The Star’s first stop was in Rostock, Germany. While many of our fellow cruisers opted to take a 3 hour bus ride to Berlin, we instead chose to take a 10 minute complimentary shuttle to nearby Warnemünde. There really isn’t much to do in Warnemünde. Despite this, three large cruise ships were docked here (Costa, Aida, and NCL).

We strolled along the harbor promenade where we bought a couple of fish sandwiches for Valerie and a pastry for me. (When will I learn that Germany pastries aren’t tasty!?!) We stopped and gazed at the beachgoers on the sandy beach. Unlike the sunbathers in Croatia and Slovenia, these vacationers were mostly fully clothed because of the cold temperature, gusty wind, and overcast sky.

After about 4 hours, we’d seen all of Warnemünde that we wanted to see and headed back to the ship for a nap followed by a sea day! I love sea days.

We flew from Budapest to Copenhagen, where we will be departing on a Baltic cruise aboard the Norwegian Star. Getting to Budapest Ferihegy terminal 2 was surprisingly easy. We hopped on the metro line 3 and then a public bus to the airport. Transferring was a breeze and the whole 1 hour trip only costs 360 forint per person (less than $2). However, the transit on the Copenhagen side was surprisingly slow. Due to some signaling problems near Copenhagen Central Station, the S-Train was delayed by almost half an hour.

We stayed the night in the relatively cheap (by Copenhagen standards) Wake Up Copenhagen hotel. The rooms are tiny, but the price is right, and it is conveniently located just blocks from the train station. The following morning we boarded the S-Train and headed to Nordhavn where our cruise ship awaited.

The Norwegian Star is an older ship than we usually sail on. So, why did we pick this ship? 1) It fit our schedule. 2) It does somewhere we haven’t been before. 3) It was really cheap. Upon boarding, we noticed that the crowd skewed much younger than Royal Caribbean or Holland America. The cruise staff seems to be trying to foster a fun and lively atmosphere, and it is admittedly more fun than RCL or HAL, but not as fun as Carnival.
On our first night, we ate dinner at the Cagney’s Steakhouse specialty restaurant. The food was only so-so and not worth the $30 per person surcharge. For those of you who are planning an NCL cruise, skip the steakhouse and save your money for something better like an excursion or a refreshing beverage.

My new favorite national park: Plitvice Lakes in Croatia
When we traveled to Plitvice Lakes, I didn’t know what to expect. Perhaps that is why I was so taken aback by the incredible beauty of the lakes and the ingenious design of the park. Plitvice Lakes is, by far, the best national park I have ever visited. The clear blue lakes and cascading waterfalls are made accessible to tourists via wooden bridges that hover just centimeters above the water. As visitors stroll along the path, the lake ebbs and flows beneath them and they are guided to the best view of each waterfall, even if the viewpoint happens to be in the middle of a lake. The entire experience is almost magical, although sadly not wheelchair accessible. I fear that such an awe-inspiring tourist path could never be built in the United States because environmentalists would not permit such incursions into the lakes and because lawyers would not permit a bridge without hand rails.

Unexpected rip-off: Great Synagogue in Budapest
I fully expected to get ripped off at least once in Budapest (probably by a taxi driver). I never expected that I would be ripped off by employees at the Great Synagogue in Budapest. As far as I can tell, the security guard and synagogue tour company were in cahoots to direct tourists to buy more expensive tickets with guided tours from the tour company rather than regular entrance tickets from a kiosk just beyond the security checkpoint. It is sad that these people would take advantage of tourists who want to learn about the history of the Holocaust in Budapest. It disrespects the memories of the victims who died and who are buried at the Synagogue.

Great place to spend a vacation on the beach: South Croatian Islands
On our second day in Split, we traveled to Bol, a resort town in South Croatia. What we discovered were the beautiful sand and/or pebble beaches of the South Croatian Islands. Relaxed, sufficiently developed, and full of tourists, the South Croatian Islands offer a relatively affordable place to spend a week on the beach (at least affordable to Europeans who don’t need to fly across a major ocean to get here). If I were a resident of Central or Eastern Europe, I’d spend my vacations here.

Budapest (roughly pronounced boo-duh-pesht) is the largest and capital city of Hungary with a population of about 2 million people. I don’t usually like big cities. Budapest is no exception. It reminds me a lot of New York (tall buildings, somewhat stinky, too hot in summer, cabbies trying to rip you off).

The 11 hour train ride to Budapest wasn’t a great introduction to the city. Shortly after reaching the Hungarian border, our nice air-conditioned Slovenian train couldn’t continue (possibly due to a train collision ahead). We got off, boarded a bus to the next station, and then got on a much less nice Hungarian train without air conditioning. Over the next 4 hours, we sweated our way toward Budapest in the 90+ degree train.

Once we reached the city, the apartment that Valerie found was actually quite nice (with air conditioning) and well located (near Oktogon). The next morning, we went out for lunch in Liszt Ferenc square. Thanks to the heads up from the owner of our apartment, we found that most places offer a lunch special (only advertised in Hungarian) that is substantially cheaper than anything on the menu (about $5 for a great two course meal). The food in Hungary is much tastier than Slovenian and Croatian food.

