Falling for Croatia (Saturday, October 8, 2011)

Snow yesterday, sunshine streaming in this morning. After a perfect breakfast--eggs, the European assortment of rolls, ham and cheese, granola, yogurt, mmm mmm, we waddled our way out to the car for the quick drive to Plitvice Lakes National Park. I have to tell you, this is something I've been looking forward to since the day I saw pictures on the park website, and the snow yesterday had me wondering if this was going to be a complete dud stop on our trip.

No dud here. This park is gorgeous, and it's perfect for a family who has had a lot of city for a while. Sixteen lakes make their way from a high level of water to a low level of water, cascading and falling through forest and moss covered rocks. So lovely. We spent about 6 hours wandering around lake after lake, following paths constructed of thin wood planks. It felt like a fairyland, or maybe something out of Lord of the Rings. Add to that a boat ride across one of the lakes, numerous opportunities to stop for coffee or hot chocolate, and bathrooms at the most opportune moments, and you have the perfect day. It still smelled like flowers, the greenery was lush, and there was a subtle hint of fall colors in the hills around the lakes. And we would occasionally run into patches of snow! When we first got there in the morning, there was a mystical veil of mist coming up off the water as we hiked. As an old children's CD says, it was "a  misty, moisty morning."
You couldn't order up a more perfect activity for Natalie after days of too many crowds and too many siblings in her face. She was in her element, and she and Andrew led the charge up the trails, doing there best to not knock any German or Japanese tour group members into the lakes as they passed on the narrow walkways!

Back to the car for another drive, this time to Split, Croatia which is the beginning of the Dalmation Coast. We did the usual--find an ATM, get cash, get groceries, then find the rental property. This time it is an apartment below the owner's apartment. Since it was basically dark by the time we got there, we had a couple of moments of uncertainty trying to locate the correct door to inquire about our room. Actually, that would be me doing the asking--Brian was waiting to find out where he shoud park the car.

Did I mention that we still have our GPS lady speaking to us in the car? Well, speaking to Brian, anyway. We would NEVER have found this building without her. We really should have named her by now. She calmly and politely steered us just where we needed to go. When we started out yesterday, we didn't think that Croatia was in the system. Brian had tried to download maps onto his personal GPS device before we left home, and there was no map for Croatia. So we bought a real, paper map in Budapest, and I prepared to be once more alert to the demands of navigation. Then Brian, just for kicks, typed in the address for our first place in Croatia, and there it was. I was a little miffed, me sitting there with my beautiful map and my college education, both of them completely unnecessary. But so worth it in the end to have that little lady steer us straight to our place, with nary a wrong turn down a one-way street.

The apartment is everything we need and nothing we don't. It's no Hilton, but it has a kitchen, bedding for 5, a washing machine (which takes 85 minutes for a delicate load and 155 for a hot cotton wash???), an awesome drying rack on a great back porch, and even an exercise bike that none of us seem motivated to attempt. I can only imagine that someone got it for mom for mother's day, and she used it once, then donated it to the family rental unit.

The owner sent us off for dinner at a nearby restaurant. Even that was in the GPS. It's like we're not travelling, we're somehow cheating. We had decided that Croatia would be a place to eat out, because it would be cheaper. Maybe not. The restaurant he sent us to was on a huge yacht marina, and we ended up blowing a few extra bucks on dinner. Too tired to care. Chocolate crepes for dessert made even the most exhausted, youngest child very happy.

Can't tell you much about Split yet, as it was cloaked in darkness as we arrived. It did seem to have a predominance of communist-style structures and graffiti, however. More tomorrow. Off to bed.

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