Adventures with Jack and Julia

We really lucked out in our place for Zadar. It took quite a while to get there, but we managed to book a spot right in the historic old town for less than $30 a night. Zadar’s a popular weekend getaway spot for locals so when we arrived on Friday afternoon it was pretty busy. That was short-lived, however, as we came to remember that everything would be closed on Sunday. Not a huge problem for us, though, as we felt like we had the place to ourselves that day!

The Old Town is very small and you can easily walk around the entire zone in less than 30 minutes. We managed to check it all out on our very first day but found ourselves wandering the streets over the course of our entire stay there. Zadar is known for 2 famous tourist attractions: the Sea Organ and The Greeting to the Sun. The Sea Organ uses sea waves and air pressure to create sound through a series of tubes and pipes hidden beneath marble steps at the waters edge. The Greeting to the Sun is 300 solar panels built into the ground that absorbs sunlight during the day and produces a light show at night.

There are also ruins of an ancient Roman forum that was built between the 1st and 3rd century BC right in the middle of the city to look at. What was truly amazing was that you can actually walk through them, sit on them, and they apparently even host outdoor events in the summer there! Since they’re located right in the main square, we often saw people relaxing there and it was crazy to imagine all the people who must have done the same over the thousands of years that they’ve stood there. They’re right next to the Church of St. Donatus which is fascinating in its own right. We learned while there that the church was built using remains from the Roman forum and you can even see on the outside of it where they cobbled it together with random pieces of carved stone.

In the evenings, we were really excited to finally have access to a full kitchen and we were able to cook our own dinner for the first time on the trip! We decided to pace ourselves by simply making a pasta salad and it was delicious.

Apart from wandering the old town, listening to music created by the waves, and admiring ancient ruins, we also took a short ferry ride over to a nearby island called Ugljan to do a hike. This hike took us across the island up to Tvrđava Sveti Mihovil (Fort Saint Michael), a 6th century fortress, that had stunning 360 degree views overlooking Zadar and the nearby islands. A must-do when visiting Zadar in our opinion!

We ended our time in Zadar admiring the most beautiful sunset we’ve seen since the Philippines and woke up the next morning to head to the town of Šibenik.

The Old Town of Šibenik was much more quiet than Zadar, but we still enjoyed wandering the cobble stoned streets, admiring St. Michael’s Fortress and the Cathedral of St. James. The highlight of our time here was definitely visiting Krka National Park. We wandered through the boardwalk, admiring the waterfalls and all the nature along the way. It was a very relaxing and peaceful way to spend the afternoon, and it wasn’t very crowded at all. The park is home to a ton of hikes all of varying difficulties, but the walk around the lake was outstanding. We hope to be back to explore more of this park in the future because there was so much more we didn’t get to see. Our time in Šibenik was super short, but we loved it a lot. Highly recommend adding a couple of the smaller beach towns to a Croatia itinerary because there’s so much to see in the country.

Our journey to our next destination, Sarajevo in Bosnia, was a very long one. We had to take 2 buses, with an hour layover in Split between them. It was nice to spend a bit of time in Split, reminiscing on all the fun times we had last June when we visited for our friends’ wedding. It’s a beautiful city and we just can’t get over the colour of the water everywhere in Croatia. Some of the most pristine we’ve come across on the trip.

We started our trip here off in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Sarajevo. The city is so beautiful and multicultural while also being rich in history. We explored the old town, walked up to the Yellow Fortress and walked across the famous Latin Bridge, which is the site of where Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s was assassinated in 1914, triggering World War 1.

A really cool highlight for us was our hike up Trebević Mountain to check out the abandoned bobsled and luge track that was used in the 1984 Olympics. The tracks are intact but there is some really beautiful graffiti covering them all over, and you can walk most of the way down the track from the top. You can actually take a gondola up which is what most people do but we enjoyed the hike up and down so we had room for a delicious feast of ćevapi and some special desserts. Jack had kadaif, which is made from shredded filo dough that resembled thin noodles. It is typically layered or rolled with nuts (walnuts/pistachios), baked until golden and crispy, and soaked in lemon-sugar syrup. Julia had tufahije, which is an apple poached in sugar syrup, stuffed with a walnut filling, and served with cream on top. Both were absolutely delicious and a nice way to end our time in Sarajevo!

The next stop on the list was Mostar! It was a short bus ride away but couldn’t have felt and looked more different. It is known for its iconic Stari Most Old Bridge, which is an arched bridge that connects both sides of the city over the river. We walked over it a couple times, checking out the old town on both sides. We also learned that locals will actually jump off the bridge, although we didn’t witness that this time and Julia put her foot down on Jack taking the leap which was probably for the best.

While in Mostar, we finally tried bosanska kafa (Bosnian coffee), which wasn’t as bitter as we expected. We also had one final traditional meal at a local restaurant called Crveni Han, which consisted of ćevapi, dolma (peppers stuffed with veggies, meat and rice) and an outstanding Bosnian stew.

Of course, we found a hike to do while we were here, so we headed up Fortica Hill to take in the views from the glass bridge sky walk, and check out the site of some Austro-Hungarian Ruins. This one you can actually drive up but we’ve loved getting our exercise from hiking everywhere. It’s free, and you get so many great views of the city you’ve been walking through the whole time.

Bosnia was much colder than Croatia but we had just as much fun exploring these spots. Our coverage in these countries has been far less extensive compared to Southeast Asia so there’s definitely reason to go back to them both. That said, we feel like we’ve managed to get a good feel of them and are glad to have visited.

The sun’s started coming out, flowers are starting to bloom, and patios are being set up everywhere to get ready for the summer rush. Next up on our trip, we’re excited to be making our way back to the coast and to our next destination in… Montenegro!

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