If you want to leave this year, financially difficult for everyone, behind in an original way and before everyone else, it may be the perfect time to start thinking about it today. Just the idea of the Croatian interior and the forested region of Gorski kotar will cool you down immediately and could ensure you a reservation in the tourist destination Fužine, in which New Years has traditionally been celebrated at noon for the past eight years, 12 hours before the rest of Europe celebrates it. Originally, this was done because of the freezing nights, but the practice has become generally accepted and has turned into a tradition. As many as 3,000 visitors celebrated New Year’s in this beautiful mountain tourist destination, featuring three amazing lakes. For some dates, reservations need to be made very early, even several months in advance. The new tourist train, Fužine express, greatly contributes to an enjoyable stay, enabling visitors to get to know the picturesque mountainous landscapes even better. Visitors can take a tour of the three accumulation lakes, Bajer, Lepenica and Potkoša, and the cave Vrelo, a natural attraction estimated to be 3.5 to 4 million years old. The cave is 300 m long, and is exceptionally beautiful and rich in ornamental cave structures. It is open for visitors since 1998. Due to the mild configuration of the terrain, there is not one single step in Vrelo, making it the only tourist cave in Europe that can be visited by children, the elderly and, even, the disabled in wheelchairs. The town of Fužine is located in the south-western part of the Gorski kotar region, 730 m above sea-level. Seeing as the motorway Zagreb-Rijeka runs past it and the sea is only a half-hour drive away, increasingly more visitors decide to stay at the seaside during the day and in the pleasant mountain air in Fužine at night.