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Published: June 23rd 2018
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By Christi
We started the morning with coffee in bed - it's Nicola's birthday! And after everything we saw of Plitvice yesterday, it seems to be the perfect place to spend a special day.
We went in at Entrance 2 again, but instead of taking the ferry all the way to the far end of the lake like yesterday, we only crossed the first bit of the lake and then got off to explore the upper lakes section. These were some of the same paths we walked on yesterday afternoon, but the morning light was much better and we were awed by the lakes and waterfalls and all the shades of emerald and aquamarine and turquoise imaginable.
Plitvice Lakes Park is one of Croatia's main tourist attractions, but it wasn't always as peaceful and accessible as now. Plitvice got it's first hotel in 1890 and became a national park in 1949. In 1979 it was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. During the homeland war, the park was an area of conflict. It was taken by Serbian forces in 1991, and the first Croatian fatalaties occured here. The Serbs used the hotels as barracks and
the park suffered some damage in this time. In 1995 the park was retaken by the Croatian army during Operation Storm, which ended the Croatian war.
It is difficult to imagine this troubled history when walking along the boardwalks and trails in this beautiful place. We walked all the way to Station 3, admiring the lakes and waterfalls along the way, and there we had a bit of a break and a some snacks. From there, we decided to follow the higher trail back to the boat area. We soon realised that we were doing the trail the wrong way round, according to the map, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. For us, the trail was a short steep climb up, followed by a long, gradual decline along a muddy path. The people who passed us from the front, on the other hand, had a never-ending uphill along a very slippery trail! Lucky us. Anyway, the views were spectacular and well worth the climb.
Back at P1 (the boat and train station near entrance 2), we had a picnic lunch of crackers, cream cheese and tomatoe. Appel strudel from the shop did well in
place of birthday cake.
After lunch we headed back to the upper lakes section to cover the boardwalks and trails we missed earlier. The 16 different lakes are seperated by natural barriers called travertine, which is basically a deposit formed from the interaction of algae and bacteria with the minerals in the water. There are also lots of fish and dragonflies around. We took the train back to P1 - by this time our feet were aching, and not surprising, since we had clocked up more than 25000 steps for the day, on top of what we did yesterday! We made a last stop at the souvenir shop and then it was time to go home, tired but so happy.
Birthday celebrations were in order for the evening. We went to a nice restaurant called Plum about 20 minutes away from where we stay. We treated ourselves to three courses, and it was delicious! First, we shared starters of deep fried dumplings with prosciutto and chives. Mains were truffle risotto and seafood pasta, and desert was their highly recommend chocolate souffle (more like chocolate fondant, but very good!).
Definitely a day to remember.
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