Zadar in my pants

Thursday afternoon we boarded a bus, no more hitchhiking, and spent our first evening on the Adriatic Coast. Our campsite, Burik Camping, is three kilometers from the Old Town and just meters to the beach. Although less known than Split or Dubrovnik, Zadar has a beautiful Old Town and a great coastline. We didn’t do much sightseeing, but did spend some time on the beach and enjoyed a wonderful meal in the Old Town. Squid ink pasta is my new favorite meal! 

Yum

Submarine?

Entrance at night

Getting back to our campsite, we had slightly a terrifying experience. A guy drives this mini-train from the historic center to Burik (where all the hotels and camps are). It's this itty-bitty thing that you would see in a mall and not to be used for public transportation. When it pulled up, there was a mad rush to get on—people were pushing and shoving and wanted to be the first person cramped into this train. Lucky me, I was seated by this sweaty German boy who couldn't keep his knees to himself. After buying our 10 kuna ticket, the conductor finished a beer at a nearby cafe and proceeded to swerve through traffic for the next fifteen minutes. He wasn't belligerently drunk, but don't be surprised if you hear a news story in the future about some 100 tourists dying in a horrific baby train accident. 

Plitvice: the Lower Lakes

On Thursday morning we explored the Lower Lakes. These lakes were formed from the water in the Upper Lakes and are also continuously changing. After taking a boat across the three-kilometer long Kozjak lake, we hiked around the lower lakes and ended up at Veliko Slap (the big waterfall). Compared to the surrounding lakes, Veliko Slap wasn’t entirely impressive, but on our hike back to the entrance, the aerial views were spectacular. 

BH does this dance for all the places that he visits. It is the same dance as the “Where the Hell is Matt?” dance, but with a Deaf spin. Katy joined him for the Plitvice dance, but with a less-than-happy ending:

Hi-larious

Plitvice: the Upper Lakes

I’m not the biggest nature person, but when I read about this park I knew I had to see it. Located in the center of Croatia, Plitvice was a two-and-a-half bus ride from Zagreb. We read in our Lonely Planet Guide that there was a campsite at the park, but beware! The campsite must have shut down sometime after 2006, so we stayed on the bus some 17 kilometers west of the park to Borje camping. If you have a car, this is the ideal place to stay when visiting Plitvice Lakes Park. Situated at the foot of a mountain range, the campground is serene. But it is 17 kilometers to the park and we were backpacking without a car. So we tried this:

We weren’t sure what the hitchhiking rules were in Croatia, but we figured what we were doing was pretty obvious. Hitchhiking is hard. It took us an hour before an Italian couple picked us up and brought us to the park. It was worth the wait though. After paying twenty dollars for a two-day visit, we explored the beauty of the Upper Lakes of Plitvice.

The lakes have apparently been around since the last ice age and are ever changing. The calcium carbonate that is found in the water encrusts plants in the lake system and these plants create ‘travertine barriers’ which then form various lakes and waterfalls. The landscape continuously changes as these travertine barriers breakdown and reform. Pretty pretty.

Zagreb is surprisingly cool

I expected Zagreb to be like Sofia, but was pleasantly mistaken. Although it is about the same size, it has a distinct appeal. BH described it as a mix of Prague and Sofia; while it had some ugly Yugoslav-era structures, there was also a beautiful old town and, my favorite, a large pedestrian-only area.

The tourist brochure for Zagreb states that “(t)here are very few places where the present and the past coexist as harmoniously as in Gornji grad- Zagreb’s Upper Town.” To support this argument, the pictures in the brochure show people dressed up in Victorian era costume as if it is the daily routine. Of course, we didn’t run into anyone in military regalia or a layered dress (it was very hot) but the city did have a special feel.

