Times they have a' changed

So the Plitvice Lakes area is a popular spot - perhaps as popular as ever - though it is evident that times have changed.

We stayed at one of 3 hotels - all with a definite 1970s look. Our hotel has massive conference rooms, a night club, a banquet hall, outdoor concrete ping pong tables, tennis courts, a bowling alley and a sauna. The hotel is very well kept, but the grounds have fallen into disrepair - many a loose or missing stone on the paths. The night club, conference rooms and banquet hall are empty and the ping pong tables are in need of paint and nets. Beyond the hotels, there are large abandoned buildings throughout the grounds - one had an elaborate outer staircase and what looks like a solarium (Or maybe an "atrium"-I don't know the difference).

It certainely appears that this may have been one of the premier resorts of the Yugoslav era - people may have saved all year (or years) to come for a few days - or maybe elites and party leaders came more easily. Several factors have contributed to change the park's situation. The war in Croatia actually began with a skirmish here in 1991 (can't be good for tourism) and this area was dominated by Croat Serbs until 1995's Peace Accords. Peace brought openness and closure - not many Bosnians can afford to come here and I'm not sure many Serbs would feel comfortable. The rest of Europe has steamed in - cars from half the EU were in the parking lot and we passed a lot of tour bus loads along the paths. It seems that the park has become a stop on the bus route or a day trip in from the coast. The park stays just as busy but the hotels are a shadow of their former selves.

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more photos on Flickr

Click the Flickr link for more photos

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Photos from Plitvice Lakes

Plitvices Lakes National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site (read more HERE).

It is amazing.... here are just a few pics

Plitvice Lakes National Park

Everything we've read and everyone we asked put Plitvice as the top priority in Croatia. Accessible only on the slow bus routes that connect the capital with the 2 largest cities on the coast, it is a slow ride through the countryside. The 3 hotels on park grounds all look to have been built in the 1970s - and the room looks that way too.

None of this matters - the Park more than lives up to billing: water flowing from top to bottom, with boardwalks going around, over and on top of water falls.

Photos to come

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to the Balkans we go?

The term "Balkans" has to me indicated the territories that comprised the Former Yugoslavia. In reading up
to prepare for this trip, I have found otherwise. It seems that no one ever called Slovenia "Balkan" - they have a Germanic society but their Slavic language and small size led them to throw their lot in with the Yugos.
Croatia considers it's deep Catholicism as the reason it is not really "Balkan" (or even "Western Balkan" as the Slovene press refers to them).
So I didn't really enter the Balkans last week after a 10 minute tunnel left Austria and the Croatian policeman who just stamped my passport would tell me that I have to head further south and or east.
maybe the next trip ...... :)

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Getting no flies, just honey

Honey is a major gift shop item here in Slovenia. The product range looks remarkably similar to the maple syrup gifts you can buy in Vermont, Quebec and other places - bottles of various sizes, honey of various colors, with or without honeycomb, litle candies, dipping spoons and more. As a kid, we used a lot of honey and I like the stuff, but I'm not even tempted to lug a glass jar of sticky agricultural product in my bag or through 3 sets of customs in the next two weeks.
I presume that all this honey production just might relate to all of the buzzing around here. At home, I never see bees - never. I don't look for them, but they never are just buzzing around when I'm sitting outside. Bees are the dominant insect here - not to the point of annoyance (Lisa would disagree) but they are always around. They like to check out your beer, the dressing on your salad or, as we witnessed at the farmers market today, sliced melons wrapped in plastic - must be like bee torture. We walked by the farmers market after closing and there was a mini swarm on the melon stall's trash heap.
That's the buzz here in Ljubljana (ha ha) - we go to Zagreb tomorrow.

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I feel sLOVEnia

We are here in Ljubljana. While it has only been an official capital a relatively short time, "it has been preparing for centuries" - according to one of many brochures put out by the hard working tourist bureau. We would agree - this is a wonderful place to spend time. There is a tourism push - I think the bureau underwrites some cheap tours and bike rentals. Slovenia joined the EU in 2004, the Euro monetary union in 2007 and was the first former communist state to serve as EU president. They rank on the low end in a lot of EU categories but have a high overall standard of living (there is some tough competition there). The culture and architecture feels like a blend of Italy and Austria (shocker) but there is a dash of Communist bloc architecture mixed in - especially once you leave the Old Town. Any amount of Slovene you can speak seems to please folks - I've added "very much" to my "thank you" - need to learn "check please" (the checks are always a pleasant surprise after Austria and Germany).

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