Day 70: Plitvice Lakes => Split

After looking at our bus options last night, we realized the 2:30pm bus was the only "short" one, four hours. All the other buses to Split would take six hours or so. So we ended up taking the same bus as the girls did yesterday. Since we had the morning hours, we decided to go out and see the Lower Lakes in the different lighting and less crowds. So happy we did ^o^

At the bus stop, we met a South African couple. I don't think I've ever met anyone from South Africa before, and it's sad to admit, I actually don't know that much about the country. They said Prague and Budapest were their favorite destinations in their travels thus far. Prague, for all the old architecture and marbled streets and evening lighting of the buildings, and Budapest for the baths and also the evening lighting. Interesting. I don't think I can say x, y, and z are my favorite overall places in the world, but there certainly are ones that I would probably return to sooner than others ^-^

The bus was a bit late; better than being early ^-^ I was surprised -- it stopped at an eatery on the way for about 30 minutes for people to get food.


There was also a snack place next to the eatery where K bought a bag of some sesame goldfish. The goldfish bag had nine different languages on the bottom of it! My guess is that many of them are spin-offs of Serbo-Croatian.

I was in awe when I first stepped into the remains of Diocletian's Palace. We were heading to our hostel, but we decided to make a stop at the tourist office to pick up a map and bus information. It's not that I haven't seen ruins before, but this is the first time I've seen modern shops, cafes, etc. built right within the old palace! They say that Split is a living city rather than just a tourist spot and my first impression certainly match that statement.


A cafe with outdoor 'seating' right on the steps of the main peristyle.

Hostel. We've been lucky so far; we're more than 2/3 into our trip and no lodging mishaps yet. Well, until now. It's not really *that* big of a deal, but we made it out to be anyways. We had booked a 3-bed dorm, but apparently they had overbooked the 3-bed dorms by accident. So, when we arrived at the hostel, they informed us we would be in a 4-bed dorm instead. I'd gotten the 3-bed because both 3-bed and 4-bed dorms were the same price and I figured the less-people room was better (less noise, slight chance we might have the room to ourselves ^_~, etc.). I guess I also just don't like people changing things last minute on me like that; they could have contacted us to let us know! So we made it out to be non-trivial. There was a discussion with the manager on the phone (he wasn't at the hostel). In the end, he did tell the receptionist to give us a discount on the 4-bed room and we were to move to the 3-bed one for our second night (since it was going to open up). Not bad.

Day 69: Plitvice Lakes National Park

When I had first mentioned Plitvice to K, he wasn't really interested. I guess I didn't explain it well. But then we saw it on an RS episode and he changed his mind, and happy he did!

We ate a yummy breakfast at the hotel with lots of fruit -- cantaloupe, pears, pineapple, and kiwi -- and made the first tram, 8:00, from the entrance to stop 4 on the Upper Lakes. It was before any tour groups were out and for a good couple of hours we had quiet with just ourselves and the lakes and waterfalls.

This place is waterfall overload! Crystal clear lake waters at varying levels flowing into each other, with meandering wooden pathways cutting right over the water. K called it "M heaven". It wouldn't be too far off. Give me my friends, family, K, and give us a place like Plitvice. Maybe also a bi-weekly market of fresh fruits and veges and a well-stocked library. Then I'll be pretty set ^-^





Just about everyone says the Upper Lakes are better than the Lower Lakes, but we loved both. They're different. The Upper Lakes has great at-your-level up-close waterfalls. The Lower Lakes is more serene and has really nice big-picture views.

We explored the Upper Lakes in the morning, took a late afternoon break for lunch, and then explored the Lower Lakes in the afternoon. RS said one hour for each -- maybe for some people, but not us. We saw the girls again during our break; they were on their way out to their 2:30 bus to Split. Haha, maybe we'll bump into them in Split, too!

We also saw the Frenchman we met in Bled! He was hiking with his firemen friends in the higher part of the Upper Lakes. Actually, I didn't see them. At the time, K and I had split up, me heading back to a certain spot and he going further ahead to explore and see if there was anything more to see. Apparently I was so absorbed in the trail and my mp3 player that the Frenchman didn't want to disturb my concentration when he passed me! That's what he told K when they saw each other.

Day 68: Bled => Zagreb => Plitvice

Our host offered to take us to Lesce to catch our train this morning; bright and early at 7am to catch the 7:27am train! When he dropped us off, he even wanted to give us some strawberries since we'd be missing breakfast!

I started early on my language switch, listening to my Pimsleur Croatian on the train. I think the Slavic languages are starting to sink in a little bit, enough for me to remember the basic phrases a bit more. It helps that there's similarities ^-^ The timing is kind of silly though -- Croatia is the tail-end of our travels in Slavic-speaking countries.

Zagreb. People say there's nothing in Zagreb; get out to the coast, they say. Of course, the coast is beautiful, but I think the city gives you another vibe of the country and I'm happy we made this stop.

