Northward bound

We’re now on our way back to Germany and Frankfurt on the tail end of our vacation. It’s funny that’s it’s actually our honeymoon and that we’ve spent a total of about two hours actually sitting and relaxing on the beach. It’s been a go, go, go sort of trip.

Yesterday we left Split and made the long drive north into Austria. We figured we would do a long drive and then we would only have a few shorts hops to make to get back to the airport on Friday.

We had to get up really early and get packed and underway as we headed to Plitvice National Park to hike and around and see the area. That ended up being a three hour drive in which we arrived about 11.30am. After a quick lunch, which was about the greasiest thing I’ve ever eaten, we hit the trails along with loads and loads of other people.

The park is divided into the upper and lower lakes and one can walk around all of it or walk some and ride the boats and buses between them. We decided to walk to the upper lakes as it’s only about 3km and for us, that’s an easy stroll. It was very pretty weaving through the trees and seeing all the little ponds, lakes, and waterfalls throughout the hike although it there were quite a few people along the way. Much of the hike takes place on boardwalks over the water, so at times you felt you were going to get knocked over the side. We were quite surprised that no one did! And as there is no fishing in these lakes, there are an amazing amount of fish just lingering near the surface. It made me wish for a fly rod.

Once we reached the top, we hopped on the bus and went down the lowest lake where the biggest waterfall is located. And there we met the real crowds. It felt like half of Europe was out there on the trails walking and it made it really hard to stop and take any photos. It was back to back people all the way to the falls and all the way back along the lower lakes to the boat launch. After seeing these crowds, I can see why Europeans love coming to Canada to get away and be able to enjoy the outdoors. It sort of drove me mad just negotiating through this many people for an hour. I felt like just running along and pushing people off the sides of the boardwalks!

After leaving the park, we headed north towards Zagreb. Since our expressway vignette (pass) expired at the end of the day, we wanted to get through Slovenia and into Austria. Otherwise we would have to buy another one and they cost about $30.

This drive is where you could really see signs of the Croation/Serbian war. All over the place were monuments, graveyards, and many houses and buildings that were destroyed or still showing damage. And as we passed through the town of Karlovac, we came across an armoury of sorts. We stopped for a look and they had a variety of tanks, artillery, and other machines of war on display as well as some boards with some information about the fighting that went on in the area. I learned that Croatia calls it the ‘Homeland War’ and that is was conducted to deal with Serbian ‘aggression’. I’m sure the Serbs have a different view of it.

Incidently, the first shots of the war were fired in Plitvice park where a police officer died and this region as well was part of the short lived Serbian Republic of Krajina until the Croatia army’s offensives recovered the land before the war ended. Along with the armour, there were a few buildings left behind with pre-way pictures to show the damage sustained during combat.

From there we were back on the expressway for an easy drive to the village of Villach, Austria and we arrived about 9pm. We met and talked for awhile with the owner (whom I can’t remember the name) and exchanged stories of travel. She found it curious as well that we had come from Croatia and weren’t all brown and tanned! We had to explain that we’re just not beach people and only have farmers’ tans as we spent our time exploring.

We’ve decided to spend two nights here and look around a bit. It’s nice not to travel every day and since we’re now in the Alps, we might as well hang out for a couple of days.