The first time I went to Croatia was when I was a little girl, when the country was still called Yugoslavia. In the late 80’s, things were very different here and the stories and pictures that my parents were often reminiscing about, are now my stories.

The first time I went back to Croatia to revisit the memories of my childhood was in 2019 in our self-converted camper van. The first stop was the seaside town of Umag, in the Northern part of Istria, literally across the border, and immediately I recognised a strange sort of familiarity. The crystal clear water lapping against the old concrete piers, the taste of fried calamari, and the soft chatter of blond haired, tanned tourists strolling through the many alleyways of the Old Town, ice cream in hand. So good to be back!

This first trip ‘back’ was the first of four consecutive summers of visiting Croatia, every time in our self converted camper van, sleeping in obscure places trying to avoid the police at all costs. Wild camping is no longer allowed in Croatia, as the coastline is becoming more and more built up with luxurious apartment complexes and expensive boat marinas.

Staying away from the larger towns, we stick to small villages and try to blend in as much as possible. We drink more wine than is advisable, grill our own store bought chicken wings on our collapsable Klapp-Grill in dusty car parks, and hop into bed with salty skin and hair. These are the days and we know it.

As we travel south, the weather becomes warmer and the rules easier to bend. We find a car park in Igrane, now almost abandoned as we come into off-season, where we spend the next five days nude bathing, collecting pebbles, drinking Aperol Spritz and wondering why on earth we don’t live here permanently.

But with every autumn comes the end of the ‘season’ and with that a lot of restaurants and bars close their doors for the year. The weather cools off, spits of rain fall on the dry, crumbling earth and it’s time for some well deserved hibernation.