Hello All

Mark and I have been visiting the country of Croatia, which is on the
Adriatic sea and has over 1100 islands. After WWII it was part of
Yugoslavia. In 1991 Croatia became involved in a civil war to gain its
independence again. The war continued off and on until 1995, when Clinton
brokered peace at Dayton, Ohio. (Probably at the Wright Patterson air force
base where my dad worked).

You can see evidence of wars destruction in the country side but most of the
cities are repaired. Zagreb is the capital which we spent two nights. It
was a typical European city with cobble stone pedestrian streets that were
either wide with cafes on each side or narrow no bigger than a winding
alley. Many of the buildings were short with flat fronts painted pastel
colors. It was beautiful and felt like being in a model train set.

The next city we visited was Split, which is a coastal port in the Dalmatian
region. The old town center is actually well preserved Roman palace of the
emperor Dio coetion (around 300AD). Over time the palace has become the town
with restaurants, shops, houses, and outdoor markets selling fruit, veggie,
cheeses, oils, everything all with in the rooms and walls. Split is a United
Nations World Heritage site that should not be missed. Split is also the
jumping off point to take a ferry to one of the many islands. During the summer there are tons of tourist from Europe and America in Croatia.

Then we visited the island of Korcula, the legendary birthplace of Marco
Polo, it is an island with an old town in it, that is essentially a fortress,
walled and medieval. We wandered around the old town at night and had great
pizza everywhere. We also spent nearly an entire day on the "beach" the water was cooler than the tropics but still nice and refreshing. The beaches are rock cliffs cut above the sea with steps and ladders down to the absolutely clear azure water.

We then went to Dubrovnik via another ferry ride of about 3 hours. Dubrovnik
is much larger so it has a substantial new town and is also a major tourist
and industrial center, in fact it was battled over intensely in the last
war. The old town is on a peninsula and is perfectly preserved, completely
encircled by a several kilometer wall, cut right down to the sea. Its
incredible and striking, with shops, restaurants, churches and marble
streets that glisten in the sun. There are many street performers and Sarah
was invited to participate in a crazy reenactment of a classic Croatian love
story. It was quite silly, the food here is fantastic as well, 5 cheese
lasagna was divine.

Our time on the Croatian coast has been incredible with lots of hot sun and
beaches and tons of history, it will be sad to leave tomorrow, but we head
to a completely different world of Sarajevo, in Bosnia.

That’s all for now
Sarah and Mark Journal Entry Croatia Posted On: 6/28/2005