Croatia-Plitvice Lakes National Park

How beautiful is this pool? This is the actual color, not doctored by any program. The water in the Plitvice National Park is crystal clear and incredibly beautiful in various shades of blue and green.

Here's a picture of a green lake. Look in the foreground. You can actually see the stones on the bottom. You can also see people walking on a boardwalk on the far side of the lake.

The park is organized to be traversed in a full day of hiking. Although this section is flat, there are steep climbs, although nothing too arduous. You are not allowed to go off the marked path, nor should you do so as Croatia has many unexploded mines leftover from the Yugoslavian war in the 1990s.

This park is a UNESCO World Heritage site. You start your hike at a section of narrow waterfalls.

 Further along you'll see more beautiful falls.

After hiking for a couple of hours you come to a couple of lakes which you must traverse by ferry boat.

You then hike for a couple more hours. At the end of this hike, we reached a sort of rest area where they had a small selection of food. We hadn't packed a lunch, since we were staying in a hotel. So we found some ice cream bars, the pre-packaged kind (Dove Bars). I cannot remember the last time I had ice cream, but we were hot and hungry so we each grabbed one, tore open the wrapper, and my kids and I each took a bite immediately. Hubby was over by the cashier paying for them.

Him: How much?
Her: 200 kuna (Croatian currency, of which we had 0)
Him: How much in euros?
Her: We don't take euros.
Him: Do you take credit cards?
Her: No.

Whoops. We all looked at each other guiltily over the tops of our ice creams. No money to pay and we were already eating them. I have never done that in my life.

We were a long way from civilization. It wasn't like we could find an ATM.

Fortunately, we didn't get arrested. She begrudgingly took the euros. Elsewhere in Croatia, everyone took euros which is why we didn't buy the local currency. Live and learn. The ice cream was delish!

This park is beautiful, pristine, and very well maintained. The Croatian people have worked hard to rebuild their country after the war, and I commend them for the beauty they've protected.

Has anyone been to this park? Probably not. We didn't see any Americans, although there were people from all over the world.

Of course, I had to set a story in Croatia. It's called Love Charm for Gillian. Here's the white cat leading the way to the seaside bar where Gillian is recovering from heartache when an adventurer wanders in...