2022 in Croatia (Dubrovnik and Koločep)
On October 5, 2024, the Balkan bus tour moved from Trebinje, within Republik Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina, into Dubrovnik, Croatia, for my 24th unique country:
This made it my:
- 3rd former Yugoslavian constituent country (out of 6)
- after Serbia + Bosnia
- 5th Slavic speaking country
- after Poland + Bulgaria + Serbia + Bosnia
- 3rd Serbo-Croatian speaking country
- after Serbia + Bosnia
Country
So, Croatia (Croatian: Hrvatska) has this sharp-angled "C" shape that "holds onto" Bosnia and Herzegovina, while also bordering Serbia to its east, Montenegro to its extreme south, as well as Slovenia and Hungary to its north. For this visit, the tour actually took us to the extreme southern portion of Croatia called the Dalmatian coast.
For about two more months, Croatia would use its own currency, the kuna (which I managed to get from a currency exchange office). In 2023, Croatia would replace the kuna with the euro. Croatia had already become a member of the European Union.
The official language of Croatia is Serbo-Croatian but its dialect differs from Serbian in that they do not use the Cyrillic alphabet at all, but the Latin (same as English). From what I read, Croatian uses some words differently from Serbian, much like how Americans and British do with English.
Visit
The visit would last from late morning to early evening: first to tour the fortified city of Dubrovnik. Later, we had an option to hop on a ferry to Koločep, a beach-oriented island off the coast of Dubrovnik.
Dubrovnik is famous for fans of The Game of Thrones, a show that I personally did not watch. Still, I liked the city for what it was: picturesque and full of narrow streets going up and down.
Koločep was a fun island on which to relax and not feel pressured to run here and there. Taking place on the very middle of this trip, the whole tour group took advantage of this.
On the border crossing from Dubrovnik back to Trebinje, some of the group members had had too much to drink but the border guards could only smile as we headed back into Bosnian territory!
Reflection
As Dubrovnik has its own charm that makes it distinct from the rest of the country, I do wish to see more of Croatia, such as:
- Split
- Zadar
- Rijeka
- Zagreb (the capital)
Perhaps those places would also have a less tourist-y vibe and I would feel more a sense of the local culture. It remains difficult to grasp a sense of that when the majority of the people in a place are tourists.
Going to Koločep provided some sense of difference from the main tourist destination, but I felt like even there, everyone was from overseas.
Such makes up the reality of being a mass tourist rather than a real traveller!