Croatia in three parts: 3

My time in Croatia was coming to a close, and even though I was ready to see Emily again, I wasn’t quite ready to leave this secret paradise I had found. We woke up early our last morning and walked to the bus waiting at the end of the quay. The six of us, me and my five roommates, sat in three rows of two. I sat with Grace and we talked as the bus wound its way up into the mountains. We were going to Krka National Park.

Our Bus2Alps guide, Tiernan, said it was her favorite place in the world, which is pretty high praise from someone who has travelled all over Europe, so I knew it had to be good. Driving up to the entrance almost felt like the national parks at home–a lodge with shuttle buses, some cabins along the road, and a grassy landscape with the occasional tree (I guess that’s like Zion or the Grand Canyon). The bus went down a really windy road into a deep glacially created canyon with an ultramarine river flowing through it.

We took a winding road down to the parking lot, where the trail started.  We walked through a beautiful forest filled with the sound of water.  We had to walk over boardwalks that crossed streams and waterfalls.  The water was always a deep blue-green.  We passed through places that seemed like they were part of a completely different forest.

The whole time I thought that Krka was one of the most beautiful places I’d ever been.  I had yet to see the grand finale.

I basically sat in the grass and looked at the waterfalls for the next two hours.  It was cool out, but it was warm in the sun.  Some people were swimming, while others ate at the little restaurant nearby (I was out of kuna, the currency in Croatia).  On the way back up to the bus, we walked past more waterfalls rushing towards Skradinski Buk, the main waterfalls.  I sat next to Grace, and we talked for a while about our lives until we eventually fell asleep.  I woke up in time to see the sunset while we were driving through Slovenia, back to Firenze.