Jul 16, 2014
Zagreb, Croatia
We woke in Zadar early enough that we could grab the car, roll the bags out of the walled city, and hit the road for Plitvice. Today would be a long one: four hours in the car, enough time to explore Plitvice National Park, and checking in to our hotel and exploring Zagreb before dark. Breakfast at the hotel was nice, though I was seated near the kitchen and could hear a baby crying the whole time–seemed odd to have a baby in the kitchen. John asked for “Orange Juice” and the gal brought him “Olive Oil.” She was so embarrassed until we managed to communicate how impressed we were with the English she had.
The road to Plitvice was beautiful. It reminded me a bit of the Mogollon Rim. I was reading from the guide book about the best way to tour the falls, and we quickly parked the car and ran down to catch a shuttle to the top. We arrived just as a tram was leaving, so we ended up wasting 20 minutes waiting for the next one to leave. Once we were dropped off, we followed the raised wooden pathways. The park includes a series of 16 lakes that cascade down an area of 8 km and are separated by natural dams of travertine (the same material that gives Havasupai Falls its brilliant shade). The stunning pools looked so inviting that we would have loved to take a dip, but this is a UNESCO World Heritage site so no swimming allowed.
We spent about 3 hours touring the falls then found out we were hungry! So we stopped at a roadside hotel/restaurant called Restoran Degenija where we had a filling meal and prepared for our drive into Zagreb.
Once in Zagreb, we found our hotel, Hotel President Pantovcak, which I had really been looking forward to since it looked so pretty online and was highly rated on TripAdvisor. The staff was so friendly and our room was super nice. We enjoyed a welcome drink on the house, then walked down into Zagreb old town to see what was going on. It is really a beautiful city. It reminded me of Prague with its narrow curving streets and street car tracks. One thing I noticed was that all of the women were so smartly dressed with great shoes, purses, and “outfits.” But the men. Oh boy. Let’s just say they clearly are not trying. Lots of T-shirts and cargo shorts and flip flops. John and I had so much fun at a cafe watching the couples go by.
For dinner, we wanted to try Trilogija but we didn’t have reservations. Lucky for us we were early enough to get a table. What a fun dinner! We were feeling indecisive so we let the waiter bring us whatever he liked. It was a yummy meal.
We were tired, but made sure to stop at the Museum of Broken Relationships. We weren’t exactly sure what to expect, and were pleasantly surprised by the exhibits: art and narratives describing how relationships ended. I was especially moved by the “Parents” room, where people described losing their parents to suicide or death.
Okay. That’s about a day. We were done. Se we wandered back up the hill to the hotel and fell fast asleep.
