Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Roadtrip! Part 1: Croatia's Dalmatian Coast

Episode Date: June 30, 2019

A few months ago, I did a podcast episode on the best places history lovers should visit to avoid the crowds. I’m making my way through those cities and countries, and, of course, had to podcast about it. On a two-part episode of the Postcard Academy —  Roadtrip! Croatia + Albania — I chat with my travel friend Cristal Dyer to reminisce about our trip, talk about what we enjoyed the most, and also what we’d do differently next time.  In Part 1, we share our travel itinerary down Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast.   If you’re a regular listener of the Postcard Academy, it would mean the world to me if you could take a moment to rate and/or review the show in Apple Podcasts. This helps other potential listeners know if the show is worth listening to :)   I’m your host, Sarah Mikutel. Did you know I host another show called Podcasting Step by Step? Check it out if you’ve been wanting to start a podcast. Every week, I break down ‘how to podcast’ with a little loving motivation to give you the skills and confidence you need to finally launch that show of your dreams.   Ready to travel? Get your free guide to cheap airfare.   Thank you so much for listening to this show. I know you’re busy and have many listening options, so it means a lot to me that you’re here. You are the best.   This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Postcard Academy listeners can get a FREE audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up via audibletrial.com/postcard   This podcast is also brought to you by World Nomads. Need simple and flexible travel insurance? Get a cost estimate from World Nomads using their handy calculator at postcardacademy.co/insurance  Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy. I'm your host, Sarah Mikital, and a few months ago, I shared an episode on The Best Places History Lover should visit in 2019. Albania was on that list, and a few weeks ago, I visited that country for the first time as part of a road trip that began in Croatia and ended in Italy. I was traveling with my friends Elki and Crystal, aka the Tofu traveler, who you have heard on previous episodes, including ones on eating food in Wohaka and volunteering in an animal sanctuary in Belize. Crystal and I actually met when I interviewed her for this podcast in 2017, and I love how that we have become friends in real life. The Power of Podcasting. Have you ever thought about creating a podcast of your own? If you have, I have got another show for you to listen to. I host podcasting step by step, and every week I share actionable advice and, and, every week I share actionable

advice and a little loving motivation to give you the skills and confidence you need to excel as a world-class podcaster. But back to the Post Guard Academy. On this episode, Crystal, who is recording from Washington, D.C., and I, hello from Fokston, UK, we reminisce about our road trip and talk about what we enjoyed most and what we would do differently next time. We had a few little snappoos, nothing too big, but maybe some things that you can learn from. I'm splitting up our road trip story, so on this episode one, I will focus on Croatia, and next time we'll be all about Albania. Head on over to postcardacademy.com for links and lots and lots of beautiful photos from our journey. Now into my conversation with Crystal.

Welcome back, Crystal. Thank you for joining me today. Thank you for having me. So we are here to reminisce about our Road Trip 3. Croatia and Albania and offer some tips to people who might want to do the same thing and talk about highlights and mistakes and everything. So ready to go? Yeah, sounds good. Okay, so our original plan was to meet in Zagreb, but that didn't happen because you unfortunately missed your connection due to a natural, was it a natural disaster that landed your plane? Well, I think it was a mechanical failure. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So I had an emergency landing in Nashville and we were stuck there for a few hours and then by the time we got going, I missed my flight from New York. Unfortunately,

I got a panicked text from you saying you might not come and I was like, oh no, Crystal has to come and do this trip. But the airline wouldn't like help you make a connection. And so you spent a few days sort of wondering what to do and then we're able to find a different way to still make it without paying too crazy of a price. Yeah, I was super devastated because originally this flight was, it was like a mistake fair, which we've talked about before. So it didn't cost me a lot of money. And then to consider buying another ticket to Europe, I was just like, this is too much money, but of course it was worth it in the end. Is there a way that that could have been avoided? So I remember when I booked the flight. So I was flying from Cancun and I had two options. I either could have arrived into New York super early in the morning and had like a 12 hour layover or I think I ended up having like a five hour layover.