We started out our tour near the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We wandered through some allies, passed a bar named after JRR Tolkien, and ended up on Tkalciceva; a wonderful street full of bars and restaurants. Since we didn’t know precisely where to go, we headed up a stairwell and found ourselves in Markov Trg. ‘Trg’ means ‘square’ in Serbo-Croatian, and is really fun to say. The square is dominated by St. Mark’s Church, with its patriotic roof decoration, but is also home to the parliament. At around 8 pm on a Tuesday, the upper town was empty and pleasant­— it felt similar to an October evening in the castle district of Prague.

St. Mark's Church

The Main Square

Before heading home, we went back to Tkalciceva Street for a drink, but then ran into a group of Deaf people from Croatia, Italy and France. They were all in Zagreb for the World Deaf Poker Championship and were happy to invite us for a drink.

We sat, chatted, and drank maybe a bit too much for a Tuesday night. When you drink on a Tuesday, of course you need to have one of these for a late-night snack.

Deep-fried Hamburger

It is unfortunate that we only spent one evening in Zagreb, because I think there is a lot more to explore. Like most tourists, we are jetting off to the coast. But we have one stop first: Plitvice Lakes Park.

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Wow...

PIZZA! We were really hungry

Angry swan

Soooooo beautiful

Ljubljana (pronounce the ‘j’s like ‘y’s)

I LOVE DRAGONS

SLOVENIA! I have wanted to make this trip since 2007, when I saw my friend’s pictures of Lake Bled. Four years later, and I finally made it! Our first two nights were spent at a so-so hostel near the center. After three nights in a campground, however, any bed was welcome.

We didn’t have too much time in Ljubljana, but that wasn’t a problem. The city has only a population of 300,000 and the historic center is easily accessible on foot. Our day was still, however, pretty packed.

In the morning, we saw the downtown, which is gorgeous and ever so charming. The Ljubljana River runs down the center and on both banks there are various cafes and bars. Unlike Sofia or Belgrade, Ljubljana does not have a post-Communist feel (at least in the center.) 

The castle in Ljubljana was a little underwhelming. Rick Steves, my least favorite travel writer, said Ljubljana was the next, next Prague after Krakow. However, compared to Prague and Krakow, Ljubljana castle is a little lame. The view from the top, however, is worth the three Euro funicular ride. Also, the castle had a free library in the park— what a great idea!

In the afternoon, we visited two counter-culturally type of places: an ex-bike factory and a squatter residence. The graffiti was spectacular. While Bulgarian graffiti is normally ugly and often offensive (death to whores?) this graffiti was truly art. The factory also had a nightclub, but since it was a Sunday, we didn’t have a chance to go. After the factory, we wandered around the squatter residence near Celica Hostel (which is itself a converted prison). The art here was beautiful, creepy, colorful, and awesome. One particular wall reminded me of Yoshi’s Island. In Sofia, counter-culture was either deep underground or non-existent; in Slovenia, the factory and squatter residence were within minutes of downtown. Fantastic. 

Graffiti near the bike factory

 Finally, we had a couple of beers with a Fulbrighter that was studying in Ljubljana. She warned us that most of the beers on tap in Slovenia were a little bland, but that ‘Human Fish’ is delicious. We tried the beer, and it really was great. But what is up with its name? Slovenia is home to this cave-monster, which is known as the human fish because it has such a long life. 

The Human Fish 

Weird name for a beer, but a great beer for an evening in Ljubljana.

Burano, Venice

Venice was beautiful, but really touristy, so we wanted to see something else on our second day. Murano is famous for glass, while Burano is famous for its lace. For me, neither of these is a compelling reason to visit, but Burano was apparently really colorful. We grabbed a boat and took a forty-minute trip to the lovely island of Burano.

With all of these colorful facades, how could we not do a photo shoot? BH and I tried to portray the emotions of the brilliants colors.

Cool Yellow

Steely Grey

We finished the evening with our first real Italian dinner. BH got a pizza, which he described as better than Domino’s. Thank God! My pasta was delicious ­— spaghetti, seafood, and olive oil. We also had fried calamari and a liter of red wine. Yum. With such magnificent food, it is perhaps good that I didn’t spend a year here… I would definitely have become portly.