I was back in Croatia, and we visited one of the places I missed on my last trip here: Plitvice National Park. Heavily reminiscent of our visit to the smaller Krka National Park (and got to swim in before they disallowed it), we really enjoyed but were also overwhelmed with the crowds at Plitvice.
We woke up early in the morning and drove over an hour to the south entrance of the park. We parked, got our tickets, and decided on doing a specific tour that was backwards of what most people complete, where you take a bus, hike to a boat, then hike to another bus that takes you back to our lot.
The morning was quiet and still. The season must have been dry because while there certainly were waterfalls, a lot of them were also not flowing or not flowing much. But we enjoyed this part, especially the crystal clear water. Once we got off the boat, we could see the crowds: hundreds of people were milling about in a park area, with an incredibly long line waiting for the boat to take them the direction we had just come from. We got coffees and finished our hike. Most of it was not nearly as enjoyable even though it was beautiful due to the crowds. There were parts where no one could move or stop to take pictures because there were so many people! I cannot imagine it in the height of summer.
Overall it was a beautiful day, but I wish we had arrived earlier or more in the off-season (how beautiful in autumn!).
On our way out, we stopped by this ruined church that was a bit spooky in its emptiness.
