Salzburg to Zaagreb to Plitvice Lakes

The train to Salzburg left at 1:34 am – ouch. However I had a sleeper cabin all to myself. In fact the train looked really empty. I slept on and off for about 5 hours then was woken to prepare for border formalities as we crossed from Slovenia into Croatia. Hopefully I’ll get back to Slovenia.

I had a good 5 hours to wander around Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Despite other people telling me it was a bit of a hole filled with smokers, I found Zagreb to be fine – nothing overly special – certainly not as special as Prague or Krakow, however its own unique charm without the finish or pizzaz of some of the other cities.

After finding the bus stop, I travelled from Zagreb to Plitvice Lakes. I had made a reservation that day to stay at one of the three hotels in the National Park. Nothing massively special but close enough to be able to visit the lakes this evening. I spent 2.5 hours doing the top loop of the upper lakes. They were just, beatufiul and the weather was stunning. The main reason for getting out and doing these tonight was the forecast of rain for the following day. Had to see some of it with the sun out! Anyway, had to speed walk the last maybe 500m or 1k – last ferry to cross the lake was to leave at 8 and at 7:50 I had no idea how much further it possibly was. There was no way I wanted to walk back out the other way (several hours probably most of it in the dark). Anyway, myself and a mother and daughter travelling team who I had met on the bus just made it to the boat thank goodness.

This evening I sat on the balcony at the hotel and drank vodka fantas? (it seemed to work ok).

Sorry for the lack of photos - have had trouble uploading.