So with my little stop over in Bosnia done and dusted, it was time for me to think of what to do next. I finally had a plan! Of sorts. Also helps a lot when you have friends in a nearby country you can aim to go visit.

So with my sort of plan in place. I headed back to Split. The reason for this was so that I could take a day trip to the Krka lakes. If there are two areas inland of Croatia that are must see. It is the Krka lakes and the Plitvice lakes. They are absolutely stunning to behold.

It’s always funny how some things in life just happen that make you start to question coincidence or fate. I had one of those moments in Spilt. The day I arrived and dropped my gear of to the air bnb I was staying in, I decided to go walk around the old town and harbour in the afternoon. Low and behold as I’m walking about I see the Dalvin, the boat I called home the previous week just docked up after I left her in Dubrovnik! I made my way over and sure enough the crew were on board and went and said hi. These guys welcomed me with open arms and told me they had taken on the next lot of with Hayley, my tour guide and they were out and about doing the zip lining. So I helped out the boys get the food for the dinner that night and they invited me around as their guest for dinner. This is what I mean by they really consider you family.

Also seems that one of the guys had A really rough night and they needed an extra hand. To say thanks I offered to help the crew out for the night. So I ended up meeting the next tour of people by helping serve up dinner and being the barman for the night to get the boys some rest. Was the least I could do for these guys and be happy to do it again for them any time. Was even made a member of the crew!
If you ever want to do a tour of Croatia then hit up the Mario and the Dalvin. You’ll not regret it! They are the best bunch of guys I’ve met.

So after my epic night with the boys. was time for me to head to the Krka lakes. This was something I’d been looking forward to and I tell you what it did not disappoint. Meet a lovely group who I got to hang with which is always nice to meet new friends. The lakes themselves were great and was a nice hot day to enjoy the waters.

You only really needed A couple hours there. By the time to take the ferry from Krka to the lakes and them swim and sun bake for a bit its already Avro. And to be honest I was more itching to get to the next destination. Plitvice!
The one thing I’ll say about the buses in Europe is they are way better than home. Apps that are easy to get your tickets, decent sized seats and enough leg room and most have free Wi-Fi. This helps the time pass pretty quick actually.
I ended up staying at this nice hostel just outside of Plitvice and was fantastic was just a little place and out in the country away from everything and beautiful days and some absolutely stunning night skies and fire fly’s everywhere!
It was a great way to rest and chill before heading to the lakes the next day.
I met some really amazing people at this place that I can call good friends. Quite a few of us got along really well and three of us ended up going to the lake together and exploring this beautiful place. I am sure I took like 500+ photos of the lakes, it was that stunning and that big. The lakes themselves you could easily walk 15km and still not have seen everything. But I got some mind blowing photo’s and a good workout.

If there was one place everyone must go to its this place and seeing the images of what its like in winter id go just to see them then as well.
But big tip: Go early before the crowds. It is a mad house when the crowds arrive and the walk ways are crowded, again that wasn’t even in high season.
One of the guys with us talked about this place we should go see and was meant to be really beautiful and after seeing the photos, it looked worth while. So we hitch hiked to a place called Slunj as at first he thought it was 3 or so km away when it was actually close to 40km. We managed to get a ride with a lovely couple to take all three of us and got there in one piece.
What makes Slunj special is that the town has river that they had built houses and had old water mills to make use of the river. We were excited to go see them. unfortunately upon arrival we found out that they are all privately owned, most were closed for the day and the one that was working would let you see it but had to pay to go to her back yard. So overall a bit of a let down. we saw some lovely buildings at least.

The fun part came after we decided to call it quits and head back to the hostel. That became a challenge. It took us over an hour to get a ride and became that start to a bad story with a Russian and small van. long story short when we arrived it felt great to still be alive! That was definitely enough excitement for one day.
The next day I headed to Zagreb and the last stop before I left Croatia. It was a short bus ride but when I arrived I was pretty shattered and didn’t end up doing a hell of allot. I caught up with one of the people from Plitvice as they made their way to Venice. But otherwise was eat and catch up on sleep. I should have take some more time to stay a bit longer than just the afternoon and evening but one thing I came away from Croatia is that I would happily come back there again and glad to have a some places I haven’t fully seen to come back to.
Now that Croatia was done it was finally time to go see my friends in Austria!