Day 13 - Plitvice Lakes blow our mindsss

13,227 steps, 6.21 miles, 36 floors

This is going to be mostly pictures...because we have about 200 pics and 30-40 videos of the Plitvice lakes. Essentially, we woke up and were told the upper falls were closed, which initially was disappointing. Then after passing a couple of tour groups we realized no one else was braving the snow-covered paths so Sierra and I walked all the way to the bottom... where we wouldn't see a soul all morning. 

The "train" to transport people from upper to lower falls. Everything in the Balkans looks scary like this. 

An early view of the falls--the lake up at the top is frozen over. 

More incredible falls--viewed from the high trail. 

This one is the "big waterfall"

As we get down to the lower portion, the walking is a little more challenging but the pictures are even cooler. 

We contend with some snowy old walkways, often with water flowing right over them. 

Sierra enjoys the first waterfall we can walk beneath

Travis about to forge onward through a big mound of snow on the narrow walkway. 

Sierra does a mean "Jazz hands"

Sierra got this cool one of me getting a cool one

One of many panoramas

The words of today were "whoa" and "oh cool!" We kept seeing amazing things, and there wasn't a sound but for the running water and our two voices. Pretty remarkable. In the summer there are 10's of thousands coming through here. Anyway, at every turn we were again blown away by the scenery. 

I jog up to get a shot of Sierra in the snow

The iced over lake. We took a few videos of skipping rocks and such, but can't post vids here on blogspot. 

I'm assuming this is called the Milanovački waterfall

The boat comes every hour on the hour, and it's 10:57 when we see the boat about 1/4 mile away and we start running (in the snow). These two guys saw us coming and waited for us to arrive in the nick of time. 

These folks just took the boat back and forth so they didn't see the good parts. However they had plenty of opportunities to use their selfie sticks (we count 2). 

The boat ride back

Just a relaxing ride back to the hotel

View from our dock

Sierra was quite taken with the many ducks swimming and waddling around. 

Here's one of her favorite duck snapshots

I try on some traditional Croatian headware

Since we made the 11am boat and our bus isn't till 2:30, we have time for lunch and maybe a hot tub. Oops, the hot tub is closed, so we have time for lunch. We go to our favorite cafeteria and see our waitress for the third time. I ask about Lynx and local animals, and the waitress tells us about Lynx, bears, little black squirrels and really lights up about it. It was fun to hear her get all excited about the animals in the area. 

We walk to the bus stop and see the same BMW guy that tried to talk us into his room--he's lingering behind the bus.  Apparently he just hits up anyone who gets off the bus and tells them "good price for room." We get on the bus and have 4 hours to go to get to split. 

On the road we stopped and saw some sheep, a ram...and some big thing I think was like an elk or something. 

We stopped again and were in a town called Knin that seems like it stopped progressing when the communist USSR fell. 

The countryside was beautiful. We left snowy mountains and hit more of a desert landscape, and passed lakes, hills, and wineries. Snow-capped mountains still watched over us from off in the distance. 

Lots of people with bad earphones blasting 90's jams. Some Croats speaking loudly on the phone or to each other. Overall a smooth and fast ride, with a couple stops to stretch our legs. 

Sidenote: One thing we forgot to mention--there are no leashes on dogs anywhere we've been yet on the trip..but dogs allowed in many bars and shops and national parks. Cool. 

We roll into Split, check into our cozy place and go out to dinner. Diocletian's palace is pretty cool and the town is basically built right inside of it. We can't find the restaurant I was looking for but find the one recommended by Ana, our host. The food was great, and in a funny coincidence the other three people in the bar were from Seattle. The one couple had been traveling for nearly a year and is headed to Budapest in 3 weeks then home. They offered some tips including Thailand advice, as they spent 8 months in Chang Mai. Good stuff. 

Time for bed--Hvar (or whichever island we can get to) tomorrow!