Solo in the depths of Croatia 🇭🇷

This is the real Croatia!
This is the story of my travels from Velika Kladuša, Bosnia to Split, Croatia, where I would take a flight back to Geneva. The route was not easy and required being dropped off in Karlovac, Croatia by @sidelinesedo and crew. From there, I took a 6-hour train to Split.
Before my train, I got to explore the city of Karlovac for about an hour. I knew nothing about the city apart from its famous beer, however I saw the remanence of both its Austro-Hungarian and Yugoslavian history in the architecture and monuments of the city. The train station, which dates back over 100 years, is decades past its heyday but was a sight to see nonetheless.
One thing I did not expect to see so much of on my trip was so many abandoned buildings. The road from Bosnia to Croatia, Karlovac itself, and my train ride all featured dozens of buildings that humans haven't touched in years. The juxtaposition between destroyed houses and beautiful mountain landscapes is something that sticks with me still from this journey, even weeks later.
Finally, Split, though I did not have much time to explore it, was a beautiful old city. Even after only one hour of walking its streets, I was left wanting more. It is a classic seaside city with the epic flare of the Roman ruins in the old town. These ruins also happened to contain one of the coolest objects I've ever seen, straight from ancient Egypt!
Note that this video was recorded about 3-4 weeks before the major flooding that is currently taking place in Croatia/Bosnia. I hope that everyone is safe from the Bosnia & Croatia floods and that the damage gets repaired quickly!
As always, thanks for watchin' | Hvala za gledanje :)
#croatia #karlovac #travelvlog #yugoslavia #history #europeanhistory #travelcroatia #traveleurope #traintravel #split #travelsplit #sphynx #flood

[@dexterdexter9760]

It's actually Austro-Hungarian not Yugoslavian train station, built in 1903

[@putinwillhanginthemiddleof4866]

What a stupid thing to say, sooo who lived there …austro -hungarians ❓🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🖕

[@BenTheRules]

Yes! I realized that later in the video when I saw the picture from the 1920s. Still a cool building though :)

[@savytraveler790]

Karlovac suffered a lot during the last war, serbs were attacking the city constantly for couple of years. The city, when it was built 1579, was named after Archduke of Austria, Karl II. Entire city was built as fortress, to improve defence line against the Turks. Unique fact about Karlovac is that has four rivers.

[@richard01983]

I visited Karlovac in 2000 the front line had been just south of the city. I stayed at a sobe with a mine field across the road and the sobe was being repaired for bullet and sharpnel all over the stucco. This was on the road to Split. At the time the road was closed from 8 to 13 for mine removal.

[@dawnkeyy]

As far as the old buildings alongside the river Kupa go, Kupa had a very rich history of transport. Mostly wheat. IIRC, grain from the Slavonia region would be loaded onto ships in Sisak and sent down the Kupa river to Karlovac, which was a transport hub. There is a tourist attraction called the Historical Grain Boat, where you can sail the Kupa in a reconstructed boat. There also used to be an industry of extracting sand from the river bed for use in architecture. The buildings might have something to do with that as well.

[@BenTheRules]

Good to know, thanks for the info! With all those rivers I’m sure those buildings saw a lot of action back in the day.

[@notdian]

The spikes are called Snow stops, they are used to prevent the fall of big chunks of snow from the roof. greetings from prizren!

[@BenTheRules]

Ahhh, that makes sense! This was the biggest mystery for me.. thanks for your comment, I hope to go back to Prizren some day :)

[@ioard]

Karlovac train station dates back to early 1900s not Yugoslavia. The way it looks tells you it’s not Communist Yugo building.

[@ioard]

Just got to the part you saw some old photos 😂

[@BenTheRules]

Haha yep, I realized quickly after. Thanks for your comment!

[@edcolins5498]

every west balkan resident knows or should know austrian architecture !

[@Kantaroification]

Beautiful parks!

[@BenTheRules]

We love parks! 🌲🌳

[@balkangamer01]

The spinach pita you was eating iz called Zeljanica in my region of Bosnia. The city of Dubrovnik is good to visit. Small city of Makarska that is between Split and Dubrovnik is also nice if you like coastline

[@BenTheRules]

I learned the word Zeljanica from a Dino Merlin song haha. Good to know, I’ve never heard of Makarska but it looks beautiful

[@balkangamer01]

Whole of Croatia’s coastline is beautiful to visit lol

[@felexchen6820]

Croatia is gorgeous ☺

[@BenTheRules]

Have you ever been?

[@felexchen6820]

@@BenTheRules Best 16 hour sleep of my life at my friend's girlfriend's cousin's boyfriend's house along with dirt cheap food in the morning

[@BenTheRules]

@@felexchen6820 what about for dinner

[@miatouma5470]

@@felexchen6820 friend's girlfriend's cousin's boyfriend's house

[@felexchen6820]

@@BenTheRules dinner? I barely know her

[@krpametastaze]

Have a Good Time Man from a Croatian fan

[@BenTheRules]

Hvala tebi za gledanje!

[@HladniSjeverniVjetar]

FYI burek is just Turkish word for pie... and Croatian word for pie is pita.

[@BenTheRules]

The plot thickens… i think I’m even more confused now than before

[@HladniSjeverniVjetar]

@@BenTheRules If you want real original Slavic word for those flaky pastries it's "savijača" since it's a literal explanation on how it's done, very descriptive. The words we use today came into use after Ottoman invasion and the change in diet and culture. Turks took a lot of loan words from Persian....so you have a lot of loan words in south Slavic group of lang. coming from Persian by proxy of Ottoman invasion.

