Wrapping up Croatia: Plitvice Lakes National Park & The Istrian Peninsula

Wrapping up Croatia: Plitvice Lakes National Park & The Istrian Peninsula

Greetings friends, family, and fellow travelers,

Welcome to our final blog on Croatia! We appreciate you continuing to read these and coming along for the ride.

Sara’s Thoughts:

Hello from Rovinj! Rovinj – where we have now stayed for a week - is an excellent base from which to explore the Istrian region of Croatia, which fuses Roman, Venetian, and Habsburg influences.

The Istrian region is known for truffles, and here I had some of my most delicious meals of the trip thus far, including black gnocchi with peaches and shrimp (Pula and technically not a truffle dish, but I sat next to Jonah, who was eating ravioli with truffles, so truffle by osmosis?), Adriatic sea bream with truffles (Rovinj), and fuzi with truffles (Motovun). A highlight was the truffle gnocchi that we ate as part of our truffle hunt and cooking class with Karlić Tartufi. The kids helped the instructor roll out the dough, which was served with a sauce of white truffle butter, black truffle oil, and shaved black truffles. They also offered us a sample of their other products, including three types of meats, two types of cheeses, and truffle honey.

I continue to carve out 1:1 time with the kids as much as possible. In Pula, Calla and I went shopping for new outfits, and the following day, she and I wandered around the charming streets of Rovinj together. Armed with a new purse (at no cost after charming the manager of the clothing store), Calla was eager to fill it with treasures. I gave her two Euros, which she decided she wanted to spend on a bracelet. I had to spot her three Euros, but she was very excited to buy it all on her own and show it off once she arrived back home. Last night, I took Jonah to Monte, a Michelin star restaurant which is considered to be among the best in all of Croatia. It’s rare to see a restaurant of Monte’s caliber offer a kid’s menu, and as someone who loves indulging in the occasional leisurely tasting menu while traveling, it was such a treat to be joined by Jonah. We lingered for three hours chatting over delicious course after course. It is in these moments - when Jonah’s younger siblings aren’t around - that I am reminded he is almost a teenager, and am particularly grateful for his company and camaraderie.

In between Split and Rovinj, we spent two days and one night at the Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was absolutely jaw dropping in its majestic beauty. Per multiple online suggestions, we hiked the upper lakes in the late afternoon and the lower lakes the following morning. This turned out to be just the thing to do to (mostly) avoid crowds. I’m so glad we opted for the detour to visit. Please see a gallery of the incredible photos we captured:

We’ve spent a couple of days exploring several hill towns: Hum, Motovun, and Groznjan. Hum is known as “the smallest town in the world.” Tourist trap? 100%. But was it adorable? I mean, kind of? In Motovun, we wandered around, looking at the gorgeous hilltop scenery and eating truffle pasta for lunch. In Groznjan, a small medieval-style village filled with artisans and galleries, Calla and I bought new necklaces from local producers. On Friday night, we attended the Fishermen’s Festival in Vrsar, a small town just north of Rovinj. Fishermen from around the area set up food stalls and cooked everything from mussels to sardines to crab. We loved sampling fresh food from several booths, but more than that, we loved participating in such a community-based, local event.

We spent our very last day in Croatia at the beach, where the kids roamed the rocks and swam. I can’t believe we’ve already come to the end of our time in Croatia. We’ve loved it here, and surprisingly, encountered very few American tourists here, despite it being a popular travel destination from the US. Now that we have been for a month, the reality of not going home until next summer is slowly starting to hit me. We are building in moments of normalcy and routine, lest you fear that it is all “go go go” for us. We spend hours reading, drawing, writing, and playing games. We’ve also been trying to watch as much of the Olympics as we can, though have only managed to find commentary in German, Austrian, and Italian through the Croatian TV channels. Feeling reinvigorated by the upcoming election, Justin is working with our home county to procure absentee ballots so that we can vote for Kamala Harris in November. Next up: I’m looking forward to our time in Slovenia, which will include farm stays, outdoor activities, and sleepaway camp for the boys (aka a whole week of time with just Calla!)

Justin’s Soapbox:

Plitvice National Park - this place was absolutely gorgeous, and was well suited to getting a family of five hiking. I could go on and on about how gorgeous the lakes and waterfalls are, but one of the first things that struck me is how well built and maintained the trails are. Much of it is on elevated wood bridges which criss-cross the lakes at various points, and while it can be a bit annoying to deal with the crowds of people traversing them with you, it's nice to know that Croatia is putting so much effort into making visiting these incredible lakes such a welcoming experience. 

