Zadar - Week 6

Every journey has its high points and its lows.  Zadar was both for us.  

The Lows: During the 2-½ hour bus ride from Split to Zadar my stomach became queasy.  Once we arrived at our AirBnB and had a light dinner, it was worse.  By bedtime and through the night, diarrhea really hit. I, of course, thought I was going to die.  Roger assured me I would be okay…eventually.  We wasted the entire next day with me tired, weak and on clear liquids.  Okay, that was the “low.”  As you can tell, Roger was right: I did survive to write another blog.  

The Highs are many:  Zadar is a very special place…maybe that’s because Rick Steves doesn’t mention it in his Croatia book. In contrast to the other towns we have visited, it has fewer tourists and is a functioning city of about 75,000.  Like the others, Zadar has an Old Town on a peninsula with narrow stone lanes, lots of restaurants and cafes and souvenir shops.  Outside Old Town, Croats go about their everyday lives little affected by the burgeoning tourism industry.  No cruise ships until our 4th day there, and it was a small one.  The terrain is different from the other cities too.  Zadar is on the flat with room for lovely parks and promenades.  On one part of the promenade, an artist has created a “sea organ” (see holes in the concrete in the 2 pictures below). This instrument plays music by way of waves (more waves, different notes) and tubes in the concrete steps.  It really does sound like an organ.  Nearby the sea organ is the “Greeting to the Sun,” a large circle of solar panels in the concrete that power a light show at night—quite a sight.  Adults and children walk over the panels watching the show.  One evening we took the barkajoli, a traditional Zadar row boat, from outside Old Town to the Old Town peninsula to watch the sunset, said to be the most beautiful in the world.  Indeed, it was gorgeous—but no “green flash” (for those of you who see “green flashes” as the sun sinks into the water).  We strolled to The Greeting to the Sun and listened to the sea organ.  A very romantic evening.

One evening, we enjoyed a wine and food pairing dinner with 8 other visitors, including a yacht chef, 3 U.S. Air Force women currently stationed in Germany and a young couple (he a hydrolic engineer (which he had to explain to me) and she a grad student taking a course in Rome on Renaissance and Baroque art.  Outstanding food and wine, excellent conversation.  One of the best “food” tours we have experienced.  

Croatia is becoming known for its wines.  They are winning awards at international tastings.  Hundreds of varieties of grapes are grown here.  Over 120 are indigenous to the area.  Plavac mali is the most common red grape we have tasted in Dalmatia; and Posip is a common white.  Of course, the wines made from these grapes vary according to the soils in which they are grown and the tweaks of the winemakers.  We have had fun exploring all the unique flavors while at the same time learning about the Croatian people.

The highlight of our trip to Zadar was a visit to Plitvice National Park, known for its 90 waterfalls and 16 clear, turquoise lakes (think Lake Louise). The waterfalls are formed when algae splashed with the river water captures calcium carbonate crystals and over time builds up as rock (kind of like stalagmites in caves).  The park is a wonder.  While it was crowded, it was well worth seeing.  Don’t miss it if you visit Croatia.  Five hours in the park is really not enough.  Were we to do this trip again, we would spend a couple of nights at a nearby hotel, get up early in the morning and walk the boardwalks before the tour buses arrived.

The AirBnB was the best yet.  (Check out the pictures on Airbnb.com for Zadar “The Park Apartment with The Garden). In a quiet residential area adjacent to a park.  Nice sitting area in the garden outside apartment.  No stairs except at the threshold.  Very modern and clean inside.  Comfortable bed. Netflix.  A washer.  We did not suffer.  We left Zadar thinking we could have stayed longer…maybe just one week in Split and 2+ weeks in Zadar in retrospect. But you don’t know until you’ve been here.  When we made our plans for Croatia (after several years of no traveling due to covid), I forgot our normal “prime directive”: go to small, out-of-the-way places.  I’ll remember next time.