Yay for ATMs that work!! Actually, the first ATM we tried didn't work and made us worry that our ATM troubles were going to continue here in Croatia, but our subsequent transactions all turned out just fine. The one that didn't work had a helpful message: "Your transaction has been denied for the following reason: transaction denied." ?_?

They still use the old manual scales at some of the market stalls here. It was the same as Slovenia about touching the fruit; at least I didn't see anyone touching the fruit so I assumed it was probably also considered rude here. I bought some bananas, peaches, and cherries though (inspected the cherries *very* closely before buying them!).

We saw the pair of Asian girls we saw yesterday in Vintgar Gorge. Up at the church at the top of the funicular area. We wondered if they recognized us.

After all these months of traveling throughout Europe in 2007 and this year, Zagreb is the first time we've ever been part of a random ticket check on a tram. It's a hefty fine if you don't have a ticket on you, but I do wonder whether it's better to buy tickets or not in the long run haha.

We caught the 2pm bus to Plitvice. It wasn't quite dark yet when we got to the park and checked in, so we thought to go out and explore a little. The entrance booth no longer sold tickets though and said the park's trams and boats were on their last rounds for the day. You *can* just walk in the park by yourself after dusk, but it's a lot easier and much, much faster to take the trams to a starting point inside the park and then walk back rather than doing the round trip or out and back entirely on foot. Especially since we're both sort of injured now, we decided to save our legs and feet until tomorrow to explore. Even though we couldn't see it, just hearing all the moving water was exciting ^-^

We saw the girls, again! We were walking back up from the Jezero Hotel (the more expensive lodging that we're not staying in) to the self-serve restaurant and they were walking the opposite way! And then, they ended up eating at the same place we were eating. K really got curious about their travel itinerary, so we walked up to their table and started a conversation with them. Turns out they're also going to Split next, but only after spending a partial day at Plitvice tomorrow. They're from Hong Kong, but refreshingly different from my internal stereotype of HK girls (based on D's experience).

Day 67: Bled, Ljubljana day-trip

I love how within the small land mass that is Europe, there are so many different countries and cultures. This entirely contrasts with the fairly homogeneous U.S. And yet, with all their differences, there is still an overall "European feel".

Slovenia is apparently the size of my "home state", NJ, but with only one quarter of NJ's population. (NJ is supposedly the densest US state in terms of population though.) We've come to realize what helps Slovenes with their English -- American music and Slovene-subbed American T.V. shows are quite prevalent.

Today we day-tripped to Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, which has a small population (for a city) of a quarter million. Our impression was a walkable city with a laid-back feel.

Ljubljana had one of the most spread out markets we've seen, meaning each 'stand' had a decent amount of space. It was also the tidiest market we've come across. Unfortunately, I read that touching the fruit and veges is rude here -_-


We did our usual walk all over the city, up to the castle, and back down the really steep path. We were looking for the less-steep of the paths down, but because of conflicting information we're not sure we actually found it. If it was the less-steep, it makes us wonder what the other paths are like!


In the town hall courtyard, we were surprised to find this Tongue Sucker. K and I couldn't help cracking up over it. It was before we read the description of why it's ingenious -- to help open the airway of an unconscious person before CPR, etc. Wow! Apparently we had walked in on an exhibition of some highlights from last year's Index Awards, a set of design awards with the theme of "improving life". Very cool. The low-cost Solar Water Disinfection idea was one of my favorites. One sixth of the world's population has no access to safe drinking water!

I tried to communicate with the landlord's mother today. The laundry room was open when we returned to our room today and it occurred to me that I should do our laundry here before leaving. I somehow managed to get our point across in German that we would like to do our laundry, but we didn't understand her response, which was not a straight "yes" or "no". Eventually, I got the funny idea to switch to Italian. It's strange -- I had a really difficult time producing any Italian at all, but entirely understood her. It turns out that the dryer was broken, so we'd have to hang our clothes up to dry after the washer. And since it was already late in the day, she wasn't sure that our clothes would have enough time to dry. Ah. We see.

Our final adventure of the day was in trying to pay. She actually had to call her son for this one. Absolutely none of the ATMs in Bled nor Ljubljana have worked for us. We'd tried every ATM in Bled to no success and were banking on Ljubljana to be different since it was the capital. Even though these ATMs displayed the Plus network logo, our Plus-network ATM card still didn't work. We must have tried nearly twenty ATMs in the last three days! Our backup was to do a cash advance on our VISA card and pay it off right away. But, in the end, our host was gracious enough to let us pay in half euros, half swiss francs ^-^

The path to our pension, in daylight ^-^...

