Croatia & Slovenia

I would highly suggest a trip to Croatia and Slovenia if you want a very peaceful and relaxing vacation! Both are very beautiful countries and everyone is so nice.

When I landed in Croatia I grabbed a map and figured out the bus system to my hostel. I try hard not to take taxis from the airport to the hostel because they're usually super expensive and public transportation is a lot cheaper. Bohemian Rhapsody was playing when I got on the bus which I thought was hysterical! Love that song! I really liked my hostel. It was super clean and the staff had great recommendations on where to eat and what to see in Zagreb.

Hostel

Hostel Breakfast

Rastoke, Croatia

We visited this little adorable town on the way to the Plitvice Lakes. There were beautiful watermills and creeks throughout the town.

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

Such a beautiful and magical place! I kept waiting for a fairy or talking fox to pop out! Our tour group hiked all 16 lakes because we were all young-ish and 'over achievers' according to the guide lol

Me and my hilarious tour guide Phillip!

Note: If you go to the lakes go with a small tour group! Our guide said if you go by yourself it takes about 1.5 hours to find parking, 2 hours to get tickets then you get lost in the park... you skip all that with a tour guide!

Ljubljana, Slovenia

• Ljubljana was voted the European green capital in 2016!  Currently 70% of the cities waste is recycled and the goal is 100%. The streets have lots of recycling bins like in the picture below.
• The downtown area is pedestrian only and it's only 3 euros a year for a bicycle rental!

15th Century Ljubljana Castle. Art exhibit inside the castle.

Violin at castle

View from castle, Julian alps in background

• Story behind the dragon: St. George went to battle the dragon and he scared the dragon into crawling under this bridge. People here believe the dragon is still sleeping under it.
• Yet another love lock bridge in Europe lol
• Horse meat is a delicacy here and is very expensive.

Beautiful church in downtown area

Sausage is a common Slovenian food

Drinking fountain... all tap water is drinkable in Slovenia

Delicious vegan burger at Organic Garden

Lake Bled, Slovenia 

The castle in Lake Bled is about 1000 years old. The views were absolutely stunning from the castle which sits on top of a mountain overlooking a lake.

Note: The white on the mountains is limestone and granite, not snow.

Old printing press replica and cobble stone walkway

Products made from the many bees in Lake Bled

Cream cake is a traditional Slovenian food and it's delicious!

Tip for traveling from Croatia to Slovenia: Go with a very small group tour! The big buses sometimes have to wait 4-5 hours to cross the boarder because they have to check and stamp every single persons' passport. We only waited about 45 minutes getting into Slovenia and there was no wait back to Croatia.

Zagreb, Croatia

A few things about Zagreb:

• 10 yrs ago Zagreb was voted "most boring city" in Europe, not anymore! Voted best Christmas town in Europe for 2017!
• The city is just now being discovered as a tourist attraction.
• Almost every restaurant has outdoor seating and streets lined with restaurants and bars with tons of people sitting outside.
• Everyone says 'sure, no problem' here lol
• Downtown Zagreb reminds me a LOT of Savannah.
• Dogs walk around behind their humans without leashes.
• Lots of people from Australia visiting!
• Zagreb started in the 11th century.
• Justin Bieber has been here according to one of my guides.
• Croatian is the language spoken in the country.
• Croatia is one of cheapest and safest countries in Europe.
• People expect to take 3 hours to finish a very small coffee with a water... each Croatian has a certain coffee shop they'll go to... like coffee gangs but very safe lol 
• All tap water in Croatia is drinking water.
• Most money here comes from tourism and not agriculture. If you see farms it's usually for personal consumption.
• The neck tie comes from Croatia. It was once given to husbands going to war as sign of appreciation and affection from their wives as a red scarf. The French saw the red scarves and started wearing them too... then the tie came.
• Bye bye in Croatian is 'bok bok' like a chicken! 😂
• One of the ladies on my tour mentioned how nice people are to the pigeons here and my guide offered his opinion on it. Apparently it's illegal to feed the pigeons because naturally they hunt and eat bugs. When people feed them over time they start to lose their instinct for catching bugs meaning they depend on people feeding them and now there are more bugs. Very interesting! So I did not feed the pigeons lol
• There were bike lanes on almost every road and even on the side walks, so neat!
• I felt so safe here. It would be way past dark and teenagers would be walking around the streets and sitting on benches with no adults!

• The feet print in the cement in the picture above is of a guy that ran through the street with no clothes on and fell to the ground kissing the cement. He also grew his beard out really long then shaved it while he was on the downtown square. There are lots of theories about why he did this and it was significant enough to make a print of his feet downtown!

"Shortest cable car in the world" goes between lower and upper town

• The Gingerbread Heart: Young men used to give these to the woman they love. It's now a traditional souvenir from Zagreb, so sweet!

140 year old tradition, canon goes off at 12 noon every day in Zagreb

• The silver statue above is of a grumpy old man that used to live in Zagreb. He was so grumpy and cynical that he had a statue of himself put on a hill so he could look down on the city.

• Graffiti Square: Artists are hired to paint in this square so it's constantly changing. Right now a man named Tesla is painted here who invented the mechanical pen and is also connected to the car. 

• The Museum of Broken Relationships was started by a couple that broke up and put stuff they shared inside the museum. Now people just leave things from their past relationships here. I skipped going in because everyone said it's really sad inside.
• A martin or kuna is a creature that used to be used as currency and is now on coins and on the roof of the beautiful church above.

Oldest pharmacy in Croatia, over 700 years old and still in business!

More oldest pharmacy

• Stone Gates: This was an old jail for women believed to be witches. Now it's a chapel and there are plaques with names of people that experienced miracles from praying here.

• Cathedral in Zagreb: The chandeliers are from Las Vegas 😂 They were donated from a family that lived in Las Vegas and moved to Zagreb and wanted to make a donation.  It's the tallest building in Croatia standing at 350 feet tall.

• La Struk restaurant: The skrukli is a Croatian pastry with cottage cheese and it's super yummy! I tried the one with pumpkin seed oil. 

Mali Medo: great place to get a Croatian beer, recommended by two of my guides

Practice henna for my future elephant half sleeve 

"Best gelato in town"... it was delicious!

• The Zagreb botanical gardens smell like Christmas trees! And it's free! It's located in the "horse shoe" of Zagreb which is several parks in the city in the shape of a horse shoe.

• Walked up to a restaurant called Root Vegan that had a 'vurger' aka vegan burger. Super yummy! I shared some with this adorable little doggie that was the "restaurant dog."

Swanky Monkey Garden: Fantastic rooftop terrace AND a pool on top!

Roasted corn from street vendors is Croatia's version of an American hot dog

Bike ride to Jarun Lake

• The guy I rented the bike from was very sweet and mapped out two routes he takes his tours on since I wanted to go by myself. He also said it's perfectly fine to ride on the side walks because people and bikes just share the space making it safer for the bikers.  You get yelled at if you ride on the side walks in Atlanta from my experience lol
• I almost wrecked trying to hop a curb and made one of the guys selling corn laugh.

Last night in Zagreb