Who doesn't like a road trip, especially if it includes swimming at the feet of a waterfall? If you have read my first post about Croatia, you know that my family and me spent nearly all of our time relaxing at the beach taking a break from our daily life. But I'm saying nearly for a very good reason - amongst all the relaxed hours in Baska Voda we also decided to go on a day trip to Krka National Park, one of the two popular national parks of the country. So we got up early, packed the (rental) car and headed north. The journey was comfortable yet not uneventful. One lesson I learnt is to never trust the navigation on my mother's phone. Instead of leading us to the nearest entrance of the national park it led us into the mountains and we spent half an hour driving through the middle of nowhere until we finally decided to turn around. After that very successful experience we decided to use good old GoogleMaps instead and luckily that worked out better and we arrived at the gate of the park only half an hour later. Well what is a road trip without getting lost, right? Anyway, despite the unnecessarily long drive the visit to the park was fully worth it and we realised that the minute we entered it. Krka National Park is home to stunning nature, beautiful lakes and of course, multiple waterfalls which was my personal highlight. To me waterfalls represent the strength of nature and they scare me and fascinate me at the same time.
After wandering around the park for a while we decided to walk all the way down to the feet of an enormous waterfall where it was also possible to take a bath. That opportunity was of course something we couldn't resist and me and my brother stayed in the water for a long time. It was an incredibly fascinating yet exhausting experience as swimming towards the waterfall simultaneously meant swimming against the stream which was stronger than I had expected. Again, that was a moment where I wished I was in possession of a GoPro to fully capture the moment. But then the best way to capture an experience is with your heart I believe. After swimming at the feet of the waterfall for a while we got out of the water and relaxed on land for a bit, letting this experience sink in and enjoying the remaining rays of sunshine. We could have just driven back to the hotel after that but instead we decided to stop in Split, Croatia's second largest city. I went into the city without many expectations and maybe that's why I was so blown away. Split has a typically mediterranean character and is home to some beautiful old architecture. Walking through the city felt like walking through world history and I honestly couldn't believe how beautiful the centre of Split was.
Later in the evening we headed down to the harbour and the promenade searching for a place to eat. Walking along the water was an experience in itself and in typical blogger manner I couldn't leave without taking plenty of pictures. We ended up eating at an Italian restaurant at a square with a view over the harbour and therefore a view over the beautiful sunset. I could talk about my food but I think you might be tired of me raving about pasta so let's just say it was really good. (You can never go wrong with pasta, can you?) When the sun had disappeared behind the sea we went back to the car and drove back to Baska Voda, our short-time home. I still have very fond memories of this trip and if you ever go to Croatia I can highly recommend visiting Krka National Park and taking a swim at the feet of the waterfalls. If you use GoogleMaps you should also be able to find it without getting lost in the mountains.
