"These lakes had better be good"

It was a gruelling day transporting our bods from the rural idyll of upper Slovenia through the heat dust and noise of Zagreb city to the heartland of Croatia. The day began early rising to pack our bags etc and catch a ride into Lesce with Dajio. We stopped in at the post office and dispatched another parcel of surplus to requirements warm clothing back to NZ and had enough time for a coffee in the sunshine at the station cafe before waiting expectantly on the wrong side of the tracks for our train. Luckily the train was a few minutes late so we sorted ourselves out and found plenty of empty seats in the last carriage. Front facing seats as well. Flashing through the Slovenian countryside we eased into relax mode passing tiny hamlets and clear flowing rivers. A brief stop in Ljubljana and we continued towards the Croatian border at a sedate pace. At a non descript town we presented passports to stern looking Slovenian customs officers then even grimmer looking  Croatian ones (you wouldn't have thought that Croatia has just joined the EU).....and we were officially in Croatia! Soon after we arrived in Zagreb. Opted to walk to the bus station but it turned out to be further than it looked on the google map in the noon day heat but a bonus was the brilliant artwork/ grafitti on the railway walls, anyway made it and luckily a bus was going our way in about 30mins. So after a quick lunch, yep more coffee and gelato, we negotiated our way to the right bus (we hoped) and after some shannanigans with people being in the wrong seats and some strong words between Asians, Indians, Kiwis and Croats (whoever heard of numbered bus seats before- especially when half of them had been smashed off so multi lingual counting and guesswork was involved ) we were off heading for the Plitvice Lakes. The bus stopped somewhat suprisingly as the driver seemed not to understand our pronunciation at our destination namely the village of Grabovac and we piled out. The owner of our guest house came and picked us up and before long we were supping a cold beer under the shady trees of Vukivjch House ('Yukky House' to us). He spoke no English but that was ok cos we spoke no Croatian but somehow we managed to communicate the essentials. The only other guests staying spoke only Italian so no help really from that quarter. There was a country store across the road so we self catered with a delicious spinach ham and pasta  thing. The next morning we wanted to catch the local bus to the Lakes early to beat the crowds. Our host thought we were trying to skip before paying the bill and by the time we managed to explain to him that we had paid his wife the night before we had missed the bus. He rang and woke his teenage  daughter who speaks english quite well to sort it out. He was all apologetic then and insisted on driving us to the Lakes gratis so we got there even before the bus in the end.