Which still seems like a lot to me. Like it seems comfortable. But the way it worked out was because of all of this craziness happening. So I had a layover in Chicago. Chicago had terrible weather. I learned that you should never have a layover in Chicago. Everybody told me that after the fact. So now I've learned my lesson. And by the time I actually got to New York, my five-hour layover was not enough. I think I got there an hour after my flight left. And you were flying Mexico to US and then taking a separate airline for like a completely separate different leg of the trip. Is that why they wouldn't help you make a connection? It's never happened to me before. if, you know, it's not my fault. And I arrive late. They'll just reschedule me into the next flight. But British Airways totally failed me. They did not care at all.

And I gave them like a heads up because by the time I got to Chicago, I knew I was going to miss it. Right, right. So I called them and they just did not care. They are going down and down when it comes to customer service. I am not a fan. I'm starting to go back to Virgin at Norwegian. So I flew into.

where did I split? I flew into split to meet you guys partway with Norwegian. And they were lovely. Yeah. Well, I'm glad it worked out. So we eventually met in Shippenik. And so I was there for a few days before you. I stayed at a lovely little hostel called Hostel Globo, which was right near the bus station, which made it really convenient for me to do a day trip to Zadar before you got here. and it was really easy to get to split. And my hostel was only $3,150 euro a night, which I thought was pretty great. And they looked like a little hotel room. So I would totally recommend that.

And Shibonik itself was lovely. It was a sweet little coastal town with lots of castles. And then I was there with our other friend, Elki. And before you arrived, we spent a day ferrying around. So we took a ferry to a little island called Zolk, Laren and another one called Privik Luca and this whole episode I will be saying these names wrong. I'm sorry to say, but it was so much fun. It was a brilliantly sunny day.

We just spent all afternoon walking along the sea and having coffee. There was a restaurant called Courage, And Laran, where we just chilled and drank coffee and then moved on to the only restaurant open on the island. because this was a few weeks ago at the end of May. So we had lunch at Canova Eldura. And it was really good. And I had what would become my standard meal in Croatia, grilled vegetables, tomato salad, local cheese and bread and cherry liquor. And it was perfect.

And I don't think I had a bad meal in Croatia. I kept it nice and simple. And yeah, it was lovely. What did you think of Shibonik when you arrived? So I got there later in the afternoon, and it was really nice after, you know, a long flight and stressful travel times. It was kind of cool to see Croatia for the first time. And we met in the old town in Shibonik. And I had my first taste of cherry brandy, which turned into my new favorite drink.

Yeah, I think it's, I guess, more popular in the northern part of Krogyn. Croatia because towards the end of our trip, I couldn't find it as much. But yeah, I loved it. Cherry liquor, cherry brandy. And then we also tried the walnut one, which kind of tasted like maple syrup in the best possible way. And so after Shibinik, we took the bus to Trojir. You said that was one of your favorite places. Yeah, it's funny. You were surprised that we were spending the night there. You were like, why are we doing this? But I really loved it. It was maybe I loved it because it was so contained. So you could walk through the old town. It was a very small old town. And then on the other side, you had, you had the port. I thought it was a really cute little town. I could imagine myself living there. Yeah. I wasn't like

questioning why we were staying there. I just, it completely wasn't on my radar. I just, I guess I forgot this was in the plans. It was, it was cute. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site because of all the Romanesque and Renaissance buildings. And they were built between the 13th and 15th centuries, but very, very compact. Like you said, it's like a really small town. The thing that I thought was the coolest was the cathedral, which is from the 13th century. And they had this arch, which was really fascinating because it wasn't just telling like the biblical stories. It was telling the stories of local life. So of the wine harvest that they have in. September and then the slaughter of pigs in December. And you don't usually see that kind of local storytelling in that old architecture. So yeah, it was lovely. If I were redoing this again myself, I probably would have stopped for lunch, but not stayed over. But it sounds like you would still stay over. Yeah, I liked it. But maybe because it was my first taste. Like that's the first night that we had. Had I been with you guys the whole time, maybe by then I would have been over

