Week in Review: Week 19 — Away On The Road

Sep 14

Sep 14 Week in Review: Week 19

This week we spent time in the charming town of Jajce in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and made our way to Plitvice Lakes National Park. It was nice being closer to nature this week, and we enjoyed many scenic walks. The weather is still really warm, close to 28 degrees C each day, so we are enjoying the last few days of summer before autumn sets in. We are heading north to Slovenia and southern Germany, where the weather will definitely be a little cooler and wetter.

Highlight of the week

Sharleen and Darrell: Plitvice Lakes National Park. Plitvice Lakes is actually the only place we have travelled to in the last 4.5 months that we have both visited before. We came here last year on our trip to Croatia, and absolutely loved it. Last year we only had 1 day to explore the park, so this time we made sure we gave ourselves more time.

We covered a lot of ground last time, so we were a bit nervous that the park would feel like a repeat of last years hike. But it wasn’t at all! We spent 2 full days hiking around the park, covering over 30 km. We definitely remembered some parts, however it really felt like a new experience. We were also treated to beautiful pre-autumn colours, so the trees had some red, rust, orange, yellow, and light green hues – it was really gorgeous.

Two parts of our hikes really stood out to us:

1. The first morning, when we hiked around the upper lakes. We found this to be the less busy route, and were fortunate to be all-alone for a solid 2 hours while enjoying the upper falls and lakes. It gave us time to take some cool photos and really take in the beautiful sights.

2. The end of our hike on day two. We decided to hike up above the large waterfall and get a view from above. We followed a pathway on our Maps.Me app, and noticed that there was a lookout that would give a view down the lake valley. There was only one other couple at the look out, so not many people visit it at all. From there we saw another path on Maps.Me that wasn’t very clear on the trail. We followed it and it led to a bit of a climb down to a rock ledge. From here we had an even better view, and we were all by ourselves. It was really spectacular! We sat here for close to 45 mins, and it was such a great way to end our adventures at the park.

Least favourite part of the week

Sharleen and Darrell: We didn’t have a least favourite part this week! It was a really great week, and we had a lot of fun. The only part of the week that was a little stressful was that we decided to change around our travel plans. After going to Oktoberfest, we had planned to head to Croatia for 5-7 weeks then head on to Italy and France. However, after our amazing time in Montenegro, we realized we are quite recharged and ready for more adventure-type activities. So we’ve decided to head to the UK after Oktoberfest! We need to be out of the Schengen Area still, which is why we chose the UK and not Italy or France. We are quite excited to be heading there in less than 2 week, and by going there we are able to squeeze in some time to visit Belgium - which will be awesome. However, this change means we’ve been trying to figure out what our next 2-4 months will look like, and organize some of our itineraries to visit all of the places we want to see. We’ve spent probably 1.5 days this week organizing house sit opportunities, looking for Airbnb’s, coordinating a new car, and researching what we’d like to see. It’s super fun, but takes a lot out of you!

Favourite city/town/village visited

Sharleen and Darrell: Jajce. We really only visited one city/town/village this week, as our Airbnb in Croatia was in a rural farm area. Jajcec is a beautiful town in central Bosnia and Herzegovina and has two popular sites – a waterfall and fortress with city walls. We found Jajce to be a very pedestrian friendly town, and we walked everywhere over our two days there. The old town is inside the fortress walls, and there is beautiful stonework and cobblestone streets through the town centre. We even had dinner at a restaurant where the tables were on top of the fortress walls. It was quite a fun experience.

The waterfall in located just outside of the old town, and it was lovely to enjoy it while seeing the fortress in the distance. We were able to see it later in the afternoon and into the evening, which meant there was no one else around, which was great! It definitely felt like we were in an old medieval town.

Favourite meal of the week

Sharleen: Our meal at Lička Kuća. On our second day at Plitvice Lakes, we popped into a restaurant on the grounds to have a bit to eat I had a delicious homemade sausage meal. It was quite tasty and was the perfect meal to refuel me for the second half of our hike. It was our second meal there, as we stopped by on the first day too. But this one was really delicious!

We dropped the ball and forgot to take a picture of this meal. This was Sharleen’s from that restaurant and it was also sooo tasty!

Darrell: Our meal at Vila Velebita. I had the “Veal Under the Bell”, which is a traditional method of cooking in Croatia. It is roasted veal that is cooked under a terracotta lid. First the food is placed into a metal pan and the lid is placed over everything. Then hot coals are placed around and on top of the lid to cook whatever is underneath. This traditional method is used to cook all kinds of food, from seafood and meat, to vegetables and bread. The veal was very tasty and tender and vegetables that came with it were insanely good! It was a very hearty and comforting kind of meal.

We have now headed to Slovenia, and it seems like we are continuing the charming town tour. We spent only two days in Slovenia last year, so we are excited to see a bit more of this beautiful country. The autumn colours are starting to come in, so the scenery is quite gorgeous. We are definitely looking forward to spending some time in Bled, taking in the beautiful sights of the castle, lake, and nearby attractions.