Balkans and bathers

24 Apr 2023 - Austin Shen

With Jerry in Europe! We planned a coastal trip through Greece, Montenegro, and Croatia to do beach things, see the Greek Islands, and the old towns. Here’s how it went.

Greece

I met Jerry at the airport in Athens. He arrived a couple of hours before me (I booked my flights the week before and left the morning of - one of the wonders of being in Europe) and managed to keep himself busy with a book after the rough journey from Perth. He had a Rebel Sport bag with goodies from home including beef jerky from mum, who was worried I wasn’t eating well enough, Pokemon gummies, a camera lens, and my dress shoes. We took the train to Piraeus immediately to get closer to the port for our ferry early the following morning. After checking in was fried chicken and a gyro (pronounced euro for the uncultured readers).

Our week in Greece was spent mainly on the islands. First stop in Santorini, followed by Milos, and finishing off in Athens to see the monuments. On the islands we rented cute little cars to get us around the different small towns. It was off-peak and therefore a little chilly and relatively quiet, with about half of the stores closed preparing for the busy peak in summer. That said, there was always still at least one nice bakery and three restaurants we could enjoy, the sun was out, the water was beautiful, and the views were still great! Athens was a welcome change from the island life. A bigger city with a more steady stream of tourists, so everything was open and there were lots of options for food and activities. We walked around everywhere and went to the Acropolis like everyone else.

Some of the highlights for me were:

Kotor (Montenegro)

After Greece we flew to Montenegro to continue our trip up along the coast. Yerry and I flew in to the captial Podgorica but spent basically no time there (which was a probably a good choice) and were driven directly, and incredibly quickly, to Kotor. It was a beautiful town and the hosts at our accomodation were such nice people. We spent two days there walking through the old town, hiking up through the city walls to the fortress somewhere alongside the mountain (not sure if we ever found it), and eating meat platters. We even made friends here! A lovely couple (Theresa and Don) who we met briefly at the airport and ran into again on the hike. Theresa thought Jerry and I were twins and was then shocked to find out we weren’t even related (omg). We spent the second day with them diving to different parts of the Bay of Kotor and finishing the day with the largest meat platter known to man (x2).

Croatia

Our coastal tour of Croatia started in Dubrovnik to the south. Then we drove along the coast to Split, up north to the Plitvice National Park, and planned to finish in Zagreb for Jerry’s flight out. I hadn’t heard of Dubrovnik before, but some parts of Game of Thrones were filmed in the old town there so that’s super cool. I noticed really leant into that while we were there with the variety of “shame” drinks and souveniers. Dubs and the must-see small towns along the coastal drive had similar quiet and relatively empty vibes to the islands in Greece, but Split was packed and thriving.

Some fun activities that were not eating meat platters or old town tours:

Plitvice National Park

Plitvice National Park was our last stop on the way to Zagreb. It deserves a special mention here because it was so different to the rest of our trip, and is easily one of the most beautiful natural places I’ve ever seen. We started at the lower lakes, took the bus up to the top so we could continue past closed sections of the park, and then hiked back down through the remaining sections of the park. Along the way we were treated to huge waterfalls, clear still blue lakes, large fish, and various types of harmless snakes. Apparently bears and wolves hang out here, but we didn’t see any this time. We finished up and enjoyed a local delicious oven roasted lamb and vegetable dish at the only restaurant in the park, before driving the sketchy roads to our accomodation.

Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

What?! Didn’t you say to us earlier that we were just going to three countries? Yes that is true we only planned to do three countries. But we were getting pretty good and efficient at exploring old towns and walking on city walls, so ended up seeing all the attractions in Dubrovnik a day less than expected. This gave us a whole day with a car to drive out and explore somewhere else. We picked Mostar because Theresa and Don both said it was incredible, and we’d both heard stories of the bridge (Stari Most) there over the river. A bit more time and we might even have been able to go further north to Sarajevo, but that was becoming a decent trek that would eat into our time enjoying the city. A 2 hour drive on the worst kept roads in Europe got us from Dubrovnik to Mostar. While there we ate the most delicious food (rice for the first time this trip), walked through the cute street markets, drank local specialty coffee, had the second best ice-cream in town according to the nearby rival vendor, and only contemplated jumping off the bridge into the turbulent and freezing Neretva river beneath. It was worth stopping by, maybe for even longer next time :)