Croatia
The fourth of six countries I toured earlier this summer was Croatia. As with the other five countries, I gave myself a crash course about them using encyclopedias and the U.S. State Department website.
- Plitvice National Park, Croatia
Plitvice
- Plitvice National Park, Croatia
We left Slovenia by tour bus and entered Croatia through a border control checkpoint. A Customs & Immigration official came on board to check everyone’s passports because Croatia isn’t part of the European Union. After getting the green light to go through, we spotted evidence of the Croatian War of Independence (1991-95) throughout Plitvice. Bullet holes remained in the concrete facades of buildings, including homes. We stayed at Hotel Jezero in Plitvice National Park — listed as one of the world’s most beautiful places. Our tour guide told us that after the war, the government had to remove landmines from the park, which is heavily trafficked by tourists from around the world.
We spent four hours the next morning walking through only a small portion of the enormous park that’s about 115 square miles and home to 16 lakes and many waterfalls. The tallest waterfall in Croatia is the Veliki Slap. The water was blue in some areas, green in others, but always so clear that you could see the bottom of the lakes, even in deeper parts. We took a couple of boat rides and marveled at all the plant and animal life, from pleasant ducks to well-fed fish to colorful butterflies.
We had only one day in the inland part of Croatia, so I’ll need to go back to see the coastal areas which are beautiful in their own right and represent the Mediterranean shipping heritage and modern industry.
- Plitvice National Park, Croatia
Around the World with Julie Tam 