Slunj

Drove down to Slunj to our Airbnb for the next four nights. Croatia has been very green and scenic in comparison to Italy and the little village in walking distance from the Airbnb is just gorgeous!

Rastoke is situated on a river, with waterfalls, timber houses and oodles of charm. And the friendliest people – the host at the Airbnb was just lovely and gave us so much information on things to do in the area.

When we arrived, we had a late lunch at the first restaurant we came across …it was a pizza place, which ordinarily would be fine, however after a month in Italy, I had said I didn’t want to see another pizza or another plate of pasta again … in my life 🙂

Due to the prices on the menu (very cheap), we thought that the “jumbo” size pizza was probably a normal size and ordered one for us to share. However, a few seconds later we saw the waiter walking past with the hugest pizza I’ve ever seen in my life (it fed a family of four at a nearby table) – we quickly changed our order, otherwise we’d still be eating pizza now.

Jarrah was delighted to find Radler on the menu – hasn’t been seen since Munich … poor child 🙂

Zlatko (Airbnb host) – who speaks perfect English like pretty much everybody in Croatia – was telling us how so many people fled the country during the war and some have never returned. Those that did (like him and his family) returned to found that the Serbs had burnt practically everything. And how it has taken so many years to rebuild homes, etc. Things had still not returned to “normal” and then COVID hit as well.

Croatia has only been open for a couple of months … and the day before we arrived, the UK (and other countries in the EU) announced that due to the COVID numbers in Dalmatia, anyone who travels to Croatia, will be facing mandatory 14 day quarantine on their return to their home country. So, a tourist season that is usually from about March to September, has effectively been about 2 months. Very sad how these smaller countries in particular have been affected by COVID.