When we announced that we were going to Croatia, everyone asked who we knew there. The answer, no one.

But that was a lie. I had forgotten that one of the first families I nannied for in Denmark had moved to Zagreb. Now, ten years later, it was great to reconnect with them for an evening and catch up. And we were totally grateful for the ride both to and from the airport. And funny how their kids have gotten older, yet I haven’t… weird.

Zagreb was a bit of a whirlwind. First my parents were set to arrive about 2 hours before me, but then due to getting bumped (and bumped again) they didn’t arrive until nearly 3 hours after me. We stayed in a beautiful apartment, just a few blocks from the main square and lots of restaurants and shops. It was advertised as being on the second floor, but to American’s it would be considered the third… and with two heavy bags, it was a joy (sarcasm) to haul them up/down. After a busy few days of being on the go, we didn’t do much other than explore the main square area. We went into a huge cathedral (not quite as beautiful as the one in Roskilde) and then had an early dinner and headed back to pack up and finish up laundry.

Tuesday morning Lara brought us back to the airport to pick up our rental car. We took our time driving down toward Split and stopped for lunch in the town of Nin, known for it’s salt pans where they have been collecting salt for 1500 years. After some delicious salt (so many flavors) we stopped in town for lunch and an ice cream and wandered their old town a bit. We arrived in Split just before dinner and found our teeny, tiny guesthouse. And teeny-tiny would be generous. We had two rooms reserved. Mine was a single room with a shared bathroom up on the third floor. There were three young ladies (19 & 20 years old) in the other room and they were fun. But my parents had a double room with literally a foot of space between the bed/wall and maybe 2 feet between the foot of the bed and the wall. Zero space for a suitcase and no chairs or anything. And their A/C was almost non-existent.

So we moved. I was a little annoyed at wasting time, and all the other places IN Split old town were likely to be the same/similar size-wise unless you want to spend a couple hundred per night. So I suggested Trogir. I’m not sure why, but I’m OH-SO-GLAD I did. We *LOVED* Trogir. It’s small and during tourist season, packed with tourists. But May isn’t tourist season, so it wasn’t too bad. But it was AMAZING. There isn’t much to do in Trogir, a small cathedral, a few shops, all the ice cream… but it was a great place to just relax. For 27 euros we took a day trip out on the Adriatic. We left at 9:30 am and after two more pick up stops we first sailed to the Blue Lagoon for swimming. It was cold, but not horrible. I was able to see some fish, but it’s SO salty down there that you couldn’t dive more than a foot or two down without flippers – you just float back up. Back on the boat we sailed to another small town on the Island of Solta for an ice cream and to wander for an hour or so. And then to some private place for lunch. Grilled mackerel, cabbage salad, fresh bread and amazing olive oil. And the whole trip we were supplied with juice, water, wine and grappa (whew). We docked back in Trogir around 5pm.

The place we stayed, Rooms and Apartments Klaudija was amazing. Klaudija and her husband were amazing hosts and we got a whole history lesson on the war in the 90’s and her experience. The buildings were her grandparents factory where they made oils (like lavender) and other stuff…. they were pretty much bombed out but got the buildings back in the family and then remodeled them and turned it into a guest house. We got breakfast every morning, a plate of meats and cheeses with fresh bread. Hardboiled eggs, fruit, juice, coffee and yogurt.

Overall, Trogir was amazing and we can’t wait to go back.