national

Day 28 – Zagreb

Posted on July 24, 2017

If someone steals your Tesla, is it now an Edison?

Today was our day trip tour we had booked to Plitvice Lakes, which is a massive national park with eight main lakes. We left Zagreb at 9am, with a small group totalling fourteen, led by our guide Tomislav. We had an hour and a half drive by bus to our first stop, a small milling village called Rastoke. On the way, Tomislav told us about the region, about the country and its history, including its recent wars in various towns we drove through. Very informative and interesting.

We arrived in Rastoke and had a short while to look around, as well as get a coffee and have a bit of a break. It’s very small, but has some really cool waterfalls and streams and interesting to see the mills.

After our short stop, we drove another thirty minutes or so to get to the Plitvice Lakes. It was insanely busy and crowded there. The line for tickets alone was hectic, but luckily as we were with a tour, we had our tickets pre-booked and were able to go right through.

Inside the national park (which is 100 square miles in size), there were fairly narrow trails leading through, which made it very difficult to walk through and see the sights properly, as there were just people everywhere. The views however made up for it. When you first enter, you’re treated to a great outlook where you can see some of the Lower Lakes as well as the Big Waterfall. We then followed the trail leading down, around the lakes, down to the waterfall itself. The water there is amazing, super clear and has a great aqua-green colour which you don’t see too often.

After our long walk around the Lower Lakes, we arrived at a place to have lunch and a bit of a break before continuing to the Upper Lakes. Again, super crowded, and only two restaurants, so we had some long waits for some pretty average food. Then it was off on a boat to take us across one of the lakes, towards the trail for the Upper Lakes.

Once there, we once again walked around the trail, essentially in a large circle, seeing the lakes and waterfalls in the surrounding forest, before returning to the dock area to catch a short boar trip to another place where we could catch a bus back to the exit.

After a long day of walking, we finally returned to the bus to make our two hour journey back to Zagreb. Most people had a nap on the way back, and by the time we arrived, it was around 9pm and actually had been raining a bit. We said goodbye to the others, and decided to grab a bit of dinner before going back to the hotel, as we had had a nice rest and wanted to try a Japanese place we had read about.

The place was called Time Restaurant & Bar and was only a five minute walk away. It was a really nice place, kind of fancy, but an inviting atmosphere. They had a bar area as well as a restaurant with tables, where we sat and ordered Miso soup, spring rolls and sushi. The food was good, but we were too full to try the dessert which is a shame, because it sounded really good. We might come back tomorrow to try it.

After that, it was back to the hotel for some well-needed sleep. Tomorrow is our last full day here in Zagreb, and here on our holiday. We probably won’t do too much – just spend the time locally in the city.

Day 23 – Prague

Posted on July 19, 2017

It’s just like a bit of weird art.

We started the day by going to the Gerhard Richter exhibition at one of the National Galleries near our apartment. Apparently our tickets also get us into a bunch of other exhibitions around town. He had some really impressive photo-realistic paintings which were the highlight for me.

After walking around the gallery, we walked to the square and immediately needed to stop for a drink and morning tea, as it was insanely hot, and I was hungry. We shared a couple pizzas and had a cold drink, before beginning the long walk to where the other galleries we could visit were located. They were across the river, over near the Prague Castle.

We braved the heat and the many steps, finally arriving at one of the places, a palace, after an hour or so of walking. We entered, only to be told our ticket wasn’t actually valid for this place, or the other few in the area. It looked like it only gets into one other gallery, five minutes from the first. Feels bad man.

Since we had already trekked all that way, we thought we might as well go into Prague Castle again, and have a rest in a shady spot in the Royal Gardens, where it was nice and peaceful.

We sat on a bench under some trees and rested for about an hour, before going back to get some dinner. There was an Italian restaurant I found, near the river, which is apparently great, so we tried it out. It did not disappoint.

One of the best meals we’ve had on this trip so far! Fancy, but hearty and affordable. Some homemade lemonade. Rib-eye steak, mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce. Chocolate cake with lemon, banana, coconut and ice cream. Man I love food.

When we had finished our meal, we walked leisurely back to the apartment, following the river, watching the sunset. We came across this John Lennon Wall on the way back too which was cool.

Tomorrow is our last day in Prague. We have to check-out by 6pm, but our flight isn’t until late (11pm or so), so we’ll be hanging out at the airport! Yay! Not sure what we’ll do during the day, but probably won’t be many photos. Just relaxing, exploring a little more and having a nice lunch before getting organised to leave.

Day 5 – Glendalough

Posted on July 1, 2017

I climb higher and higher, I climb until the entire sun shines on my face.

Another road trip today! This one was a bit shorter though. We drove south to a small seaside village named Greystones, along the east coast of Ireland (about forty-five minutes from Dublin). We had breakfast there at La Creperie, a french cafe overlooking the water. I opted for the Banana and Chocolate crepe.

Once we had finished eating, we drove to our main destination, Glendalough, another forty minutes south. It is located in the giant Wicklow Mountains National Park. We were fortunate with the weather today, and actually had some sunlight and warmth!

When we arrived and parked the car, we began following the hike trail leading up the nearby mountain. There was a short detour to the Glendalough Monastic City, which has some old buildings, ruins and cemetery.

After looking around and taking a few photos, we continued the hike to the Upper Lakes, which was supposedly a 14km hike. The trail winded through beautiful forest and led us further and further up the mountain.

We had been walking for an hour or so when the others decided to head back down, so my sister and I continued on our own to try to reach the top or find a nice outlook of the area.

We managed to find a clearing in the trees after another half an hour or so and took a bunch of photos looking out over the lake. It is quite stunning from up there.

It was hard to tell how much further we had before reaching the top or the end of the trail, so we started heading back down, as we wanted to ensure we got back to Dublin with enough time to get everything organised for our departure tomorrow. We were also pretty hungry.

We met up with the others when we reached the bottom and had lunch at a nearby restaurant. I had a burger (always a reliable choice) and copious amounts of water. Then it was back to Dublin for some rest and final organisation. It’s always a bit sad to leave a country, and Ireland will be no exception, though it’ll be a nice change to have some warm weather for the rest of our trip. Probably too warm, but we shall see.

Tomorrow we fly to Bordeaux – probably a less event-filled blog, as we will be mostly travelling, and won’t arrive until the afternoon, but I will try to do something a bit interesting at least.

Until next time Ireland.