On our first tourist day in Budapest, we toured Pest, the eastern half of the city. We quickly saw the sights (Parliament, various squares, the Opera House, etc), picking up cold drinks along the way to survive the heat.

To start our second tourist day, we visited the Széchenyi Baths. The baths consist primarily of the indoor thermal baths and the outdoor swimming pools. Since Hungary is a country without a coast (not even a concrete one), the citizens flock to these giant pool complexes to spend a day relaxing at the “beach”. While it was certainly a very relaxing experience, the pools lack some of the important qualities of an actual beach such as a cool breeze, sand, or hammocks.

After the baths, we very quickly toured Buda, the west side of the city. However, Buda wasn’t as interesting as Pest, so we quickly gave up and headed back to the air-conditioned room.

I don’t plan to return to Budapest in the summer. It’s just too hot.

After our day in Ljubljana, we decided to take an all-day tour of western Slovenia. Our tour guide picked us up at our hotel at 08:30.

The first stop was Predjama Castle, a castle built within the opening of a cave. While the outside was interesting to look at, once the novelty of a castle being built into a cave opening wears off, it’s not really that interesting. We didn’t have time to go inside, which is probably a good thing since it probably would have been a letdown.

The next stop were the Škocjan Caves, a UNESCO world heritage site. The walking tour through the caves is very fast-paced and involve a lot of stairs. The caves are the largest that I’ve ever seen. Sadly, they don’t let tourists take pictures inside the cave. If you have a car and are in Slovenia, these caves are worth a look. Valerie was very impressed.

The last stop was the town of Piran on the tiny Slovenian coast. As a result of redrawn regional boundaries during the Yugoslav era, Slovenia lost much of its coastline and ended up with a tiny strip of coast between Croatia and Italy. Piran is one of the main tourist towns on the coast. Since Piran only has a small pebble beach, the town built several concrete beaches along the shoreline. Since there are virtually no waves at this point in the Adriatic Sea, the concrete beach is almost like the side of a pool, complete with lounge chairs and a stainless steel ladder to climb out of the water. We later learned that most Slovenians vacation in Croatia, which has actual beaches.

After our relaxing stay in Lake Bled, we boarded a bus back to Ljubljana (roughly pronounced lyoob-lee-ah-na), the capital and largest city of Slovenia. Despite being the largest city, Ljubljana only has a population of about 280,000 and feels more like a large town than a city. The downtown area was converted to a car-free pedestrian-friendly zone a few years ago by the mayor at the time (who may once again be mayor).

Valerie found a great deal and got us a room at the convenient and swanky Grand Hotel Union, the very first hotel in Ljubljana, built in 1905. After setting in, we took a quick self-guided walking tour of the city. At the center of town is the river with several pedestrian bridges: the Triple Bridge, Dragon Bridge, Cobbler’s Bridge, Butcher’s Bridge, etc.

The Triple Bridge, in front of city hall, was redesigned by Jože Plečnik, probably the most famous architect in the city’s history. Rick Steves recommended that we visit his house/workshop, so we did. From the excellent guided tour (free because it happened to be museum day!), we learned that this Plečnik was an easily offended anti-social workaholic. The son of a carpenter, he designed his own wood furniture to be uncomfortable (to encourage himself to work harder and to discourage others from visiting him). I have no idea how a man who so disliked talking to people was so beloved by those same people.

After the workshop, we took a guided walking tour of the city organized by the Tourist Information office. We learned a bit about Baroque architecture before visiting the castle on the hill via a tourist train (actually a tram shaped like a train). For those visiting the city, the tour is totally worth the 9 euro price. After the tour, we ate at a local pizzeria (Foculus) which was happy to make us a delicious cheese-less pizza before heading back to the hotel. Overall, I really liked the relaxed and youthful feeling of Ljubljana.

After our brief stopover in Zagreb, we caught to train to Ljubljana and from there a bus to Lake Bled (thanks Rick Steves for the accurate transit instructions, but timetables or links to them would have been helpful).

Lake Bled is an incredibly picturesque lake complete with Church on an island in the middle of the lake and a castle on a cliff right over the lake.  It really looks like something out of a fairytale.

Lake Bled

Lake Bled Castle on Cliff

After trudging from the bus stop to our B&B, we decided to do the 6 km stroll around the lake..  According to the owner of the B&B the walk should only take 1.5 hours at a slow pace, but for some reason it took us >2 hours.  I guess that means we walk ever slower than slow…

It was a very scenic walk, but basically with the same scenery all the way around.  The only real difference being that you could see the Church in the middle of the lake from all different angles.  Nevertheless it was on an easy paved trail (though our feet were killing us by the end).

After finishing the walk we went back to the room to clean off and intended to go out for dinner but instead just fell asleep.

The following day we decided to take it easy instead of taking the bus tour of the Julian Alps.  We decided against the Alps since we were kind of disappointed when we saw the Swiss Alps (it basically just looked like a lot of dirt).

