Today’s post comes to you from Lake Bled in the mountainous
northwestern reaches of Slovenia. I will have plenty to share with you about
Lake Bled and Slovenia in the coming days, but first I want to talk about what
we saw and did in our final two days in Croatia. For completely different
reasons, both were among my best travel days in recent memory.
As you may recall from my last post we were in a city called
Split on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast. We departed Split yesterday, taking a bus
from the old town to the airport just outside the city where we picked up a
rental car. We then set out for Plitvice Lakes National Park, a complex of
sixteen lakes connected by creeks and waterfalls in a gorgeous valley in
central Croatia. Our rental car is a brand new Citroën DS4, a small four door
car with a manual transmission and a diesel engine that is very fun to drive.
Driving to Mostar last week wasn’t much to write home about, but yesterday and
today were reminders of how much I enjoy driving in Europe. I don’t know that
it’s really that much different from driving at home except that the speeds are
faster, the cars I’ve rented are more fun, and it sometimes feels like you’re
on a racetrack, but I like it nonetheless. We got in to Plitvice around 3:00 in
the afternoon, checked in to the Soba
I had reserved, and then set to planning our time at the park.
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| Our wheels |
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| European porta-potties, which as it turns out are no different from American ones. |
Plitvice turned out to be yet another lesson on why I prefer
to travel without reservations. In my original trip itinerary I had planned on
staying two nights and one full, uninterrupted day in Plitvice. As I read about
the park in the days leading up to it, however, I realized that we really only
needed one night and half a day or so to hike around the park before moving on
to our next destination. I decided to modify our itinerary, arriving in
Plitvice in the afternoon/evening and then hiking in the morning before leaving
for Lake Bled in the early afternoon. So we got into Plitvice in the afternoon
and I was feeling smugly clever for having worked out a better itinerary on the
fly…that is, until an unforeseen necessity blew that plan out of the water.
That necessity will require a bit of background. My parents
used to have three dogs. I say “used to” because one of them, a big Beauceron
(
here's what they look like) named Asterix, died at just eight years old due to heart
disease not long before our trip. My parents (and I, for my own part) loved
Asterix very much. He was a great dog. So that you can put a face to the name,
here’s a YouTube video of him tossing a small car tire around in the snow backhome. Asterix’s death is still a very fresh wound for my parents, and in our
down time my Dad has been reading about Beauceron breeders in Europe. He
happened to learn about a very highly-regarded breeder in Croatia, in a town
called Zadar, and half-jokingly raised the possibility of us detouring to go
visit the breeder and meet their dogs. The first time he mentioned it my Mom
and I shot the idea down, and as we headed north from Split to Plitvice and
passed the exit to Zadar my Dad’s cockamamie idea seemed a thing of the past.
But it wouldn’t die. He mentioned it multiple times on the way to Plitvice, and
again when we got there. He never demanded that we go there, never even asked,
but he clearly wanted to go very badly. This was an emotional thing for him. He
wanted to see a Beauceron like Asterix again, wanted to explore the possibility
of bringing another dog like Asterix into the family. We were so close; I knew
that I had to accommodate his wish if at all possible. And since we had the
freedom of a car and no reservations, almost anything was possible. So we made
it happen.
Within a few minutes I had a new plan. We would do an
abbreviated hiking loop around the park that afternoon/evening, seeing the
greatest hits in a few hours, and then get up as early as possible the next day
and go visit the breeder before turning back around and heading up to Lake
Bled. My Dad emailed the breeder and had a response in just a few minutes. They
would be happy to let us drop by. And so the new plan was settled. I did a
quick bit of research about what we should see and do at the park in the
limited time that we would have and then we loaded up and headed out. We were
on the trails at the park by about 4:30 in the afternoon, and being a group of
Michaels we were able to take in the park’s sights in record time. We actually
ended up seeing as much of the park as I had planned originally, completing a
full loop of the park – which should have taken four to six hours – in about
three. One concession I refused to make was neglecting my trip photography. I
took the time to take a ton of pictures. To do otherwise would have been
criminal, as Plitvice turned out to be one of the most naturally scenic places
I have ever been to. It was truly a wonder. I don’t know that I can really
convey its beauty in words, however, so I’ll let my pictures do the rest of the
talking.
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| Mom and Dad on the boardwalk trail at Plitvice Lakes National Park |
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| Plitvice Lakes National Park |
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| Plitvice Lakes National Park |
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| Plitvice Lakes National Park |
After hiking around the park we stopped for a surprisingly
good and affordable dinner at one of the park’s hotel restaurants and then
tried to get to bed early in order to rise early the next morning and hit the
road as soon as possible to go see the breeder. Despite the absurd noise level
from the group of drunk Japanese girls next door (it was so bad that the hotel
staff, which were otherwise pretty inattentive, had to come tell them to quiet
down – something I have never seen happen in my travels), we got some decent
sleep and were up fairly early and on the road just after 8:00 the next morning
(today). Unfortunately Zadar was in exactly the opposite direction of where we
would have been going (Lake Bled), meaning that the side trip would take up
most of, if not all, of an entire day of travel. Still we soldiered on, intent
on making my Dad’s Beauceron-viewing dreams come true.
I told my Dad to tell the breeder that we would be arriving
at around 10:30, which by some miracle, despite my slowness to get up and ready
that morning, we did. What we would find there was nothing like what we
expected. In fact, when we first saw the place we suspected we had gotten lost.
The signs on the front gate warning of guard dogs within confirmed that we had
in fact found the right place. It was a two story brick house that looked like
it had been built by amateurs (which, if my week’s worth of observations in
Croatia is any guide, is pretty normal). Side note: I mean absolutely no insult
whatsoever by pointing out the amateur flavor of the breeder’s house. That
being said, whatever image that pops into your mind when you read those words
is probably pretty accurate. We were greeted by Maja, a middle-aged Croatian
woman who spoke decent English (read: understandable but certainly not
flawless). Maja was clearly a dog person from the outset, both a lover of dogs
and very skilled at managing and controlling her dogs. She sat us down at an
outdoor table on her patio and offered us coffee, which we were grateful for. She
went inside and her mother (whose name escapes me) came out to greet us. Her
mother spoke almost no English, so there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation
with her. When Maja eventually emerged from the house she brought us all dishes
of ice cream, cookies, the promised coffee, and some sort of fruit juice. She
seemed genuinely pleased to have guests in her home and her hospitality was
both impressive and greatly appreciated. We spent the next couple of hours
talking to Maja about her dogs and meeting her two breeding females and her new
litter of four puppies. For me it was a great cultural experience, one of those
moments that I always have in every trip that I never expected, never planned,
and yet will never forget. I think it was cathartic for my parents too, and as
we left and made the journey to Bled I realized that I was ultimately glad that
we rearranged our itinerary and made the trip down to meet Maja and her dogs.
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| Maja's Beaucerons, Ginger and Basanti. Ginger (on the left) looked remarkably like Asterix. |
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| Coffee and ice cream with Maja |
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| Beauceron puppies |
I am actually finishing this blog post a day after I started
it. We just got back to the hotel in Bled after a great day driving through the
Julian Alps. I’ll have lots of great photos and my usual gratuitous commentary
for you in the next couple of days. Until then, thanks as always for reading
and as the Slovenes say,
na svidenje.
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