Plitvička Lakes National Park

About 130km south of Zagreb is Croatia’s largest national park. On our way, we stopped for lunch in a quaint little town called Rastoké. This little town is known for its waterfalls and got us set up for what was to come at Plitvička Lakes. It was a sweltering hot day, and we parked about a 10 minute walk from the restaurant where we had lunch and given the heat it jst seemed so far. We enjoyed a great lunch and Z had fresh trout caught from the Korana River. At one point during lunch it started to rain and it lasted for about 10 minutes. It was very refreshing and funny to see everyone scurry for cover. We had an umbrella over our table and managed to stay relatively dry. Enjoyable stop to break up the lengthy drive.

Plitvička Lakes National Park is by far one of the world’s most outstanding natural phenomenons that are a must see for anyone visiting Croatia. The park is 295 square metres and is world famous for its 16 lakes, which are separated as the upper lakes and lower lakes. What’s unique with the lakes is they are interconnected by waterfalls and cascade into what looks like “steps” of lakes. The water colour ranges from clear, crystal blue to green depending on the angle of the sunlight. There are 7 different hiking trails around the park ranging from a short 2 hours to a 6-8 hour hike that covers all the lakes, waterfalls, and part of the surrounding forest. There is a vast variety of different vegetation and an abundance of fauna. It is so incredibly scenic, it is really difficult to describe its beauty in words. The lakes are filled with fish that enjoy their ability to swim in unpolluted waters because they do not allow gas-powered boats on the lakes. The park is so very well preserved and prestine it almost feels wrong hiking around admiring the natural beauty. The park was included in the list of UNESCO’s World Natural Heritage Sites in 1979.

We stayed overnight in one of the park’s hotels which was a good idea because the park gets packed during the day with 15-16 thousand guests per day. The other advantage of staying there was that we arrived in the early evening which gave us time to hike around the upper lakes and take in the magnificent waterfalls there at a reduced evening entry rate and with less crowds. The added bonus was our hotel extended our entry ticket for the next day for no charge. That was a great deal!! In the morning we hiked around the lower lakes with the culmination of the hike arriving at the big waterfall. This waterfall is 78 metres in height and truly magnificent. The hiking trails are well maintained being either natural dirt or wooden planks. The trails are well signed and there are a couple stations within the park and each provides transportation back to the other station. 

This was a worthwhile stop along our journey down to Split. Recommend either visiting in the evening or first thing when it opens to avoid the major crowds.   

Zagreb

First impressions of the city is that it’s a very clean city and a relatively walkable city. Perhaps the later part is because our hotel was well located to the areas that we ended up spending all our time in. Even if that wasn’t the case, the city has a tram system, plenty of taxis and even Uber. We discovered very quickly that Croats enjoy smoking. No matter where we were, we could not escape the stench. We came up with a code word “smokevich” which we used often to alert each other that we might want to consider moving from an area. 

Our first night in Zagreb had us stopping at the Laundry Room so that Z could get his clothes washed because his suitcase was still MIA. He found a place that had a drop off service so while we waited we ended up at a park which was set up for a summer festival which had either music or dancing performances every night. We find ourselves some dinner and while we were sitting there eating our traditional Croatian stew, a TV reporter approached us and did a short little interview of us. We later learned, from our Croatians neighbours from back home that our interview actually made it on TV. 

To get our bearings we decided to take a free walking tour by Free Spirit Walking Tours. Our guide Luca was a very good story teller and very informative about the history of Zagreb and how the city came to be. The city is the merger of two medieval settlements, Kaptol and Gradec, that occurred in 1850. Both settlements were situated a top a hill that faced each other with a valley and river between them. Often tension arose between these two and battles ensued on what was known as the “Bloody Bridge”. Today this bridge is a cobblestone street and the river has been diverted and no longer runs through the valley. The valley is now home to shops, bars, and houses. We briefly learned about the war of 1991-1995 and Croatia’s independence. We heard about how the President at the time narrowly escaped an assignation attempt when the centre courtyard of the parliament building where he was having lunch was bombed only a few minutes after he and other high ranking government officials moved. While up on the Gradec hill of the city, we stopped by a large tower and waited until noon, which is when someone fires a canon every day signifying that it is mid day. This is followed by all the churches in the city ringing their bells. It’s very loud when you stand right underneath it, but it’s a great way to synchronize your watch! Story goes this canon was fired at 9pm as a signal for the workers in the fields to return to the city because the gate was being locked for the night. If you didn’t make it in on time, you were left stranded on the outside of the city for the night and that wasn’t a good thing because wild animals or thieves could attack you. Another interesting attraction in this area is the Museum of Broken Relationships. We didn’t go on, but were told that in here you can find artifacts from people whose relationship has ended. The museum still gets new items donated today and if they like the story behind the broken relationship, will put the item on display along with the story. Gotta say that’s definitely a new concept for a museum, but it’s apparently very popular. After the tour ended, we had some lunch at a restaurant called Kitchen & Grill just down the steps from the city’s daily farmer’s market, Dolac. We dined on some very tasty, flavourful minced meat dishes, called čevapčić, before heading out to explore more of the city ourselves. 