all the old towns. Oh, I guess, yeah, that's an excellent point, Crystal. I forgot that you had literally just arrived and don't spend as much time in Europe as Elki and I. So yeah, maybe that's why it was so magical. Anyway, I don't want to like make it sound like a bad place. It's lovely. But if you're doing a road trip down Croatia and into Albania as we were, I think it's a nice lunch that. But that's what's the beauty of travel. Everyone has their own opinion. I was surprised at how easy it was to take buses everywhere in Croatia. So in my Croatia episode, Ashley mentioned that. And she was right. It was really cheap and really efficient. They didn't always show up or leave on time. But in the end, they got us where we needed to go. Yeah. I think they were very cost effective.

I would keep taking the bus. I had another friend who was traveling to Croatia. She asked me about getting around and I said, you know, the buses are always late. I don't think we ever had a time where it showed up on time. But they were clean. They were super nice. I think they actually spoiled me, didn't they? Because by the time we got to Albania, I was horrified.

Yes. Well, you, yeah, I've not seen a bus system as I saw in split. And I know in Mexico, you said the buses are really good. great. That's not the standard over here. Over here in Europe. So after Trojir, we took the bus to you split. And that was my favorite place in Croatia. I know it's like the tourism has definitely boomed in recent years, but I still, I still think it's a beautiful place to visit. It's got a lively little scene going on, but it's right on the water. I thought the walking tour that did there was excellent. We went with Split walking tour. What did you think of Split? I also loved it. I can't

even imagine a time when it wouldn't have been like a favorite for tourists because I just think it's such a cute city. There's so much to offer like beautiful architecture. It's on the water. There is some hiking nearby, which we didn't get to do. But I think if you had a longer time, you could feel like at least three or four days in Split. Definitely. And we did have the best walking tour of the trip in Splend. Yes. So we learned all about Diocletian and walked through the ruins of his palace. So he was an emperor who actually retired in the early 300s, I think 305 AD. And I just thought his story was fascinating. So he was born in a common family, but then rose in the ranks of the military.

And he supposedly assassinated his ruler's assassin. And I think it was the military who voted him emperor because of this. And he rolled for 20 years. And then to everyone's surprise, he said, you know what, I think I want to take it easy for my final years. And so they built him this giant palace. And that's where split is today. It's, I think Diocletian's palace would be even in better condition. But when the Christians eventually started to take over, the Diocletian's palace was a pagan palace because Christianity hadn't taken over yet. And so they started to destroy some of the architecture, but instead of destroying some things, they would convert them. So Diocletian's mausoleum was turned into a cathedral and his temple of Jupiter was turned into the baptistry. And that was

just, for me, fascinating. And they say that the temple of Jupiter and the basement of the palace are among the best preserved Roman ruins in the whole world. What was your favorite part of Splits or anything that we saw? Or did anything stand out for you on the tour that we did? I really liked visiting the crypt in Split. Is that what it was called? The dungeony place. I think that, yeah, his, well, the basement of his, the basement of his palace.

It's the same as it was, what is it now? like 1,700 years ago, more than 1,700 years ago, because they at one point just stopped using it and just started to throw like garbage and, you know, things down there and it just stayed preserved. Well, I think that was one of the cool parts about split is that you can easily see the evolution of the city. So you can visit down into the basement

and see what it was like originally. but then also you can go to the other side where we saw the garbage trees that they're still excavating. So it's kind of like a layered city in that sense, I guess. Yes. And then right behind it along the water, they had all of these cute little stands with local people selling products. I don't know if that's there all year, but they were out there in May. And I bought a really beautiful handmade wallet. that was later stolen, but that's a story for later.

