We arrived in Rovinj on Wednesday and it was so cute! We hopped off the bus with all of our stuff and had to wait for a ferry to take us to Katarina Island, where our hotel was located. Upon arrival, we got our hotel room assignment info, waited for our luggage to be brought up from the ferry, then headed to our rooms. Overall, it was a beautiful and quiet hotel setting, and I had a nice balcony overlooking the garden area, which included some seagull 'regulars.'  That evening, we enjoyed a decent buffet dinner in the hotel, which included a self-service ice cream bar, which was nice. It was a mellow evening--I just hung out in my room and made a plan for the next day, which was what they referred to as a "vacation from your vacation"...a free day in Rovinj...which absolutely had to include laundry for me! The next day, Thursday, I rolled out of bed, got ready, and headed back down to the hotel restaurant to have breakfast--it was PACKED and I could barely find a tabl...

Tuesday was a long bus ride from Budapest to Croatia, but on the way, we stopped at a cute family run restaurant for a lovely homemade lunch, walked the grounds, and our bus driver took a group picture and video. When we got back on the bus, it was covered in stink bugs...ew ew ew!  Later that day, we arrived at our hotel in Lake Plitvices, which was absolutely overrun with tourists. Hats off to the hotel for managing such a large number of guests so well though. The dining room was just jam-packed, but somehow, there was plenty of food for all.  On Wednesday, we loaded our bags onto the bus, then met back in the lobby to start our descent down the stairs and into the park. We took a little slinky bus up to one of the trailheads, where our guide gave us the lay of the land via a map. We then set off on a beautiful, but slightly treacherous multi-part hike through the park. It was stunningly beautiful, with TONS of waterfalls and trees everywhere you looked. We had gotten an ea...

On Sunday, our tour guide, who also lives in Budapest, took us on a tour of the pest side of the Danube to give us an orientation of the area. From there, a couple of gals and I went to have lunch at Jamie Oliver's restaurant, which was a bit overpriced, but still delicious. I tried the insanity burger, which I saw Chris Morocco remake on Bon Appetit, and it was pretty tasty but spendy. It did not come with red Leichester cheese, which I recall being a thorn in Chris' side. After that, we did some window shopping, and I went to do laundry, find a geocache, then relax in my room. The introverted side of me needs a break from the group every so often, so instead of going out to dinner, I just downloaded the Wolt app (like Uber Eats/Grubhub; saw them delivering around town) and ordered Thai food for delivery to my hotel. Unfortunately, they didn't include a fork and all I had in my room was a spoon for coffee, so that was interesting. Thankfully nobody was in my room to see me...