#BreadLife Backpacking: Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre, or the 5 Terre, is a coastal region made up of 5 beautiful towns on the rugged Italian Riviera. The towns overlook the seemingly endless Ligurian Sea.

I always like comparing the 5 Terre to 5 sisters tucked away from the eye of the mainstream crowd that spends their time in the bigger, and more glamorous cities of Italy like Rome, or Milan. Each town has her own special characteristic that resembles a woman of a certain character or personality that is just waiting to be discovered by the one who goes the distance to meet her and get to know her better.

Wanna know how to visit the 5 beautiful ladies of Cinque Terre?

#BreadLife Backpacking: Florence

I think my first trip to Italy got totally ruined by the bad weather, so the second time in Florence definitely opened my eyes to see how beautiful the city can be under a sunny day. 

#BreadLife Backpacking: The Venetian Man

Finally, it is time to make a grand return to this blog after discovering that it is almost close to impossible to blog during the hectic semester. Now that it is over, it is time to resume my long overdue posts, so do bear with me a little.

So I guess I should start the next spurt of posts with the first destination of my 2 week long backpacking trip around Central Europe: Venice!

#BreadLife: A term that one of my friends in my exchange group came up with (HI JUNWEI) and it means to eat bread for every single meal because that's just how poor you are to not be able to afford other food.

-sad-

And so, the next few posts would be just focusing on various cheap ways to get by travelling in Europe in general.

Croatia Roadtrip: Plitvice Lakes National Park

It is one of the major items on my mum's bucket list to experience autumn. Since she was in Europe in October for a short, 3 month course in Oxford, I met up with her in mid October to do a week long road trip to Croatia and Slovenia! My mum works in the education industry and thus, she is only able to travel during the summer and winter seasons. Autumn and Spring are totally out of the option for her. This trip to Plitvice Lakes has been something that she has been planning for a very long time... I mean it is always nice to see your parents seeing something they've always wanted to see for the first time :)

And also, this means that I missed a week's class for Croatia. Heeeeheeeeheeeeee

Plitvice Lakes National Park is slightly less than two hours drive out from Zagreb, Croatia. It is near to the border Croatia shares with Bosnia. It is well-known for its chain of 16 terraced lakes, joined by waterfalls, that extend into a limestone canyon. Best seasons to go are actually... every season. According to our personal guide, Nives, the scenery changes every season! So imagine the lush greens in spring and summer, beautiful autumn foliage in autumn, and a scene out of "Frozen" in winter! We spent around almost a full day there (inclusive of travelling time). We left Zagreb at around 8am, and returned back at around 4pm.

There are various hiking routes in the national park and we followed the main one which leads us to the jetty where we could take a boat ride to lower lakes of the park. We started the hike in the upper lakes, where the taller waterfalls are, and also the tallest waterfall, called the Veliki Slap. No I didn't get slapped by the water like I did by the snow in Iceland.

The Veliki Slap

After a short boat ride, we reached another part of the park to view the lower lakes. Look, more waterfalls! Waterfalls everywhere. Unlike the upper lakes, the lower lakes comprises of many smaller lakes and falls. But when I say many, I really mean many.

By the side of your walking path

Below the stairs

Postcard-perfect waterfalls

I hate breaking the flow of landscape photographs, but I felt this photo is best appreciated in portrait.

I know it is rare that I would get to return for another trip to Plitvice because life sucks of timing, but if I had another chance to return to Croatia, it would be definitely in my itinerary. For now, let me close my eyes and dive 3 months back into the arms of all the lakes and waterfalls.

Next up: A Croatia Roundup

Stay Outruigeous!
M.R.