Why are you going to Croatia? Why don't you just go to the Lake?

This was the comment from one of Kelly's co-workers, wondering why she would go to Croatia instead of just up to our lake house in Wisconsin. Maybe because Croatia is AMAZING!
We flew into Trieste, Italy on Saturday night…hopped in Peter Panda (our rental car)…and were off to our hotel. On Sunday morning we explored Trieste a little bit, but were not overly impressed. We especially were not impressed with the lack of signage as we attempted to get out of the city and head down to Split.
Once we finally got on the road we made the long hall (about 7hr) down to Split and made it to town with plenty of time to catch our 2hr ferry to the island of Hvar.
Hvar was incredible. Kel and I went on a sailboat cruise for most of the day on Monday while Daron explored the island.
There were 10 of us on the sailboat tour, 3 couples, the first mate, the captain, and the Parkers! First we sailed for 2hr to another island named Vis. Once there we went snorkelling in the caves…the water is unbelievably clear and super salty so you float really easily. Kel and I saw some guys jumping off the cliffs into the ocean below and decided to give it a try – so fun!! I swam back and took the below pic from our boat of Kel getting ready to jump.
Kel and I spent most of our time at the front of the boat, lounging and enjoying the sun and sounds of the sea.
The following day we sadly said goodbye to Hvar and headed to Dubrovnik. It was a gorgeous drive down the coast and Dubrovnik turned out to be worth leaving Hvar. In fact, I have decided that Dubrovnik is officially my favorite city in the world. While Daron searched for a hotel for us, Kelly and I enjoyed the Dubrovnik Palace Hotel's beach area.
We spent the afternoon exploring Dubrovnik, swimming, taking a boat cruise. Kel and I found a great restaurant right in the harbor...and that is where we staeyed for the rest of the night. A few kilos of mussels, pots of the best calamarie I've ever had, one too many liters of white wine, and a few amazing displays of lemon juggling skills on my behalf, we made our way back up the what seemed like 1000 steps to our hotel! The next day Daron and I droped Kelly back at the Dubrovnik Palace while we climbed the city walls. Later we all met up at the beach for some sun and swimming. We left Dubrovik in the evening and headed to Bosnia & Herzegovia for dinner. Here's a picture from an overlook we stopped at.
Sadly Kelly had to depart on Thursday morning, so we took her to the Split airport at the crack of dawn. From there Daron and I headed to Diocletian's Palace in Split which was built in the 4th century AD.
After a great lunch in Split we were off to Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was absolutely gorgeous, as you can see.

After the National Park we headed up to Opatija, a really cool historic vacation spot with tons of Neoclassic buildings. Sadly most needed a little sprucing up, but you could definitely see their former grandure. I found this diving board in the harbor and don't think I would be exagerating to say I jumped off about 50 times!!!

For our last day we drove around the pennisula of Irista and saw some gorgeous towns like Labin and Pula. Finally we stopped at a fabulous little city on the sea in Slovakia and enjoyed dinner in this lovely square before headed back to Copenhagen.
For all pictures from Croatia and Copenhagen see this link.