We spent about a month in Croatia – check our itinerary below and we have just been amazed, every single day. First of all by the natural beauty of the country, from crystal clear azure waters (everywhere we have been), dense ancestral olive groves (especially on Cres Island), to harsh and rocky coastal zone (Pag island), amazing mountain ranges with bears and wolfs, beautiful and spectacular rivers systems (Krka and Plitvice National Parks) and super picturesque villages.  It is such a diverse country, with such a rich complex history (check out our previous post) and the Croatian people are super. We may have just been lucky with who we met, such kind and generous people but it seems this is the norm in Croatia. Croatian people are straightforward and true to themselves, their position and intent are clear, you never have to second guess if you are liked or not.

There is no doubt that we will back, for all the reasons stated above as well as an additional one, we have just fallen in love with the Croatian Cats. They have such a special and unique personality. They are so social, so engaging, so freaking cute. Each and every time we approached a cat it simply rollover for a tummy rub and was not moving till the fix was fulfilled.

      

It is quite difficult to explain the beauty we have seen in this country. The best is for you to visit and experience it for yourself. Busy months are July and August , but the locals always say that September is great too, not as many tourists and the water is still very warm – Plan at least 2 weeks.

We had our two sons with us for a short holiday whilst in Croatia (Kai-19 & Callum-17) which was a real treat, especially to share some of our encounters with people and to share Skultcha with them. Thank you boys for being part of the Skultcha team for a few days in July.

   

On the Skultcha journey, we have done more than 5000 km, we have just reached our sixth country and have had about 1000 conversations. We have realised one key thing, OPEN-UP TO PEOPLE. The moment you open yourself up to meeting people, to engaging with them in an authentic way, whoever they are, wherever they are from, you will encounter some amazing people. Some of our encounters have happened in the middle of nowhere (literally), on a remote mountains pass or in a middle of an old olive grove, anywhere we could speak with people we have. The result of pushing ourselves to have conversations with people has been incredible,  chatting, laughing and watching shooting stars together. Hell, we even formed an impromptu band the one evening, playing music till the early ours of the morning. Many of these encounters will connect us together for life. We cannot believe the generosity and kindness of the people we have met.

A few lessons learnt from our conversations:

• Teach your children to fish, do not give them the fish (Croatian father)
• Communication and honesty are key to develop long lasting relationship with your children, which does not mean that you will agree on everything and that you will not argue (from an Hungarian family)
• You have to let your children go on their own, discover and travel the world, to enable them to become who they really are, and not what you want them to become (Italian family)
• Listen better to your children, listen carefully to what they are saying (French family)
• Remember parents and grandparents have a key influence on children, positive or negative, behave the way you want your children to act, lead by example. (French Family)

It was very difficult for us to leave this magical place. But it was time for Slovenia.