[@ShejtanVrbaski]

Let us confuse the man even further by throwing in few more local (Bosnian / Serbian) words in the mix ( for the pie names) - "gužvalija" and "gibanica" - all of which are based upon verbs / the way of making the pie. But I believe all these expressions these days are just descriptive in pie-making style (they are made of cheese usually) and not the fillings.@@HladniSjeverniVjetar

[@HauntologyHouse]

Dope video, bravo brate

[@BenTheRules]

Hvala tebi za gledanje :)

[@matelula8424]

that big stone walls in Split didn t build for tourist, this walls are there more than 2000 years from Rome empire

[@maliplaviklc]

I was born there 😂 It’s been ages since I visited.

[@damjandabo]

I played on that baseball field a few time when I was a kid, and even once a professional match. It's the only part of Karlovac I know 😆

[@RedeemerZG]

Karlovac Old Town is star shaped! (can be seen at 17:23 , first picture). Karlovac is also known as the city of four rivers and is known for fun and beer festivals. Beer festival (usually in late august) is because Karlovačko beer is very popular in Croatia (imho it's overrated). The event lasts for few days and is something like mini Oktoberfest. Split is the second largest city in Croatia :) All the best!

[@BenTheRules]

I only had one hour to explore unfortunately, but next time I'd like to see the city more in depth (e.g. old town). Thanks for your comment!

[@metalhead8363]

You got lucky bro, only 7 minutes late, that is considered to be on time

[@reythekid5309]

Velika Kladuša is my city bro ❣

[@Aru233]

They only call it "our language" out of courtesy for you, not to confuse you (or in Bosnia) and to avoid talking about politics. Among ourselves, we always call it by our national name.

[@faussepiste2115]

waiting for the new vids, heading to bosnia next month, need inspiration

[@BenTheRules]

I have a couple more coming up soon. Enjoy Bosnia!

[@RicoBanani]

imagine the cultureshock. first time I've ever been to eastern Bosnia and Switzerland was in the span of 2 weeks. two extremes of Europe

[@miss.cosmicnews]

The "pita" you ate is called "pita savijača" or "pita uvijača" depending on the region. I means folded or rolled

[@SuperBalkan1111]

Serb from bosna…. It’s called a zeljanica Or pita od zelja (pita from spinach)

[@Svetlana616]

maybe those spikes on the roof are snow cutters🤔

[@BenTheRules]

Yes I think so, someone else said te same. I’ve never seen them anywhere else though

[@leonabruna]

I was born in Karlovac!

[@RicoBanani]

tbh im pretty certain that Karlovac train station predates Yugoslavia. Probably built at the turn of the 20th century edit: regarding transportation, the process of privatisation has seen the railway system slowly decay while at the same time billions were invested into highways which are some if the best in Europe edit: yes, those are shrapnel holes on the houses edit: the spikey things on the roofs are there to keep the eventual heavy snow on the roof edit: not cruiseships, they are ferrys

[@BenTheRules]

Thanks for ALL thsse comments :) yeah, i realized later in the video that the train station was much older. It’s a shame about the railroads. It was very cool to explore Karlovac though, I’ll definitely come back someday

[@RicoBanani]

@@BenTheRules come to eastern Croatia if youre around. wine, Danube, food, delapidated trainstations! 😁

[@kocostamatis3080]

Croatians do not "always complicate things" (referring to language) Ben...the truth is quite the opposite. When it comes to their language, the Croats simply OWN it while the rest are simply content to use and import it. Food for thought my friend.

[@miatouma5470]

in lebanon, nuts that have a hard shell are called krikri

[@BenTheRules]

كريكري؟؟؟؟

[@felexchen6820]

that's kraykray!!

[@user-ti8tt2qp4m]

you friends name is probably Zlatko not Latko :D

[@davorlekenik9563]

12:55 ..... Gaza ?? 😂😂

[@daddyalen1726]

It's so weird when they call all pita burek

[@BenTheRules]

It’s a sin (and confusing)

[@myflyingkidney]

only 7 minutes late???? wow that is a miracle for hž. but to maybe help you understand the situation with railways- it was a choice of our previous governments to develop our roads and highways instead of railway network. so that is the reason our highways are perfect, and railways and trains shitty. we also invested a lot in aeroplane traffic. those things bring tourists and tourism is one of the biggest earning industry in croatian economy so anything and everything that serves tourism is going to get developed while the rest is going to be left to rot. there is not enough money to invest in everything and so governments choose what they think is the best. and the reason there is not enough money is because of corruption and nepotism as well as realistically not really being able to compete with bigger economies.

[@bosanskislavonac]

Croatia inland is mostly depressing because of war and demographic decline. Split is mostly tourism. Industry died. I would even dare to say than EU is not much an upgrade from Yugoslavia times.

[@zoranmartinovic203]

My hometown

[@putinwillhanginthemiddleof4866]

In those days under communist dictatorship we hardly had any money to buy bread let alone cars for transport.. hence the railways were busier ‼️🤷🏻‍♂️

[@dannyboy-vtc5741]

Rubbish, i was born in 1973, every family in croatia had a car, maybe some that lived in a strict city center and worked there and didn't need one in the first place. Trains were just a normal part of the society like anywhere in europe.