Pag from the pass
looking inland at the road and monuments
The best seat in the house. Or out of it for that matter.The trip back from the coast to Zagreb was full of interesting things. First was the pass at Oštarijskavrata. There is a range of mountains right by the coast and this is the pass we took over them. When we got near the top we noticed the sports car in front of us taking a side road that looked suspiciously like the “old road” over the pass. Since we were on an adventure we decided to try it also. It was in fact the old road. At the top of the pass, in addition to the fabulous views of both the Adriatic with all its islands and the lovely green rolling valleys on the inland side, were some markers and monuments. Of course we had to check them out. The markers were for the Emperor Franz Josef. Based on our travels they could mean one of two things: 1) the edge of the land under Austro/Hungarian control at the time (the Venetians controlled Dalmatia for a very long time) or 2) the Emperor came there, spent 15 minutes looking at the view and left so they built a monument. Not being able to actually read the monument made it more difficult to determine which was the reason.
Our route took us back near Plitvice, the first waterfall park we went to. On the map we noticed a secondary road that appeared to go through the back side of the park. As I said earlier, we were on an adventure and so decided to try it. So off we went. It was another of the beautiful roads through the woods that we have encountered all over Eastern Europe. Since landscape does not understand such things as park boundaries we ran across another small village with waterfalls. It was not as fabulous as Rastoke but it was very interesting to see a non-tourist setting.
During this trip from the coast to Zagreb we noticed quite a few abandoned or burned out homes, as well as ones with sprays of poc-marks on their sides. This was an area of very heaving fighting during the Balkan wars of the 90’s and based on the history we have read, the homes were very likely damaged during that time or were “abandoned” by their owners as they fled for their lives from the ethnic cleansing.
Since we “just happened” to be in Rastoke at dinner time we felt compelled to again have a wonderful meal at Pod Basiokim Krovom, the tavern we visited when we were here on our way down to Dubrovnick. It was just as fabulous. This time Dave had fish soup, I had “waterfall salad” (a pasta salad with fish and lots of wonderful fresh veggies) and then we finished it off with fresh, made there, gnocchi. Too wonderful for words. We got a table over the water and between waterfalls. It was lovely.
Our route took us back near Plitvice, the first waterfall park we went to. On the map we noticed a secondary road that appeared to go through the back side of the park. As I said earlier, we were on an adventure and so decided to try it. So off we went. It was another of the beautiful roads through the woods that we have encountered all over Eastern Europe. Since landscape does not understand such things as park boundaries we ran across another small village with waterfalls. It was not as fabulous as Rastoke but it was very interesting to see a non-tourist setting.
During this trip from the coast to Zagreb we noticed quite a few abandoned or burned out homes, as well as ones with sprays of poc-marks on their sides. This was an area of very heaving fighting during the Balkan wars of the 90’s and based on the history we have read, the homes were very likely damaged during that time or were “abandoned” by their owners as they fled for their lives from the ethnic cleansing.
Since we “just happened” to be in Rastoke at dinner time we felt compelled to again have a wonderful meal at Pod Basiokim Krovom, the tavern we visited when we were here on our way down to Dubrovnick. It was just as fabulous. This time Dave had fish soup, I had “waterfall salad” (a pasta salad with fish and lots of wonderful fresh veggies) and then we finished it off with fresh, made there, gnocchi. Too wonderful for words. We got a table over the water and between waterfalls. It was lovely.
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