Instead, we walked up to the Castle on the cliff.  It wasn’t that interesting inside but the view was pretty great.

View from the castle

After touring the castle we went back down to the lake and rented a row boat.  Due to a crew competition that was taking place that afternoon we were only allowed the have the boat for 1 hour.  Bryon volunteered to do the rowing so we set off.

Bryon rowing the boat

After about 20 minutes of rowing we decided to head back to ensure we made it back on time.  Unfortunately we found out that it was much harder to row back (against the wind) than to row out.  Due to a valiant attempt on Bryon’s part we were able to make it back and return the boat even a few minutes early!

Then we stopped by a cafe and tried the famed Lake Bled Cream Cake.  It was all right.

Cream Cake

After going back to the room and cleaning off we had dinner at Restaurant Mayer in a local B&B which Rick Steves had recommended.  It was the best meal we’d had thus far and pretty reasonably priced too!  I ordered the asparagus risotto and Bryon had the Deer goulash.  Deer tastes surprisingly like beef.

After dinner we went back to the room and prepared for our next day’s departure back to Ljubljana.

It was another travel day as we moved from the beautiful Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia to Lake Bled in Slovenia. We woke up early to leave Plitvice on the 6:45 bus to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. With a few hours before our train departed, we dropped off our luggage at the train station and wandered around Zagreb for a while. Unlike the tourist destinations of Plitvice, Split, and Dubrovnik, the crowded city of Zagreb seemed to be mostly devoid of tourists. Not really knowing what to do, we stopped by the Tourist Information (TI) to pick up a map and suggested walking tour of the city. In those few hours, we saw two statues of a man on a horse, a winding cafe-lined street, and a huge multi-level farmers market.

Man on horse

Farmers Market

Eventually, we walked back to the train station, picked up our luggage, spent our remaining kuna, and departed for Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. After arriving, we didn’t have much time to admire the city before boarding a bus to Lake Bled. After checking into our B&B, we walked the 6 km perimeter of the lake before returning to our room and falling asleep.

Plitvice Lakes is the most famous national park in Croatia, and for good reason. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  Even while flooded with tourists (mostly European) and tour groups, it is a breathtaking experience.

Getting there, however, was not as fun.  We woke up early for our 8:30 bus ride to the park (4.5 hours).  Bus seems to be the preferred mode of transit in Croatia.  It is affordable and relatively easy to do.  Just make sure to look up the schedules while doing your planning, and go to the bathroom before leaving and at any rest stops.

Bryon sleeping during the long bus ride to Plitvice

We arrived at Plitvice around 1 and checked into Hotel Bellevue.  If you are not driving then definitely stay at one of the 3 hotels in the park (Hotels Bellevue, Plitvice, or Jezero) since they are close to the bus station and very handy for visiting the park.

After a short rest we headed out to hike the park.  Per Rick’s suggestion, we started with the lower lakes.  The most stunning scenery is here, but it was completely full of tour groups so there was a lot of waiting and jockeying for position.  The water is the most incredible blue color I’ve ever seen.

Plitvice Lakes lower lake

Fish in the lakes

After the lower lake route, we took the ferry to the upper lake.  It was a lovely, peaceful ride.  By the time we got to the upper lakes there were many fewer people around so it was a much more serene experience.  As a result, we decided to take the ferry back to the lower lakes and see it again with fewer people around.  It was a different experience.

Plitvice Lakes Upper lake

After our hike we went back to the hotel to clean off and rest a bit.  We had a nice dinner at Hotel Plitvice, picked up our packed lunch (they will pack a lunch for you if you leave to early to have breakfast), and went to bed early so we could catch our 6:45 bus to Zagreb.

For our last day in Split we had a rare free day to do whatever we want (no, every day is NOT a free day when you’re on a Rick Steves tour, even if it is self-directed).  Our helpful sobe owner Frane suggested we check out Brac island for some fun island time.

We bought our ferry tickets to Supetar (on Brac island) and hopped on one of those giant ubiquitous Jadrolinja ferries.

It was a pleasant 1 hour ride to Supetar.  However, once we got there it was not at all the beautiful island paradise I was expecting.  It was kind of dirty and noisy (at least by the ferry terminal).  Consequently, we decided to hop on a bus to Bol, which was a city I’d read about on the other side of the island.  It was another 1 hour bus ride to get there (ugh!).  But once we got to Bol, it was everything Supetar wasn’t, with a wide pedestrian boardwalk right next to the beautiful sea.  There were cafes a plenty lining the boardwalk.  And at the end, there was zlatni rat, which I’d read was a beautiful beach.

Zlatni rat rules

Zlatni Rat pebbel beach

It was pretty nice, but not worth going all the way to Croatia to visit.  It was a pebble beach, which was different for me.  Next time I’d probably go to Hvar town instead.

After our relaxing day on Bol, we returned to our room in Split (1 hour bus ride + 1 hour ferry) to prepare for the busy days ahead exploring Plitvice Lakes National Park.