One thing that I love to do is come up with cryptic titles to my blog posts. I’ll get to the meaning of that in a few minutes. First off, pictures are forth coming…probably in a few weeks when Scott gets back to the States.

So let’s get to the gritty details. First of all, I left for the airport at 1:45am. That is an awfully early time to be waking up for the airport. Especially since I went to bed an hour earlier. It took an hour and a half to get to the airport, and then 45minutes to an hour to get through the incredibly tight security. Taking off shoes may seem really annoying, but it’s a slight inconvenience to getting interrogated before you can leave the country. When I say interrogate, I mean everyone gets asked a ton of questions. Where are you going? How long are you going for? Where did you stay here? Where did you go? Are you jewish? What temple did you grow up at? What city? Have you been to Israel before? When? What is your purpose of coming? Etc. This is then followed by putting my luggage through security. Then followed by checking in for my flight, and putting my luggage through security again. Then followed passport control, and then finally going through security again. (and no…they don’t make you take off your shoes)

The rest of my journey was uneventful. I got there before Scott by a few hours. Well the few hours turned into quite a few hours as Scott’s flights were delayed which caused him to miss a connecting flight. So there went a day in Zagreb.

Thursday and Friday: Plitvice National Park

The following morning, we headed down to Plitvice National Park. We stopped at the campground that we were staying to drop our stuff off, but of course the bungalow was not ready. Then we find out that the shuttles to the park leave at 9am and return at 5pm. It was noon. D’oh. We could either find a ride to the park or wait till the next day. So we just pestered every car that was leaving the campground in the correct direction till someone offered us a ride. My first hitchhiking in Croatia….nice.

We also discovered that we should probably have gone from the highest point of the park to the lowest. Instead we started at the lowest point. The reason why is that the area that we were in was completely full of tour groups. Tour groups walk incredibly slow, the guide always holds an umbrella so the group can see him/her and they bunch up so you can’t get around them. Most of the park is on these narrow wooden platforms so you’re basically stuck. Outside of the annoyance of following the umbrella, the park was gorgeous. Think a beautiful valley with steep walls. Inside the valley is a lake, which turns into a waterfall, which turns into another lake, etc….etc…etc. Each of the lakes is a beautiful aqua blue color because of the limestone around it. All around the valley there are waterfalls of various heights and sizes. Sometimes the water just disappears down a hole in the ground and reappears as a waterfall 50ft away. Damn cool.

So this is where we spent Thursday and Friday morning. On Friday we started at the higher part of the valley and didn’t see a single tour group. Much nicer and we were able to stretch our legs and enjoy the hike more.

Friday – Zadar

Zadar is an old walled city along whatever they call the sea that Croatia is next to. Nice and vague…huh? Many of the cities are on little penisulas and the city completely fills it. Most of the wall is gone now, but the city retains that old city feel. Stone roads through narrow streets. I love it. Reminded me of walking through the Old City of Jerusalem….just less history. The city and all of the other cities along the sea have a very mediterrean feel to them. Very white walls with the reddish tile roofs. It’s a beautiful look that just seems to look perfect when you fit it in with the green trees rocky hills, and gorgeous water.

While the city is touristy, it’s nothing compared to Split (where I am currently). It’s interesting walking through the city that combines the incredibly old ruins with the very modern stores. Heck, they had a cinema showing ‘The Dark Knight’ right next to a bunch of ancient Roman ruins. One of the newest additions to the city was a water organ. The waves push the air through pipes which gives a very ethereal and mournful sound to the waves. Definitely enjoyed that, and pictures will never do that justice.

Saturday – Traveling to Split

Todays bus ride was awful. First we got to the bus station, picked up our ticket and then waited for the bus. We had our tickets, and we got on the bus, but of course there were a people in our seat and everybody said just sit anywhere. This idea sounds great up until you realize that they sold about 65+ tickets for the 53 seats available. Thankfully, we had seats. Then the bus started going and we realized that the air barely worked, and we were on the sunny side of the bus. Much sweating later, we make it the halfway point where we are told we need to switch buses. Scott thinks it was because the bus was having mechanical issues. The problem with switching buses is that they were having us switch to an already mostly full bus, and there were about 20 people waiting in line already for the bus. So we jammed our way onto the bus and spent the next 2 hours standing while they added more and more people onto a warm bus. At one point there were about 75 people on the bus made for 53. A lot of people from our original bus didn’t make it onto this bus and had to take a later bus. So the ride was very uncomfortable, but it force me to look out the window and enjoy the absolutely stunning coastline that Croatia has.

Once we arrived in Split, we got off the bus and now it’s 95 degrees out and we’re walking around with our packs on. Oye. Thankfully, our hostel is reasonably close to the bus station. The rest of the day has been much better. We organized and figured out buses and ferry’s and walked around the old palace that is here. The buildings are beautiful and the area is definitely a ton more touristy then Zadar. A highlight was watching the recessional of a wedding in the church inside the palace. I think there were at least 2 couples, possibly more. They had folk singers singing Croatian folk songs and the guests were all singing along. It was beautiful in just seeing a Croatian customs and hearing Croatian folk songs.

And that brings us to now. So far, I’m definitely enjoying myself. It’s great to spend time with Scott, but miss having Jess around. It’s culturally very weird for me to switch from Israel culture to Croatian culture (+ travel culture). First off all, everyone stopped speaking Hebrew. I kept saying yes/no and excuse me in Hebrew…and getting strange looks. Now I have to remember Da/Ne and Kvala (thanks). It’s also very weird because it is a very summery and very beach friendly area. Everyone was walking around the national park in their bathing suits and skimpy clothing and I’m used to seeing people a bit more conservatively dressed.

Tomorrow afternoon, he head out to explore some of the islands near here. Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to go SCUBA diving and maybe hang out on a beach. Good thing I brought a frisbee.