And did you buy anything when we were there? I don't think I got anything in Split. But that's not a reflection of Split. I just never buy anything. Yeah. Well, I needed a new wallet. And they were really, I think one of the things that Croatia is known for is, well, the type of pattern that I bought. And anyway, I seriously like have daydreams of returning to Split just so I can go.

and buy that wallet and replace the memory of it getting stolen. Oh, they had a lot of cute things there. I definitely could have bought a lot of souvenirs. They had some lovely, like, oils and scents and soaps and also some delicious food. Yeah. We had some great meals in split. Yes, I loved, yeah, I loved the vegetables and the bread and cheese that was good everywhere. And we stayed at an Airbnb, which was really cool.

It was like a little bit outside of the old town, which I liked being a little bit apart and in a quieter place. And our Airbnb host recommended a restaurant called Doge, D-U-J-E. And I had my typical meal and walnut brandy. And I think we were the only non-Croatians there. So that was nice. We also learned from the waiter, my new favorite trick, which is to put, so on the delicious local cheese, he recommended you pour some olive oil, a little bit of salt, and a little bit of black pepper. And it just made it so much better. Yes, that was good.

And on the way there, we saw peacocks screaming in the trees, which took me by surprise. Yeah, that was an incredible experience. Because at first we didn't know what they were. we're like, is that a cat? Is that a person? What is that giant thing in that tree? That was really cool to see the wild peacocks. I thought it was, yeah, a cat fight.

And then all of a sudden we see these giant feathers come out of the tree. So, yeah, that was incredible. I would say that one of the mistakes that we made was missing the fairy to Havar when we wanted to take it. Remember that? I think we were kind of on the mind. set like the buses never take off on time but so the ferries probably don't either we were just kind of lolly gagging that morning I guess but the we plan to arrive like right on time but we didn't really think about buying the ticket and actually finding where the ferry left from because

there's eight million fairies apparently leaving from split that was poor planning yes so get there early enough to buy your ticket and get on the ferry or even buy your ticket the day before you can do that. And the fairies leave on time. So plan for that. So we missed our ferry to Havar, but we decided to go to Brock instead. There was still, like I think maybe half an hour later, a ferry to Brock, which I thought was like a really cute little island. Did you like it? Yeah. I think it was a nice introduction to the islands around split. You found us a delicious restaurant to have lunch at. We had veggie pasta. I believe that restaurant was called Konovo Canoba Vinotoka.

I think Canova means like kind of a local restaurant. And you found that, was it Happy Cow that you were looking at? Yeah, Happy Cow. What's Happy Cow for people who don't know? Happy Cow is an app or you can also just use their website to find vegetarian or vegan friendly places to eat while you're traveling. And we use it a lot because we're also trying to find places because we had our friend Elki there with us who is

not vegetarian. So we didn't want to go to like a full-blown vegan restaurant. She would suffer eventually, I think. So we found lots of lovely places that had something on off of them both. Yeah. So I really liked Brock and just wandering around. So for me, the best thing to do in Croatia is take a ferry to some island, walk around, eat some food, have a drink, get on a boat, go some worlds. Oh, eat some ice cream. Definitely. Yeah. Eat love ice cream. Yeah. So we didn't do like a ton of museum going or anything. It's just a nice place to be at the seaside. And then we eventually did get to Havar. And that was lovely too. I really, I really liked Farr. I would like to go back and spend more time there, I think. Yeah, it seems like there's a lot to see there. And there's, the only difficulty I had with Havar was

the buses. And we had this with Brock as well. We kind of got there. And then we knew we wanted to get to the other side of the island. We kind of, you know, had lunch, hung around for a bit. And then we were like, okay, we're ready to go. We went to the information center and she was like, it's too late. And this was maybe 11 in the morning or it felt quite early, but it seems like the buses are on a very particular schedule. So you need to maybe once you get to the island, actually go to the information center, figure out where you want to go first. Yes, or take a taxi. But Elki was adamant about not taking taxis for some reason. So you can either ride bikes or take a taxi.

