Our first point of call in Croatia was a place called Mostar. For those of you who watched Hamish and Andy European Adventures this is the place they jumped of the bridge in the river below a mere 20m drop. Mostar was an ancient settlement which was named after the bridge keepers over the Neretva River. A bridge at 27m high crossed the river, it is this bridge the locals jump off. Visitors could also par take for a small fee and 2 of the boys on the trip did. It was astoundig just how high they were and how long it took for them to safely hit the water. Before they were allowed to jump they had to do a couple of practice jumps off a 10m high rock. Looking back it would have been good to jump as well but maybe another day!
Dubrovnik -
AFter Mostar we arrived in Dubrovnik were we dropped our bags and had some spare time. We had a short tour that night after dinner before heading off for a few drinks at a place called 'Skybar'. Well apparently every other Australian riddled Contiki trip visited this place as well which took away from the experience of drinking in a foreign country.
On our free day we decieded to head back into the old town for a bit of shopping before catching a ferry over to a neighbouring island that had some great swimming spots. We pulled up on a rocky outcrop where i got the lovely red budgie smigglers on before diving into the crystal clear, very refreshing water. It was a best swim of the whole trip. All around the rock outcrop (some 100m in width) were pool ladder aiding people to get in and out of the deep water. One of the boys dived in an lost his sunglasses to the water. After about 5 minutes of scanning the water another of the boys spotted them and dived to get them. They were pretty deep and on his return he was pretty red in the face. We spent the rest of the day swimming, but of white whaling before circum navigating the island and looking out over the Croatian waters.
When we got back to the main land we decieded to walk the fortress walls around the city. It had great views of the city and really emphasised how great of a fortress this would have been back in the day. The mountain range surrounding the city was where the Serbian army camped out for a few years during the wars - constantly shelling the city and snipering anyone down below in the city. You could see which building had been shelled either by the shrapnel marks still imbedded into the walls or through the colouring of the terracotta rooves (bright red meant new tiles). After a big day we went back to the hotel but had been placed into different rooms from the previous night. The new room was in the adjacent building which could quite possible be the closest thing you could get to sleeping in a crack den.
Plitvice Lakes -
We arrived at the Plitvice lakes campsite in the afternoon. We were given keys to little chalet types establishments which slept 2 people per house. On our free day we headed to the lakes which we spent a good 6 hours walking around. This was a world heritaged national park and it was outstandingly beautiful fomr the colours of the lake, the waterfalls and the forest canopy we walked through. Some of the wooden board walks gave you the feeling you were walking on water thats how close you got to the water. Great walk for nature lovers
