Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

 Part 3 of our 4 part eastern Europe trip : What an interesting country. This was our first country to visit that was once a part of Yugoslavia. We made the 5 hour drive from Budapest (after making a pit stop in Bokod, Hungary). The sunset on the drive there was amazing, we could not stop taking photos, little did we know it would be the best sunset of our entire 2 week trip. We stayed at the Turist Grabovac, it isn't anything fancy but then again nothing in this area is. Despite the Plitvice lakes (Plitvička jezera in Croatian, pronounced "plit-vich-ka") being a huge tourist destination for people from all around the world, the area still seems to still be recovering from the war that ended just 15 years ago. The restaurants have mediocre food and a lot of common areas are full of smoke, even the souvenir shop. With that said, the lakes are amazing. We started at entrance 1 and followed the lakes (course C I believe) all the way to the top. We took a boat across the largest lake in the middle then you take a tram most of the way back down from the top lake. The best view is at the very beginning I think, or at the very end if you start from entrance 2. It's where you get the best view of the bottom lake and waterfall. The water is clear and the paths are winding. We took as much time as we felt like we needed soaking up the sun or taking photos. The weather was a little chilly but still wonderful. I imagine in winter it is beautiful with the snow but too cold and summer would feel great but sounds like it would be way too packed. We spent 2 nights in Rakovica before heading out to Slovenia. The drive was windy as we headed out of the area and we could not help but notice the massive amounts of abandoned homes along the way. It was quite sad. If we come back to Croatia I would love to visit Split, I hear it's the new Ibiza, Spain. A must see nature spot if you're at all in the area, you really only need about a day here though.~Caroline