Plitvice National Park, Croatia

Plitvice Lakes National Park is a collection of dozens of bright blue lakes surrounded by a part deciduous, part alpine forest. There are wooden boardwalks snaking through the various lakes, giving an up close and personal view of the place. Waterfalls and streams connect all the lakes and the park is big enough to keep you occupied for the entire day. But due to my inability to remeber to turn up the volume on my alarm clock, I had two hours. You might think they would have a bus going to Plitvice sometime between 6:00 and 12:00, given that there are six daily, but apparently convinience is not a priority. Anyways, after a long, annoying day, I made it to Plitvice at five o'clock, only to find out that the last bus leaves at seven. And it was raining. But why let the little things get you down? I made the most of my two hours here, deciding that, while I could just stay a night, rain was predicted the next day as well. The lakes and forests are nice, though I think it would be much better with some sun to really see the color of the water and clarity of the pools. Here are the photos though, and I hope they look alright, it is really really hard to tell with the monitor I am using:

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Details:
The buses to Zagreb from both Split and Zadar stop in Plitvice. From Split, the fare is $29/149kn and takes around six hour; there are six daily departures (6:00, 12:00, 14:00, 17:45, 20:15, 22:45). From Plitvice to Split, the times are 3:30, 13:23, 13:50, 14:20, 15:30, and 23:55. If those times aren't convinient for you, try taking a bus to Zadar ($22/114kn, 3.5 hours) and taking the bus from there, though I don't think this will typically get you anywhere and tickets are cheaper if you buy them as a single journey. A nice note about the Croatian bus system: you can buy your tickets on the bus but if you book in advance and miss it, you can get a 90% or so refund. Also, they charge a $1.50/7kn fee for putting your bags below the cabin, though on uncrowded rides, you can easily bring (sneak?) your bags in one of the seats.. Once I got to Zadar, the next bus to Plitvice was at 14:30 ($17/87kn, 2.5 hours). You'll be happy to know that directly across the street from the bus station in Zadar is a massive Kozum supermarket, so restock and eat there. The bus will leave you at either entrance 2 or entrance 1 (entrance 2 is first, coming from the coast). A pretty central place to start is entrance 2. From there, I would recommend doing the upper lakes, without the uppermost loop and then going to the lower lakes. To get to the upper lakes start, take the boat across the lake just downhill from entrance 2 and then follow route C until bus station 3. The uppermost lake is a bit uninteresting compared to the rest and the path that goes around it is somewhat long. Basically, take the station 3 bus back instead of the station 4 bus. Because of the buses, you are able to walk one-way, reducing the crowds you see and allowing for a more "efficient" visit. If you aren't short on time or money, I would consider looking into staying at the town just north of the park that has pools just like in Plitvice inside the village, which looked SO cool driving by (there are two villages right next to eachother and it is the second and bigger of the two). The entrance fee to the park is $18/100kn or $10/55kn for students and the last transport in the park goes around 20:00 in the summer.