Month: August 2015

Today, we put on our swimsuit and walked to the car. We drove through the Mediterranean scrub like we did in Cape Town and Santa Barbará to a tiny town on the sores of a lake. In the lake, there were many boats. The boats were to take us across the lake to Krka National Park. We caught the 3rd one to the boardwalk to the waterfalls. We had to pay to get on the trail, and for the bathroom, wich Sam had to use. The waterfalls were touristy, but beautiful.

 

 

 

The water was clear, so we could see all the fish. There were thousands and thousands of fish!

 

There is a frog in the picture.

Then, we swam in the pond below the waterfall. The water was shallow in some parts, but deep in others. In the lake, there were many islets with bushes and trees on them. One of the most far out islands had a colony of ants living on it. There were also spiders there too. The ants there were trapped there and the island was all they would ever see.

Playing near the islands.

 

 

On one of the right offshore islands.

We had some yummy pancakes that we saw being made before our eyes. On our boat back to the village, we saw a couple swans.

 

 

For lunch we ate at a restraunt with toys. The streets down that town were amazing.

Then, we drove back down to Split. In split, we left Clara and walked to the palace. In the palace, there was a cathedral and a temple for Jupiter. I wonder why they encourage two religions there. I wonder witch one the person who built it was.

The Cathedral

Jupiters temple (I expected a picture of a planet).

We walked back through the palace to a resturaunt where we got ice cream. We also got Clara. Clara went to get her picture taken with gladiators. Then, she took Sam and I to get our picture taken with Gladiators.

Our pictures with Gladiators

Sam wanted to buy a soccer scarf like the locals wore to the soccer game, so we went to the store that sold them. A stray cat had given birth to a litter of kittens under the store's floor. The shopkeeper looked after the kittens and so did the mother.

One of the kittens.

We walked to a seafood resturaunt. I got peach juice and Sam got grape juice. Sam looked like he was drinking wine.

After dinner, we played with the kids in the courtyard.they all spoke Croatian except one kid, whom we used as a translator.

The child with the black and yellow striped shirt was our translator.

As we were walking through a plaza, we saw a place where there were trays of milk, water, and cat food. There were 8 stray cats there and more were coming. People were feeding them this food. One family gave us some of their cat treats to share feeding time with. A girl broght a cat ballon to the spot.

The cats.

 

Daddy tried to get cash from the ATM machine, but it didn't work. He tried it 3 times, but it still didn't work. On the way to our car, we saw a dirty diaper on the street.

The ATM machine

On the way out of the city,we drove through the industrial area.

The hills were prettier than the city.

 

The dirt was as red as Namibia.

The mountains got rockier.

Sam and I each had two Mozart Balls.

Eventually, the landscape looked a little bit like central Namibia( See “Back Into the Desert” ).

 

 

 

Sam got mad at me for taking pictures so he tried to block my picture.

Once, we saw a lake.

Then we came to the sea. It was in a town called Šibenik, along the shore of the bay. The shore across the bay was covered in trees.

 

We walked into the city through narrow alleys to a resturaunt with slow service. Every other shop had ice cream. Sam and I had spaghetti for lunch. After lunch, we walked over to a cathedral with a gruesome crucifix. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

 

In front of the cathedral

Then, we went to the fortress through more narrow alleys.

Inside the fort, we got lemon ice cream. We also saw the Adriatic Sea.

From the top of the fort.

The fort

We kept driving to a city called Split, were we stayed in the second oldest building in Split. Daddy and Clara wanted to see a soccer game, so we had to go and wait in a line to buy tickets. In the stadium, the fans were obvious. They all started beating drums and waving hands. Then, they waved flags and put a tarp over everybody. Last, they lifted their scarfs up.

1 st

2nd

3rd

Daddy nicknamed player #5 on the white team “The Goon.” Can you see him?

The Goon is the one who the guy with the Orange shoes is pointing to.

At one point, I thought a fire had been started in the crowd. Then I realized that it was a flare.

The teams tied 2-2.

 

 

We packed up or bags in the car and drove out of Slovenia. It was misty and mysterious until we left the national park. After a while, we were getting restless. We wanted something exciting to happen, but instead we were stuck in traffic. The border between Slovenia and Croatia seemed like it was just around the corner, but it took forever to get there. When we finally got there, it took a while to get our passport stamped. It was strange, because there was another customs 100m from the first one that we had to go through too. In Croatia, we stopped at a nature reserve and took a hike. The hike was to a waterfall that would have been beautiful if it was spring.

Cliff that the waterfall would come down if it was wet.

Luckily, there was a small pool that had horsehair worms, fire belleyed toads, and salamanders. We caught the toads. One toad was hugging another.

Looking for the toads

Catching the toads

Toad eggs

The hugging toads

 

The walk back also had a grape vine farm. It looked like Santa Barbará and Cape Town.

 

The town we were to stay in was shabby and industrial. The paint on the buildings was peeling and some building were wrecked because of the Croatian revolution from Yugoslavia. Every single building had graffiti.

 

 

 

 

 

One building that had pictures of primates on it had its whole side torn off. Half of the staircase had been destroyed so it was impossible to walk upstairs (not that we went in it ).

I am glad we didn't have to spend the night there.

We parked in a parking garage and walked to a coffe shop that had ice cream. Sam got coffe and I got NY strawberry cheese cake. Croatian ice cream is the best ice cream in the world. Our apartment ( or our compartment as Sam says ) had a view of the ugly industrial town.

 

For dinner we had pasta.