these areas now, and as I walked through the palace corridors, I saw little apartments, distinct in design from each other, with shops or cafés on the ground floors. Our guide said, it was probably the only palace in history where people just move in, get settled and stay for generations on end. As she pointed out areas of the complex where Game of Thrones scenes were filmed, I read the flyer and realized this place was the world’s most complete Roman palace remains, thus earning its place in the Unesco Heritage List.
A few hours away from Split is the Plitvice Lakes National Park and our driver-guide,
Boran, deserves special mention. All the way to the park, he described the scenes we saw and even predicted weather changes while moving through towns! When we complimented him, he said guides in Croatia have to be properly educated in tourism and have to take exams about all the 20 counties. The protected area of Plitvice covers around 73,350 acres and gets over a million visitors a year. It is famous for its lakes arranged in cascades which are all interconnected and follow the water flow. They are separated by natural dams of travertine (a mix of moss, algae and bacteria which become encrusted) and there are a total of 16 lakes.
We visited in early spring, just as the waters were melting, so the water levels were at a high – maximizing the experience, but also getting us quite drenched in the process. Plitvice’s beauty can render one speechless and had me wanting to go back to see the same scenes in autumn.