The city has a lot of green spaces and plenty of pedestrian friendly streets lined with cafes and restaurants. The Croats are very social people and one of their favourite pass times is people watching while sipping on their coffee or beer at a street side cafe. We enjoyed our people watching experience at Cotigo Coffee Shop which had amazing coffee, so much so

that we ended up buying some of their coffee beans. Ice cream (gelato) is very popular here and is probably some of the best tasting gelato outside of Italy. Croatia is also becoming known for their wine and we decided to sample several different wines. I took a liking to their Chardonnays. Seems as though baked goods are also very popular in Croatia given the number of bakeries we’ve seen. One of the traditional pastry dishes is called štrukli which is a filo pastry filled with cream cheese. We tried this twice, once cold and once warm. Both are very tasty, but the warm version has the slight edge. 

We spent some time wandering through the botanical garden. There is a wide variety of native plant species in the garden as well some some foreign species brought in from South American (water lilies) and Australia (Wollemi pine). The city has quite a few squares as well, but the

main one is Ban Jelačić Square. This square is part of a large pedestrian zone and the common meeting place for people. When the Croatian football team returned from their second place finish in the World Cup, 550,000 people had gathered in this square to welcome them back. That would have been a sight to see and an incredible experience to feel the pride of a nation come together to celebrate their accomplishment. There are shops all around and the prices are quite reasonable. 

We’ve had no shortage of great tasting food so far. Most restaurants serve dishes with in season ingredients. Z has set his goal of having fish every day and will have no problems with that. Fish dishes are in abundance here. The great thing about being here during the summer is the weather is hot and restaurants here all have outdoor seating which is a huge treat for us. 

This was a great first couple days of our trip that got us climatized and have us a good sense of what to expect in Croatia. And finally after many frustrating phone calls with no answers to where Z’s luggage was, we got news that it was en route to Croatia by its lonely self. What an annoying three days that added unnecessary stress. Z’s luggage arrived the morning we were going to depart Zagreb for our next stop. Thankfully everything was accounted for, and the luggage arrived in good shape. We could now fully enjoy the rest of our vacation. 

                                                                Parliament building

                                                              St. Mark's Church

                                                    Museum holding private art collection

                                                        Lanterns hanging in a park 

                                                     National Theatre in Zagreb

En route to Croatia

Our long planned trip is finally here starting with an early 5am wake up call on flight day. Our journey to Croatia is a lengthy one with several stops before arriving in our final destination of Zagreb. Our first leg took us to Toronto and from there to Montreal where we overnighted before flying to Croatia with a stopover in Zurich. 

Our excitement for this trip was quickly shattered when we arrived in Montreal and waited for our luggage. Not sure why this happens with most of our big trips, but another incompetency story of Air Canada unfolds.  Because we were overnighting in Montreal we needed to pick up our luggage in Montreal. We were excited when one of our bags came out rather quickly but that excitement soon turned to concern when the other bag did not appear. After waiting for about 45 minutes a sinking feeling set in that somehow between Vancouver through Toronto to Montreal this bag went missing. How can a bag get lost on a domestic flight? This really dampened my spirits but it was Z’s bag that went missing and he handled this with calmness despite knowing that everything he needed for our trip was in that bag. What’s worse is that two days later Air Canada still does not know where this bag is. 

So our layover in Montreal turned into a shopping trip instead of site seeing.  We arrived Saturday evening and found out that the Just for Laughs festival was on and there was

plenty of free entertainment just a couple blocks from our hotel. We wandered over to grab some dinner at one of the many food trucks before walking over to the waterfront to watch the fireworks show by the Phillpines as part of the L’International des Feux Loto-Québec (Montreal International Fireworks Competition). It was a great show themed as Of Games and Thrones with music from popular video games and movies. Z found the radio station playing the music so while we watched from a distance we were able to have full experience as a result. The fireworks display was quite impressive and well suited to the music selection.  