Perhaps someone can explain to me how it's possible for water to be as blue as it is here. I don't just mean that the lakes overall are a beautiful shade of blue (which they are), but that even as you look into the clear water that's only two feet deep, you can see the teal color in it. It's almost like that fake blue water they put in mini golf courses, but no dye here. This was also a good opportunity for me to use the "big camera" - an actual Canon camera instead of my iPhone - to get some of the pictures here. 

Please check out the gallery above - if you want more photos let me know and we can add more!

The temperature finally come down to the mid 70's for a few days so it was perfect hiking weather. Given the long drives that bookended coming to the park, 2 days of hiking here was just what was needed to stretch out and feel a bit healthier. But seriously though how is that water so colorful?

The city of Rovinj itself has some wonderful views, and while we've done some walking around here, the main advantage of this location is that it provides a good platform for day trips into neighboring towns around this region of Croatia (Istria). The city of Pula was a must-see given it's enormous Amphitheater. Built at this same time as the coliseum in Rome (around 100 AD), it doesn't disappoint. There was an adjacent exhibit of numerous gold rings that were found dating from the same era, and I regret not taking any closeup photos of them. It's fascinating to be continually reminded that people from 2,000 years ago would of course make ornate accessories and similar items. They had been doing it for thousands of years already. But seeing such well preserved examples feels more revealing of the human aspects of the time than seeing giant stone ruins. The amphitheater is grand, but the tiny figurines in the display case at the Temple of Augustus makes me think about the ways in which people have always cared about their craft, artwork, and creating works to inspire imagination.

Sara did a good job of recapping Motovan, but I have to include this photo of the city here on it’s hill. It just looks so striking, almost organic, perched atop this small mountain.

There’s too many highlights this week to do justice to, but the town of Groznjan merits special mention from me. It’s also perched on a hill like Motovan, though somewhat smaller, and is home to a community of strikingly talented artists. Through the stone doorways you’d find one artists studio after another, many of them in mid-project. There were some incredible paintings and sculpture works to be seen. This was much less formal than many artist towns I’ve passed through before - one doorway led to a small dusty gallery area with a sign pointing upstairs, and after three flights up an apartment staircase the kids and I suddenly found ourselves accidentally intruding on the artist amidst additional paintings upstairs, in his own apartment. This sort of thing seems to happen all the time and is welcome, and he happily showed us more paintings and explained his work downstairs. Similar scenes played out as we did our best to break the language barrier with other artists. I don’t have a ton of photos of the artwork as there was some sensitivity about not wanting tourists to snap a pic instead of considering buying, but this shot gives a general impression of the street scene:

The other aspect of Groznjan that really stuck with me is the fascinating look of some of the side streets, alleyways and nooks in the corners of the streets. I find it hard to describe what I loved so much about them or why I found them more unique than the other historic Croatian towns we’ve now seen, perhaps it is something about the smaller scale and more “cozy” look they have. The way plants and small trees are incorporated over doorways and between windows, along with the handcrafted stonework gives some of these areas a very dreamlike quality. I took a number of photos of examples of this but they don’t really have the same impact having been there in person. Again the word “organic” comes to mind. Perhaps its all the more special that I can’t put my finger on why the look of these Groznjan alcoves resonated with me… it’s just some intangible aesthetic that struck a chord for me personally.

Jonah’s Musings:

This week, I am going to write about the beautiful hikes we went on in Plitvice Lakes and our time together in Rovinj, Istria. 

July 23. 2024: Today we went to a new hotel. We only had booked it for 1 night but we still had a lot planned. On our first day we went on a hike in Plitvica, a national park. At first, I wasn't too thrilled because I usually hate hikes but this hike was different, it wasn't that hot out, and it didn't have much elevation. There was also another reason as well, the hike was AMAZING. It looked like a Minecraft lush cave but in real life, it was actually so cool looking that I was actually glad about going on this hike.

July 24, 2024: Today was kind of like part 2 to yesterday we went on another hike in the same area but instead it was in the lower area of the park. I don't remember exactly what the big difference between these 4 mile hikes were but I think that the second hike was a little bit more fun. I think this was mostly because the surroundings looked even better than the first hike.

