The Plitvice Lakes...A Little Late

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Okay, so as you know I am not actually writing this from Plitvice, or even Croatia for that matter. However, I am trying to keep the locations of the blogs I write as congruous as possible. So while I sit here in the internet cafe of our hostel in Prague, I will tell you more about Croatia:

So I believe I already told you about the instrument playing, taxidermed animals at the restaurant our bus stopped a before arriving in Plitvice. I also believe I told you about arriving at our guesthouse to be met with homemade brandy called "slivovitz" before heading off for a much needed long-night's-sleep.So, continuing on:

Dave and I woke up the next morning to be greeted by a homemade breakfast of pastries, ham, cheese, and coffee. This has actually become a rather staple breakfast for Dave and I on this trip. As someone who normally has green tea and a low-glycemic-index, alkaine forming protein bar for breakfast, I have had to slightly adjust my diet for this trip. Our breakfast was eaten in the actual family kitchen of the house accompanies by Egor who was one of the two heads of the two-family household. Egor was also nice enough to offer us a ride to the entrance of the Plitvice Lakes National Park, sparing us a mile walk before a long day of hiking around. Egor infomed us it would be no trouble as it was on his way to his wife's work where he was headed to drop her off a sandwich for lunch. I loved this.

We arrived at the park to find a disappointing, yet not surprisingly large amount of people. It was kind of like being at Disney Land only less organized and I only saw two people in costume...or at least I thought they were costumes). Also, even in the beautiful outdoors, most people managed to smell really, really badly. Dave, and I, however, found a way to make the huge crowd of smelly Croatians managable by making our own path.

The park is a comprised of a series of huge, beautiful lakes that all cascade into each other with impressive waterfalls and are surrounded by a mixture of thick woods and lavendar fields. There is a set path of wooden planks that will take you around the entirety of the park, weaving in and ut of the lakes. This is the path most of the people take. Aternatively, there are inumerous paths that lead off of the wooden path off onto other parts of the lakes and through the woods and fields. So Dave and I spent most of the day jetting off on random trails for hikes and even a few runs. It was fantastic.

The lakes themselves were like nothing I have ever seen. It was as if someone had collected all of the most beautiful ocean water from around the world and made a series of lakes out of them. It was the clearest and bluest water I have ever seen. Unfortunately (or, I guess, fornutely), the Plitvice Lakes are a national heratige sight, so swimming in the water in strictly forbidden. So Dave and I had too do evrything in our power not to pe to keep ourselves from peeling off our sneakers and jumping into the very inviting water. And no, we didn't see anyone jump into the water that day. I know you may expect more adventure out of Dave and I, but if you had seen how beautiful this place was, you would have respected the rules, too.

About half way through the day, we came across a huge lake which required a boat ride to cross. On the other side we were met by a huge grassy area with two BBQ pits that offered perhaps the best sausages I have ever had. After our picnic of sausages and beer (also a new staple in my diet), Dave and I spent another few hours wondering around the park, before making the mile journey back to our little guesthouse. We ended up sprinting around the last few lakes as we promised we would be back at the house for a special home-cooked meal.

The meal, which was well worth the running (and the stomach ache that would set in in the morning), consisted of a huge plate of various meats, with a side of buttery potatoes, and a basket full of yummy bread. Of course, this was also accompanies by a fair amount of beer. Needless to say, it was delicous! We enjoyed our meal with a few members of the house, including three French-Canadian girls we had met on the bus the day before. After dinner, we ended up sitting around the table playing cards and drinking beer and gin until about 1 AM.

The next morning Dave and I caught a bus that would be the first leg of our very long journey to Salzburg...

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