Blogs from Plitvice Lakes National Park, Central Croatia, Croatia, Europe - page 7

One of the things I loved about the Wizard of Oz was to learn the management style of Dorothy. I mean just think about it, she had to manage the scarecrow who was always in a state of confusion, the lion is in a state of anxiety, the tin man is just so cold no one can get to him and toto was just a hyperactive nudnik. This poor girl was just trying to get home and instead she found herself in an almost impossible managerial situation. Dorothy's only hope was to set out on the yellow brick road to find Emerald City and to ask the Wizard of Oz to return her to Kansas. Well if we categories people as "doers" or people who are "in the now" (i don't know how to spell beerers) ... read more

After 5 days of rest and relaxation on Hvar, it was time to get back on the road. Up at 6am, we were in the ferry line by 6:45am. We ended up being one of last 20 cars on the 7:45am ferry. The 2 hour ferry ride was spent playing backgammon, snoozing and sunbathing. Matt and Syd had their eyes on some marble bowls back in Diocletian’s palace in Split so as we drove back through, they ventured off to grab these souvenirs (they each try and grab something that represents the trip to them - apparently these bowls will be filled with a bit of sand, shells and rocks to capture their Croatian experience). We decided not to retrace our steps along the coast and got onto the A1, part of the incredible highway stretching ... read more

Croatia, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell DISCLAIMER: THERE IS NOTHING POSITIVE IN MY TALE OF CROATIA. CROTIA WAS HELL. I HAVE NOTHING GOOD TO SAY AND YOU MAY FIND YOURSELF DEPRESSED OR EVEN ANGRY AFTER READING THIS. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU ARE IN A GOOD MOOD, BECAUSE YOU WILL FEEL LIKE PUNCHING A PUPPY BY THE TIME YOU ARE DONE. EAT A DICK CROATIA, WE ARE NOT FRIENDS AND WON’T BE UNTIL I RETURN TO ENJOY YOUR SUMMER SPLENDOR ONE DAY. UNTIL THEN, I HATE YOU. Croatia is not the place to visit during the winter. It’s cold, it’s rainy and it really just sucked. Every story has a downside, every flock has an ugly duckling, our European adventure had Croatia. If I could fight Croatia in a back alley behind a bar, when I ... read more

02-08-08 So much water and flying fish - Plitvice National Park We have relied on either the Zumo GPS or detailed maps to navigate around. Zumo - where the coverage is available has been excellent - best money I ever spent. However sometimes we get caught without maps or GPS, and while its stressful, it creates a good reason to talk to the locals. We crossed over the border from Hungary into Croatia and toured along small secondary roads on route to Plitvice. We traveled very close to the Serbian border, the villages became few and far between as we went closer to the border, and had some interesting chats in English and broken German. We meant to camp today but the cost of a camp site and all the extras in the extremely large and ... read more

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 ... read more