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Croatia

Started by LeeB, September 20, 2009, 07:27:29 PM

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SwampDonkey

I would suggest the Croatians are likely more dependent on a good garden. Climate doesn't really enter into the argument until we get into what crops can be grown and what can't. Your not going to try to grow bananas on your open deck in NYC in January. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

LeeB

Well, it looks like the Croatia stint has finally come to an end. Work done and time for the rig to go to Italy. Doesn't look like I will get to make the move with it. I'll be trransfered back to the Middle East to work in Saudi. Not at all looking forward to that but at least I will be working still. I have a few more pics from Croatia and will get htem posted soon. All good things must end I suppose. Doesn't mean I have to like it. >:(
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

firefighter ontheside

 @LeeB I know this post is old, but I'm planning a trip to Croatia maybe this year, if things go right with the world.  My great grandparents came from there around 1915.  I figured it was worth a shot to see if anyone had ever posted about Croatia on FF.  Love the pictures.
Woodmizer LT15
Kubota Grand L4200
Stihl 025, MS261 and MS362
2017 F350 Diesel 4WD
Kawasaki Mule 4010
1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed

LeeB

Beautiful country and people. Great food and wine. A little expensive. I loved it there and had seriously considered moving there but couldn't afford as much land as I wanted. What area are you going to?
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

firefighter ontheside

We will likely fly into Dubrovnik and then drive north visiting places like Split.  I have a friend of the same last name who lives in a coast town called Opatija in the north.  She found me on FB several years ago.  I have no idea if we are related, but I plan to meet her in person.  Then we will head into the north central area around Karlovac where my family came from.  I have a bad feeling that this will not be able to happen in 2021, but maybe.  I get the idea that the people in Croatia are better at controlling the spread, but I don't think their access to vaccine is going to be as speedy as here in the US.
Woodmizer LT15
Kubota Grand L4200
Stihl 025, MS261 and MS362
2017 F350 Diesel 4WD
Kawasaki Mule 4010
1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed

LeeB

Looks like there was a pretty good earthquake there today
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

firefighter ontheside

Quote from: LeeB on December 29, 2020, 02:35:51 PM
Looks like there was a pretty good earthquake there today
Yeah, lots of damage, especially to very old buildings.  I messaged my friend.  She lives about 180 miles from the epicenter and said it was very scary, but not terrible by her.  Her family though is only about 30 miles from the epicenter.  She said they are all safe, but are worried about more quakes.  They had one yesterday that was 5.4.  Now they don't know if there will be a bigger one.  This one was 6.4, which is ten times worse than 5.4
Woodmizer LT15
Kubota Grand L4200
Stihl 025, MS261 and MS362
2017 F350 Diesel 4WD
Kawasaki Mule 4010
1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed

firefighter ontheside

Well, 2021 is not gonna happen.  Lets hope for 22.
Woodmizer LT15
Kubota Grand L4200
Stihl 025, MS261 and MS362
2017 F350 Diesel 4WD
Kawasaki Mule 4010
1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed

kantuckid

Keep me posted when you go to Croatia!  
I've had a fly & ride Balkans trip on my bucket list for some time now. I lean toward Romania as the bike or scooter rental is much less than Croatia, plus the mtn passes there are a riders mecca but I'll be riding every country in the entire area if we get past this covid mess while I'm still riding-and travelling.
The coastal areas of Croatia offer palm trees such but when riding I lean toward mtns and more rural areas. 
We are now planning for domestic trips later this summer-CO in Sept and AZ/NM in winter. Maybe 2022 is the years to go places? 

