On the great Aegean Odyssey of 2009, Mum, Dad, Andrew and I drove through Croatia to Ljubljana in Slovenia. With a few detours for sight-seeing it was a journey of over 600km done over the course of a week (I guess the distance shouldn't be that impressive to us Aussies). Andrew drove, I navigated and Mum and Dad sat in the back and felt uncomfortable when Andrew and I argued (which at least was less than on our first road trip in Spain).

One of our stops was the beautiful Plitvice Lakes National Park, which I've blogged about here. As we drove north, away from Plitvice towards Ljubljana, we began to notice abandoned, ruined houses. Not just one or two here or there, but dozens.

These are houses that were abandoned by Serbs as they fled the region at the end of the Croatian War of Independence. They are still empty because their owners haven't returned to claim them. Maybe because they don't want to return or maybe because it's just too hard.

I think these houses would be really interesting to explore from an urban decay perspective. Like the abandoned town of Paldiski in Estonia. However, Lonely Planet warns you against poking around in the ruined houses because there might be unexploded shells or mines in the ruins. Even the remote possibility of blowing up was enough to keep me away.

Our visit to Croatia was part of the Aegean Odyssey. Mum, Dad, Andrew and I spent a few weeks in Croatia and Greece with a quick visit to Slovenia and Austria in the middle. Other entries from this trip include: Breakfast on Santorini, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Sunset in Zadar, Sea Organ, Blessed are the cheesemakers and Climbing in Croatia.