Lake Bled

How many photos can you take of a lake with a church in the middle of it?
We hired a car for the day from Enterprise (which was surprisingly easy and economical) to get from Looby to Lake Bled. In hindsight, it probably would've been more fun to catch a bus and hire an e-bike to get around the lake. We hired a car because whenever we’re on trains or buses we see these amazing locations we want to stop at and take photos. Of course, because we had a car we didn’t see any amazing locations we wanted to stop at. We took some back roads and stopped at a small town with a pretty church, but we were really just trying to justify hiring the car. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t.
PS. It’s taken forever to get these photos loaded as wifi has been absolute shit everywhere we’ve been.

Ljubljana (Loo-b-yana. Don't quote me on that). Slovenia

Update: I’ve been reliably informed it’s Looblyana.
I have a little crush on Ljubjana. A curious cross between Canberra and Lisbon. Church bells and quiet streets. Quaint, welcoming, clean, not crowded.

Bekky and I went out for breakfast and went for a quick walk. We didn’t get back to the AirBnB apartment until the afternoon. A surprisingly delightful town.

A bonus for me - Photography Exhibition: LUCIEN HERVÉ: GEOMETRY OF LIGHT

Plitvice National Park

Day 2/2

Still cloudy but no rain today. A slightly later start as we had to be packed and checked out. By 7.45 the crowds were starting to arrive. An hour later and they were swarming.

The colour of the water though, has to be seen to be believed.

I found some flora along the trails today. We didn’t have a lot of time to stop and take photos as we had to get to Zagreb to catch a bus, and we were also dodging the crowds. It would have been good to have one more day at Plitvice.

Sunflowers in the Mist

We were pretty excited to see sunflowers in the front yard of the backpackers we were staying at. The rain had eased but the mist was hanging around so after we dried out from our Plitvice adventure and had a glass of wine to warm the insides, we went and played in the garden. We have some portraits too but they’re on Bekky’s camera so I’ll get back to you with those.

Plitvice National Park. While I was walking...

Day 1 /2

After Krka, we were prepared to be disappointed. But bloody hell, Plitvice blew us away. It was a cold, misty day. We had planned to buy rain covers from the gift shop at the entrance but they don’t open until 8 and we were there just after 7am. It was only a light shower. We’ll be right, we thought. We were wrong. We got drenched. It wasn’t just a light shower. It wasn’t even a heavy storm that passes over. It was constant, steady rain. It did ease now and then but for most of the morning we were trying to keep rain drops off of our lenses.

There’s no contest between Krka and Plitvice. Do yourself a favour and skip Krka and spend an extra day at Plitvice. But go early to dodge the crowds. Even in the pouring rain, by the time we were leaving there were bus loads of people turning up.

The park itself is stunning. The staff and the signage and information provided isn’t very helpful though. (I’ve reassessed my view on the people of Croatia as being friendly. They are polite but you do get the sense that you are a nuisance). It wasn’t over commercialised like Krka. And the soul of the place is still strong despite the swarms of tourists. The infrastrutcure in the park worked well. There were boats and buses to get people to and from different walks. The pathways blended well with the environment. For our first morning at Plitvice and despite the constant rain, we were in love with Plitvice.

To Krka on the wrong side of the road.

3 hours kayaking in Dubrovnik (highly recommend it) followed by 4 hours driving to Skradin, still salty and damp, into the sunset, on the wrong side of the road, in a manual car (with 6 gears) and the indicator lever on the left. [Stay on the right. Indicators are on the left. Remember to change gears. Clutch, clutch, clutch. Stay on the right. Indicators on the left]. In and out of Bosnia. A stop at a Bosnian supermarket. Can’t figure out how to get the car into reverse. Can’t figure out how to turn the rear wiper off. Can’t figure out how the handbrake works. Fun, fun, fun. Through a hundred tunnels. 130km/ph. Stay on the right. Whoops, that’s the wipers, not the indicators. Toll roads we weren’t expecting. Beeped at the border crossing person when I leaned over to show my passport. Lookout for boars and bears (didn’t see either). Road signs that from a distance look like a grand piano and a whale, or maybe I should’ve gotten those new glasses before I left.

Holiday - Travel? Travelling is hard but rewarding. Holidaying is relaxing. I usually need a holiday to recover from travelling. You learn so much when you travel. About yourself - your strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, capabilities and fears, what you miss, what you appreciate. Your view of the world deepens. Different cultures. The history. The politics. The maths trying to work the money out. The language.

We were a little underwhelmed by Krka. It felt a little soulless. Beautiful but lacking in spirit. It felt over commercialised, over crowded and we didn’t connect with it at all. Maybe we’re just a bit spoilt by our Aussie National Parks. Happy to head to Plitivice and hope it doesn’t disappoint.