July 25, 2024: Today was a very fun day, not only did we arrive at a new hotel, but we also went to a Roman amphitheater in Pula. An amphitheater was a type of colosseum that the Romans seemed to really enjoy making. Their purpose, you ask? Well, these massive arenas were built for the sole purpose of fighting. Not only that it was public. That's right, if you lived 2 thousand years ago you could literally buy a seat and watch gladiators battle to the death against animals and other gladiators. Of course, it isn't used like that today anymore it is now used to perform concerts. This was a really cool ancient structure, and I think it's my favorite place on this world trip

July 28, 2024: This day was very interesting, we went on a truffle hunt. If any of you are scratching your heads wondering what a truffle is I will explain it to you. A truffle is a type of mushroom, I was actually surprised when I heard that was what it was, because I thought it was some type of fish. Truffles are very valued in this part of the world as they aren't the easiest to get and are very popular in cooking. The way we were hunting for them was with these dogs, but it turns out it was less of a hunt and more of a show as we weren't supposed to really find any. Plus, even the ones we did find the dogs would instantly eat it. So, it was more of the guide showing us how they would find truffles. 

After the little tour we went inside where we had some food and helped cook lunch with the guides. There was an appetizer plate with some sausage, salami, cheese, and lots of truffle dishes. We then made gnocchi (a type of pasta) and dessert. I was so full from the gnocchi that I wasn't really hungry for the donut holes.

July 29, 2024: I have been waiting for this moment this entire trip; fishing. My mom arranged a time to do it with a guide and some other people, so I was very excited. Yep, I love it. Fishing is one of my favorite things to do because the feeling of just casting your line out knowing you have a chance of reeling in a catch just makes me happy. I also love reeling in the fish taking it off the line and just putting it in a bucket. I don't know why I like doing it, but it just gives me a feeling of satisfaction. So that is exactly what my dad and I did today. We had to wake up at 5:00 in the morning to "get there on time" because the drive was an hour. But it turns out we woke up much earlier than we needed to because we arrived 20 minutes early. We made our way to the boat where we were going to fish for 4 hours strait which something I was excited about. In the first hour we were my dad, and I were able to catch about 4 - 5 fish. But the luck seemed to disappear. Because eventually we started a losing streak. But in the last hour we caught some more and the people next to us who had caught lots of them gave us some of theirs. All in all, we made off with about 11 fish and they tasted really good.

Simon’s Reflection:

A few days ago, my family and I drove 3 hours to a new Airbnb. I did not expect it to be so big! I really like my bed. In the morning, we had really good yogurt for breakfast. 

Plitvice just wasn't my style. It wasn't boring, but it just wasn't what my mind found very exciting or interesting. I liked the [Pula] Amphitheater a lot. I thought it was interesting hearing a story about how it was almost destroyed and taken away but then it wasn't. I wish I could watch Roman gladiator fights.

After breakfast I went outside and there were so many lizards, one of them was 4 inches long. When we had dinner we went to this nice place, I ordered squid, my sister ordered a different kind of squid, my brother ordered ravioli, and mom ordered a fisherman's pie. I liked mine the most.

In the morning, I ate yogurt again. And again, I went outside and saw so. many lizards! And now I am blogging! And now I'm done!

Calla’s Corner:

Mommy: Calla, what was your favorite thing we’ve done in Istria?

Calla: The Fisherman’s Festival. It was really fun but the thing I didn’t like was that you didn’t let me go on that jumping really high thing because it cost too much money.

Mommy: To be fair, I had already paid for you to go on the bouncy house and on the go karts, plus you were too small for the jumping thing.

Calla: I was not, Mommy.

Mommy: Tell me about truffle hunting.

Calla: I didn’t find any truffles. Oh, fiddlesticks! I want to talk about the oysters.

Mommy: We already talked about the oysters. Tell me about the truffles. Or the jewelry you bought.

Calla: I like buying the very lovely bracelet. It was very cute and lovely. I only could buy one thing because I don’t have money anymore because I spent it.

Mommy: Anything else you want to say about our time in Istria over the last week?

Calla: I liked doing the amphitheater. I loved doing the face point that Dad washed off [Ed note: So it would not stain the sheets in our AirBnb - SCS]. I was really mad that day.

Mommy: Is that it?

Calla: Yup.

[Addendum] Calla says, “I love you family and my friends.”

As always, please keep in touch!! See you in Slovenia!

xo,
Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, & Calla