Croatia: Split / Brac / Krka National Park

Croatia: (n) a land of lavender and crystal clear waters which woke our souls and numbed our feet

After a chilly week in Prague (due to a cold front in Europe), we were thrilled to head off to the sunny skies and crystal waters of Split, Croatia!

Croatia has always been one of my goal countries to visit abroad, so we made sure to go on a long weekend from school to get a full 4 days! A group of 10 of us from choir booked the trip together, using the student tour company Bus2Alps. We have planned all of our other trips ourselves, but we heard that Croatia is hard to navigate and that you need to make sure you staying are in the right areas. To maximize seeing as much as we could, while not having the stress of planning it, we went through a tour company!

Because, you shouldn't stress when you are in Croatia. It's a rule.

I would definitely recommend Bus2Alps if you are a student abroad. You travel on a charter bus with a group of college students, and the company takes you to all of the attractions, best beaches, and national parks. They planned a walking tour of Split for us, island hopping cruise, day trip to Bosnia, and trip to Krka National Park. The company books a hostel for the whole group, and we were right in downtown with walking distance to the beach!

We took a night bus into Split from Prague, and got into the city around noon on Friday! We dropped off our bags at the hostel, and then headed out for a free walking tour. How breathtaking is this city?

Friday was the only day it rained, and it started to downpour during our walking tour.

A stormy day in Croatia beats a sunny day in a city!

Making up more than half of Split, and one of the city's main tourist attractions is Diocletian's Palace! The ancient palace was built for the Roman Emperor Diocletian in fourth century AD. Diocletian lived in half of the palace when he retired from emperor, and the other half was used to house the military.

We walked inside the palace walls, and were in awe of the old Roman architecture!

A original Sphinx sent to Dioclesian from Egypt!

Peep the top of umbrellas and raincoats

Grgur Ninski Statue

Medieval Croatian bishop of Nin, Grgur introduced the idea of having church services in Croatian instead of Latin. This resulted in making Christianity much stronger in the country, and helped shape the Croatian culture,

The ceiling of one of the outdoor restaurants we walked by, wish we could have taken these umbrellas on our tour!

Ran into a Croatian wedding parade, the guests were playing instruments and parading down the street!

Split, Croatia lies on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, known as the Dalmatian coast! Croatia has a complicated history---

Originally settled as a Greek colony in 3rd century BC, it then became the ancient capital of "Rome on the Dalmatian Coast" after taking in Roman refugees. In 1805, Napoleon conquered the city and added it to Italy's territory. It wasn't until WW2 that Croatia became an independent state again, after being occupied by Germany and made into its own province. In 1991, Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia in the Croatian War of Independence! Now, it is the independent country that we know and love!

PS there were tons of Games of Thrones scenes filmed in this city. I don't personally watch the show, but if you do, they film a lot of it inside the palace!

We ate so much fish this week, starting with Fish N Chips for dinner at a local Split restaurant!

The next morning, we put on our bathing suits and I headed to a local Croatian coffee shop before our day cruise!

We hopped on the boat for our Bus2Alps Croatian Cruise! The cruise took us across the Dalmatian Coast to the island of Brac, Croatia.

Thankful for sunshine and still waters! Could this water be any more blue?

Lunch on the boat! When we ordered fish we weren't expecting a whole one..

Tasted amazing!

Fish Kiss

The ladies!

The town of Brac!

After a short walk along the water, we found a beautiful spot on the beach and spent the day sunbathing and swimming!

The water was freezing, since it is still early Spring, but we were determined to swim in the clear waters!

Balancing rocks on this peaceful island

Jumped off the dock, the cold water made us feel so alive!

These are a few of my favorite things

The next day, we headed off to Mostar, Bosnia which will be its own separate post!

When we got back from the three hour ride back from Bosnia, we walked down to a Split beach for dinner and to watch the sunset!

You won't find me frowning in a single picture from this trip..

Our last morning in the city of Split, Brittney and I woke up at 5:30 AM to watch sunrise and have one last walk on the beach!

I will always wake up early for a sunrise!

Good morning from Croatia

Played some songs on the beach, recorded a cover which I will post on YouTube soon!

Some street art we saw on the way back

We hopped on the tour bus and headed off to Krka National Park for the day!

A .5 mile boardwalk through a Croatian forest and over waterfalls took us to Krka falls!

The falls! You can see the bottom of the water from this far way...

I hung up my Eno hammock, and I'm pretty sure I've reached my peak with hammock locations...

On one side of the hammock we had the huge Krka falls, and we had a smaller one behind us too!

Granolla Grannies back at it again! Thanks Kyla for the picture!

We went for a swim, and even went all the way under the freezing waters!

When in Croatia, one must always go in the waters, no matter how cold. Proof we went under:

The boys took a "fake frat picture" Pi Si Phi!

Bye, Croatia! You will be dearly missed, hope to see you soon!