July 16 Slovenia to Croatia (Day 293)
Our relatively short 2 hour train ride this morning took us across the border from Ljubljana, Slovenia to Zagreb, Croatia. During most of the trip we were following the Sava river through farmland, passing small villages.
This village is near Sevnica, about half way between the two capital cities of their respective countries.
We reached Zagreb mid-morning and got a ride on the public electric tram from the train station to the car rental office nearby and picked up our rental car.
We had difficulties trying to make arrangements for train travel through Croatia and most websites recommended car rentals instead!
We loaded our backpacks and headed out of the city towards the seaside!
In the interior, once we got out of the suburbs of Zagreb, we were in mountainous country.
As we neared the coast the country became more arid and rocky, with very little agriculture evident.
Then we saw the Adriatic Sea, with the barren-looking islands of Croatia.
The water looked cool, blue and inviting!
We followed the coastline down and entered the region of Croatia known as Dalmatia. We reached our destination, the small resort area of Stinica in late afternoon and unloaded our baggage for a one night stand. This isn’t a village or town, there is no grocery store and just a few restaurants, but there are lots of apartment blocks and holiday homes, and tons of cars lining the narrow roads!
We had dinner at the largest restaurant in the area, just a short drive from our apartment up the hill!
After dinner ( half of which will be our breakfast tomorrow!) we drove further down to the waterfront to see the last of the sunset.
Down at the waterfront we found a large area off the road with an old cement pad, a crumbling large structure and smaller stone building. It looked like something industrial or military, perhaps from the Soviet era of the “Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia”, run by dictator Tito from 1939 until his death in 1980.
Lit up by a passing car, the bombed-out looking building reminded me of the Balkan conflicts of 1991 into the early 2000’s.
The Conflicts during the break up of Yugoslavia into the countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia, were horrific, with hundreds of thousands killed in acts of genocide, and millions displaced. It is amazing that some of these countries are tourism hotspots just 30 years or less later!