We left Murter fairly early in the morning, and drove to Zagreb, stopping at the Nikola Tesla memorial, and the Plitvice Lakes national park.
Tesla was borne in Croatia, and we visited his childhood home.
It was a fun, geeky stop. A few months ago, Kim and I visited Niagara Falls, which also has a significant memorial to Tesla. Tesla designed the first hydroelectric power station at Niagara.
We also saw a demonstration of his original 1-million-volt Tesla coil, which he built in 1899 in Colorado Springs, CO.
There was also a replica of the worlds first remote controlled vehicle -- this little boat built by Tesla too.
We walked through the museum for a bit, and read a bit about his life while following a timeline throughout. But we needed to leave before we really completed the tour, as we wanted to save plenty of time for the Plitvice Lakes National Park.
Plitvice is truly the jewel of Croatia, covering several hundred square miles of pristine wilderness just inside of Croatia's border with Bosnia.
We parked, had lunch, and then walked around the park for about 3 hours, starting with a big downhill trek to this little pier, where we caught a boat across one of the lakes.
The water is absolutely crystal clear, and the fish population is thriving.
The lakes themselves are a series of cascades, bringing fresh water down from the high mountain elevations.
Having cross the little lake by boat, we spent most of the next two hours traversing several kilometers of boardwalks.
We walked past literally hundreds of waterfalls, of all shapes and sizes.
Each of the waterfalls crashed into another "lake" (maybe more like ponds?).
Perhaps most amazing were the colors of each of the lakes. There were so many shades and varieties of blue, green, blue-green, green-blue, green-green, blue-blue...
We got to pay for all this running water somehow. And of course, it started to rain. Again. We spent most of the second half of our walk in a bit of a drizzly rain. I didn't mind getting wet so much as I was disappointed with the lighting for what should have been some amazing pictures.
The vegetation was almost tropical, which is remarkable considering how cold (icy, snowy) it gets here in the winter.
The lakes themselves are formed by the vegetation, which is pretty cool.
We spotted a couple of frogs, and lots of fish.
I really liked how tastefully the boardwalks were constructed.
I thought they fit quite well into the scenery, protecting the environment without ruining the views. I found it notable that there were no handrails anywhere to be found.
We shot two cameras all day, Kim on the SLR and I was on smaller Kodak digital zoom.
Here you can see the vegetation and microbial life under the water forming a wall for another lake. Unbelievable!
Few of the waterfalls were more than a couple of meters.
But each and every one was picturesque.
We had quite a nice time, and very much enjoyed the park. Plitvice should not be missed on any trip to Croatia!
We drove the next few hours on "the old road" (ie, not the free way) back to Zagreb. We had an early flight on Saturday morning, so we opted to spend Friday night in the city. Zagreb is the busy capital of Croatia -- an interesting, old city in eastern Europe.
We stayed at the Palace Hotel, which was a stylish, fancy hotel and very centrally located.
Ante joined us for dinner at a nice restaurant with the tables directly in the middle of the street. It was a busy, bouncing little place on a Friday evening, full of chic, interesting Croatians.
Near our table, there was a public water fountain that garnered the interest of dozens of passersby during our meal. I watched with interest as kids played with the faucet, nuns took drinks, and bums washed dishes.
Meanwhile, back at the dinner table, I enjoyed the chicken gnocchi special.
And Kim had a spinach pasta with mushrooms.
Once again, we appreciated having Ante around to show us Zagreb.
For dessert, we feasted on chocolate-and-hazelnut crepes.
After dinner, Ante took us on a long, evening stroll around Zagreb. We covered several miles, and really got a good feel for the city.
He pointed out the highlights and told us stories about growing up in Zagreb. Like any classic European city, the skyline is dominated by its cathedral's and churches.
Perhaps the most famous of Zagreb's churches is the colorfully tiled roof of St. Mark's. It bears the coat of arms of both Croatia and the city of Zagreb itself.
We also wandered through several of Croatia's public parks, each of which were crawling with teenagers and giant jugs of booze.
Walking back past our hotel, I thought we were just about done for the night, but Ante had plans for us otherwise. Each of us had 3 servings of Croatian brandy -- from right to left, one made from honey, another from blueberries, and the third from walnuts.
Kim liked the one made from blueberries the most, while I favored the walnut brandy.
I'm so glad we did stay out, as it was a lot of fun to chat again with them about our week in their country!
What a week, what a country, what wonderful people! To Ante, thanks so much for your gracious hosting and all the attention and information and help and fun. And to Ante's friends, thanks so much for treating us so warmly and inviting us into your lives for a couple of days.
:-Dustin
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