Travel tidbit: My son rented a car for business this week in Charleston, WV and costs are similar to air travel right now.   
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

firefighter ontheside

 @kantuckid I will let you know.  We will definitely not be going before my 10 year old son can get vaccinated and I hear that things are much improved in Croatia.  I messaged my friend over there last week and she said access to vaccine is still not very good.  I imagine that will change in the next 6 months.  There is a very slight chance that I am related to my friend.  She found me on Facebook because we have the same last name.  My great grandparents left Croatia somewhere around 1915 due to tensions leading up to WW1.  My other great grandparents left Ukraine about the same time for the same reasons.
I think you will want to ride by the Plitvice Lakes.  I think I heard that the rental car places can't get any new cars like they normally would and that may have to do with the shortage of rental cars.
Woodmizer LT15
Kubota Grand L4200
Stihl 025, MS261 and MS362
2017 F350 Diesel 4WD
Kawasaki Mule 4010
1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed

kantuckid

In the USA rental cars cost similar to an air tic right now! Our son who studied in Hungary visited Croatia back then on his weekends train travels all over. He only was at the coast. 
When the timing seems right, I'll ride not drive and I suspect the motorcycles & scooters were not sold off as affects the rental cars? 
For now the possibility of being stranded somewhere in a very expensive manner looms on my foreign travel conscience. 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

firefighter ontheside

I chatted with my friend in Croatia today.  As here, she said things are not going well there.  I'm still hoping for next year, but chances of that seem to be dwindling.  She said that a lot of her friends have lost their jobs recently due to covid and I assume reduction in tourism.  She lives near the coast and I'm sure her job is also partly dependent on tourism.  
Woodmizer LT15
Kubota Grand L4200
Stihl 025, MS261 and MS362
2017 F350 Diesel 4WD
Kawasaki Mule 4010
1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed

kantuckid

We are thinking Alaska as our next out of the lower 48 trip. Unless your a bit off yer rocker, no place else seems logical for the seeable future? I've considered Mexico but it's got issues too. I know MC riders who still go but it's not for me for now. The EU is a pure crap shoot that could throw you into a quarantine hotel, not to mention the airports that have become worse than the mess they already were. 
Balkans are not a place to be lately and one of the worlds hot spots. 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

firefighter ontheside

Still, I think I would feel safer in Croatia than in Mexico.  
Woodmizer LT15
Kubota Grand L4200
Stihl 025, MS261 and MS362
2017 F350 Diesel 4WD
Kawasaki Mule 4010
1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed

kantuckid

You can join that crowd as you wish. 
 Prior to covid it was quite some topic, now made more complicated by covid not because Mexico's any worse than once was the case for physical danger. 
On Adv.com , my motorcycle forum, there's a thread in Trip Planning, North America, called "Is Mexico Safe". That thread currently has 4,198,271 posts. it's a great info source for people seeking the real Mexico, not the Cancun big box hotel version.  The typical person therein not only has Mexico travel experience, the title is an inside joke of sorts as we simply don't feel that way, as you suggest. Foreign travel away from tourist enclaves asks for a certain amount of savy and that's also true for Mexico, but IMO, no more so than many other locations. 
My cousin's daughter & hubby just got back from a Jamaica trip to an all-inclusive. They were taken for a couple hours off property for an escorted shopping trip-what I'll call a canned trip from the get go. I don't question that they had a great time but fact is they didn't see Jamaica. I'll add that a few spots in Jamaica are flat out dangerous-mostly in the Kinston ghetto/gang areas. 
I am a savy traveler, and don't mind saying so and not wearing rose colored glasses either. Mexico as I've enjoyed it has not once been a scary place. My main exception might be a certain few roads where it got dicey with blind passing in mtns and such. Do I hang out in the areas that the narcos do, probably not. Neither do I get drunk and wander a dark street in a city after the bar closes. But I've been in a bunch of places there, never a bad moment, ever. Our state dept seems to do travel advisories before covid with as much skill and knowledge as during covid and how they've handled things-thats my take. 
I'm a poster boy for Mexico as it's a favorite place of ours. Beautiful country, and people, but not a perfect place of course. But neither are the Balkans.
The more common argument is to compare an American city what with much danger to most of Mexico which has none, but thats not logical even in my mind set. My wife's cousin lives in Chicago and tells his 92 yr old Dad he never sees any crime. Guess why-he lives in a high rise luxury apartment. 
Back to the Balkans, my hopefully soon destination... :D 

Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

firefighter ontheside

I hear what your're saying and I believe that you have much more experience than I do in all areas of travel.  St Louis is known to be an unsafe city, but if you don't go to the unsafe areas, then you won't be the victim of crime.  I went to Jamaica for one day.  We went on a little excursion into the mountain areas and rafted on a river.  That seemed safe and fun.  Walking around Kingston by ourselves did not seem safe.
Woodmizer LT15
Kubota Grand L4200
Stihl 025, MS261 and MS362
2017 F350 Diesel 4WD
Kawasaki Mule 4010
1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed

kantuckid

We did a bamboo raft trip in 1990 with our kids- from the jungle into a bay-took about 4-5 hours. We also dived off the waterfall where Tom Cruise was seen in Cocktails flick which was also our lodging spot-same bar, etc.. It's in Port San Antonio and was once a fancy place where Clark Gable and Liz taylor hung out-it was being redone and interesting place. The guys poling the raft spoke to each other in creole but I know people well enough to have heard that they didn't like us at all. Jamaica is like that- really friendly or they hate gringos. It's real and we've discussed it with natives there a good deal. Sad factoid really. Our last trip was wife & I only-two weeks in three places and a rental car trip. Jamaican drivers are literally insane. They pass anywhere, at crazy speeds and honk while passing. The island also holds my personal pothole record-we went around one that was maybe 3-4' deep x same dia. and had weeds and small trees growing in it. Their fresh markets are really neat. 
  In Mexico I've talked with many who have worked the cruise lines and they tend to like USA gringos more than Euro gringos who they say tend toward what I'll call uppity. Fact is there's hardly a Mexican who doesn't have a close connection to the USA-either their uncle lives here or they did. Michoacan is listed as one of the more dangerous states-it's also my favorite of them all. A friend there who lives in Morelia, a hugely interesting and historic city, he's indigenous, a lawyer who grew up dirt poor and wifes and RN. 35 miles from him is my favorite small town-Patzcuaro, MX, his home town. He drives over there weekly to do pro bono work as he says the landlords and cops take advantage of the poor so he's the balance for them. I asked him whaile eating dinner if he'd ever seen or known a narco since it's a sate with many of them. his answer was that in his high end neighborhood (he had built his home and the one next door that was empty and for sale which was how he made his money & paid for his home) there was this family that never seemed to need to leave for work like most people who get up early and drive to a job. He added that they owned fancy horses and trailered them around so he had them figured as narcos, but he said most of them "lived down in the deep valley" away from others and "we just stay away". 
In the Balkans Romania is one of the mtn countries I yearn to ride in-the two mtn passes there are famously neat. It's also had a rep for being dangerous in the past but has changed some over the times and mostly a good visit. Our son who went to U of Budapest said the only place he's ever been scared for his life was on a Romanian train ride. Place is the key to safe travel Mexico or whatever. My DIL went to Cancun last year and her solution is a big box hotel which also means she's never come close to the real place. Honestly it's more like Mexico in Texas than her hotel. In Cancun, if need be, we stay in a business class hotel downtown where few tourists are seen. Then we leave as soon as we can for real Mexico. Mahuajual is a funny place. Before they built the 2 mile long cruise ship pier with Dominos Pizza, etc., etc., etc., it was a sleepy place with few tourist as it's ~ 4-5 hour drive from Cancun/Play del Carmen. Now it converts when a ship comes in then reverts back when they leave. 
I'm yearning to travel now but seems stupid even when retired? I don't want to drop $2-4,000 quarantined in a hotel overseas. Alaska is likely our next trip for that reason. We'll very likely do the AK Marine Highway system from WA to SE AK then do a wilderness trip again while still young enough to fly-in, fish, etc.. The ferry is a neat experience, sleep on deck, eat the cafeteria and watch the whales. You get off where you want, stay long as you want then get back on, etc.. Life is short, covid is messing with our bucket list bigtime, but glad to be around to talk about it. 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

