Plitvice Nat'l Park

I spent the full day in the outdoors in Croatia's Plitvice National Park. I had high expectations, but like the Skocjan Caves from a few days before, this place exceeded expectations and just blew me away.

I took a bus out of Zagreb in the early morning hours and rode for over 2 hours to get to Plitvice. Plitvice is on the Croatia/Bosnian border and pretty far out in the middle of nowhere. Plitvice also has a little recent history. It was the site where the first shots were fired in the beginning of the Balkan Wars in the early 1990s (between the Serbs, Croats & Bosnia).

Another likening...I would place Plitvice as one giant outdoor 5-mile Jungle Cruise walk. Plitvice is setup with 16 terraced lakes, each just a little higher than the previous one and drained by waterfalls on all sides. Water ran over falls, through the trees, around plants, under the boardwalks...everywhere! It was like one huge landscaped garden in your backyard and water was flowing everywhere.

The one negative with Plitvice was the unexpected hordes of tourist bus groups...and talk about rude. They would shove and stand in anybody's way to get any picture they wanted. I had to battle with it for the full day.

Pictured: Plitvice's terraced garden from above...I have TONS of these pictures from above and had ground level.

I left Plitvice and returned to Zagreb last night and then took the overnight train to Split (Croatia). I'm in Split now...more on Split/Dubrovnik later.