Yesterday, Saturday, was my birthday.  Norma's birthday, I guess I should say that it was mine and not Stella's.  Anyway, the "group" made a lot of hoopla about it.  One of the men wrote a short poem and read it before we got on the bus.  Something about me being the "polite pirate", I should get a copy of it from him. 

We took the "train" from the hotel in Plitvice National Park to Station 1.  Maybe "train" isn't the right word for it in American language, because it consisted of one truck and two enclosed cars, similar to the tour train that Boise used to have.  When we got off it, we started off on our hike.  Downhill we went, to the bottom of the ravine and then we walked beside the lakes and ponds.  The emerald color of the water was amazing.  And waterfalls!  They were everywhere.  I will try to upload some pictures tonight to this blog, not just of the waterfalls but from the entire trip.  We have a fairly good internet connection here so I hope it won't take too long.  After walking quite a ways, we got on a boat and did a 20 minute boat ride to another "station."  The boats were motorized this time.  I don't think they allow any boats other than the ones that belong to the NP.  The water was so clear that we could see fish all along the shoreline.  We took pictures and they turned out well.  I hope to add them to this.

We continued to walk through the park past waterfalls, creeks, lakes and rivers for another two hours.  For the most part, all you could hear was the sound of rushing water.  It was great.  I loved it.  While we were waiting for the "train" to take us back to the hotel, some members of the group estimated that we had walked 3 miles.  Well, maybe, but it seemed more like 5 to me.  All told, we walked around for almost 4 hours.  The weather was beautiful, but chilly when we started out and warm by the time we finished.

The National Park was where the war of 1991-1992 started.  The forest ranger there was murdered and still today, no one is sure who did it but it touched off the war.  Our guide's dad died in that war, he told us.

Then it was back on the bus and off to Split, the second largest city in Croatia.  When we crossed the mountains toward the coast, we went through a series of tunnels.  Some were about a block in length and some were a couple of miles.  There was one that had connecting tunnels with "exits" to the right.  That seems like an engineering marvel to me.  When we came out on the other side of the mountains the landscape was totally different. Very dry, almost like the desert around Boise in the summer. 

Split is an industrial city.  Not a very attractive city since it has a lot of high rise apartment buildings that were built after WW II.  All of them have little balconies and all of them have laundry hanging over the railings or on clotheslines strung from one side to the other.  Some even have those wooden racks like my mother used when I was little. We had a floor furnace and if the weather was too bad to hang out stuff on the line, she'd set up this wooden rack right over the furnace vent to dry everything. Even the "penthouse" apartments have laundry hanging out.

After we checked into our hotel, we went to dinner as a group.  Because there is a laundromat next to the restaurant that will do our laundry and have it ready in the morning, we all trooped off carrying bags of dirty clothes.  A lot of comments were made about the "birthday girl" having to carry her laundry on her special day.  I think there are even pictures. Oh boy. 

We had a nice dinner of sea breem fish.  When the dessert was brought out, it was pointed out to the waiter that it was my birthday. He turned to me, shook my hand and said "congratulations."   About five minutes later, he showed up carrying another piece of the cake we'd had as dessert with three candles on it and surrounded by whipped cream.  I had to blow those candles out three times and then dump them in Beverly's water glass to get them out.  Needless to say, I had a great birthday.

When we got back to our room, we discovered that the WiFi here was working quite quickly so we uploaded a lot of pictures to our facebook page.  When I went to bed, I discovered that I might have overdone the birthday goodies.  A candy bar for a morning snack, gelato for an afternoon snack and a dessert and a half at dinner may not have been the best idea.  But after a few minutes my indigestion went away.  I have indigestion about once every 15 years so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Today, Sunday, we met our local guide at 9 am to tour the "old" part of Split.  She was very good.  We were told about all the cathedrals, theater, plazas, etc, history and then we went to the Diocletian Palace.  It was built in the year 300.  I just can't wrap my mind around that.  300.  And a lot of it is still standing.  The Romans built it and it used a viaduct that is still in use today for the water supply.  It's a walled area with gates on all four sides.  Was built in a square right on the sea.  The sea has been pushed back about 100 yards by filling in the harbor but we got to see parts of the original structure, St. John's baptistry, a temple or two and the plazas.  Over the years, there were private residences built above it and people still live there today.  One of the plazas had apartments with the ever present laundry on the railings which seemed weird.  And along the main streets, restaurants and shops have sprung up.  It's a busy place, even on Sunday.  There is a "nunnery", as the guide put it, here and the cathedral was having mass.  There is a very large belfry that had 187 steps to the top.  We elected not to do it, but I think the view would have been amazing. 

And boy are there souvenir shops here.  Every tacky thing you can imagine.  I loved it.  I could look at tacky souvenirs all day.  It's just a source of wonder to me how many different key chains and magnets, mugs, bottle openers, and the list could go on forever, there are.  Beverly and Stella spent time looking at ear rings and jewelry while I was looking at all the other stuff.  Then we looked for an ATM machine.  By this time, Beverly had left us to do her own thing.  We saw on on the Promenade along the sea.  Facing south, of course, so there we are hunkered over the ATM trying to read the screen.  I'm supposed to be helping Stella.  Boy, did I ever. She couldn't read the screen so I pushed the button that I thought was for cash withdrawal.  Imagine our surprise when it started whirring, sent her card back out and promptly issued 1000 kunas (Croatian "dollars").  Oops.   She has 5 nights to spend her money, she thinks she can do it.  :) 

We picked up our laundry and returned to the hotel.  Now we're off to dinner.