Such a surreal day!

DAY 14

After a long day yesterday, it was hard getting up to a 5:30 alarm this morning. J and I packed our bags for today last night so we’d be able to get up and out to catch our 6:35 ferry back to Split this morning. We made it there in a little over an hour and sprinted to the meeting point of our excursion group for the day. Luckily we knew exactly where they were meeting and got there with a few minutes to spare. I was way less anxious after meeting up with our guide and soon enough we were on the road. 

Our first stop was to a town called Sibenik. It’s another coastal town with very few tourists and we got a walking tour through it and then some free time on our own. We saw a very pretty church, a Game of Thrones shooting location, and learned the history of the town. We spent about an hour and half there and then hit the road to Krka National Park to see the very famous and often talked about waterfalls. When planning this European trip to Croatia, J and I had to decide between Krka National Park and Plitvice. Although both are supposed to be absolutely gorgeous, you can’t swim in the water in Plitvice, so we made the choice to do Krka because we could swim in the fresh waterfalls. This was one of the things I had most been looking forward to on this trip. 

We had many Americans in our group and quite a few our age who we ended up hanging out with the whole time and had a great time with. Once we got to the waterfalls, we got a little tour of the watermills (this was the second water mill built in the world second to Niagara Falls) and for a tutorial on how blacksmiths used to make stuff. Then finally it was time to head to the falls. We got an aerial view first and some picture taking time. The incredible view plus the sound of the water falling was just amazing. It was surreal to see that beauty in real life and not in pictures or on TV. 

As a National Park and major tourist attraction, Krka was beyond crowded and people just lay their stuff out in any spot they want and head on in. It’s a very honor system way of doing things and I was surprised by it, but went with it. There are no major entrances into the water since it’s legit right in nature and you have to find your way in safely. We found a spot away from the crowds at first to get use to the environment. The water was decently clear and perfectly tempered. There was basically gravel at the bottom with many large and not so large boulders there that you could step on to move. We hung away from the giant waterfall at first and then finally made our way through all the crowds and rocks to nab a good spot to just kind of appreciate it and the fact that we were there. We stayed in the water for probably about an hour or so and it was just really awesome. J and I kind of had to pinch ourselves that we were here and experiencing this. We got a little chilly and pruny from being in the water so long so decided to get out and just chill for a bit. We had about another hour before our bus left so just hung around the grounds and grabbed something to drink. 

When it was time to leave the falls you have to take a river boat back to the bus and the line was ridiculously long (like two hours, no joke), but since we were part of an excursion, we didn’t have to wait and got right on. Time is money after all. We cruised down the river to our van and headed out to a wine and cheese tasting, the last destination in this excursion. We got to sample local Croatian white wine, rosé, red wine (I passed on this) and cherry brandy. I’m not much of a wine drinker (Coors light FTW), but it was fun to taste a little bit and the cheese was phenomenal too. 

After a long day away, it was time to make our way back to Split to catch our speedboat back to Hvar. Since the last ferry back there was at 5:45 and we knew we wouldn’t get back until at least 6:30, we had arranged a private speedboat to take us back to the island. We met our driver when we returned to Split and he took us on an amazing sunset Mediterranean private speed boat ride back to our hotel. It was pretty surreal. Like we couldn’t believe we were doing this. It was actually amazing. The sky was such a perfect pink and orange and reflecting off the sea. It was just spectacular and capped off such an awesome day. And after such a fantastic day, we wanted a fantastic night out on the town. We were going to head back to the Hula Hula bar we stopped by last night. Hopefully it has power (and cute guys) tonight. Then who knows...