I fell in love with Croatia. 

All the time we were there I kept thinking, why has nobody told me how great this place is.

It’s just over 2 hours flight from London and it’s like a combination of the best of Italy and Greece.

The whole place is so beautiful, the water so clear.  I think it’s been popular with people who sail for a long time, but it’s also a great place to visit even if you don’t sail (like us.)

It was a little tricky to choose somewhere to stay, as there are literally thousands of apartments on offer online, and it takes a while to get to grips with some of the place names - for example Krka (where the waterfalls are on the mainland) is miles away from Krk (an island north of Zadar.) 

Also, I had no idea if the islands were easily accessible by ferry, or if we would end up with an apartment booked on an island that we just couldn’t get to.  So we booked our first night at Pansion Albin, top rated B&B in Zadar on Tripadvisor and decided to look for an apartment when we were there.  It’s not an unusual way of doing things - we met a young girl who was travelling with her brother, sister and a young baby - they arrived and then looked for an apartment too!

But I found the way to look for an apartment is not the way we did it, which was essentially wandering around at 8pm calling “Apartment, apartment.”  No, I am much better on the internet.

We had a great adventure, backpacking-lite, making lots of mistakes, ending up in Biograd in the middle of a local festival, and even getting stranded in T’kon on Pasman Island where we found a perfect, tiny sandy beach.

Finally we made our way back to civilization in Zadar and to the 4 star Hotel Adriana, which, with all the extras, turned out to be the best value of our trip (including the €30 apartment).

Croatia is wonderfully foreign enough, it has a different currency (the kuna), we saw no MacDonalds or Starbucks in Zadar, yet so many people spoke excellent English that we gave up asking and just talked to them directly in English.

I’ve never swum in such clear waters (I actually found it a little bit unnerving to see everything), and at night, I’ve never seen as many stars.  Croatia is a really magical place.  I was so sad to leave and I am already making plans with Ellie (who I travelled with) and other friends to go back, this time for at least a week.  We didn’t have time to do day trips to Kornati or Krka, which run from Zadar, so there is plenty to do for next time.

Arriving into Liverpool Street Station at rush hour was quite a culture shock, and part of me felt homesick for Croatia.  I kept telling myself that I would be happy when I got back to my house.  Finally I walked into the little park near my house and laid down on the grass and looked at the trees, and yes, I thought, I do want to be back in England... at least for now.