June 18 - Plitvice Lakes National Park and the HOMELAND

Plitvice Lakes National Park and the HOMELAND

We left Rovinj for about a 3 hour drive to Plitvice (pleet-veet-say) National Park.  It’s a series of 16 cascading lakes with too many waterfalls to count, all inside of a fairly steep canyon.  Our guidebook described it as Niagra Falls inside of the Grand Canyon.  Like many of my previous posts, the pictures do a better job explaining it.  Crystal clear water, with so many waterfalls, and all the lakes were full of fish.  It’s too bad fishing is prohibited there.  

At times, we would be walking along the bank of the lake, but most of the time, we would be walking on man-made boardwalks.  I’d guess over a mile worth of boardwalks, and most of the boardwalks had water rushing underneath them (and sometimes over the top of them).  Just really amazing to be able to walk around all of the lakes and see them up close.  Part of the hike put us on a boat to run up the longest/largest lake.   Just lots of beautiful views – very hard to try to explain it all.  We hiked out of the canyon and hopped on a bus back to our car, and got to say goodbye to the area by taking in some more amazing views from the top of the canyon.

Can you count the fish?

View from the edge - waterfalls right beneath us...

Perfect timing to catch momma duck and duckling.

And then we were on our way to spend the next 5 days in Jen’s ancestral homeland.  The largest city near where her great grandfather grew up is called Karlovac (car-low-vats).  It’s about 45 minutes southwest of Zagreb, the capital.  20 minutes northwest of Karlavac are a few villages where her great grandfather immigrated from.  He lived in a village (17-20 homes) called Ertic (err-teach).  5 kilometers closer to Karlavac is a village called Sopcic Vrh (sop-cheech vur), which means Sopcic Point.  Right as the sun was setting, we arrived at these two villages.  They are way out in the country and remind me a lot of the farmland in the Snoqualmie Valley, but with more rolling hills.  In Ertic, we stopped next to a house and saw that the outside wall had the name of Ivan Sopcic on it.  Jen was pretty much peeing her pants at this point.  It was about 9:30, so we decided not to start trying to talk to people.  That will come tomorrow, but tonight marked the culmination of a lot of work, a lot of money, and a lot of sacrifice (ancestors who left the area, family watching our kids so we can be here, and Jen’s work to find her ancestors and these two villages).  A very surreal experience tonight, as you might imagine, as it’s not every day that you get to visit for the first time the area where your ancestors lived over 150 years ago. 

Sunset as we get close to the villages

Lipnik first - where the parish and cemetery are located

Then Ribnik - where you turn off the main road to head for Sopcic Vrh and Ertic.

WE FOUND IT!

Birthplace of Janko (Henry) Sopcic, Jen's great great grandfather.  His wife, Anna Sopcic, also lived in Ertic when she married Janko.  We think she was born here, but haven't found the records yet.

CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW!

June 17 - Rovinj and Motovun

Rovinj and Motovun

We got to watch the US soccer game vs Ghana at midnight last night, which means we slept in a bit and spent a lazy morning soaking in all of Rovinj, doing some souvenir  shopping and getting some more bread and salami from the store for lunch.  Because the old town is much smaller than Dubrovnik, we could see the whole thing in a few hours.  That left us the afternoon to do something else – either take a boat to two islands that are connected by a bridge, or head for a village in the country on the top of  a hill.  Because it was mostly cloudy and I hadn't found a European Speedo to wear on the islands, we opted for Motovun.   If we ever come back, we’re going to the islands though.... with that Speedo.

We drove north for about an hour, past a fjord (Norway in Croatia too apparently) to a cool little town at the top of a steep hill called Motovun (moto-voon).  This is truffle country as well, so we learned a lot about hunting truffles (there are black and white truffles).  The city of Motovun had some incredible views.  I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.  

Overall, a very beautiful area, again with lots of variety in the landscape at fairly short distances.  We’re glad we have the car, even if it means taking wrong turns and getting a little lost.  There are not nearly as many buses in this part of Croatia, so it would be difficult to trek outside of the city.

Rovinj - Old town

Lots of great stained-glass in the Rovinj cathedral

Like Dubrovnik and Korcula, very much a city that is also being lived in.  Hard to see, but a lady hanging her laundry on the covered balcony.

The Rovinj lighthouse

Motovun

Motovun bell tower and chapel

The gates into the city.  Notice the balcony on the second floor.  This is where the citizens would pour boiling water or oil onto intruders trying to break into the city.  Watch out Jen!

Black truffles are in season.  Each one probably cost about $50.

Goodbye Motovun

Hello again, Rovinj

Enjoying the sunset on the rocks

A few other things we've been meaning to mention:

Ice Cream (Sladoled) update:  the past few days we've tried coconut, pannacotta, nutella, and snickers.  We've tried so many flavors that it's getting hard to keep track of them all.

Things we've seen here that are different from home (not in a bad way, just observations).  We mention them only because that is what makes travel so interesting - seeing how different cultures do things differently.

1) While driving up the coast, we saw a number of sedans pulling camping trailers- BMW, Mercedes, Audi, and all the other less expensive brands.  Obviously the trailers are not as big as some of the ones we see at home, but it has been surprising to see them pulling campers with the smaller cars/sedans.  I guess Tyson and Calley can get a trailer now and pull it with his Toyota.   They also have a different looking hitch to hook up the campers to the cars, which you can ask me about when we get home.  

2) We have only seen 1 pickup truck, which was obviously owned by someone very rich (pulling a huge boat behind it).

3) Parking is different - since the streets are very narrow, it is ok to pull up onto the sidewalk to park.  And if a car needs to stop to run something into a store, they just stop in the road and turn on their hazard lights.  Driving is a bit different too.  As I mentioned earlier, most of the intersections do not have street signs.  And folks use their horns a lot more.  No turns on red, and the yellow light turns on between red and turning green.

4) the size of everything - everything in europe is so much smaller. The cars are just the beginning - no SUVs at all.  There are also no Costco-sized packages.  Even the drinking glasses are much smaller than at home.  This probably is one of the reasons why everyone is fit and skinny here - 4 oz of juice is what they pour for us, but they only take a small sip for themselves. Although I must say that the personal sized pizza for dinner has been difficult to finish, as have been some of the other dinners we have ordered.  The point though is that at home it feels like there is an emphasis on 'bigger', 'now 30% more', 'footlong sandwiches', super sized everything etc. We definitely live in a culture of excess.  I think I prefer the simplicity and size of things over here in Europe.