Plitvice Lakes

After our all-nighter in Budapest, we were happy to spend the morning on a train to Zagreb in Croatia. We slept most of the way, and arrived without difficulty. We then lugged our bags down several blocks to the bus station where we got tickets for a bus to Plitvice Lakes. Fortunately, no standing in the aisles this time. A few hours later we were dropped off, along with 3 Aussies, outside of the national park, which kinda looked like Muskoka in Ontario. We found a sign for private accomodations and soon the 5 of us were picked up by a man who runs a guest house. The house felt very cottage-y and was surrounded by trees and flowers. VERY relaxing after several days of big cities. The owner's son and friend hung out with the 5 of us as we sat outside and ate and drank together. Not so much drinking for me given the lack of sleep the night before, but the others more than made up for it. Jordana and I called it an early night while the others continued the festivities late into the night.

In the morning we walked over to the park entrance and bought our tickets. We took a little trolley bus thing to the Upper Lakes of the park and already we could tell that the view so absolutely amazing. The brightist clearest turquoise water I had ever seen with dozens of small waterfalls everywhere. We walked along the footbridges, trying to avoid falling in the water (swimming is prohibited there). We took many many pictures as each new turn presented with another beautiful sight. Eventually we reached the end of the upper lakes and took a boat across the biggest lake to get to the Lower Lakes. These too were beautiful though not quite as impressive as the upper lakes. They did, however, boast one HUGE waterfall. We slowly meandered our way through the park and back out.

We were told there was a bus to Split arriving soon and so we quickly walked to the bus stop (after a call to the owner of the guest house requesting that our bags arrive ASAP!). No bus for Split arrived and we soon met other people waiting for a later bus to Split. Well, that bus never came either and eventually someone called the bus company only to find out that the bus was full and therefore never stopped. Super. The next bus was not until midnight so we needed to come up with a better plan. We were now again joined by the 3 Aussie boys who also wanted to go to Split. We had been sitting at the bus stop for 4 hours when a taxi driver who had come by several times now showed up again. He had 4 in his van going to Zadar, which would get us partway to Split and from there we could catch a (more reliable) bus. We eventually agreed and so the 9 of us set off to Zadar. The view from the van of the mountains to one side and the ocean to the other was outstanding. The temperature slowly climbed and it was a very balmy evening. Once in Zadar, we soon boarded a bus to split and got into town at midnight without anywhere to stay. I was REALLY happy we had the guys with us as we were soon approached by someone offering private accomodations. We all followed him to his mother's place. She was a cute old Croation woman who spoke zero english but was happy chattering away to us nonetheless. We left our stuff there and went to sit outside on benches on the promenade along the port. We found a 24h bakery which was pretty sweet given we had not eaten in many hours. Everything turned out just fine and strangely, I had not been too concerned about it in the meanwhile.