The trip was long, great, and fun. I really didn’t have a favorite place, but enjoyed every spot I got to see. I will try to give a quick snapshot of some of the trip below.
The trip began with Berlin, which was easily the busiest, most stressful leg of the journey. The marathon really dictated what we could do here. My first night I went out to meet up with my buddy. The most memorable part of that night: the kid working the door at the first bar I went to told me that there were no passports allowed that night. On further questioning, I learned I was not dressed ‘cool enough’ to come in. After having just been on four flights and having my baggage lost (so no change of clothes) I probably smelled like shit and can’t blame him for not letting me in, but still found it funny. I also really enjoyed the Topography of Terror Museum, seeing how the Berlin wall used to really carve up the city. There was so much history here. I obviously missed a lot but hopefully I will make it back someday. Then there was the marathon itself, which I will write about in a separate post.
Munich was much less stressful. We had some trouble getting here from Berlin as our train got cancelled so we rented a car and drove it. Went to Hofbrauhaus and the Hofbräu at Oktoberfest, as well as, the Hacker-Pschorr tent. Did a fair bit of sightseeing, including going to The Residenz, which was the royal palace of the Monarch’s of Bavaria. I really enjoyed Munich. It felt similar to DC, just like one really large town. I also didn’t know anything about the history of the Bavarian kings so found that interesting.
I really haven’t seen that many mountains in my life and in Salzburg I found myself just stopping and staring; I felt like if I walked away I might not see anything like that again. As a town, Salzburg felt touristy, with people coming to see the birthplace of Mozart, the different Sound of Music locations, or the large fort overlooking the town. However, the natural beauty of the place made the touristy sites pale in comparison. I went for a morning run here into the hills above the town to watch the sunrise, and it might have been one of my favorite parts of the trip.
More travel troubles here with me going to the wrong hotel first. This was a very cool city. It’s a college town and you can tell with the amount of dive type bars in the area. Schlossberg, the town hill, where the clock tower is located, was easily my favorite part. Gives you a great view of the entire city and has some cool history.
I only spent a night in Zagreb so it’s hard to say too much about it but I did really like what I saw. The first thing I noticed was how many fellow Americans there were. My hotel was full of them. I did not run into that many English speakers in Graz; they were around, but not to the same degree as in Zagreb. That was universal across Croatia, everyone speaks English. In Zagreb I really liked the open markets and the Cathedral. In most of the Cathedrals I visited, they were full of tourists, doing a quick tour. In Zagreb, it was a Monday morning and completely full with people at mass. It was so striking that I looked it up and found out Zagreb is 87% Roman Catholic. In the years when Croatia was part of former Yugoslavia, the Cathedral fell into disrepair, but now people of Zagreb are working very hard to restore it.
I really enjoyed Dubrovnik. Croatia was just fun in general, I think the weather had something to do with it, but the friendly people helped too. I went in the start of October, which is the beginning of the off-season and everything is cheaper and less crowded. The weather was still in the high 70s though, and the Adriatic was not too cold to go in. Old Town was very cool, but I would not want to be there in summer; it was already crowded enough for me. I couldn’t believe people actually live on those ancient streets. I had a very nice morning run here in a bird sanctuary, which is where the sunrise in the top picture is from. Not sure how protected those birds are with the amount of cats you see in Dubrovnik and the rest of Croatia, but I guess it’s nice they’re trying. Lots of Game of Thrones fans here. I also visited Cavtat for a day trip.
Hvar was the resort life. I planned to be here for a night, ended up staying 3. Like I said, everything was cheaper when I was in Croatia, so places that are normally pretty expensive to stay at were relatively cheap. I was feeling kind of burnt out by this part of the trip, so lazy days at the beach felt pretty good. Just a beautiful place to relax. I also found some good hiking trails that I enjoyed exploring. I did visit Pakleni Islands; I want to say the beach I visited was Jerolim, but I’m honestly not sure.
Split was the last stop on my journey. In a way I thought it was the best of everything. It was a city, had a crazy history, nice beach, nice giant hill overlooking everything, touristy places, less touristy places – all good stuff. The history with the Diocletian Palace was a must see. The sphinx (pictured above) is an original from Egypt and predates the palace; it is about 3,500 years old. I also visited the Krka Waterfalls for a day trip. The trip ended up being fun because our tour guide turned it more into a history tour, but I would like to note, if you are going, that they ban swimming by the waterfall after Oct 1. This kind of changes the excursion, and they don’t advertise that. Still worth seeing, but would look for a shorter tour.
My parents were nice enough to watch my dog while I was away. When I got back to the house I did not know that I had picked up some horrible 24hour bug that makes you feel like you want to die. I would like to take a quick moment to apologize again for picking up my dog and leaving that plague behind that got both my father and sister sick.
This trip was so much fun in so many ways. I love seeing new places and meeting new people. It’s always great to learn something new. I probably won’t be traveling abroad again for a bit, but love that I got to do this. If any of you are visiting any of these places and would like recommendations let me know. Hope you guys all have some vacations coming up and get to go explore some new places.
My Events 
One thought on “Berlin to Munich to Salzburg to Graz to Zagreb to Dubrovnik to Hvar to Split to Home”