This past Labor Day weekend Aaron, Connor, and I took a road trip to Croatia and Slovania. There was a lot of driving and so much traffic that we ran into, but we had such a great time exploring these two beautiful countries.
Our first day was Friday {9/2}. We woke up and left the house at 7, 30 minutes later then we planned. Not horrible, but still later than we hoped. The drive was only supposed to take us 5 1/2 hours, but ended up taking us 8 hours because of multiple unplanned stops and the GPS getting us lost. It was really the GPS's fault because we kept loosing signal on our phones and anytime we came out of a tunnel it would go crazy and take forever to reconnect. It made us so mad, and when we eventually got it to work, it took us the longest route possible.
If the drive wasn't bad enough, just getting the money needed for parking proved to be a challenge. We didn't take any euros out before our trip because we planned on using our Italian debit card to pull the local currency {Kuna} out from their ATM's, but they didn't have any on site. We either had to walk to their hotel {we weren't sure where it was and it would cause is to backtrack once we got it} or find some in my car. We chose to find money in my car because it was closer. Aaron went and came back with 3 euros thinking it would be exchanged for enough Kuna, but I read a sign that had the amount needed for parking and told him it wasn't enough. So then I went to my car while Aaron and Connor stayed back and luckily found us enough. After 45 minutes of figuring all that out, we finally were able to go to the park.
Plitvice National Park is a UNESCO world heritage site and the largest and oldest national park in Croatia. What makes it so beautiful are the 16 interconnected lakes that create waterfalls throughout the park. The color of the lakes changes often based on the minerals and organisms present in the water and the direction of sunlight. There are multiple paths to follow, but since we arrived later in the day we stuck to path H {one of he shortest paths}. A shuttle dropped us off at the beginning of the H path and we followed the wooden path downward towards the entrance we parked closest to.
The start of our "nature walk." Connor kept telling us he loved going on a nature walk and he had never been on one before.
A map showing the cascade of all the lakes and which one we are at.
There were small fish in all the lakes. Connor loved them!
We weren't allowed to swim in the water, so we just enjoyed the beautiful views.
Connor walked at least half of the trail and had so much fun doing it.
The rock that the waterfalls flow though is very porous and soft making it easy for the water to form new paths to exit and block off others.
Family pic!
Pretty isn't it?
We were walking through a section of the park with a ton of trees surrounding us and Connor stopped and made this really scared face and covering his mouth while yelling "I think there's ghosts in this forest."
I loved this part of the hike. There were so many waterfalls in every direction.
When two paths become one.
Almost done.
Taking a little break while we wait for the boat to take us across towards the exit.
When we finished the hike, we stopped by the hotel at the park to get Kuna to pay for our hotel. I read that they only took cash, and luckily we got some because there wasn't an ATM near it. We were pretty hungry by this time so we ate dinner at a restaurant near out hotel before checking in. We were really happy with the food and surprised by the amount that they served us. We ordered a plate for two people, but it easily could have fed three to four.
We had a long and stressful first half of the day, but it ended so well!
XOXO,
Jenn
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