Founded in 1949, Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia USED to be a well-kept secret, but the park has seen a boom in tourism over the past 20 years. (An increase of more than a million visitors a year over the last 16 years? Yikety-yikes!)

Had you heard of Plitvice before this post? I only learned about it a few weeks before I visited, and yet today it popped up as my screen-saver.

Thanks, Internet! You make everything so… accessible.

(I’d ask you to translate this sign, but look! The good people of Croatia already beat you to it.)

You’ll need a ticket to visit, but look! More Croatian cleverness. The ticket doubles as a map AND a list of things not to do!

The park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is made up of 16 lakes: 12 upper, and 4 lower, although I don’t really get the distinction. Only one is at the top, one’s at the bottom, and the rest are in the middle. To my way of thinking, those are Double Stuf Oreo dimensions.

Go ahead with a “12 and 4” lake division if you must, but first consider this 12:4 citation:

1 Corinthians 12:4 (NIV)

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.

Hmm. One form of distribution of different gifts… That sure sounds like the description of a waterfall wonderland to me.

(Ha! Bet you didn’t see THAT interpretation coming! Scoff at my Double Stuf** Theory, will you?)

Anyway, get there ASAP. Another million people are NOT going to fit on this path.

More information:

Plitvice Lakes National Park

(**Does it bother anyone else that it’s called “Double Stuf” but they don’t even use two “F’s”? And what is “Stuf” anyway? They made up a word that insinuates this is made-up food, and we aren’t the slightest bit troubled?)