kantuckid

Quote from: firefighter ontheside on December 30, 2021, 02:35:17 PM
I hear what your're saying and I believe that you have much more experience than I do in all areas of travel.  St Louis is known to be an unsafe city, but if you don't go to the unsafe areas, then you won't be the victim of crime.  I went to Jamaica for one day.  We went on a little excursion into the mountain areas and rafted on a river.  That seemed safe and fun.  Walking around Kingston by ourselves did not seem safe.
Before I-64 was built, the connection from US-50 required circulating through all of E STL. It was not a place to run out of gas then or now. We did that trip from 1971 when we married to lately when it's streamlined, of course and avoids the ghetto stuff.  
 On an army pass, ala 1964 in STL we were getting drunk in a Polish bar for free as they bought all the beer. When we were ready to wallow out of there, they said we'd best take a cab, not walk to our hobo hotel that cost like $3-4 a nite. 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

firefighter ontheside

Talking about going to Croatia again.  We may go next spring at the earliest.  We just watched Rick Steves travel show about his trip to Croatia.  His trip is pretty much what we would do.  Start out in Dubrovnik and then drive north stopping in Split, Plitvice Lakes, area of Zagreb which is where my family came from and then back to the coast around Rijeka where I have a friend of the same last name.  I do not know if we are related, but maybe.  We've been trying to figure that out for years, but my Great grandparents left there around 1915.

Edit... @kantuckid  airplane tickets have been purchased for late May of 2023.  We have reserved our rooms in Dubrovnik.  Working on other rooms, but wanted to get Dubrovnik taken care of.  They fill up faster than everywhere else.
Woodmizer LT15
Kubota Grand L4200
Stihl 025, MS261 and MS362
2017 F350 Diesel 4WD
Kawasaki Mule 4010
1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed

kantuckid

The current issue of Smithsonian has an article about religious "icon" (shortened as cannot spell) art from Ukranian churches. The thing I gained most from the article is the origins of the Ukrainian heritage as it comes from a fairly large group of countries around and within Ukraine.
I am still liking a Romania centered trip that includes Croatia and more but for now too many projects.
Thinking back to AZ this winter as FL has become impossible in state parks. Also an Airbnb/VROB Baja trip to Sea of Cortez and Pacific coast.
Goodluck on air tics!  
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

firefighter ontheside

Yes, my other great grandparents came from Ukraine in about 1914.  US census records from different years listed where they came from as either Galicia(which now includes part of Poland) or even Austria.  They were not from Austria, but someone had recorded Austria where it should have said Austria-Hungary which Ukraine was part of at that time.  So, you could say that all of my great grandparents on my dad's side came from Austria-Hungary even though they were Croatians and Ukrainians.  I've also learned recently that a Croatian is someone who is from the country of Croatia, but a Croat is an ethnic Croatian who are predominantly Catholic.

I think the round trip tickets were about $1000 each.  Not as high as I expected considering the price of fuel.  We fly from St Louis to Frankfurt and then from Frankfurt to Croatia.  We have a layover in Frankfurt on the way there that is 8 hours.  It sounds terrible, but I think it is gonna be great, because we can actually leave the airport and see a little of Frankfurt.  I've never been to Germany and I have German heritage from my mom's side way back and I speak some German from taking it in Highschool and college.
Woodmizer LT15
Kubota Grand L4200
Stihl 025, MS261 and MS362
2017 F350 Diesel 4WD
Kawasaki Mule 4010
1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed

firefighter ontheside

We arrive in Croatia on May 26.  Originally our plan was to fly home on June 4, but our flight from Zagreb to Frankfurt has been cancelled.  Our choices were to choose different flights and have more layovers or to stay 3 more nights in Croatia and fly home on the 7th.  3 more nights it is, so our vacation just got extended.
Woodmizer LT15
Kubota Grand L4200
Stihl 025, MS261 and MS362
2017 F350 Diesel 4WD
Kawasaki Mule 4010
1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed

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