Hrvatska Republic (AKA Croatia) and the inland waters

Everyone told us that Croatia was all about the sea. Well... we'll see about that.

We came into Croatia by train and immediately were left wondering what the heck the Hrvatska Republic was. It turns out that's what Croatians call their country. So why do we call it Croatia? No idea why, we never got a back story, Google defaults a search for "Hrvatska Republic" to Croatia and a bunch of things in Croatian... and the Wikipedia page makes no mention. Some things are better left unknown I guess... HR is on the license plates, but Croatia it is.

For those that keep track of such things, Croatia is outside of the customs block of the Schengen zone but inside the European Union. All that this meant for us is that the clock for the 90 day maximum stay in the EU was stopped when we left Slovenia. On the train into Croatia, we cleared customs for the first time since arriving in Rome in July and we had to show customs proof of where and when we entered so they could verify we weren't overstaying our welcome.

Anyway, we pretty much skipped over Croatia's capital, Zagreb, it looked pretty nice but we were on a mission to experience what Croatia had to offer in terms of natural beauty.

First on the list was Plitvice Lakes, which are a very curious set of lakes, waterfalls and rock formations in the interior of Croatia. They look like something out of a Garden of Eden artist rendition, lush greenery, clear turquoise blue water, all framed and accented by numerous waterfalls.

You just can't take a bad picture here!

I'm (Bill here) going to ramble on for quite a while about why these lakes formed... if this isn't your cup of tea there are plenty of pictures thrown in here to keep your scroll wheel moving.

Turns out Plitvice Lakes started to form a mere 12-15 thousand years ago. I was sort of shocked when I heard that time line. Generally nothing happens on a geologic time scale unless you're talking at least 100's of thousands of years, 10's of thousands of years is like a day in geologic time.

I tend to think of water only eroding things away, but water can also form rock under the right conditions and currently those conditions exist at Plitvice Lakes.

Some of the lakes.

After the last ice age the chemistry of the water running down the rivers that feed this area changed every so slightly such that rock started to form on everything that the water touched, I'm oversimplifying here but wikipedia does a much better job. I'll give you the readers digest version that avoids the chemical equations.

Walk ways and waterfalls, really well done.

The entire region is karst, a water permeable rock that dissolves in water that has become acidic from CO2. Rain falls with some CO2, and picks up more CO2 from the soil. As the rain water makes its inexorable march to the sea, it dissolves the rock it flows through. This causes caves, underground rivers and sinkholes to form. This phenomena is all over this part of the world, including the caves we saw in Slovenia. When the water reemerges and hits the air, i.e. exits the ground as a spring, it gives up some CO2 and then some of the minerals that it picked up earlier start to precipitate out, provided some temperature and pH values are correct.

Not just little falls!

The rivers here are like any other, sometimes they flow through very shallow fast moving places, when this happens in concert with some vegetation, the previously dissolved rock starts to form again. The formation or growth rates can be as much as 13 mm (1/2 inch) per year, that might not be fast enough to notice year by year, give it 1000 years and you've got yourself a 13 m (45 ft) wall built up. It doesn't look like a perfectly vertical wall though, subsequent layers tend to form just down stream from the previous layers.

Waterfalls everywhere!

So the little ripple in the water rushing around some vegetation is left with a buildup of stone, the next layer forms on that and makes a barrier for the rushing water, after many layers you start to get a dam that forms a lake upstream with a waterfall flowing downstream, and because the newer layers form just downstream, the dam is tilted downstream and a small shallow cave underneath.

Even branches lying in still water have build ups of rock forming on them.

The rock formed is called "Tufa" or "Travertine", which cuts and carves easily and forms quickly too! Easy come, easy go I guess. Oddly enough Travertine is the primary rock that Rome's buildings were built from. Rome wasn't built in a day but maybe a day in geologic terms.

This whole process ends up making some very interesting structures, and those structures are in a state of constant change and make for some great pictures. Despite being super saturated with minerals the water is super clear but with the turquoise hue.

We did get rained on a little bit...

Plitvice has an extensive set of trails and walkways to check out the sites, we walked around 12 miles in about 8 hrs. It was raining when we got there but cleared up soon after. It was a great way to spend a day, but the big downer: there isn't any swimming at Plitvice.

Rain kept the crowds away though

I really hate being around beautiful temperate water and not being able to swim, so to get my fix we signed up for a kayaking tour the next day in a river nearby that also has the same kind of tufa formations. We got to kayak down about five waterfalls in "rubber duck" kayaks. The highest was probably about 5 feet, with a 12 foot long kayak it was actually a lot easier than it sounds, basically just hold your paddle above your head and enjoy the ride, of course I was in the back...

Intrepid kayakers!

Kayaking made for a great way to see underneath the waterfalls and get a better idea of how these barriers build up over time.

