After our friends left for London we stayed in Split but moved a little further south of the city on the coast. The views and sunsets were amazing. We spent a few days catching up on laundry, schoolwork and rest.

 

We found a fortress high high high on a hill. We decided we’d climb it, so off C and I climbed while BK got left behind helping little R. A looooong 45 minutes later we reached the top. After a quick stop to take photos we headed back down again to the car where we had left the water and snacks.

 

After 3 weeks in Split it was time to move on. 3 weeks is the longest we’ve spent anywhere since moving out of our home in mid December. We headed to the south of Croatia but as we went we had to drive through a small part of Bosnia to get to the back into Croatia. Bosnia was beautiful, a lot of people (including me) still have pictures in their minds from the media of war torn Bosnia, but the small part we saw was really not like that. We stopped and had a picnic lunch, then carried on our way. Our passports were counted as we went into Bosnia but they didn’t even open them to check they were actually OUR passports. However on our way out BK’s passport was stamped, I assume it was because he was the one driving.

 

We arrived at our destination of Cavtat, pronounced ‘sarve tat’, it is a bit south of the city Dubrovnik and a bit north of the country Montenegro.

 

Our first day there we ventured to Dubrovnik. BK had been told by a colleague in Split to expect it to be like Disneyland and yep it sure was! If you weren’t a tourist you were selling to a tourist.

 

C and I walked around the city walls, it was expensive, but great to have some one on one time with him plus the views were amazing. We reunited with the other half of the family and had a picnic lunch overlooking the cute little harbour and a bit of walking around the streets, hello Christmas shop! BK went and retrieved the car from its parking spot faaaaaaaar away so the rest of us didn’t have to do anymore walking.

 

That evening we went into Cavtat and walked around the old town as the sun was going down, it was very pretty.

 

The following day we drove south to Montenegro. Luckily Peugeot Eurolease had given us the correct paper work when we picked up Rouge because they wanted the car’s papers plus our passports to get in. As we were following our GPS, it wanted to put us on a ferry to cross a small patch of water! After a quick check we were allowed to put our car on a ferry and checking the price I drove Rouge onto her first ferry ride 😎 only a short 7-10 minutes then it was off to the city of Kotor! After another few hours of walking the old town I was officially done with ‘old towns’ so we headed back to the ferry via a picnic spot for lunch and headed home. We had purchased a pre-made lasagne for dinner and BK encouraged C to take care of the family dinner and offered to be his sous chef. It was a great dinner of lasagne and home made garlic bread. Well done C!

 

So that was the south done in record time and it was time to start the journey north. The next stop was Zagreb, which is the capital of Croatia. We arrived at our Airbnb with the actual host being the daughter of the family however she was out of town for two days so she had left her parents to look after us. They lived downstairs and were amazing. On the first day they helped us move in and answered all my questions, when their dog got too excited and jumped up little R, she burst out crying and the Mum rushed out with a banana for R. On the second day the Mum made us homemade buns with chocolate or marmalade inside them! Team Knowles scoffed them down in a split second, yuuuummmmm! On the fourth day the Mum brought up my washing for me.

By this time the official host was home and I happily told her if she was missing parents at the end of the week they were packed in my bag and coming home to NZ with me! Haa!

 

In Zagreb I took the kids to the zoo, it wasn’t world class but for NZ$11 for all 3 of us no one was complaining. I also took them to a technical museum, I thought of my Uncle Tom the whole time. It was full of engines from marine to aircraft to mining. It showed how solar power and wind turbines work. Amazingly fascinating! I even saw an iron lung (which is a thing polio survivors lay in to breathe).

 

The last full day we walked around Zagreb. We went on a funicular, otherwise known as a cable car, it’s the shortest one in Europe, it took a whole 40 seconds 😄😄😄. We walked through a tunnel built during WWII, saw a few churches, had some bakery food and an ice cream…healthy! Then we bought some flowers for our amazing hosts and headed back to our apartment. Our host made us fudge and a chocolate cream cake on the day of our departure. Yum!

 

It was the most amazing month in Croatia. Everything we had dreamed of and more. We are so glad we went to there to rest before carrying on with our trip. Such kind people, so many supermarkets and the scenery, just stunning! We lived like locals and apart from a couple of days when we paid for big toll roads, we lived on the same budget as we did in Asia. BK achieved some good project work and topped up the bank account while he was at it. I also booked and paid for our flights home later on in the year so we now have an end date to work toward.

 

Now, the budget. Obviously Asia and Europe costs are VERY different but if I’d worked on my new Europe budget per day I would have come out at $3404 under budget for the month in Croatia, pretty ridiculous! Mid month BK and I realised we didn’t need the full Europe per day amount so decided that we’d do it on the Asia budget so…the official budget…

Croatia – $404 under
Total budget – $912 under

Lets just say the spare happily paid for our flights home.

 

Till next time!

 

Claire