It's a long, long road

Sunday was our last day in Pozega- we woke up, packed our stuff and headed to Mato's for a last coffee.  Then the whole family got together at German restaurant in a little town outside of Pozega for a huge last lunch together.  It was hard saying good bye - everyone is amazing and we will miss them.  Not sure if they will ever make it to Canada- I guess that means we will have to come back to Croatia :)

Last Pozega Coffee

The Whole Family!

We had decided to book a last minute B&B on the way to the coast so that we could visit Plitvice Lakes- they are supposed to be amazing and we didn't want to miss this natural wonder.
We drove to the Plitvice area in about 3.5 hours and arrived at House Tina at around 7pm.  There are so many B&B's around here we couldn't believe it!  The road to this area, once we got off the main tolled highway was a one lane and so the traffic was horrible- there are an incredible amount of trucks passing through this country and the roads are full of huge trucks- the speed varied from about 40km/hr to 100km/hr!  On the main highway the speed is supposed to be 130km/hr but you are destined to travel in the slow lane if you go that slow!!
The radio station had us laughing- we found the national public radio the first day in the car and you never know what you are going to get- we have had everything from country roads- reggae style, Spirit of the West, OLD REM, 80's one hit wonders, Mumford and Sons and lots of Croatian music- very interesting.
The highways as I mentioned are tolled and therefor amazing to travel on- there are these rest areas every so often that are full service coffee bars (of course), gas stations, grocer and all- very nice to stop at these and take a break.
House Tina was great- set up in the hills and surrounded by farms- the room was great and we had a good night's sleep.

Monday we woke early- had a full breakfast at House Tina, headed to the grocer to pick up some sandwiches and off to Plitvice.  The owner at house Tina had given us the route we should take, as we only had about 3-4 hours in the park.  We stopped at entrance 1, paid and then took a quick look at the tallest of the waterfalls- pretty amazing.  Then we headed back to the car as we were going to hike from entrance 2.  We parked and off we went.  We walked to the boat- which was a 200m ride across to the main lakes and we started our hike up the lakes.  I believe there are 16 lakes cascading into each other and down- the water is like glass.  The colour of the lakes and the tranquillity was not captured in my pics- it is a great hike and gorgeous.  There are so many trout in the lake just lazing about, we saw ducks too, storks and all kinds of colourful dragonflies.  Just a great day all round.  We got to the top and caught the shuttle bus down.

The main falls

So clear

Trying to catch the fish!

 After a quick lunch we were off, as we still had a 3 hour drive to the coast.Some of it was on the one lane highway - a little frustrating!  Then we hit the A1 and toll highway all the way to the coast.  Once again we passed through so many tunnels I cannot believe how many there are- some of then many km's long!
Our first glimpse of the ocean was in Zadar- looking good.  Onward to Split- we arrive at about 4:30 and of course got lost- this is a really big city, and roads that are named would be a huge help!!
We found our apartment and a parking spot.  It is a great place- we settled in and then decided to walk to old town.  We walked along the many city beaches and ended up at the main tourist promenade- pretty cool area. We took a stroll and enjoyed the sites. Then we ended up in the courtyard of Diocletians Palace and had a yummy dinner, surrounded by ancient walls- pretty amazing. The palace has been incorporated into the city and there are apartments and stores all part of the old walls.  It looks amazing at night all light up- what a neat city.

Split beaches

Beer on the Promenade