Waterfalls with caves underneath, nice spot to jump from!

All the boats parked for lunch

So Croatia has really delivered on its promise of a great visit and we didn't even get to the coastal part of our Croatia adventure yet... that's up next.

Slovenia #2 (Non-hiking exploration)

Since we cut our Slovenian Alps hiking a few days short, that gave us some time to do more exploring of Slovenia, which by the way, may be our favorite country so far. We emerged from the mountains, stinky but happy to be back in civilization. We walked to the closest bus stop, bused to Kranj, picked up a rental car, and drove to the capital city of Ljubljana (pronounced LOOB-lee-ahna).  We managed to get a room in an AirBnB apartment in Ljubljana at the last minute. Our hostess was very nice (in spite of her judgmental cats), so we had a pleasant stay overall.


Our first full day out of the mountains, we headed to a famous underground cave system in Slovenia called Škocjan caves. These caves were massive, and they came with all the things you might expect: stalactites, stalagmites, bats, huge water drops falling on your head, and an underground river. It was really remarkable.

The Skocjan cave system runs below several tiny villages

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the cave (it was too dark anyway),
but here we are emerging from the giant Skocjan cave. 

People at one of the entrances to the Skocjan cave. 

We still had several hours of daylight left after we toured the caves, so we decided to head to Slovenia's tiny coastline (29 miles long - apparently, there's about an inch of coastline for every Slovenian citizen). We visited the coastal town of Piran, which was hot but scenic, with plenty of Slovenians enjoying the sun and water. The beach was rocky and sharp, but nobody seemed to really mind. 

Slovenian coastal town of Piran. 

We have experienced many afternoon thunderstorms here in Europe. There was quite a thunderstorm on our drive back to Ljubljana, but we were treated with a double rainbow as a result.

Bad picture of the rainbow, but you get the idea. 

The next day we explored old town Ljubljana. We enjoyed Ljubljana's great people watching, sidewalk cafes along the river walk, and great castle on the hilltop. This castle did not have the same dramatic history or famous residents like some of the other castles we've toured thus far, and it wasn't as large. However, it was still interesting. During most of the 1800s, it was turned into a prison. Then, it was turned into a residence for poor families until 1963 when it was renovated to become the museum it is today. It also has a funicular. Funiculars are fun!

Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia

A little clip of the funicular ride up to the castle.

View of Ljubljana from the top of the castle hill

View of the castle courtyard from the castle tower

View of Ljubljana from the FUNicular, going up the hill to the castle

For our last day in Slovenia, we headed back up to Lake Bled (we had stopped there briefly on our first day before hiking, but it was raining). Thankfully, the weather was better this time. We walked all the way around the lake, which has a picturesque hillside castle and an island with a church on it in the middle of the lake. Many Slovenians get married at this little church on the island in the middle of Lake Bled. When you reach the island by boat, tradition says that the groom must then carry his bride up the 99 steps to the church. This may sound crazy, but remember Slovenians are Olympians (see our last post), so really this is just normal for them.

Lake Bled with the church/island in the middle

Bled castle on the edge of Lake Bled 

Another view of the island

Once again reminded of Slovenia's Olympic achievements.
Their rowing team, which trains in little tiny Lake Bled has won several Olympic medals.

Boats along the edge of Lake Bled

Besides the castle, the island, and the lake, Bled is known for its delicious pastries, so of course, Bill had to try one out. It got his stamp of approval.

Bill sinking into Kremna Rezina (cream slice), a traditional Slovenian pastry. 

Late afternoon, we decided to go ahead and rent a row boat because the water just looked so inviting. So Bill rowed me around the lake (I did some rowing too, don't worry.) We got an up close view of the island and just enjoyed being out on the turquoise water.

Bill is a much better rower than me, something about going in a straight line...

Taking a turn at rowing

We left Slovenia by train to head to Croatia, and let me just say that the entire train ride was just stunningly beautiful. So much green. So many hills. So many lakes. Slovenia is really, really nice. If you're thinking of a trip to Europe, consider adding Slovenia to your list.

Slovenia is for Olympians

We set off for Slovenia with a mission in mind: get acquainted with hut hiking where you hoof a smaller amount of gear than you would for normal wilderness backpacking trips because you hike between mountain huts that provide you with a bed and food. This is the civilized way of experiencing the outdoors that the Europeans have been doing for ages. Leave the tent, camp stove and food at home, just hike and bring some cash.

Nice views in the Slovenian Alps

Slovenia is in fact so set up for hut hiking that they forbid "wild" camping, that is camping where ever you please which is allowed in many many places in the US and the world. We saw very few established campgrounds in Slovenia.

We were told to book at least a month in advance because August is the busy season. Determining a route was made easy by the fantastic website via-alpina.org, They have several routes that are broken up into their idea of a day's hike between huts and/or towns where you can get a bed and food. The routes cover the Alps from end to end, north and south, its really amazing.

