Plitvice, Croatia ... July 26-27, 2008

We woke up relatively early and started our drive to begin our week long vacation to Croatia. Two years ago we had visited the Northern coast of Croatia with my parents, so this time we decided to see the Southern most parts of the country, along the Dalmation coast. We decided to spend the first day, though, in the National Park, Plitvice, about a 5 hour drive from Budapest. This is in the interior of the country and is a UNESCO World Heritage site, protecting a beautiful park of lakes connected by beautiful waterfalls and rivers, with wooden bridges guiding you through the wetlands.
We found our apartment that was located right outside the park entrance, dropped off our stuff, and made our way into the park. A bus takes you up as far as you feel like going (depending on how long/how hard of a hike you want to do) and then you hike down. We chose the 2-3 hour hike, considering we had Ryan in the Baby Bjorn, Ashley in a backpack on my back, and Katie, being the oldest, hiking with us. The landscape is amazing, the flowing waterfalls from wimpy to breathtaking. I carried Ashley in the backpack for a little less than half the hike, and then convinced her to walk the rest of the way with Katie. Considering this was a long hike for them, they did great. Once in a while one or the other, or both, would just decide to sit down in the middle of the trail or bridge, forcing us to convince them to keep going with some sort of bribe. We made it back to the park entrance, exhausted, but having experienced a spectacular element of nature that we had previously only had explained to us.