The following morning we enjoyed a very tasty breakfast at Eggspectatins. I enjoyed a

Belgium waffle with a healthy helping of fresh fruit and with Québec maple syrup while Z had an veggie omelette along with a good portion of fresh avocado. The coffee was just what was needed to get us ready for a morning of shopping. One of the other frustrating things about our situation is that Air Canada’s compensation allowance really doesn’t provide much to cover replacing items that they lost.  We managed to buy the bare necessities and also managed to find a couple deals. The best deal was the new suitcase we bought at the Bay for $33...the deal was so good the cashier was surprised and checked the price by ringing in a couple other suitcases of the same size and make. 

We made our way back to the airport to check in for our next flight to Zurich on Swiss Airlines. We even had some time to check back about the lost bag and still got a response of we haven’t tracked it down yet and don’t know where it is. I felt very disheartened leaving on our next flight without this bag and had the feeling it was lost forever. Our flight to Zurich was an overnight flight and we were in business class with layflat seats. During dinner we watched the movie The Post. It was quite a good movie though slow to get to the climax of the story. A very important message to get out in this movie and of particular importance given all the attacks of the media these days. After dinner we both tried to get some sleep and I think I managed to get a few hours because I felt relatively fine in the morning. The crew was great, friendly and very efficient with their service. Upon landing in Zurich we made our way over to the Swiss Senator lounge where we spent our 5 hour stopover. This lounge is brand new, only built a year ago and quite large. It’s very modern with some very skucomb features. It has a whiskey bar much to the delight of Z. There are plenty of places to sit and relax. There is even a nice long outdoor patio which is a fantastic feature because

it allows you to go outside without leaving the secured area. We were there over breakfast and the food options were quite many and were quite good. We could have pastries, fresh fruit, yoghurts, cold cuts and cheese. There as even a chef cooking egg dishes to order. The coffee station had almost any type of coffee you may want along with a vast selection of

teas. There was beer, wine, and fresh squeeezed fruit juices. There was even a freezer with Movënpick ice cream. The floor to ceiling windows on either side of the lounge allowed for plenty of plane watching. All in all this was by far the best lounge we have visited. 

Our last flight was on Croatian Airlines on a propeller plane. It was a smooth 1.5 hour flight. Upon landing in Croatia, we got through immigration quickly and got a new stamp for the old passport. We picked up our rental car which was a compact Mercedes Smart. It was a cute, but gutless car that didn’t have much spunk to it and as we quickly noticed, Croatians like to drive fast. We bought ourselves a SIM card for the equivalent of $11CAD so that we had access to GPS so we could find our way around. 

We arrived at our hotel. The Westin Zagreb about a half hour later. We were fortunate to be upgraded to a lovely well appointed one bedroom corner suite. As we were checking in we noticed some unusual activity in the lobby. There were a couple plain clothes officers with some officers in suits standing around a luggage cart sigh a big plastic bin on it. Shortly after a dog unit arrived followed be a second dog unit. Both dogs were commanded to sniff the bin, and not finding anything were then able to relax. Thinking back this was probably a test because we discovered later that day that the Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin, was also staying at this hotel as he was in town to visit with the Croatian President. Through our entire stay the Israeli delegation was here. There was a heavy suits presence and watching the operations was rather interesting. The process to get the President out of the hotel involved numerous local police officers and the suits. The police escort for his motorcade involved several police motorcycles and cars. They shut the roads down to traffic, causing lengthy traffic jams. We even noticed two military surveillance officers on the roof of the building next door at one point as the Prsident was set to leave for dinner. Our closest brush in was at breakfast one morning at the hotel restaurant. We were sitting eating when several suits came in followed by the President and a small entourage. They kept to themselves but you could feel that you were being watched. The best part was sweeping the suits in the lobby. When they were very alert and watching everyone closely, you knew  the President was in the hotel. When they were relaxed and sloughed on the lobby couches you knew he was out. 

The start of our Croatian vacation was damped by the incompetence of Air Canada. But we tried our best to enjoy our first few days despite knowing that if the bag didn’t turn up we’d be having to still shop for a few more things along the way.