Young Living Silver Retreat - Croatia (Day 1)

14th June 2023

Taken from atop the Walls of Dubrovnik

It has been long since I posted any new logs in this blog of mine and many things had happened, both exciting and downright depressing. However, I think it will be good to start somewhere regardless of where I had stopped. 

To kickstart the blogging, I would like to document my family's trip to Croatia to participate in Young Living's Silver Retreat (achiever retreat by an MLM company). Croatia has long been in my bucket list and I had included it in my itinerary for my project WWWT - a 2-months travel odyssey that my family had undertaken where we visited 13 countries over a period of 72 days! Alas, the Croatia leg was unceremoniously cut short due to a mishap that involves the rupturing of ligament. However, this has been redeemed through the company sponsored trip in 2023. What are the odds of that?

My family purchased a return ticket via a travel agent (policy by Young Living) and we flew out from Singapore via Swiss Air to Zurich and thereon, with Croatia Airlines from Zurich to Split. We had a short layover in Zurich for 6 hours and if you knew me, you would know that I wouldn't let such opportunity slipped by simply by staying in the airport and wait for the next flight to Croatia. Oh by the way, Swiss Air's flight... quite meh. Nothing much to look forward to when taking the flight. Nothing stands out as compared to Singapore Airlines.

I rented a car for CHF82 (for my family of 4) for the short escapade during our layover in Zurich. We managed to head down to Zurich Old town and revisit the Platzspitz park behind the Swiss National Museum and also to have our breakfast in Pret-A-Manger (I know its not Swiss) because my son craves for smoked salmon. Your wish is my command master... Before we make our way back to the airport, we had a stroll in Globus Zurich.

Drinking a pack of Ningxia Red to ensure that 

our body got the boost it needs 

Waiting in Radisson Blu's lounge

for our car rental pickup.

Got their smoked salmon fix at Pret-a-Manger

I got my smoked salmon fix as well :p

It tasted awesome it is so simply it

allows for the ingredients to shine!

My youngest ordered this salad bowl. Good!

Carrot cake for the missus. Meh...

My youngest wanted to come back to 

Switzerland for the fountain water

Posers in front of Swiss National Museum

Before we took a flight to Split, we bought plenty of chocolates especially Lindt chocolates which we had purchased in bulk during our previous trip to Switzerland, but it was all lost together in our luggage during a transit in Heathrow, London (the luggage remained lost till today). Do note that Croatia Airlines' flights are predominantly propeller plane, hence there is a luggage policy when boarding the flight i.e. any cabin size luggage must be left at the trolley outside the plan before boarding. Don't worry, you will collect the cabin size luggage upon touching down at your port of destination. Split airport is small and very well functional, so there is nothing to worry about. Croatia Airlines' flight however only provide one cup of plain water and a packet of olive crackers, so if you are concerned about hydrating your body, please BUY a bottle of water in Zurich airport because there are no water kiosk before boarding the flight.

After dropping your cabin size luggage,

passengers must queue up to board the flight

Upon reaching Split, we proceeded to the car rental area near "Check-In 1" i.e. the huge car park area. You will pass by a overhead bridge followed by a step double storey escalator to reach the car rental carpark. You will see many white tents at the Car Rental carpark.

Overhead bridge connecting Split Airport to 

the Car Rental carpark (screen grab from Google Map)

White tents at the Car Rental carpark (screen grab from Google Map)

We booked a car with CarWiz and selected a BMW X1 for our 11 days trip. We got "upgraded" (I hope) to a Citroen C5 which is apparently bigger, newer, better. Whether its an upgrade is debatable but I quite enjoy the drive/ride. The drive to town takes about 20-25mins and is fairly easy to drive and I would highly recommend driving in Croatia as their road users are not aggressive and their roads, especially the highways, are very well constructed. 

Our rented apartment in Split (screengrab from Google Map). 

It is situated 10mins away from Old City and is near to 

2 mini-marts - Konzum and Studenac which is a stone's throw away.

You can go to City Centre One, Mall of Split or Plodine within 5mins drive.

We didn't do much on the first day except to go to the supermarket in City Centre One to get some supplies. We managed to get some fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs and pork before all the shops closed at 9pm. The rest of our time is spent in the accommodation for getting use to the equipment available as well as the local community.

More adventure to come for the next few days! As for now... I need the bed~~~!