Day 66: Bled, Vintgar Gorge

I didn't really know what a gorge was but I'd come across a couple of pictures of Vintgar Gorge and I convinced K to go. It was, absolutely, gorgeous!~

It reminded me of our walk down from Neushwanstein castle two months ago, following the path of the river. Similarly, this was a walkway following the path of the river but in an even more dramatic setting with a much longer path, super clear water, in the middle of rocks and greenery. The path even crossed over the river a few times ^-^

We passed by this one pair of Asian girls a couple of times. I envied the one who touted a G10 and wondered if she was using her built in ND filter to catch some nice water shots. But then again, with all the people walking on the shaky wooden bridges, it was probably hard to do. It's definitely one of those "you have to be there" places you can't entirely capture in a photo. K's glad we went ^o^




Strangely, we encountered a group of school kids on a field trip in the gorge. That, in and of itself wasn't strange, but they were all wearing helmets! We didn't think it was particularly dangerous, but I guess you have to be extra careful with the kids?

The tourist info office yesterday told us about the morning bus to go the gorge. It makes one loop around the lake and then heads over to the gorge. Then, it waits a bit (enough time for the average person to make it to the end of the gorge and back out) and comes back, making another loop around the lake. We took the bus there, but with our usual slow speed, we knew we probably wouldn't be able to make it back on the bus (it only makes the trip once a day). And we didn't. So the entrance booth lady at the gorge directed us towards where we might hope to catch a local bus back to Bled.

Much walking, a few more inquires of locals, and several unsuccessful hitchhiking attempts later, we finally found a bus stop and caught a bus, an hour after leaving the gorge -_-

The rest of the day was pretty calm... dessert, lunch, and a trip to Lesce Bled to buy train tickets. K's foot has started acting up again (pain in the top part of his right foot) >_< So with that and my knee, we decided not to make the long hike up the castle that overlooks the lake. Maybe next time?

Day 65: Bled

Bled is a town around and near a lake, Lake Bled. And it was the perfect day for being there, nice and sunny with blue skies and warm temperatures. We spent the day walking around the lake, which did, in fact, take the *whole* day. Of course, we stopped a bunch along the way. During the day, we encountered lots of people taking strolls around the lake, like us, and also just hanging about, swimming, picnicking, suntanning, etc.

It was our first encounter with a luge ride. We took the chair lift to the top and met a couple of Slovenes just hanging out and enjoying the wonderful view over the lake. They were at the lake for their annual SAP conference, which has been held at the lake for the past few years. There was also an American and a Canadian, same conference -- lucky guys to have an all-expense paid trip to Slovenia! The Slovenes were especially friendly and spoke perfect English, like the Slovene we met on the train yesterday. We spent a while at the top, chatting with the small group. And then eventually, we continued on to what we went up to do -- ride the luge. The Slovene told us to ignore the all the "use brake" signs along the track and just accelerate the whole way. Despite being too chicken to follow his advice, it was still super fun! ^o^ If we were to ride it again, we both decided we would have used the brake less though.

Rowing to the island in the middle of the lake is one of the perfect leisure activities. We even passed by some people swimming to the island! Since there was only a single pair of oars, K did all the rowing. I felt bad just sitting there, but he did look super cute. It reminded me of those silly romantic comedies and that one scene in Summer Scent (but no cellphones got wet and yay for not tipping!). Docking at the island and getting off the boat was a little rocky, but we managed to disembark without any incident. A bunch of steps lead up to the top of the island, where there's a church with a bell. Supposedly, couples will get married here, and the groom has to carry the bridge up the 90-some steps! I didn't make K go through that grueling task.

K also wanted to row around the island but the waters were getting too choppy for comfort and we were getting low on our rental time, so we just headed back to shore instead. And we made it back just in time, to the minute!


During our lake stroll, we bumped into this cute family of swans -- mommy, daddy, and four babies!

I really wanted to see the supposed-wonderful view at the Osojnica viewpoint, which required a short hike up. I knew I shouldn't because my knee already "gave out" during some uneven ground earlier in the day, but I promised K I would go slowly. Going up was ok, and we came out *really* slowly and carefully. Parts of the path wasn't really that well-maintained, especially the beginning portion, so we almost gave up going up, but we guessed at it and were well-rewarded with the view.


We only encountered three people on the path, a couple that was heading down as we were heading up, and a French guy on his own. The French guy said he was in Bled with a few friends, but they were all being lazy for the day. We saw this same French guy later in the day, and actually, we finished our stroll around the lake with him. He had some interesting observations about Americans vs the French. According to him, "Americans are like peaches; the French are like coconuts", meaning it's easy to initially become friendly with Americans, but once beyond that outside layer, it's a struggle to actually become close, whereas with a French person, it's the opposite. So, if you're "friends" with an American, it's hard to know what that exactly means. He used the example of it being easy to "meet" new people in a bar in the US, but it's nearly impossible to in a similar bar in France. We don't know if he's right about the bar example; we don't really drink. It turns out he travels quite a bit, especially preferring Asian countries. But then again, it's easy to do when you have eight (!) weeks of vacation per year, which is pretty average for France apparently.

By the time we got back to the start, the sun had set and it was starting to get dark. We ate out tonight, K ordering a Ljubljana-style pork, which turned out to be like Cordon Bleu but with pork instead of chicken, and me ordering one of the yummiest squid dishes I've ever had ^-^

It was interesting walking back to the pension after dinner, in near-complete darkness -- there were no street lights!