Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice Lake National park is the largest and oldest national park in Croatia (I believe). I spend two days in the park, and I think that I could of spent longer if I wanted to take on some more intense hikes.
So basically, the set up of the lakes is that there are a series of lakes that are separated by a series of, sometimes cascading, waterfalls. It takes about 6-8 hours (or so says the map) to walk around the whole set of them. But of course, not everyone has eight hours to walk around everything, so there are two "trains" (aka those buses that go around zoo's, or as I found out at Christmas, large all-inclusive resorts) and two boats.

The first thing I did was ask the info desk for a map (there was a poorly-detailed one on my ticket, but I wanted ones with marked trails), but apparently maps cost 20 Kuna. So I just asked what I should go see since I had 6 hours or so to walk around the lakes. She suggested to take the zoo-train to the 1st entrance and then follow the "C" route. I obeyed.

Well after about 30 minutes of crowded pathways and people stopping at the stupidest times and places for pictures, I decided to veer off the "C" path. Best decision ever. Once I had left the very well marked route, there were way less people. I'm not sure why the park does this, but it has about 6 routes marked out of varying lengths (2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours) and then there are virtually no other trails marked or maps accessible, even though there are "a lot" of other trails to hike around the park. So knowing that I had about 5 hours til closing I figured that I had a pretty good shot at being able to "wander" (with direction) for a while before having to make my way back to the entrance again.

So, on the first day, I walked on the "c" route along the biggest lake to "the big waterfall", then ditching the crowd, made my way to where the boat goes across the big lake towards entrance 2. Seeing the line for the boat, I decide to walk around the big lake, then up to station 4 through the upper lakes. I finished at the train stop at about 7 pm, and called it a day. I went back to my wonderfully private hotel room for a nice shower. I just needed to go to the desk and get them to sign my ticket, which made my daily ticket good for the next day as well, since I was staying at the hotel.

The next day I took my time getting up, knowing that I had no real deadline leaving the park, I just wanted to get to Zagreb at a reasonable hour. But I had hiked more the first day then I had planned, so it was about 9:30am when I was out again. I took a boat a small distance across the "big" lake, and hiked up the hills to some of the view points. It was really nice again since I wasn't following a designated route. I overshot the end of the lakes a bit, and hiked about 30 minutes along a bigger hiking route, which would of been another 3.5 hours. But deciding that I didn't like the up and down elevations of the hiking, I decided to not embark on that, and grudgingly returned to more touristy area of the waterfall.

I'm not sure if I regret going back to the tourist area, for sure the waterfalls were really nice to see, but there were SO MANY PEOPLE, I think that aiming to do that closer to closing, and not mid-day would have been more ideal. I got fed up pretty quickly, so at about half past one I decided to get my luggage and read until the bus at 3 o'clock.

Travelling is fun. Meeting people is fun. While waiting for the bus I met two Korean girls. And they were very friendly, although admittedly not the greatest at English.

So while waiting for the bus, we were approached by a taxi driver that said he would drive us for 100 Kuna each, I don't get into cars with strangers, so I initially said no. But then, when he left, I asked the girls how much it cost to take the bus and it was 103 Kuna, plus 7 for luggage. So then about 5 or 10 minutes later his friend came by and asked the Korean girls if they needed a ride to Zagreb, and since they were going, I decided to as well. Saved me a Euro or two anyways.

Well the taxi (or collectivo rather) ride was ride enough, there were 7 of us total. And the taxi driver turned out to be pretty nice, he brought us to the train station instead of the bus station (upon our request) which saved me some time and a tram ticket. And when he was dropping us off, and it became apparent that the two Koreans had no idea where they were going (which I really question, because they had come from Zagreb that morning) he offered to drive them, and another couple that was with us, to their hotel, which I thought was nice.

And thus ended my Plitvice Adventure. Up to now on the trip I have travelled by, Train, Bus, Bike, Feet, Tram, Metro, Taxi, "collectivo", Boat and Funicular rail.