Sunday, July 3-Monday, July 4: Plitvička jezera

We left Zagreb for points southeast mid-morning. Our ultimate destination was the Dalmatian coast by way of one of the most incredible national parks I have ever seen in my life, the Plitvička jezera (Plitvice lakes...and waterfalls!).

Because we arrived a good two hours before check-in at our 1950s-60s socialist-era resort Hotel Jezero (Lake), we had time for lunch on the veranda overlooking the path down to the park. The concierge gave us our pass to the park so we could take a quick visit before officially checking in.

We got on the shuttle bus taking us to the upper lake region along with dozens of other mostly foreign guests. Lots of Czechs, Hungarians, Germans, Poles, Slovaks, Austrians, some Italians but weirdly no French, who have always impressed me with their propensity for travel all through Europe

You should realize that by this point Steven is in a tremendous amount of pain because of his feet. He didn't last more than a half an hour walking on the wooden-plank path around the upper basin before we turned around and headed back to the hotel. For the rest of the afternoon until our buffet-style dinner, we just chilled in the room. Nice, clean cute room with a 1950s-style Yugoslav phone but sadly NOOOOOO air conditioning. Here, too, temps were in the upper 80s-low 90s.

Dinner was terrific. We had several drinks not included in our "half pension marriage suite," then back upstairs to the room to catch up on season 4 of Stranger Things. We slept that night with the sliding door to the balcony open (no screen!) just to get some air into the room. The drawback was a parade of all manner of insects hugging the ceiling just above the sconces on the wall. At one point, I went out on the balcony to cool down, discovering I was witness to the most beautiful night sky I hadn't seen in ages.

As we decided that Steven was in no position to do ANY type of hiking, we agreed that he would stay in the room the next morning while I went out early to track down the Veliki slap (Great waterfall) or, if you like, "the big slap!" (tee hee). I set out at 6:30am down by the lake in front of the hotel, finding myself entirely alone on the path for about a half hour when I encountered a guy with his dog (looking extremely demure) using hiking rods for support...the guy, not the dog. Weirdly I passed him two hours later way above the falls. By the time I was an hour into the hike, there were at first dozens then hundreds of tourists making their way to the falls. Sadly, for some reason, I can't post the videos I took (because videos make most sense if you're recording wildly moving water), but I have included a couple snapshots.

This is truly an amazing natural wonder. If you can, make your way to Plitvice. It will blow your mind.