Just Because It Says Walking Distance, Doesn't Mean You Can Walk There...
Okay, so over a year ago, when I was trying to convince Prash that Croatia would be awesome, I was super into Pinterest and kept seeing pictures of Plitvice Lakes. It was my bargaining chip, and it was a success (obviously). Plitvice is full of memories for a number of reasons. First and foremost, because it's incredible. But also, because that's where the adventures really began.
It was about a 2.5 hour bus trip Zagreb to Plitvice. It was pretty uneventful except for the sign we saw for a Brownie Magnum Mcflurry at McDonalds...Prash really wanted one, and to be fair it looked amazing. As we were driving we passed a little town called Slunj that was literally built over a waterfall. I mean, it's not a great picture, but we were kind of moving the whole time, you can't really expect that kind of greatness.
This was about 45 minutes outside of the National Park, so being the organized traveler that I am, pulled out my handy dandy travel notebook to figure out where our villa was. We found a cute little place about "1.5 kilometers from the park entrance". It was pretty, so it seemed like it would work. I noticed that the city name was different, but I thought, hey maybe it's just over the border...then about 10 minutes later we came to a fork in the road. The road for our hotel went one way and crossed a river, and we went the other way for another 15 minutes. We finally arrive at the park, and since it's a park in the middle of nowhere, there are no taxis. SO! we had to book a room in the park because there was no way we (Prash) were lugging our (my) luggage all the way back to the fork and on to our villa. So the moral of this story? It's only walking distance if you walk in a straight line off a cliff and through some lakes to get to the entrance.
We get settled into the hotel and decide to go find food. Food choices were limited in the park and all of my books said there was a store just up the street at the other entrance. So because the restaurants weren't particularly appealing, we decided to walk there. We had passed it on the drive in, and it didn't seem that far away, so we walked on the street. The street had no sidewalks...and the walk was a lot longer than I remembered. So about 30 minutes into the walk, I decided to go off the beaten path, er, road, and "sneak" into the park. So, we got into the park for free and these were the first things we saw:
Suddenly, the 30-minute walk seemed worth it (to me), but we were on a mission for sandwiches, so we kept walking. We finally found the tiny grocery store and had a picnic, and packed some sandwiches for later. Then we had to pay to get back into the park...which is fair as we didn't pay the first time.
The first stop on our journey was hiking to the big waterfall on the right. The whole park is lined with these wooden boardwalks...but by boardwalks I really mean bent logs that have a lot of holes in them, so you have to walk carefully, especially if you're clumsy, or you will be taking a swim...and that is against the rules. It is against the rules because the water is so clean and humans are disgusting so their bacteria will ruin the water. Also, those fish really love bread. So if you ever go and act like the man in front of us and throw bread at them, they will follow you down the boardwalk.
We picked the longest hiking trail because we wanted to see everything. This involved a boat ride across one of the lakes, and then stopping for a picnic here. The sun was setting and there was no one else foolish enough to take the longest trail in the park at that hour, so it was nice moment. Then, it was time to move alone because I'm scared of hobos and it was getting dark and Prash kept talking about how the gypsies and hobos lived in the woods and came out at night...I'm not trying to be in the woods at night. Just sayin.
Plitivce is beautiful, but after a while it's more of the same, crystal clear lakes and waterfalls, and by the end you are literally so exhausted that you want to lay down and sleep. The last trolly back to our hotel from the last lake in the park left at 7pm...it was 6:40 and we had no idea where we were. So at that point, we ran up a mountain. Who doesn't love running up hills?! We made it to the trolly with 3 minutes to spare and as soon as we sat down, I fell asleep. There is photographic evidence of this, but I was sweaty and gross and no one should ever see that picture...ever.
Anyway, we finally made it back to the hotel, and had to go to a different hotel for dinner because for some reason our hotel wasn't having dinner that night. We were exhausted but the views were fantastic. After dinner we went outside to enjoy the peace, quiet, and the stars. It was a wonderful day in a National Park, and early the next morning it was back to Zagreb!
It was about a 2.5 hour bus trip Zagreb to Plitvice. It was pretty uneventful except for the sign we saw for a Brownie Magnum Mcflurry at McDonalds...Prash really wanted one, and to be fair it looked amazing. As we were driving we passed a little town called Slunj that was literally built over a waterfall. I mean, it's not a great picture, but we were kind of moving the whole time, you can't really expect that kind of greatness.This was about 45 minutes outside of the National Park, so being the organized traveler that I am, pulled out my handy dandy travel notebook to figure out where our villa was. We found a cute little place about "1.5 kilometers from the park entrance". It was pretty, so it seemed like it would work. I noticed that the city name was different, but I thought, hey maybe it's just over the border...then about 10 minutes later we came to a fork in the road. The road for our hotel went one way and crossed a river, and we went the other way for another 15 minutes. We finally arrive at the park, and since it's a park in the middle of nowhere, there are no taxis. SO! we had to book a room in the park because there was no way we (Prash) were lugging our (my) luggage all the way back to the fork and on to our villa. So the moral of this story? It's only walking distance if you walk in a straight line off a cliff and through some lakes to get to the entrance.
We get settled into the hotel and decide to go find food. Food choices were limited in the park and all of my books said there was a store just up the street at the other entrance. So because the restaurants weren't particularly appealing, we decided to walk there. We had passed it on the drive in, and it didn't seem that far away, so we walked on the street. The street had no sidewalks...and the walk was a lot longer than I remembered. So about 30 minutes into the walk, I decided to go off the beaten path, er, road, and "sneak" into the park. So, we got into the park for free and these were the first things we saw:
Suddenly, the 30-minute walk seemed worth it (to me), but we were on a mission for sandwiches, so we kept walking. We finally found the tiny grocery store and had a picnic, and packed some sandwiches for later. Then we had to pay to get back into the park...which is fair as we didn't pay the first time.
The first stop on our journey was hiking to the big waterfall on the right. The whole park is lined with these wooden boardwalks...but by boardwalks I really mean bent logs that have a lot of holes in them, so you have to walk carefully, especially if you're clumsy, or you will be taking a swim...and that is against the rules. It is against the rules because the water is so clean and humans are disgusting so their bacteria will ruin the water. Also, those fish really love bread. So if you ever go and act like the man in front of us and throw bread at them, they will follow you down the boardwalk.
Plitivce is beautiful, but after a while it's more of the same, crystal clear lakes and waterfalls, and by the end you are literally so exhausted that you want to lay down and sleep. The last trolly back to our hotel from the last lake in the park left at 7pm...it was 6:40 and we had no idea where we were. So at that point, we ran up a mountain. Who doesn't love running up hills?! We made it to the trolly with 3 minutes to spare and as soon as we sat down, I fell asleep. There is photographic evidence of this, but I was sweaty and gross and no one should ever see that picture...ever.
Anyway, we finally made it back to the hotel, and had to go to a different hotel for dinner because for some reason our hotel wasn't having dinner that night. We were exhausted but the views were fantastic. After dinner we went outside to enjoy the peace, quiet, and the stars. It was a wonderful day in a National Park, and early the next morning it was back to Zagreb!
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