Tuesday, September 22. 2015
Clay was up several times during the night checking the
time. I guess I should have shopped for a local plug nightlight for the
remainder of the trip. If I bring one, there are no 110 outlets in the
bathrooms. If I don’t there usually are. I didn’t bring one this time and we
have sorely missed it. The other thing was that the AC blew right on our heads.
I was afraid of it making us sick, so I turned it off, then it got too hot.
Lastly, what is up with the bed making in the Balkans? They put a sheet or
duvet cover or duvet in cover over the bed. They don’t tuck it in at the foot
of the bed so you can just keep pulling the cover up under your chin and it
gets higher and higher up from the foot of the bed. Well, mostly that is what
Clay keeps doing. Anyway. I might be a little sleep-deprived and cranky now.
Where’s that moody wind today to take the blame?
It is cooler today. I think in the low to mid 70sF and not a
cloud in the sky and a slight intermittent breeze. We set off early after some
seating assignment difficulties. The back row of 4 is unassigned. Gabriella
will not assign it as see thinks it undesirable and we have enough seats
without it. One couple has claimed it and say they are opting out of enforced
rotation. That worked yesterday, but today before they got there a woman who
had graduated to the seat directly behind the driver came back and claimed the
back row. She said she either had food poisoning or a stomach flu and did not
want to be vomit behind Valentino and wanted to lie down. The couple who had
claimed the 4 seats wouldn’t give them up and neither would the sick woman. We
are 3 rows in front of this today. This also messed up the rotation for some of
the other people on the left side. The recalcitrant dug in their heels and
Gabriella couldn’t budge them and when she realized it was past time to leave,
she gave up. Eventually, the man of the back row couple went up to a single
woman with an empty seat beside her (where we sat above the back door
yesterday) and asked her to move her bag so he could sit there. She shared her
row with him the rest of the day. Geez.
We drove about 40 minutes or so around the bay at Split to
get to Trogir, our first stop of the day.
We did not have a local guide here. The old town that we visited is on a
very small island connected by a very small short bride. We left the bus at the
bus station and walked with Gabriella. We did not use the headsets we just had
to cluster around her to hear her. She led us to an old church with an
especially ornate entry arch and talked about it before telling us to come back
in our free half-hour for photos. She walked us out to the tiny waterfront and
to the other end of the island with an old stone fort. I don’t know what she
did later as we left for free time. We wandered back through the little alleys
and found the mainland side of the island again and found the church to get the
photo. Then we made our way back to the bus without ever finding the 7 kunas
pay toilets as advertised. Since all the others have cost 4 kunas, we thought
these must be special but who knows. We got back in the bus and drove to
Skradin for a snack and bathroom break. This is a tucked away little port town
inland past a big bridge and around a corner. It was very scenic and there was
a big parking lot with shops, cafes, restaurants and most importantly restrooms
at the extensive overlooks.
We drove on through much less scenic country and much less
densely populated into the mountains. Gabriella used this hour and a half or so
to give us a condensed history of humanity and conflict in the Balkan Peninsula
from the first recorded Illyrian tribes to the present. I confess to dozing off
several times and Clay tells me I missed a huge flock of sheep, some other
livestock and a bus full of soldiers that we passed. We stopped around 1:15pm
at a highway restaurant/hotel/attraction in Korenica. It was a self-service
cafeteria type place that was serving several bus loads with no problem. There
were restrooms and finally an animal park out back. They had penned deer, small
goats, a wild boar and sow, a Shetland pony or 2 and 2 big brown bears. I guess
they used to have a lot of wildlife around here because at the restaurant and
the hotel there were lots of taxidermied bears and other animals. We have
hardly even seen any birds and only a few squirrels but none in Croatia. Plenty
of seagulls, but I am talking about in the mountains.
Our hotel was less than a half hour drive further in the Plitvice
Lakes National Park, Hotel Jezero. We got in around 2:30pm and had to leave on
the bus again at 3:30pm. Our luggage arrived shortly before we had to go. We
drove about 10-15 minutes to entrance 1 of the park. Gabriella bought our
tickets there and we met our local guide. Plitvice Lakes is a UNESCO world
heritage site. It is a natural set of 16 tiered lakes fed by 2 rivers. Half
this formation is limestone and half is dolomite. It is unique. We walked down
to the lowest of the 16 lakes, to the bottom of the tallest waterfalls. Then we
started walking up along dirt, stone and rough boardwalk paths. The water was
crystal clear and full of fish. (Clay is having trout for dinner! Really.) The
entire walk was about 2 hours. We had a 20 minute break with bathrooms at the
boat landing. We didn’t walk the biggest lake but took a 100-passenger electric
boat to the other end of it. There we got off and climbed 215 stairs to get
back to the hotel. Some people only walked to the big falls overlook and then
could take what was called a canyon walk for about an hour to an electric tram ride back to the bus
stop were we started at entrance one and then catch a shuttle bus back to the
Jezero Hotel at entrance 2. I guess some people did that. Some just stayed at the
hotel in the first place. So we saw 4 of the lakes.
The Jezero Hotel is what Gabriella considers our worst hotel
of the tour. Built in the 1950’s, she said it is old and tired and all original
with no further investments made in it though it should be renovated at the end
of this season. She says though that it is the only hotel of this size in the park
and therefore all the tour groups use it. I think it is fine. It is dated
obviously, but it is comfortable and clean. It is more conveniently located
than that Dubrovnik hotel and has more character. It doesn’t have the character
of the last woods resort we stayed in though. It is adequate and a good location.
Dinner is included tonight. We drive to some restaurant on the bus and we
have a band. I ordered the veal and Clay the trout. I need to skip a meal and I’d
really like to skip this one. But, I’m going in about 15 minutes.
Back from dinner. It wasn’t bad! I actually tasted the veal
and I didn’t like it or finish it, but it was tasty. They served appetizers,
soup, salad, main, dessert and coffee or tea. There were 3 musician/singers and
people were really into it as they strolled from room to room. They played
American folk songs, country and 70’s rock. I think they played a couple of
local songs, but who knows as they weren’t in English. It was a bit of a drive.
It was, I think, in another town of Grabovac. The restaurant was called Turist
Grabovac.
It is past my bedtime and we have another early start and
long day tomorrow. Bus touring is not for people needing a restful vacation. It
reminds me of one of Gabriella’s Montenegrin sayings. Rest during the day so
you can get some sleep at night.
