Sorry, Croatia!

In my mind, Croatia had been one of those countries full of tourists lying on crowded beaches with nothing more to offer. How wrong was I! Seriously, I am sorry, Croatia, that I had thought of you as such a country as the opposite is true.

This was the first time for me in Croatia, which all the people who were there with us found funny... Anyway - I went with my parents, my nieces and 11 other people, mostly my parents' friends from university. We spent a week at Vir, a nice island with perfectly clean (and incredibly salty) sea. I admit I didn't do much (but I enjoyed doing that :)) but still... just swimming a little farther offered a wonderful view of the mountains of the island Pag. And driving through the continental part of Croatia offered lots of beautiful views as well.

The water was salty and the weather was warm and sunny, which, of course, had to have some effects on my skin that is very allergy-prone. I still enjoyed it, though. I had lots of fun watching Marketka jumping into the sea and swimming like crazy (she's the happiest child in the world when in water), trying to make Lucka swim (she's afraid of water still), sending them both for ice-cream (yes, they are able to buy ice-cream in Croatia by themselves, Lucka can even say thanks in Croatian :)) when we found out that the scoops are much bigger when a kid is the buyer. :) We also had fun watching Croatian and other tourist lying on the pier from which Marketka was jumping into the sea... Imagine - there's a tiny little child in an orange lifejacket running across the pier without even slowing down and jumping into the sea. With no adults around. There was always a tourist of various nationality looking puzzled, obviously thinking if he/she should jump into the sea and save the child. Then Marketka got out of the water and jumped again. What followed was always a relieved laughter of the tourist. And our amused laughter.

Also - Croatian ice-cream is great and although it's more expensive than here, it's worth it as they don't care how much they give you. They simply give you as much as they can. On the other hand, Croatian shop assistants are about 100% worse than the Czech ones. They probably never heard of the little nice thing called smile. But that's ok, I can forgive them, I was on holidays and didn't care. :)

To sum up - go to Croatia, if you can. Try to avoid the too crowded areas. The part of Vir where we stayed was great - the house we all occupied was right next to the beach so we didn't have to take anything with us when we went for a swim as we had a huge terrace just for us, what a luxury! Also, "our" sea was usually really "ours" as people tended not to stay there, although it was probably the cleanest part. I did like the place a lot. :) (Picture will come soon.)

I'd love to go to Croatia to travel around a little to see more of the beauties of this diverse (naturally) country. And please, don't underestimate the country as I did! :)

PS: Croatians did a wonderful job with their new highway, it's seriously amazing.

Canoeing on the Vltava river

Canoeing is a very popular sport in the Czech Republic during the summer. I believe that nowhere in the world is canoeing so popular as here from June to August. :) It isn't because Czechs are so good at it (some are, of course :)), but because it's more of a social event than a sport.

Just a couple of days ago, I came back from one of these social events. I spent 5 days with a group of people canoeing from Vyšší Brod to Boršov nad Vltavou, with stops in Rožmberk, Český Krumlov and somewhere around Zlatá Koruna (closer to Boršov), sleeping at campsites by the river. The weather wasn't the greatest this year, especially the first day when it was raining (it's much less fun this way), but it was fun, and lots of fun... Only when I got back I found out who was one of the people canoeing with us. Quite an important person at my university and also the funniest guy on the river. :)

What does it look like when Czechs go canoeing? :) We take it easy. No hurry, lots of wine (you need a plastic bottle and a string to attach the bottle to the canoe so that it's kept cold and you don't lose it :)), lots of stops at various campsites and "pubs" by the river, lots of alcohol, but not just to get drunk, it's somehow part of it, and nobody is forcing anyone. Anyway, we agreed that nowhere in the country is so many drunk people for a square kilometer. :) Most of them are fun, though. One guy took a picture with me so that he could tell his mum that he has a girlfriend so that she wouldn't bother him with silly questions. :) He didn't even know my name... :)

What was new to me was a "drive-in" pizza place. You simply don't have to leave your canoe to get a delicious pizza (and also a drink, we had mojitos :)). Which reminds me that canoeing is also lots of unhealthy food.

And sure, lots of water, too. What you get on the Vltava river that you probably don't get autanywhere else is the history of the places you go through. It's beautiful. I especially like arriving in Rožmberk since the castle is amazing.


Český Krumlov is registered at the UNESCO heritage list. I think it't much more beautiful from the river than from the city center. It seems it's more taken care of for those on canoes, kayaks and rafts.

And the nature... Going through a forest with no cars around, just you, your canoe and the water... and well, sometimes some other people, but all of them very nice and friendly. Who wouldn't like that?

I miss the river already, although I believe that 5 days are just enough (also because sleeping in a tent in summer is not the best thing, sometimes... It can get cold at night, so you want to have your sleeping bag and your tent closed, but it gets warm in the morning really fast... and inside the tent, it gets even warmer even faster, so you jump out of the tent to save your life because it's so hot that you think you wouldn't survive staying there for another minute... that was my last morning there :))