Day 18: From the lakes to the hills

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By Nicola

A sad goodbye to beautiful Plitvice, and a journey on to hilly little Istria. We loaded the car with our repacked bags and made our way to Istria, via Slunj.

Slunj is a small riverside village north of Plitvice. There is a small river with many waterfalls running through this little village. The village was originally established around the hydropower station which took advantage of all the water there. The powerstation has long stopped being used but a beautiful village remains. We had a stroll around the village before heading on our way.

We followed the google maps directions which involved just short of 30km of very windy little road to start, with Christi driving. Approximately 20km into the drive we reached a blockade- road closed! Some further investigation revealed that we really could not pass, and we had to back track on the narrow, windy road. We are still not sure whether there was no warning of the closed road, or if we just missed the Croatian sign! But it meant quite a bit of extra driving, not exactly what we wanted.

Onward to Pazin with a stop to put in petrol. We were a bit nervous about the new experience of putting in our own petrol but we actually ended up with some help! (maybe the only petrol assistant in Croatia!?)

On approaching our destination- an Airbnb house in a village just outside of Pazin- we grew slightly concerned when we ended up on a dirt road. The concern grew even more when the google lady said we had arrived at our destination, and the only dwelling in sight was a rusty looking little caravan!! Luckily the location was not quite entered specifically enough into google maps, and we managed to find our very beautiful little stone apartment with a grapevine covered pergola and sky blue shutters.

Once settled in, we quickly popped into the Pazin tourist office for some advice on our travels for the next few days, as well as where to eat! Taking the lady's suggestion we headed to the restaurant "2 Peron" in a nearby village. We enjoyed lovely pasta in a relaxing but modern restaurant followed by a delicious dessert platter. Then it was home before dark (9pm) to avoid the windy roads in the dark! A lovely first evening in Istria.

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