Not knowing what else to do, I (Bill) picked about a weeks' worth of hiking and started booking huts. The information on the web site is really solid: GPS tracks of the trails, what to expect at the end points, even some reviews.

But being conservative and not knowing what to expect in the huts we packed inflatable mattress pads, sleeping bags and some food... and probably a bunch of other crap we didn't need.

I picked the purple route and decided to hike backwards toward the very beginning of the purple trail from Stage 7. You can bus to the town at the start and this would ideally give us seven days of hiking, plenty of experience for our potential future hikes.

Stage 7 started out with a climb, around 1000 meters up, or about 3000 feet vertically, with all our extra crap... more on that later.

We bused from Kranj to Tržič (pronounced TriZSHiCH) where the hike started. Once in Tržič we planned on getting a last meal at the edge of town before we shuffled off into the wilderness... At the pizzeria on the edge of town we found that the cooks were all on vacation and there wasn't much in the way of food... I'm totally serious... so we just pressed on with the hike. Days later we heard from other Slovenians several derogatory things about Tržič, I'm sure it's all just small town rivalry but the two statements were "better to have a pig than a girl from Tržič" and "not even the wind that blows out of Tržič is good." I'm sure something is lost in translation there but it's still pretty amusing.

Trzic didn't seem so bad to us. We got off the bus here and started our hike. 

Official start of our hike. We look happy and excited, right? 

It's difficult to convey "steepness" in a photo but this is one of the hills we climbed on the first day.

With all our crap we toiled up steep trails for five hours while the web page said it should take more like 3.5 hrs... but finally our tired bodies were greeted with a warm mountain hut, good food, a clean bed, and great views at Koča na Dobrči (pronounced "Kocha na Dobricha"). It was pretty magical, hanging on the side of a mountain, overlooking an amazing valley and I literally saw two sailplanes get towed by while enjoying a drink on the deck. The menu was limited but they were able to feed us given our pain in the butt dietary restrictions. The food was pretty darn good too, although anything would have been great after a hike like that.

Our accommodations on Night 1, Koca na Dobrci. 

After all the hub bub about reserving months in advance we found the place only had a few other people staying and we could have just walked in unannounced and stayed. More on that later too.

So now that we were up "in the mountains" we figured the hiking would be easier, less vertical and we would be able to get at least closer to the estimated hiking times from the web site... so we ask for a late breakfast at 9 and by 10:15 we were out on the trail again tackling Stage 6.

Sadly we were not greeted with less vertical or the easy going we expected.... 45 minutes in, the trail blazes led up this impossibly steep grade, steeper than any thing in the US I'd ever seen that would be considered a hiking trail.

Part of the steep uphill "trail" on Day 2. 

More steep uphill!

The trail was so treacherous that there were metal pegs for feet and hands at exposed sections. 

We both have some rock climbing experience so getting up the "trail" wasn't problematic, just exhausting, and had we packed appropriately, like left behind the 5 lbs of food and 8 lbs of sleeping gear, we might have been making good time... but alas here we were with nowhere to go but forward to the next hut reservation at Roblekov Dom.

After getting part way up this insane "trail" we found a reasonably level place and had our lunch. While sitting there two guys, both substantially older than us, come down the "trail" looking like they're on a Sunday stroll rather than eyeing a suicidal cliff and they are deftly picking their way down with trekking poles. With speed and grace they resemble something more like spiders than humans. Umm, we didn't get the memo, but evidently Slovenians are superheros, they hike this stuff from birth. No wonder they win more medals in the Olympics per capita than any other country...

Finally, after 4 hours of uphill, a bit of flatter trail

I'm pretty sure Kenzi's smile is fake here...

I mean, this guy got a kettle ball chained to his leg for his bachelor party, he had to cycle, swim and then hike up a mountain to satisfy his friends and he did it all with a smile on his face. (He's also the person who had the choice words for Tržič.)

Slovenian Bachelor happily carrying his ball and chain for his Bachelor Party weekend adventures

These sorts of physical feats are just what they do, it's all normal to them. It's at this point you realize why you travel... it's gives you a chance to realize a new reality, what I thought was a hiking trail now has a much broader definition.

What should have been 3.5 hrs of hiking again turned into more like 5, plus breaks and we finally found our home for the night at around 6 PM at Roblekov Dom. By this point Kenzi isn't happy and *may* have shed some tears (the good news is though that her trachea did great with all the heavy cardio).

Roblekov Dom (Hut #2)

Eating Jota, sauerkraut soup at Roblekov Dom

Our room at Roblekov Dom

We played MANY games of travel backgammon on this trip. 

The next day, Stage 5, doesn't look much better, the topographical map shows crossing two mountain valleys... lots of elevation changes... oh goodie. Never mind the pain you're still feeling from yesterday, the next reservation is at Prešernova koča na Stolu, atop mount Stol that the locals all pronounce "Stow." So onward...

