Paradise in Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

Night train selfie

We were on an overnight train from Brasov, Romania to Zagrab, Croatia. As we rode away from the Transylvania mountains into rolling fields of farms, the sky lit up in a fire of color and the moon danced above the horizon. The beautiful evening ride turned into another hot night of trying to sleep. We were again assigned the top beds in the six person couchette sleeping room and although the the AC worked, the air blowing from behind the window curtain never circulated up to us. We arrived in Zagreb tired and ripe. Next, we needed to grab a bus to continue to our final destination which was still about two hours away. We decided to track down a post office to again try to lighten our packs full of souvenirs. Although there was some confusion about boxes, the cost to send things home was much more reasonable than what we found in Romania.

Arriving in Plitvicka Jezera – guesthouse is almost 3 km that way

The bus ride to Plitvicka Jezera was unremarkable but really made me miss traveling on trains. We read online that the regional busses stop at the two main entrances to Plitvice Lakes National Park so we ere surprised when the stops were a small hut on the side of a busy two lane road (which would be considered a highway by many countries in the world), surrounded by woods. We exited at the second entrance and started walking the three kilometers down the highway to our guesthouse. The walk was making me nervous because there wasn’t a shoulder and it’s hard to watch traffic when my pack cuts down visibility. We decided it would be best to hitchhike if possible. A few minutes later, a nice couple picked us up in their small rental car. They had just spent the day at the park and were following their gps to a guesthouse just past our room for the night. After just a couple minutes drive, they dropped us off at the road we believed contained our guesthouse and quickly said goodbye. We were happy to see our maps were correct and we checked into the small house with only three guest rooms.

The nice owner pointed us in the direction of a restaurant and food market which was one kilometer back up the road. We decided to get dinner then visit the market to stock up on food for breakfast and lunch. Our guesthouse had a communal kitchen which was a good thing because the only thing considered a restaurant in that town reminded us more of a basic western food shack. We ended up getting supplies to cook in the kitchen for our whole say. On our walk between the store and the guesthouse, we noticed that all buildings were guesthouses only big enough for a handful of rooms. But nothing in the town was accommodating for travelers on foot – it was strange to see.

The next morning, we woke early excited to explore Plitvice Lakes National Park. The park is a series of large lakes at different levels so there’s an abundance of waterfalls in between. Every inch of the park was lush with every shade of green. Plus the water in the lakes and streams were crystal clear creating turquoise, emerald and deep blue reflections. The scenery was unreal. The park is about four kilometers long with about twenty kilometers of trails. We sent the day walking through most of the park taking pictures of every waterfall. We did notice that most of the park would have been best to photograph in the morning sun – as the day continued, most of the waterfall viewpoints were in the shade.

During our research, Will had learned that the park becomes very busy in the middle of the day. After seeing the small villages, I didn’t think it would be too busy. I was wrong. By 10:00, any walkway with a good view was packed with people (it actually made us feel like we were at Disneyworld). As always, Will and I did our best to avoid the crowds by taking the longer less traveled routes.

After a wonderful day exploring the stunning wilderness in Plitvice Lakes National Park, we enjoyed the sunset as we walked back to our guesthouse for a home cooked meal. In the morning, our guesthouse owner gave us a ride to the first entrance bus stop where we waited for one heading to Split, Croatia. The scheduled pick up time came and went without a bus. When an hour passed without a bus, we debated on giving up. As we contemplated our next move, our bus finally arrived with no explanation of the time change. Overall, it didn’t matter because we were on our way to Split, Croatia.