Yeah I had to do it … bad puns are my life.

We took the bus from Split to Dubrovnik today. Yesterday was our last chance to go to Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was the first national park in Croatia and for good reason. It’s amazing. Sixteen terraced deep green pools and I don’t know how many waterfalls. I can’t even imagine what the people who first came upon this area thought … they must’ve been stunned to happen upon this haven of clear fresh water.

No offense to the adorable little fairy pools in Skye but this is like the same thing except for big ass fairies. Or nymphs (aren’t they bigger than fairies?). Or giants. Basically fairy pools on steroids.

And also everything fell into place beautifully. We found a car rental place down the street (cheaper than Hertz and actually staffed when it was supposed to be). And open until 8 pm so we didn’t have to try to park overnight — though if we missed closing time they had a parking lot a few blocks away where we could leave the car. So much better all around than what we heard from the local Hertz and LastMinuteRental. So a shout out to Avant Car. And the weather, while not sunny, wasn’t raining (a big plus for me considering what I’ve been encountering). And it was gorgeous. They’ve erected wooden stairs, bridges and pathways across the water, where you’re often walking up with a waterfall under your feet. Having the near constant sound of running and whooshing water added to the ambience. (OK, admittedly I felt a little nervous at times on those stairways but it’s not like it was a huge drop off. Though swimming of any kind is frowned upon there — any disturbance of local floral or fauna is forbidden actually.)

You can’t blame them. They had signs up in one area where there had clearly been a pool at one time, but it was dried up along with the streams and waterfalls that once fed it. Their comment was that the area is as natural as possible and is still evolving. Things shift and the water path changes.

Anyway you get the idea I hope from these photos though the disadvantage of being there this late in the year is the park closes at 4. At least the last shuttle tram and ferry boats across the water make their last runs starting at 4. So we had the abbreviated walk through but it was still lovely. Our car rental guy said it’s actually unbelievably beautiful in winter when the lakes and even waterfalls freeze over. I can or perhaps can’t imagine!And we made it back in good time. Though I drove out, Elaine drove back and she has more of a lead foot than I do! And thankfully Stephanie is an excellent navigator. So neither driving issues nor car issues. (Except I forgot my glasses case in the car but I went to the agency in the morning and got them back, as they hadn’t done anything yet with the car.)

We packed our stuff up last night and had a few hours this morning to walk once more down the Riva in Split, buy a few snacks for the road (I’m obsessed with the dried figs — they’re delicious), and Elaine bought herself a souvenir. All before grabbing a bus before noon.We opted for the bus partly because we heard it can be a hassle to drive through Bosnia and Herzegovina. If you drive down the Dalmatian coast from Split to Dubrovnik it’s a lovely coastal road but there’s a small (about 12.5 miles) stretch in the middle that goes through the town of Neum which is on Herzegovina’s piece of the coast. Since we were actually in a different country I felt obliged to take a few photos.It’s pretty! They have a peninsula that juts into the water — and there are several islands beyond (which belong to Croatia).

But that said, we sat in the bus at the customs office to leave Herzegovina for about 20 minutes. Unlike when I crossed via bus into Croatia from Slovenia, when the customs police took only non-EU passports to check. (And it took no time at all.) But BiH isn’t in the EU (in fact my U.K. phone’s Euro-zone free roaming notified me that I’ll have to pay for data and everything else while in BiH). So they had to look at everyone’s passports.

But we made it. And we have an amazing view over Dubrovnik. But more on that tomorrow!