So, we start our way toward Stol. Right out of the gates in the first 300 yards of hiking we start picking our way down through something that is steeper downhill than anything we've seen yet, steeper than we saw those superhuman spiders come down through... We both slipped on our rear ends several times. The views, of course, were amazing but you had to watch your feet so closely because every step was a sprained ankle or knee waiting to happen that you really had to stop to take in the views. But we managed, and finally we arrived exhausted at Završnice hut... which was only half way to our destination.

A much needed break in front of the Zavrsnice hut. 

At this point it's time for a change of plans. We check, and even though it's Saturday night at Završnice hut, they have space for us. What? I thought these things were booked up months in advance, particularly on the weekends? We even get our own private room, that has like 10 beds... um, what? They have a shower. We haven't had one of those since leaving our hotel three days ago. It's like we've died and gone to heaven.

We don't ask questions, we're happy to have a place to stay, At least one of us is happy, Kenzi is just happy that we don't have to press on. I realize that I've left my SPOT GPS Tracker back at Roblekov and it's either call it a $150 loss and forgo the added peace of mind of being able to let the outside world know you need help, or hike back up that insane slope and retrieve the SPOT.

I leave Kenzi at Završnice hut, and I take a liter of water and nothing else, the signs say it will take 1:45 to get to Roblekov to retrieve the SPOT. I set off and without the burden of a giant pack I'm able to cruise like never before. I'm able to make the round trip in just under 2 hrs. Clearly, weight is our problem, we're just carrying too much stuff.

So, we hatch a plan, spend the night at Završnice, leave a bunch of our extra stuff at the Završnice hut and the next day travel light to Stol, and then ideally on to Golici.

We call Stol, and Golici, they both have space for us if we come a day late, no problem... what was that about booking months in advance?

Anyway, with an alternate plan in place we get a good meal, good nights sleep, and then head up to Stol. At this point Kenzi agrees that the going is a lot easier without so much weight.

Happy to be carrying lighter loads on Day 4!

We're greeted with amazing views and greenery as we pass above the tree line into a landscape that looks more like the moon than any place on earth.

We arrive at Stol after about the prescribed hiking time. So as it turns out these trails are all designed to be challenging with a very light load, if you want to keep pace with the times you have to travel light and finally that's what we were doing.

Throughout the afternoon Stol has spectacular views of the valley below. We are given quite a show by a bunch of sailplanes and paragliders and we can see Lake Bled when the clouds are clear.

Timelapse video: Paragliders giving us a show on Mt. Stol with Lake Bled occasionally peeking out

We spend the night up on Stol, and now the weather forecast for the rest of the week turns sour, thunder predicted in the afternoons with cloud cover. The next segment is supposed to be stunning with Austria on one side and Slovenia on the other but it will likely be covered in clouds so we resolve to head back to Završnice in the morning. In the meantime we take a little walk around the top of Stol. Stol straddles Austria and Slovenia and the Austrian side is incredibly steep.

The Austria(Oe)/Slovenia(RS) border bisecting the top of Mt Stol, Austria in the background 

A quick hike up to the top of Mt. Stol from the hut. 

We took some time for an "art" project.

The return required descending the barren rocky bowl that we toiled up the day before. While we were huffing and puffing our way up there were lots of people literally running down a stripe of loose gravel that ran down the steepest part of the bowl. I took the easy route, Kenzi picked her way back down the trail and was not a happy camper when we met up again... I didn't really run down, it was like standing on a steep sand dune, just step and you slide a few feet, rinse repeat, easy going.

Kenzi's tedious descent down the bowl of Mt. Stol. Every step was unstable on the slippery rocks. 

After about four hrs we're back at Završnice, they've got beds for us and now we've got showers, one of us even got a hot shower...

We took a short hike over to another nearby hut and were entertained by a herd of cattle, horses mixed in too.

One benefit of a year of travel? Getting to sit and watch cows for as long as you want. 

Cows are surprisingly entertaining. 

Aside from the cows/horses, we didn't see a ton of wildlife, except...

We saw some giant ant hills!

The fun didn't end there, while we were eating dinner at Zavrsnice there was a pretty massive thunder storm punctuated by hail that covered everything:

The results of a hailstorm, glad we were not hiking or camping in a tent when this storm hit!

The next morning was a long downhill walk back to civilization, about 3 hrs, mostly on dirt roads which incidentally made us more sore than anything we had hiked on up to that point.

Almost the end of the road...

Toward the end, looking back from where we'd come.

Awesome lake nearly at the end of the hike, perfect for a quick cold swim.

What better way to end a hike than a nice dip in a mountain-fed lake? Great six day hike for me... Kenzi wasn't so sure (so we may be revising some of our future planned hiking trips).