The Travelling Teacher: Croatia – Picturesque Plitvice and her seemingly luminous lakes

August 10-13

Having seen some beautiful sights in Bosnia and Hercegovina, I had to pop back into Croatia in order to continue my journey back to Prague. I visited two vastly different places.

St. Mark's Church, Zagreb

Plitvice Lakes National Park

I took a nine-hour train (which passed surprisingly quickly) from Sarajevo to Zagreb, Croatia’s capital and largest city. I wasn’t overly excited about visiting Zagreb, mainly because I had already been to the city on my Interrail trip seven years ago. In 2008 it was very hot: 2015 was no different.

The map shows you the two locations in this blog: Zagreb and Plitvice

Ban Jelacic square, Zagreb

The place strikes me as Prague-lite: the statue in one of its main squares is a man on a horse; there is lots of greenery in the immediate outskirts of the town centre; and one of the main attractions is a ‘clock’ which doesn't work as a clock (this one stopped during the 1880 earthquake).

I learnt two particularly interesting things during my time in Zagreb. Firstly, the cravat was invented by Croatia. The French witnessed this when it was sported by a Croatian regiment working with them in the seventeenth century and, being naturally fashion-conscious, adopted the cravat into their clothing style.

I'd like to see someone try and wear this...

The other story, which I overheard from a walking tour, involves Zagreb’s cathedral. One day in the 1930s it was noticed that a man was atop one of the spires…doing a handstand. More people observed this whilst the police were called. As more people watched in awe at the performance, the police referred the case to the fire brigade. Whilst getting the man down, they asked him why he had decided to perform his precarious circus act. His response was that the very fire brigade had rejected his application to become a fireman, his lifelong ambition, so he wanted to prove to them that he was brave and had a head for heights. Apparently he was hired.

Zagreb Cathedral

Zagreb itself is a lovely city. The main reason for my sojourn in northern Croatia, however, was to visit a national park two hours to the southwest of the capital. The park, Plitvice Jezera, has many incredible sights, most of them involving strangely-coloured water.

Jezera, you see, is the Croatian word for ‘lakes’. Plitvice hosts fourteen lakes of all shapes, sizes and the most magnificent colours.

The pictures – of which there were hundreds to choose from as I was so infatuated by what I was witnessing – simply do not do justice to the vibrancy and iridescence of the shimmering lakes. Some were royal blue, whilst others were a luminous turquoise. A couple of lakes even struck me as resembling emerald green rather than blue. Apparently the lakes change colour regularly; if I were to visit again in the future I might see a different hue.

The lakes flow into one another from south to north. How the water moves from one to the next is the other reason to become awestruck at Plitvice.

Waterfalls. Everywhere. The soothing sound of gushing water flowing from one lake to the next is omnipresent. Cascades feed the vivid green moss which seemingly grows out of each descent.

The main waterfall – funnily enough, called the ‘big waterfall’ in English – is approximately 100 feet high.

There are many other waterfalls around the national park, many of which can be seen as you hike around. There are several walking routes, the largest (which takes in both the upper and lower lake areas) being over 18km in total. This route, known as the ‘K’ trail, pulls you away from the crowds and lets you enjoy the spectacular scenery in peace.

As you can see, this is a beautiful, wondrous area. Some argue it is one of the most attractive in Europe. The upshot of this is that many people want to see the Plitvice Lakes national park for themselves. Many, many people. I queued for 90 minutes on my first day and, even with arriving before most of the day-trippers from Zagreb or Zadar, 45 minutes on my second. They are queues which I would associate with Disneyworld.

The ninety-minute queue to enter Plitvice

This is why the lines are so long...

It’s an interesting comparison as Plitvice struck me as being a magical kingdom at times. The crazy colours of the water made me think of a Disney-esque water park. Some of the smaller waterfalls made me think that this would be the perfect ‘Shire’ from Lord of the Rings. Yet whilst those places of fantasy are imagined and contrived, Plitvice is completely natural and real.

One of the main rules is that you cannot swim in the lakes. I understand why they have taken that stance as there is every chance that human intervention could damage some of the natural flora and would be difficult to manage with the sheer volume of people marching through the entrances. It does, however, get stiflingly hot at times when walking around, which makes it incredibly frustrating that you can’t dip into a smaller lake to cool off or dunk yourself under a waterfall.

At least, you’re not supposed to…

Breaking the rules was never more necessary!

Plitvice Jezera is an amazing place. Yes it is very expensive but you have to hope that much of the 180 kuna (roughly €24) for a day ticket goes to the maintenance and preservation of the park. Yes it is busy but you have to accept that something so beautiful will bring tens of thousands of people flocking to it on a daily basis. Many hostels and travel agencies do a day trip from Zagreb but that wouldn’t give you enough time to stroll around and truly enjoy the natural beauty.