Blogenstein: Opatija, Croatia

The trip to Croatia was a long one. It was supposed to take 3 hours, but it ended up taking 5. We hit two traffic jams, where we learned that during traffic jams Italians shut their cars off, get out and smoke or coverse with fellow drivers. We also sat in line for a toll booth and in another line for passports at the border. Once in Opatija, the GPS took us to the wrong address and I ended up driving the van down a narrow dead end street. Once we determined it was the wrong address I couldn't turn around so I had to back out about 200 yards, uphill, around a corner, in the dark, with only my mirrors. It was very difficult to see and based on the horrible smell I put about a years worth of wear and tear on the clutch. We finally got back on track and pulled up to the driveway of the correct address. It was a long and very steep driveway, which appeared to take a sharp 90 degree turn after about 50 yards. Rick got out and climbed up to check it out. He walked around the corner and then reappeared and waved us up. Since the driveway was so steep I really had to gun the van to make it up the hill. About halfway up Rick frantically starts giving me the stop signal so now we're sitting in the middle of a driveway at an angle very similar to the first climb of a big rollercoaster. After a moment Rick waves me forward again but I realize quickly that the van doesn't have enough power to start from this position so I have to back up to the bottom to take another run at it. At the bottom I gun it up the hill and come barrelling around the corner. The headlights swing around on an older couple standing in the middle of the driveway who scatter away wide eyed and I roughly pull into the only available spot. Once we realized we were safe everyone was laughing and the owner who was standing there probably thought we were nuts. The sound of the van coming up the hill was deafening, I nearly killed her other tenants and the smell of the burning clutch was terrible. It was like the arrival of the Griswolds.

Opatija was intended to be a relaxing last couple days after almost a week of hardcore travel. Everyone we had talked to said it was beautiful and it definitely was, although we were thinking there would be more of a beach scene. Apparently the area was a vacation spot for the Habsburgs (Austrian Imperial family) back in the day and it definitely had a ritzy resort feel to it. The first day we walked down to the beach after a lazy morning and were a bit disappointed. The beach was tiny, had stones instead of sand (sort of like Lake Superior only bigger stones) and wasn't the cleanest. The Adriatic was cold, so the kids didn't spend any time in the water and mostly threw rocks into the sea or played on the jungle gym. After a while we decided to walk the coast and eventually ended up at a restaurant on top of a rocky bluff that had a little man made sandy area with some lounge chairs. We ordered drinks and basked in the sun while the kids climbed the rocks and ran around. That night we ate dinner at a traditional Croatian tavern that our host recommended.

View from our apartment

Ice cold pool

At the beach

The next morning we got up and decided to walk into the downtown/boardwalk area of Opatija. There was a little bit of shopping and then we started getting harassed by people who were trying to sell boat cruises to tourists. We talked to a couple and haggled a bit and ended up hiring a fishing boat and driver for a 3 hour boat cruise. We had a little bit of time to kill so we picked up some snacks at the grocery store and then walked down to the meeting point for the cruise. The 'captain' of our boat was a 16 year old local kid. He took us to a little town down the coast called Moscenicka Draga where we got out and had a cup of coffee and relaxed by the shore. When we got back in the boat he suggested another little town but we just told him to boat the coast for a couple hours while we snacked and took in the scenery. He was a pretty shy kid but once he realized I wasn't going to stop peppering him with questions he started to open up which made the ride a little more relaxing. That night we ate dinner at a hotel restaurant near down the hill from our apartment.