Croatia Photo Diary: Plitvice Lakes & Istria

I'm back with part two of my Croatia photo diary. If you missed part one last week, be sure to check it out here.

After our time on Hvar with our friends, we took the ferry to Split, where we spent the afternoon, before parting ways and continuing on just the two of us.

Approaching Split by ferry.

Chris and I then made our way inland, to spend a day exploring the beautiful Plitvice Lakes National Park. These lakes and their accompanying water falls are considered one of the top natural sights in Europe, and they definitely didn't disappoint. We did get hit with a crazy rain storm in the morning, which had us huddling indoors and debating whether we'd be able to explore the park, but luckily the bad weather subsided and we were able to take in Plitvice's breathtaking scenery.

Plitvice Falls

From Plitvice Lakes, we continued on to the region of Croatia know as Istria, where we spent three nights staying in the seaside town of Rovinj. Despite it's beauty, Rovinj was the only part of our trip which we were a tad underwhelmed by, namely because the town was much more touristy than expected - and this is coming from tourists, visiting a country whose primary industry is tourism! I'll admit that it was funny to hear my German boyfriend complaining about "too many Germans!" This said, we were still able to get off the beaten path a bit and explored a beautiful neighboring town, found a couple of super yummy restaurants, and enjoyed an afternoon sunning ourselves on a private beach (Croatian for rocks). In other words, we more than made do :)

Rovinj, Istria.

Wine by candlelight.

The Istrian town of Bale.

 

Truffle semi-freddo. Yup, for real.

 We ended our Croatian adventure with a night in the city of Zadar, which was a wonderful blend of old and new worlds, and which we would definitely love to return to, based on it's close proximity to many beautiful islands.

The view from St. Donatus Church in Zadar.

 Have you ever visited Croatia? If so, what what your favorite part of this country?