Plitvice National Park, Croatia

We arrived in the region of Plitvice National Park. Over only a few days we needed to get from Selcuk in Turkey to the airport in Izmir to fly to Istanbul. We had a night in Istanbul, then up early the next morning for our flight to Zagreb in Croatia, where the awesome Mav and Smythe met us with a DIY sign written on toilet paper with a sharpie. Couldn’t have asked for a better way to be met at the airport!

Driving through Croatia from the airport to our accommodation, a few hours away, we noticed that it’s much greener than Turkey. And definitely not as densely populated. The houses are cute; cottages with potted flowers on their window sills.

We checked into our cute as a button home in the little village of Seliste Dreznicko and settled in for an evening of catching up. The place had a wood fired BBQ, so we (by “we” I mean everyone except me) fired it up and later cooked a much needed home cooked dinner.

Our home, for a few days at least

How many backpackers does it take to start a BBQ?

In the morning we headed to Croatia’s largest national park, the Plitvice Lakes National Park. It is UNESCO World Heritage Listed and is almost 300 square kilometers. We arrived keen and ready. Then we saw the line up. We waited in line for over an hour! Later I read that over 1 million visitors visit the national park each year, and I can see why. Plitvice Lakes National Park is full of lakes, waterfalls, caves and a lush cover of green forest. We spent most of the day here, exploring the area and having a picnic lunch in a nice spot near the water.

Our picnic spot 

You can’t swim in the national park, due to it being a source of water for the towns, so after our big day in the park we wanted to find somewhere to swim on our way home. This proved more difficult than expected, driving around the towns for up to an hour or so. I didn’t mind, because the area is just so pretty. Yards and paddocks are full of white wild flowers, everything is so lush, and the houses are cute! We eventually found a spot to swim though!

 The view from where we parked to walk down the hill to the swimming stop

These wild flowers were everywhere

The lush walk to the swimming spot. I didn't actually take a photo of said swimming spot.