โ Week Twelve Itinerary:
- Zagreb, Croatia
- Plitvice Lakes, Croatia
- Split, Croatia
Zagreb, Croatia
Padua ๐ Zagreb
Zagreb, Croatia | October 7th – 9th
After one long bus journey across the Italian, Slovenian and Croatian borders we found ourselves in the Croatian capital of Zagreb.
With hilly surroundings, stunning views and a noticeable reduction in the number of people everywhere it was quickly decided that Croatia was right for us.
I know this sounds like the pot calling the kettle black, but after the hoards of tourists we encountered in the past destinations arriving somewhere less populated was a much needed breath of fresh air.
Our stay in Zagreb was short and sweet; we explored the main city centre, visited the most famous sites, found parks to have snacks in and inevitably got lost trotting around. So the usual. ๐
The Park ลกuma Tuลกkanac, Strossmayer Promenade, Kamenita vrata, Cathedral of Zagreb, Trg bana Josipa Jelaฤiฤa, Oktogon, Lotrลกฤak Tower, King Tomislav sculpture and the National Theater are just a few of the places we visited.
And of course the most notable landmark of St. Mark’s Church… I say this only because it’s on all of their souvenirs and advertising posters.
During our stay we planned and booked our transport and accommodation for the exciting two weeks ahead… but more on that later. Next stop Plitvice National Park!
Plitvice Lakes, Croatia
Zagreb ๐ Plitvice Lakes
Plitvice Lakes, Croatia | October 9th – 12th
We decided to spend two full days in Plitvice National Park for the share fear that the weather would rain us out, literally.
While I can walk in the rain as well as anyone (maybe better after the TA hike) I didn’t fancy myself slipping on the boardwalks throughout the national park and ending up in the pristine, not for human use lakes and being kicked out. So we booked two nights for safety, unbeknownst that the weather would stay clear and sunny the entire time we hiked and we would end up being told off for another reason. ๐
Plitvice Lakes is Croatias oldest and largest national park. Spanning across almost 30,000 hectares, interconnecting waterfalls above and below ground have created the exceptional natural beauty that is the upper and lower lakes you can see today.
The lake system is the result of over a millennia of ongoing geological and biochemical processes called tufa formation; where by through calcium carbonate deposition natural dams are created, that when water flows near interacts with the surrounding living organisms, mainly mosses, algae and aquatic bacteria. This creates the aesthetically stunning phenomenon that is rhe UNESCO Heritage recognised Plitvice Lakes National Park.
With turquoise clear lakes, surrounding dense forest and numerous spectacular waterfalls we had an absolutely amazing day of trotting. The fact that we were visiting the national park during the shoulder season of autumn also meant that the bus loads of tourists weren’t present and I could enjoy this multi-coloured, stunning phenomenon in peace.
We trotted the K circuit of the national park which encompasses the entire park; all waterfalls, all bridges, all platforms and stations were visited. Park completed!
Unfortunately this meant that the next day we were at a bit of a lost with what to do. The wider Dinarides region has a few hiking trails that incorporate the lakes and are included in the park ticket; so with day bags packed of water and snacks we set off.
In actual fact the snacks and water we carried were a complete overkill, we completed the entire wider loop hiking trail before lunch and I never even took my fleece off. The initial hilly ascent entered the cloud layer of atmosphere which made hiking kind of spooky and with almost constant tree cover the air was actually chilly. Quite a contrast from our previous sweaty trots!
What wasn’t expected was that they were carrying out construction of the trail exit into the national park and had ‘closed’ the hiking trail… well by ‘closed’ I mean put bunting across the exit of the trail path (after we had already hiked the entirety of it) without any information or warnings at the entry. But we did manage to leave the trail, no one was injured and only got yelled at a little when we were eventually caught. Given the gentleman was yelling in Croatian it could have been words of encouragement for all I know. ๐
The national park stay concluded with pizza, fries and beer (as usual) at one of the town ski lodges before we packed up ready to venture to the coast.
Split, Croatia
Plitvice Lakes ๐ Split
Split, Croatia | October 12th – 14th
When I would first tell someone that I was going to Croatia chances are they’d mention Game of Thrones. Having never seen an episode of the television show I am definitely not the hardcore fan Croatia is trying to market when selling Split or Dubrovnik city tours. Nor am I going to get excited about arbitrary walls or stairs from various scenes in the show that they seemed so fond of advertising. For that reason I preface my tour of Split as quite different than that of the masses. But if this were about Friends, The O.C or Gossip Girl then it’d be a different story. ๐
However what I did enjoy seeing in Split included:
- The Golden Gate, the Silver Gate, Vestibule and Diocletian’s Palace Ancient (a UNESCO monument)
- Saint Domnius Bell Tower (my favourite site)
- Gregory of Nin, the bell tower and the Chapel of the Holy Arnir
- Venetian Tower, Karepic Palace
- Riva, the Promenade and several beaches (the beginning of many beach visits to come)
- Marjan Hill Stairs
The views across the city from Park ลกuma Marjan were great! The fried squid and beef goulash that we had for dinner even better. Unfortunately there is no photo of our meal as we had just walked up and down the hill and built up quite an appetite, so the food was engulfed before I thought of taking a picture. ๐ But here’s a snap of N.D eating a burger from the previous night. ๐
With one week in Croatia under our belts and my understanding of their language no better we hopped onto a ferry ready to start our voyage to new land… the Dalmatian Islands.
Next stop the island of Brac!
GC Chronicles 
That’s some solid GC contact rite thuuur
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Sanks ๐
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