KRIŽNICA – THE ONLY INHABITED ISLAND OF PODRAVINA

You know what I like most about traveling, spontaneity. When someone calls you out of the blue and asks, “Are you free? Shall we get going? “

That happened last Thursday. Morning scene, coffee is brewing, breakfast smells, seven o’clock in the morning, we’re all still asleep. The phone rings, at seven in the morning, you immediately think that something has happened, that something is wrong. When a voice chirps on the other side: “Good morning. Are you free today? Do you want to go on a trip? Oh, why do I even ask, we’ll pick you up in 15 minutes. ” And here they are in 15 minutes and off to an adventure.

So we used that non-working Thursday for a trip. I decided to bring you some gems that are hidden around me, around the place where I live, to get to know this area a bit through travel stories on the blog.

We headed on Križnica, I say on, not in or to, because as they say this is the only Pannonian island that was long ago formed by the river Drava with its meanders.

It is special for its flower shape where the Drava forked and made an old and a new stream. Today, a good part of the old course of the Drava River has dried up, while the new course is still flowing. The interesting thing is that the river Drava from its source in South Tyrol to its confluence with the Danube does not change its flow anywhere like here on Križnica. The defiant Drava did not listen to the administrative divisions, nor did it respect the Hungarian and Croatian land registers, but worked on its own. So today, the Hungarian-Croatian border often crosses the river itself, so when you sail on the Drava, you are sometimes in Croatia, sometimes in Hungary.

Križnica is a place that is far from everything – it has only a hundred inhabitants, there is no internet, only pure nature, fields and only a few houses or cottages. Lots of small piers, docks, animals and resting corners.

It is perfect for cyclists because of its trails, it is picturesque and special.

You can only reach it by ferry or over a suspension bridge that is about 250 meters long. The bridge was built back in 1968, and its author is Matej Meštrić from Zagreb, who is also the author of the Vukovar water tower. The bridge was rebuilt in the mid-1990s and has been in use all this time.

As the ferry does not drive at night, nor at low and high water levels or when the Drava freezes, everything is transferred by this bridge: people, personal luggage, agricultural products and so simply the world functions there. Cut off from everything – special precisely because you can’t always reach it.

That is why weekenders often know how to have a car on Križnica, parked in old wooden garages. They would cross the bridge on foot and get in the car, most often the one without license plates, which is used only for the island.

What this area is proud of is that in 2008 Križnica entered the program of preventive protection of the Križnica Regional Park, and today it is part of the Mura-Drava Regional Park and the Mura-Drava-Danube Transboundary Biosphere Reserve declared by UNESCO.

In the part when you cross it, you are greeted by a landscaped picnic area: a beach with fine sand, a beach volleyball court, a children’s playground, barbecues, tables and benches. The road continues to the center of Križnica, about four kilometers long, sandwiched between the river itself and the border, which sometimes approaches less than 50 meters.

After the game on the beach, we set off on that winding road where there are two restaurants, one of them is Dravska Iža (Drava house), and almost a kilometer away is hidden Ribička klet (Fishermen’s caller). With a green yard, swings, a trampoline and a view of the old Drava. The hostess Mira, who welcomes all her guests, she shows me her salad that she can barely hold with one hand, there is also freshly caught fish from the Drava that you have to choose from – perch, carp … whatever you like. In addition to fish platter, you can also order fish stew or, if you have time, try carp on forks.

From the desserts here, be sure to try the homemade zlevanka or strudel with homemade crusts.

It’s nice to move here where the world seems to have stopped, where nature is talking, and we just need to listen and return to the city fully charged.

A beautiful day behind us!