Croatia: KRKA National Park (August 17, 2025)
On the fifth day of Croatia, my true host shared with me …
KRKA National Park (& Trees).
I love the sound of rushing whitewater which is essentially what you’re listening to when you play the video above. Part of this sound takes me back to my earliest days of whitewater rafting with my dad and brother. What you see above would be considered a “Class VI” rapid (a.k.a. known as “unpassable”). Beautiful to look at, but Class VI rapids represent the highest level of whitewater difficulty, characterized by extreme danger and typically considered unrunnable. So, instead, we admire their beauty and just take them in.
Unlike Plitvička Jezera, where the water is a stunning shade of aqua-blue, KRKA National Park is simply an exceptional park of extreme beauty without all the calcium carbonate, algae and tufa formation that give off that impossible color. Instead, what you have is an intricate pathway of natural spring water flowing together to form more natural lakes and waterfalls.
Check out how the trees have planted roots that force the water around them.
When I shared “& Trees” I wanted to give a special nod to the incredible diversity of trees in KRKA National Park. Now there may be just as many diverse sets of trees in Plitvička Jezera, but the color of the lakes keep forcing your eyes towards the water so I’ll never know enough about how special the trees themselves may have been at that park.
What I do know is that among the trails in KRKA National Park you’ll find many wild fig trees. So far, in my journey around the world I’ve been fortunate enough to pick wild fruit (including raspberries, blackberries, black currants, strawberries, and plums just to name a few) from just about every location I’ve been and Croatia is no exception.
The figs are in season and delicious. There are trees where you need to pick the black colored figs and others where the green ones are fine as long as they are soft. I’m beginning to be able to spot the difference.
When I saw this cave, I had the perfect idea of how to pose for a picture.
Perhaps it was all the fig energy, but as we continued to walk, I saw this cave mouth that was perfect for climbing up and posing for a picture. What I enjoyed most was the comments I got from the tourists around me. One kid who saw me afterwards said, “Wow, that was incredible. I have no idea how you did that. I’m still stunned that I actually witnessed you do that.”
Okay, yes, my ego was a bit inflated after that comment, but I was having fun. I remembered when I was first in Italy (I think I was 19 years old?) and decided that the walls were so close together that I could climb them this way. I wasn’t paying attention to how far I went up until I must have been a good 18 feet in the air and got nervous as to how high I had risen. I slowly worked my way down and from then on out paid attention to how high I would choose to rise. This was nothing like that — I was just focused on my form, not my height.
What I’m realizing as I go through some of these pictures to share is that if I hadn’t seen Plitvička Jezera the day before, I would have thought the color of the water was stunning. Everything is relative. The light green color is still beautiful even if it’s not as jaw-dropping as the aqua-blue from the day before.
Once again, the highlight of the day was spending time with Nikola Maras and his family: his wife, Ivana, oldest son Dino and youngest Maro. The only one not pictured is Nika who is having her own weekend with friends celebrating the completion of her high school years and acceptance into her Psychology major in college which is a big deal.
I didn’t know this, but in Croatia there is a standardized test (similar to the SATs in the US) that determines your ability to go into different professions in college. What’s even more challenging is that there are standard parts of the test that have nothing to do with you desired speciality but can effect your ability to qualify. For example, one of the standards is Croatian history. Can you imagine you are excited to study psychology and what stands in your way is a bunch of obscure facts about long dead historical figures?
I’m so fortunate that I didn’t have to follow this system. I would never had made it into college. According to my SAT scores, I’m a bumbling idiot who eats balsa wood for breakfast. Simply put, I don’t test well on standardized, timed multi-choice tests. Despite that, I finished “summa cum laude” (i.e. top 1% with highest praise) with a double major in 4 years. I share that only because I’m not a huge fan of standardized testing — especially as a predictor of success.
And we do what we must, don’t we? I’m truly happy for Nika and have enjoyed getting to know her along with the rest of her amazing family during my time here in Croatia. Dino is planning on getting his masters in artificial intelligence (a wise choice given all that is happening in this field not to mention my own experience with AskBill.us). And Maro, at 11, still has a few years to decide what he wants to do with his life, but I can tell he is already an “old soul” and extremely empathetic. It wouldn’t surprise me if he follows in his father’s footsteps and becomes a kickass coach.
Maras Family: Dino, Ivana, Maro, Nikola + Bill (Missing Nika to be added later)
Wait, how could I forget the fur babies. I already shared their cat that came with their home. Seriously, they didn’t acquire the cat. When they purchased their home, the cat came with their property. But I neglected to introduce Rocky:
Almost forgot ROCKY! One of the most import members of the Maras family!
Rocky is a Chow and lives outside. He’s the most zen dog I’ve ever met. He’s kind and sweet and just enjoys being around people. He rarely barks and mostly just wants to be acknowledged — like most of us, right? Okay, now that you have the full picture of the family, let me share with you what we did after we left KRKA National Park.
Walking so close to water made all of us want to get in. Knowing that we couldn’t do it here, we left the park and headed to a the sea to cool off. Along the way, we came across a unique restaurant that had integrated itself into an old town heritage site. That is, a rebuilt Croatian micro-community with smaller buildings where the tables were integrated into the “town” in a unique way:
Not sure if you can tell, but the tables where you dine are either outside near a building or inside one of the smaller buildings themselves. It’s such a cute idea. I could see hosting events here where each space felt private and yet connected. It was as if Disney had created a themed Croatian restaurant. I also loved how integrated all the trees, fruit and vegetables were through the space.
It’s like you were dining in “little Croatia” — a micro-environment inside the real one. I get that it was created to be like this, but I admire the work that when into it and the end experience that was created as a result.
Another wonderful day in Croatia with my surrogate Croatian family, the Maras. I certainly feel “at home” here and have enjoyed all the wonderful explorations of this incredible country. The more I’m exposed to, the more I find to love about Croatia. It truly is a beautiful country and a wonderful place to live.
