Croatia and Dresden

As many of you may know, my best friend David and I go on at least one vacation together every year. This started not too long ago in the year 2014. We had actually planned on going to Croatia together for 5 or 6 years before but for some reason it never happened. Around easter time 2014 though it finally happened. David had been to this place called Plitvice National Park before and over the years I've heard many stories about how beautiful it is. The time had come for us to visit Plitvice together.

Our initial plan was to stay in Croatia for a few days and then head to Slovenia to go skiing. On our road trip to Croatia we passed through Slovenia and knew already that we were in need of a plan b. It was far too warm to go skiing, no chance to find decent conditions around here. So we spent the time in the car looking for options and finally decided to go to the Adriatic Coast of Croatia after having been to Plitvice.

We arrived at our hotel near the national park (phew, 1100km drive) and spent the evening relaxing and preparing for the next day. We got up early in the morning and drove down to the lakes, parked our car (had a small snowball fight - yes it was pretty cold in the morning) and walked towards the entrance. I'm not going into any details again but this place is magical. A couple of crystal clear lakes, hundreds of waterfalls in all shapes and sizes, green lush vegetation and most of the paths were wooden planks that made walking not really more comfortable but therefore looked amazing. The lakes were filled with fish and the weather was perfect - temperature rose to about 16°C. There weren't as many tourists as expected, quite a pleasant surprise!

We spent the whole day walking around the national park, enjoying the scenery and cherishing the moment, having occasional breaks to have a snack.

Just look at the pictures - how beautiful can a place be?

After leaving the lakes behind we headed back to the hotel, started packing and checked the weather forecast for the Adriatic Coast - oops. The forecast promised rain and cold weather for that area, not very pleasant. As we didn't want to spend the next days trenched and cold we changed our plans and decided to drive up to Dresden, a beautiful city in eastern Germany. Another 1100km drive - poor David. But we had a great time in the car, accompanied by Davids mascot 'Schnuwwelblink'. Frankly I have no idea how we spent all the time in the car, I was probably sleeping half of the time.. or drinking peppermint liquor.

We arrived in Dresden and were invited for a BBQ by Davids cousin, who lives in Dresden. We spent a lovely evening with his family and then headed back to the hotel to catch some sleep.

The next day we got up early again and drove to a place near Dresden called 'Elbsandsteingebirge' (yeah, I know. Germans and their unnecessarily long words..). One of the most beautiful places in Germany and worth visiting, when you're around. We hiked up and down the mountains (both reaching the limits of our poor stamina..) and even got lost in the woods for a bit. Some occasional breaks with breathtaking views later we were too tired to go on so we decided to head back to the car and drive back to the hotel. On the way we had a short stop in the Czech Republic so David could buy some cigarettes (they're a lot cheaper over there..) and one in the city center of Dresden to do a little sightseeing.

The day ended early as we were really shattered and fell asleep as soon as we reached the hotel.

Summing things up I can only advise you guys:

Whenever you are in Croatia: Go and visit the Pitvice National Park (best time seems to be around easter as the temperatures are perfect and there's a lot of water from the melting snow).

Whenever you are in Germany: Go and visit the Elbsandsteingebirge. Quite touristic but still worth a hike!

#Croatia #Dresden #Elbsandsteingebirge #Roadtrip