Because, yes, on the islands, there's not a ton of the bus service is kind of limited. I forgot about the taxis. You're right, Sarah. I was on the Elki camp. Yeah, I kind of forgot about the taxis, too. But I'm just thinking about it now. So I don't think we took a taxi in Croatia, so I'm not sure how much it would cost. But they were much cheaper in Albania.

our final place in Croatia was Dubrovnik and I didn't write too many notes about this because I had been there before so I'd love to hear your impressions of somebody who went there for the first time. So my expectations were high because I knew that this was the place to go to in Croatia. That's where everybody goes. And if you're a Game of Thrones fan, you can see lots of sights from the TV show. And we. The first thing I did, I think, was doing the tour around the wall, and then we did a smaller city tour, which you were not that impressed with. I don't think he gave us very good information. Yeah. So you had done it before. For me, you know, I thought it was okay. It was cool to see the sites.

I would probably recommend doing the around the wall tour instead of just the city tour, because it was really cool to see everything from above. And it gave me a good perspective. the city itself, I liked it. We only spent a day, so it's difficult to judge. And I enjoyed split a lot more than I did Dubrovnik. So I don't know if that was a reflection of the fact that when we got to Dubrovnik, it was raining the whole time. It was, yeah.

Yeah, that makes a big difference. It was also a lot more expensive. Yeah. And I think we all stayed in like the same room that night. And yeah, it was, yeah, it was raining. Yeah, it wasn't like the most luxurious experience. I think Debrevnik is gorgeous. I think you can do it in a day or two.

I don't think you need more than that. It is more expensive than the other places. And it's also nicer if you are there for a little bit longer to stay outside of the old town. It's a little bit more relaxed and you can find a place on the water. That's what I did last time. So we really wanted to find a way to get from Debrovnik to Albania, like straight shot. And I tried so hard to find either a tour that would take us from Dubrovnik to Tirana or a cheaper car service. I even looked up planes, but there were no direct flight.

So it would have ended up taking us like 24 hours because of connections to get from Croatia to Albania. And it's not that far. I think if you drove, it would be like maybe five hours. So in the end, I gave up. and we took a bus to Montenegro because that was how you had to get there. And we spent a night in Montenegro. I had been to Qatar before. And so I voted to go to the capital instead of Podgorica,

which is definitely not as nice as Cotor. I don't know. What did you think? Yeah, so it just felt like a regular city. for me it was my because I haven't seen Couture but it was kind of nice to see just a regular part of Eastern Europe so not all these beautiful enchanting old cities that we had visited see some regular people but yeah I wouldn't say I would recommend it as a must visit place yeah so Montenegro it's a pretty poor country there's only 600,000 people the capital

looks very poor so I think I haven't spent a ton of time in Montenegro. I would say Budva was my favorite. That's a seaside town. So if you ever find yourself back in Montenegro, you can go to Budva. So anyway, I'm glad that was just like a sort of transit stop. And then the next day, we took a Fugon, a little minibus to Tirana from Montenegro. And I was a little bit suspect of the Fragon at first.

I was like, what is this? We're just hopping inside of this. van, but that ended up being how we got around Albania the entire time we were there. And it was wonderful and so old school. I love when I go to a place and I feel kind of like I'm stepping back in time or experiencing something that's a bit different. And the ride was beautiful. Okay. That wraps up part one of our journey. If you would like to see some lovely photos of Croatia and I think it's pretty much impossible to take a bad photo there. Or if you would like links to the places that we mentioned, head on over to postcardacademy.co. The next episode is

all about Albania and I look forward to sharing that part of our road trip. If you are enjoying this podcast, please tell a friend about it. That is the best way to grow the show. And if you have listened to more than three episodes, I would love, love, love it if you could review the Postcard Academy on Apple Podcasts. I love to hear from you and reviews also let other people know that this is a show worth listening to. That's all for now. Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahmicatel.com

Blank No More.